Chapter 11 Warren #2
He really hoped Harland wasn’t breaking up with him.
“You should eat while your food is warm.” Harland moved into the apartment, tugging off his gloves and tossing them over to his boots.
“You can sit on the couch, or on the bed. Wherever you want,” Warren said, putting his bags down on the counter and grabbing a plate. He looked over his shoulder to see Harland taking a seat on his bed, sitting down on the edge of the mattress and watching him.
Warren served himself a little bit of both entrees, grabbed his soda, and walked over to the couch.
Eating in front of a guest and not being able to share his food with them felt really, really weird.
“Eat,” Harland said, nodding down at Warren’s plate. “It looks good.”
Warren wondered how old Harland actually was. Given his house and the two bonuses he’d dropped into Warren’s account, he must be pretty rich, and for vampires, that usually meant that they were old.
Had Harland ever tasted Chinese food? Soda? Warren was intensely curious, but he held himself back from asking.
"What did you want to talk about?" Warren asked, grabbing a spring roll and taking a bite. The idea that Harland might be more than breaking things off – might be firing him – hit him like an icy punch to the gut. Before he could help himself, he blurted out, "Are you firing me?"
Harland blinked at him, looking at him like he was wondering where in the world that question had come from.
“No. Nothing like that.”
Warren slumped back into his seat, his muscles going lax out of sheer relief. “Oh, that’s good. I was worried.”
“You were?” Harland asked, smiling softly again.
Warren swooned.
“A little,” he said, turning away to take a quick drink of his soda to hide how much he was blushing.
“Max and I aren’t breaking up with you,” Harland said, the explicit confirmation making Warren perk up. “But I do have to warn you. I should have warned you earlier, and that’s why Max is angry with me.”
Warren leaned forward and put his plate on the coffee table, giving Harland his full attention.
“Warn me about what?”
Harland tapped his fingers on his thighs, his expression turning thoughtful as he seemed to be turning his answer over in his mind.
The longer he took to answer, the more worried Warren got.
“Do you know what an omega is?” Harland finally asked.
Warren nodded. “Max said that it’s a human who’s fated to mate with more than one alpha.”
Max had actually said that Warren was supposed to be his and Harland’s omega, but saying that now – even if it was Harland who had said it first – felt too presumptuous.
“And that’s true,” Harland said. “But it’s not the whole truth.”
“Okay, then what is?” Warren asked.
“Omegas are humans that are addicted to their alphas. Your scent is nature’s way of letting us find you, while the addiction is nature’s way of making sure you stay.”
Warren looked at Harland, waiting for the punchline. It didn’t come.
“Addicted, how?” he asked.
How could you be addicted to a person?
“To our sperm.” Harland absentmindedly let his hand come to rest on his bulge.
“That can’t be a real thing,” Warren said, tearing his gaze away from Harland’s package. “I mean… that’s insane.”
“I can't say for sure that being with us would turn you into an omega. It’s not a science, and omegas are very, very rare. You might just be our mate.” Harland got up from the bed and walked over to the couch, taking a seat next to him.
He put his arm across the back of Warren’s shoulders and leaned in.
“But I think it’s pretty likely that you are.
My wolf has been dormant since I was turned into a vampire, and you woke it up.
Do you know how compatible we have to be for that to happen? ”
Warren sat still, Harland huge and overwhelming next to him, and tried to make sense of what Harland was saying.
“What does that mean for us?” he finally asked.
“I don’t know. It might be too late.” Harland stroked his hand down Warren’s cheek. “You’ve slept with us, and you’ve been claimed twice over. That’s why Max is so angry with me.”
“Could I just detox, if things didn’t work out?”
Harland shook his head. “No. If an omega is deprived of their alphas, eventually the withdrawals are fatal.”
“You’re sure of that?” Warren asked.
Harland nodded solemnly.
“But that’s crazy!” Warren said, wringing his hands. “You can’t die from not having sex with someone.”
