Chapter 7
Baal was reconsidering his options. He’d chosen to go with a breeding contract simply because it’d seemed like the easiest avenue at the time. Through it, he could provide the omega with everything he needed and legally bind them together in the process.
He should have known Thorn wasn’t the type to be so easily bought.
It hadn’t been a lie when he’d said he knew all there was to know about Thorn Winters.
His frosty omega was the independent type, hardworking and used to carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders.
He didn’t accept help lightly, didn’t shirk his responsibilities, and rarely, if ever, put himself before his family.
A family that had run him to the ground unapologetically. The father had been a coward and a leech, the brother…Well. Baal supposed he couldn’t fault the kid for his condition. No one asked for a pheromone disorder, he’d merely been given a shitty hand.
Except Thorn was the one paying for it, both literally and figuratively, and this contract was a means of lessening that burden, so to speak.
Of course, it wasn’t coming from the goodness of Baal’s heart.
He wanted the omega. He wanted him on his knees, head bowed. Wanted him wrapped around his finger, seated on his cock, and collared to his bedpost. Last night, it’d taken every ounce of willpower Baal possessed not to bite the omega and be done with it.
Maybe that’s what he should be doing now, instead of sitting here pretending like this was going to end any other way than with him as the victor and the omega as his prize.
He’d wanted to ease Thorn into things, give him a chance to get used to having him as his alpha before making it permanent. But if his kindness was going to go disregarded, the same way the roses he’d left for him had been, perhaps Baal shouldn’t bother with it.
It was all an illusion anyway. He was kind because he could afford to be, and no other reason but.
If this were a hundred years ago, Baal would have sunk his teeth into Thorn’s neck the moment he laid eyes on him.
He would have claimed him right then and there, and enjoyed having the omega writhing beneath him every night since.
Thorn was correct in his assumption.
This wasn’t about heirs.
Baal couldn’t care less about having a kid.
This was about getting back inside the omega without completely snuffing out that ember he liked to keep encased in ice and frost.
If he forced the mating bite now, Baal might break him. He didn’t want that. His mate needed to be strong and resilient. The White Frost didn’t appreciate the weak.
“You’ll get the money in the bag,” he’d give it one last attempt, and if the omega still refused, he’d make the choice for him, “and a guarantee that all of Aster’s future medical expenses will be paid.
” Baal saw the glimmer of hope in Thorn’s eyes and latched onto it. “His condition isn’t incurable.”
“What do you mean?” Thorn’s tone shifted. The poor thing would really do anything for his little brother, including selling himself. “We were told we’d exhausted all of our options.”
“On the legal market, sure.” Baal shrugged. “The White Frost has ties with several pharmaceutical companies working on medical advancements not yet available to the public. Did you get a good look at Espen earlier?”
The question was double-edged, and his omega wasn’t so distracted by the first inkling of hope to not see it for what it was.
Smart.
But then, Baal knew that already as well. Before having to drop out of school to support his family, Thorn had been top of his class. He would have been able to complete his degree through scholarships if his father hadn’t taken out that first loan and sealed all their fates.
“I know better than to stare at another alpha when the one I just slept with is right in front of me,” Thorn said coolly, and while it was a shame that fire had died away, it was no matter.
Baal would bring it back out in him shortly.
“That’s good,” he praised. “Keep being good for me, omega, and I promise it’ll all be worth it.” He held up a hand, stopping Thorn from getting bratty. “Espen is one of my strongest soldiers, but he wasn’t always. He was born with the same condition as Aster.”
“What?” Thorn’s head whipped to the window overlooking the front yard, but it was too dark outside to make out any of the faces of the men standing in the driveway. “How?”
“I told you,” he said, waiting until the omega turned back to him. “We have connections.”
Thorn nibbled on his bottom lip, but it was so obvious he was going to cave. “And…you’ll give it to me? You swear?”
“He’ll need months of rehabilitation,” Baal said. “It’s not a miracle drug. It will cure him, but it’ll take time, at least a year, potentially longer.”
“But you’ll pay for it? All of it?”
“I’ll make sure he’s kept comfortable throughout.” He smirked. “You both will be.”
Thorn defiantly gave a slight shake of his head. “Being your broodmare will be anything but comfortable.”
“Perhaps not,” he agreed. “But you aren’t getting out of this, so you may as well get everything you can from me in the process, don’t you think?”
