“That’s why the Inspector came to the hospital. To tell me I’d been moved to Blake’s team. He said Lucas and I won’t be working together anymore and that I should take a few days off. I think I’ve fucked everything up, to be honest. ”
“Wait, why can’t you and Lucas work together anymore?” Matteus asked, taking a large bite of pizza.
Julian’s face softened as he rubbed the back of Matteus’ neck. Oliver had always known them to be touchy-feely, but notthistouchy-feely. Shrugging, he leant forward and took his own slice of pizza.
“I don’t know. Something weird happened, and the boss was being cryptic as fuck.”
“What the hell?” Matteus said, pressing his elbows to his knees. Oliver shrugged and took another bite of pizza.
There was a pause, then, “So, are you going to tell us about the ‘weird’ thing that happened, or am I going to have to beat it out of you?” Julian said, taking another long drink of beer.
Oliver scoffed. “You’d assault a dying man? I thought your oath was ‘to do no harm.’”
This time, it was Julian who tutted. “You’re not dying. Just a pain in the arse.”
“Julie!” Matteus said, swatting the back of his husband’s hand.
Oliver sighed, pulling the blanket tighter around his shoulders as he pressed a slipper-clad foot closer to the heater. “It’s hard to explain. There was a lot of blood. Lucas came to assist and… he just sort of went full wolf mode and pulled the guy off me. Everything went dark for a bit. He had the guy by throat and did this weird, low growl thing and suddenly some of the other alphas were pulling him away. He looked really confused, and I haven’t seen him since.”
Silence hung between them as both he and Matteus stared at Julian as though he might hold all the answers. “Oh,” was all he said as he took another swig of beer.
“Oh? Do you know what happened or not?” Oliver snapped.
“I have an idea. But it’s not my place to say.”
“Not your place?” Matteus scoffed. “You better make it your place,dear. Before you find yourself sleeping in the spare room.”
Julian held up his hands, shrivelling back into the wicker chair. “I mean… I could tell you. Hypothetically. But you really need to speak to Lucas.”
“Alright, so tell me about thishypotheticaltheorybecause I’m getting sick and tired of being kept in the dark,” Oliver said, aggressively biting into another slice of pizza.
“Have you spoken to Lucas or not?”
“No, they took him away as I said.”
“Alright, well,hypotheticallyspeaking, every alpha has the remnants of a primordial voice box. It’s left over from our ancestors, back when we were sleeping in caves and hunting wildebeest. Now, in the twenty-first century, we—as in normal people with normal jobs—rarely find ourselves in life or death situations, or with a shortage of mates for that matter.”
Speak for yourself, pal.
“However, given the situation you found yourself in this morning—when your life was genuinely in danger—it seems thatLucas unleashed a sort of… primal howl. Totally out of his control, which is probably why he looked so confused.”
“Right, so what does that mean?” Oliver asked, pressing his elbows to his knees.
Julian let out a long sigh. “I really think you ought to speak to Lucas.”
“Julie, I swear on all that is holy…” Matteus hissed, squeezing the alpha’s thigh so hard it crinkled his trousers.
“Okay, okay,” he said, tugging Matteus’ hand away. “Lucas essentially blasted out a low frequency growl that told every alpha and beta within a five-mile radius ‘this man is mine’ and the reason the other alphas jumped on him was to stop him from killing the guy that attacked you.”
Oliver stared at his brother-in-law as cold, hard guilt settled into his body.Fuck. Fuck, fucking, fuck.It was his fault.All his fucking fault for inviting the alpha inside his apartment after being exposed to the omega. It had somehow confused his brain, tricking it into thinking Oliver was his mate.Oh, no. Oh dear God, no.
“Ollie…” Matteus said in a quiet, cautious voice. “Ollie, say something. You’re scaring me.”
Letting out a shaky breath, Oliver clutched the blanket around his shoulders. Then he told them everything that had happened since meeting Lucas, only leaving out the copious amounts of masturbation and perverted daydreams.
“Sojusta hand-job?” Matteus asked. “You haven’t actually rutted? And Lucas hasn’t knotted you?”
Spluttering, Oliver nearly choked on his beer. “No. God, no… despite all the phantom heat shit, I haven’t actually gone into season.”