“Omegas do.”
Warren scooted away and glared at Harland. “And you thought that sleeping with me would turn me into one, and you did it anyway?”
“Yes.”
“Why?” Warren felt betrayed.
Harland moved his hand to Warren’s neck, his thumb coming to rest over the knob of his spine and massaging it. “Because I think that you were born to be mine, and I would make you happy. Max helped me see that I should have taken your wishes into consideration. I’m sorry.”
It was a little late for Harland to be sorry if the deed had already been done.
“I think you should leave.”
Harland frowned, his thumb stilling where it rested against Warren’s neck.
“If that’s what you want.”
“Of course, that’s what I want. Jesus. You’re hot as fuck, but I don’t want to spend the rest of my life depending on your cock to live.”
Harland nodded and withdrew his hand. He stood up and took a step back, standing in front of Warren and crossing his arms. Warren looked up at him, his gaze catching on the sizable bulge in his suit.
Even with everything he’d just learned, he wanted to push his face into it and worship, and not because he was addicted. Harland’s bulge was just that enticing.
“I’d still like to see you,” Harland said. “Would you be willing to try dating me and Max? We could get to know each other better before we go forward with anything physical.”
“Maybe.” Warren looked away. He was so tempted to say yes. “I’ll think about it.”
Harland made a disappointed sound in the back of his throat, but he didn’t push.
“Do you want me to cancel your contract?”
Warren froze, the reminder that he was still financially dependent on Harland making him supremely uncomfortable.
“No.” He swallowed. “I need the money.”
Harland nodded, looking relieved.
“I’ll keep it professional,” he promised. “No feeding from your throat or inducing pleasure.”
Warren hated that his first reaction to that was disappointment.
There was a part of him – a small, shameful part – that kind of hoped that he had been turned into an omega.
That would take the decision of what to do next out of his hands, and he’d get to have all the hot werewolf sex he could stand.
“I appreciate it.”
“In that case…” Harland trailed off, giving Warren a chance to change his mind and invite him to stay. Warren let the silence linger. “I’ll head out.”
Harland walked over to the door and put on his shoes, his posture dejected. Grabbing his helmet and his gloves, he turned to Warren.
“I’ll see you on Tuesday?”
Warren nodded. Harland hesitated, clearly dissatisfied with how their talk was ending, but when Warren didn’t say anything more, he opened the door and walked out of the apartment. When the door closed behind him, Warren let out a breath and slumped back into the couch cushions.
That was probably the craziest conversation of his life.
He should have known that a bunch of preternaturally attractive alpha studs being into him was too good to be true. Of course, there had to be a catch.
After sitting there for a moment, Warren’s stomach rumbled and reminded him that he was still hungry. He ignored it for a while, not in the mood to eat, but then it let out a noise that was downright unholy.
Reaching for his plate, Warren took a bite of his now lukewarm food. The Kung Pao chicken was delicious. Chewing slowly, he wondered what an addiction to werewolf sperm would feel like.
He’d never been addicted to anything in his life.
If Warren had to be addicted to something, he supposed that werewolf spunk wasn’t the worst thing. He enjoyed the process of extracting it immensely, and he liked both the taste of it and the feeling of having it inside of him.
Taking another bite of his chicken, Warren thought back to Harland squeezing his head between his muscular thighs, holding him in place as he came into his mouth.
That had been a nice experience.
He pictured Harland in his mind’s eye. In his mental imagining, the man was naked, wearing nothing except his boots and motorcycle gloves.
He was jerking off, languidly stroking his shaft and milking a string of pre-come from his slit.
Warren pictured himself on his knees, waiting for permission to touch, maybe with Max crouching behind him, massaging his shoulders and resting his hot, hard cock against the ridge of his spine.
Warren realized with a start that he was sitting there, a piece of chicken speared on his fork, daydreaming about werewolf cock.
Was this what omega addiction felt like?
It didn’t feel like anything abnormal. Warren had always been this horny for hunky tall guys with nice bodies.