“Why me?”
“Because I want you.” It was rather simple, really.
“You’ve already had me.”
Baal snorted. “I want you to birth my children.”
“I won’t be able to.”
“That doesn’t deter me. Either I’ll eventually impregnate you, or we’ll both grow old trying.”
“Or,” Thorn said, a flash of indignation alighting in his gaze once more, “you get bored with me and kick me out onto the streets.”
“Even if that does happen,” it wouldn’t, “it would be long after your brother is already taken care of. And,” Baal got to his feet, “I won’t make you sell this house. You’ll be allowed to keep it.”
“Gee, thanks.”
He grinned. “I like it when you’re defiant, frosty omega. Just be careful not to take things too far.”
Thorn remained still as Baal approached and didn’t pull away when he reached out and captured his chin.
“Does it make sense for someone like me to have to come all the way out here to you when I want to fuck?” Baal asked.
Thorn dropped his gaze.
“Exactly. It doesn’t. It’s a breeding contract, omega. No matter how unlikely it is for you to conceive, the point is still to be readily available to be bred. You’ll move into Fae Manor. Keep this house and bring only what you’ll need. You won’t need much.”
Thorn’s eyes flashed. “If you’re insinuating that you’re going to keep me naked—”
“I’m telling you I’ve already supplied you with a new wardrobe,” he corrected. “Your rooms are already stocked with all of the essentials. If something is missing or you want something specific, just ask. I’ll get it for you.”
It wasn’t unheard of for the more upscale contracts to include perks like these for the omegas. Ideally, that would keep Thorn from fighting him too hard on these things.
“You’re going to have to learn to give up control when you’re with me,” Baal said softly, brushing his thumb across Thorn’s bottom lip. “Accept the offer, sweetheart. Sign the contract.”
If he refused again, Baal would bite him, right here and now.
They’d both be miserable for a few years, but eventually Thorn would get past their toxic beginning and—
“Fine.” Thorn stepped back and Baal allowed it so he’d have room to lift the holopad between them. “But breeding and fucking are two separate things.” He said it like he thought it was crass.
Baal recalled how wet Thorn got whenever he’d said the word fuck during their time together though. He wasn’t fooling anyone with this prim and proper act.
“I can’t get pregnant unless I’m in heat,” Thorn continued. “We can schedule ahead, and I’ll come to the manor then.”
“That’s not going to cut it, omega.”
“It doesn’t make sense for me to live there permanently. If the point is breeding—”
“You need to grow accustomed to my pheromones. Your chances are already low enough as it is, and so are mine,” he stated.
The problem wasn’t one-sided. Everyone on the planet was struggling in that department, alphas included.
“A comfortable and pleased omega has a higher probability of conceiving. In order to ensure you feel at ease around me, so that I can give it to you how you like, I’ll need to keep you close. We’ll need to… practice.”
Thorn’s eyes narrowed. “All of this sounds like you want to make me your live-in whore, alpha.”
“So what if I do?” He took another step closer, recapturing that small space between them, but allowed the omega to stumble back and regain it. “The breeding contract is for your benefit. No one will judge you for being a kept omega.”
If Thorn really was a mere bedwarmer, they would though. It was one thing to be in a casual relationship, but people like Baal didn’t do those, and it was well known throughout the city. If an unmated omega started hanging around him, rumors would start. Thorn would become a laughingstock.
“Do you want to be known as an omega good enough to take my knot, but not my bite?” Baal said it and then saw the wheels turning in Thorn’s head. His omega was smart, he’d pick up on the hidden implications in Baal’s question.
He’d think Baal was drawing a line. Insinuating he had no intentions of biting and mating Thorn.
That this was about sex. Plain and simple.
Only, there wasn’t anything simple about this exchange, and what Baal truly wanted wasn’t a shitty signature or a contract allowing him legal access to the place between Thorn’s thighs.
He wanted more.
He wanted it all.
And eventually? That would include his teeth buried in the omega’s delicate neck.
But not yet.
This was a long game, and as much as he hated having to wait, Baal could exercise patience. He’d seen firsthand what happened when an omega was forced into a lifelong bond. It rarely went well for either party.
Baal was not his father.
“Do you even want a child, alpha?” Thorn hesitantly asked, as though afraid of the answer.
“I need an heir,” he replied, keeping it vague but honest.