Chapter 75
The next morning Chad ordered room service pancakes, scrambled eggs, and a plate full of bacon.
“You’re going to get fat,” Peter said, staring at him over the rim of his coffee cup as he dug in. Chad just grinned at him and poured another helping of maple syrup on his pancakes.
If he kept taking Tank Security fitness and training classes, the chances of getting fat were pretty much zero.
“So what was up with you yesterday?” Chad asked, taking another huge bite of his pancakes and chewing it with a strip of bacon so that his cheeks bulged.
“One of our clients tried to set me up in a sting operation for the FBI and ended up challenging me. It wasn’t pretty.”
Chad stopped chewing and stared at Peter with his mouth full. Peter had been in a challenge? He couldn’t believe it. Chad had faced off against other alphas plenty of times, but it had never gone that far.
And the FBI? Why was the FBI setting up sting operations to catch Peter?
Chad swallowed the rest of the food in his mouth without chewing. “What?”
“He was in trouble, and he tried to make a deal by stabbing me in the back. It didn’t work.”
Chad nodded. Obviously it hadn’t worked. Peter wasn’t a criminal.
“What are you going to do now?” Chad asked.
“About the FBI?” Peter shrugged. “Nothing. The only proof they had that I’d done something wrong was Sprain’s word, and he’s dead, so… they’ve got nothing.”
Chad froze for a second time. “What do you mean he’s dead?”
Peter just stared at him like he was being particularly dim-witted.
“He challenged me, Chad. Do you honestly think I’d let that go?”
Chad remembered suddenly how Merchant had trained them with the assumption that every real fight would end in death. Was that how alphas like him and Peter operated?
“So what? If I accidentally challenged you, you’d kill me?”
Peter scoffed. “You wouldn’t challenge me, Chad. I don’t think that’s something you have to worry about.”
Not the reassuring and resounding NO Chad had been after. When he just continued staring at Peter incredulously, Peter sighed.
“It’s not like it’s an instinct I can control,” he said, putting his coffee cup down. “I’m challenged, I fight. I fight, it’s to the death. That’s just how I’m built. This can’t be news to you.”
Chad shook his head. It wasn’t, really. He knew that uber-alphas were intense about things like this—violent and unpredictable. It’s why they were so scary. But it hadn’t seemed to apply to Peter.
“I just… you killed him. Doesn’t that make you feel bad?”
Peter stared at him like he was speaking another language. His expression was blank and a little confused, like he couldn’t quite figure out what Chad was asking.
Chad tried to wrap his head around the idea that Peter had gone straight from killing someone to playing kinky sex games with him like it was nothing. A bad day, that’s how he’d described it. Like he’d spilled coffee on his shirt or missed a meeting.
“Not really. He tried to set me up and he attacked me. As far as I’m concerned he got what was coming to him.”
Chad nodded. He understood what Peter meant, but he still couldn’t grasp how Peter was being so calm.
Was he just used to it? The thought was terrifying.
“Hey,” Peter said, walking up so that he was standing next to Chad’s chair.
He stroked his hand down the side of Chad’s face and rubbed his earlobe between his thumb and forefinger.
“I don’t go looking for fights, and I give plenty of warning when an alpha starts crossing the line.
I haven’t initiated a challenge since I was in my twenties.
I don’t take it lightly, if that’s what you’re asking. ”
Chad nodded, his earlobe slipping out of Peter’s grasp. That did actually make him feel better.
Stepping away, Peter let out a small chuckle and sat down on the other side of the table.
“What?” Chad asked. He didn’t see what was so funny.
“It’s nothing. I was just going to ask you something this morning, but now it really doesn’t seem appropriate.”
Chad’s heart beat faster. He bit his bottom lip, wondering if the question was what he thought it was.
“You can still ask,” he said, his voice coming out breathless. Peter’s mouth split into a slow grin.
“Yeah?”
Chad nodded. Peter rose from his seat and came back around the table, but this time he pushed Chad’s chair back so that he could crouch down in front of him. It wasn’t the bended knee that betas used when proposing, but that’s what it reminded Chad of.
“Will you let me claim you?” Peter asked, somehow managing to make it seem like he was looming even though he was crouching down. “Bite you? Make you wear my mark on your neck so the whole world knows who you belong to?”
Chad licked his lips and nodded. His heart was racing.
“You need to say the word,” Peter said, leaning in closer as his grin stretched wider. Chad could feel the heat of his body against his skin and his smell was intoxicating. He felt like he was about to be devoured.
“Yes.”
The word was barely out of his mouth before Peter sprang into action. He grabbed Chad by the hair and yanked his head back, biting down over his collarbone and sealing Chad’s fate forever.
Chad could feel Peter’s teeth sinking into his flesh, hot and sharp and painful, but that was nothing compared to the feeling of being owned. Peter’s claim was like a physical thing inside of him, taking up space and making his skin feel tight and raw.
Peter withdrew his teeth and licked over the wound he’d made, snarling and huffing and acting every inch the caveman. Chad just held on, Peter practically sitting in his lap at this point.
“You’re mine now,” Peter said after a while, his legs spread on either side of the chair, sitting on Chad’s lap. Chad felt overwhelmed, and the sheer happiness in Peter’s voice made him grin so hard his cheeks hurt.
“All mine,” Peter repeated. This time he sounded smug and self-satisfied.
“All yours,” Chad confirmed. Peter’s chest rumbled happily, almost like he was purring, and Chad could feel the vibrations like a pleasant tingle all through his body.
Chad let out an incredulous laugh, hardly able to believe what had just happened.
It almost felt like a dream.
***