The way he felt daydreaming about Harland and Max didn’t feel any different from how he’d used to daydream about Brock Heeler, the leather-clad werewolf movie star he’d had a poster of as a teenager.
Warren had spent hours in bed, staring up at the poster of Brock and imagining the werewolf squeezing his face into his abs and pushing him down to his leather-clad bulge.
Maybe that was where Warren’s little leather kink came from, he mused. All those jerk-off sessions to fantasies about Brock Heeler in his leather pants.
Giving himself a shake, Warren grabbed the remote for his TV and turned it on. He needed to think about something else, and a few episodes of his favorite anime were the perfect way to distract himself while he finished eating.
The next day, Warren found himself in a weird mood.
He’d spent the night dreaming about Harland, Marcus, and Max, and not in a fun way.
In the dream, Warren had been on his knees, the three alphas standing around him in a tight circle.
Harland had been dressed in his motorcycle leathers, Marcus in a navy-blue suit, and Max had been wearing a fireman getup.
All three alphas had had their cocks out, their shafts leaking as they jerked themselves off, but no matter how hard Warren tried, he couldn’t manage to lift up high enough to reach them.
Every time he tried to stand up or use his hands, someone knocked him over or knocked his hands away before he could get anywhere.
Warren woke up sexually frustrated and unreasonably angry at the three alphas for denying him. The fact that it had just been a dream did nothing to quell Warren’s sleepy annoyance. It wasn’t until he’d jerked off in the shower that his annoyance gave way to bewildered bafflement.
Putting the dream behind him, Warren had a quick bowl of cereal for breakfast and went grocery shopping. He restocked his cupboard with premium ramen and mac and cheese and then went to his favorite coffee shop to study and have lunch.
Through it all, he kept thinking about the bombshell that Harland had dropped on him.
The thing that Warren kept circling back to was that being an omega couldn’t be the same as being addicted to something like drugs or alcohol.
It wasn’t a medical addiction. It was part of the whole werewolf magic package, and that meant that Warren had to think about the rest of what Harland had told him, too.
Because what if Harland was right? What if they were all meant to be together? Warren wouldn’t mind being an omega if it meant a guaranteed happily ever after.
Then again, a magically guaranteed happily ever after seemed like a far-fetched idea. It seemed far more likely that the whole omega thing was just a way for werewolves to enslave humans, bending them to their will with the power of their gorgeous cocks and their-
Warren forced himself to stop thinking about werewolf penises. It was getting out of hand.
Sipping his coffee, still on the same page of his textbook as he’d been when he sat down half an hour ago, Warren wondered what he was going to do about his date with Marcus tomorrow.
Should he still go?
He wanted to – if only so that he could ask him what his thoughts on the whole omega thing were. Unlike Harland, Marcus hadn’t seemed to want to share.
What if Warren had been turned into an omega like Harland suspected – if it was too late – and Marcus refused to play along?
Would Warren just up and die?
Warren didn’t think that Marcus would let that happen, but he also couldn’t imagine him being happy if he was stuck having to share his mate.
Then again, if Warren’s role as an omega was to bring Marcus and Harland together, and their werewolf instincts meant that it would work out…
Slamming his textbook shut, Warren decided that he needed to stop spiraling. He didn’t have enough information to know what was going to happen, and speculating was only stressing him out.
Pulling out his phone, he called Josh.
“Hey, what’s up?” Josh answered on the second ring. He sounded distracted, video game noises in the background.
That was perfect.
“Can I come over and hang out?”
“Of course.” Josh cursed at the sudden sound of a bunch of explosions. “Come on over. Can you pick up McDonald’s on the way?”
Warren laughed. “Sure. Do you want your usual nuggets?”
“You know it.”
“Okay, see you in a few.”
Hanging up, Warren downed the rest of his coffee and packed up his backpack. A few hours playing video games with Josh and hanging out was exactly what he needed.