Chapter 15 Warren
WARREN
Warren spent all Sunday morning debating whether or not he should cancel his date with Marcus, agonizing over the decision while Josh gave him increasingly judgmental stares.
He hadn’t told Josh about the omega thing – it was too weird – but he’d shared his reservations about dating a werewolf.
Josh was firmly of the opinion that he should see where things went and enjoy the ride.
“I thought you said vampires were freaky?” Warren challenged him, after Josh enumerated all the benefits of having a hot, rich, and immortal boyfriend.
“Yeah, when they’re drinking your blood. Dating them is a whole different thing.”
Since Warren was pretty sure that Josh had never even seen a vampire, he didn’t know where he got the authority to make that determination.
Either way, with Josh not having the full picture, it wasn’t like he could give helpful advice.
Warren kept on going back and forth on whether he should cancel, the morning turning into afternoon, and then it was suddenly too late.
Josh went home, and Warren sat on his sofa and watched the little dot that represented Marcus on his tracking app, watching as it moved steadily closer.
He needed to get ready.
Jumping in the shower, giving himself a quick but thorough scrub and a just-in-case douche, he dried off, fixed his hair, and got dressed in some of his nice slacks and a button-down shirt that miraculously didn’t need ironing.
He was just tucking his shirt into his pants and then pulling it back out – deciding that the tucked-in look was too dorky – when his doorbell rang.
He jumped, startled even though he’d known that Marcus was just minutes away.
“I’ll be right down!” he said, speaking into the intercom and grabbing his keys and jacket. He got halfway down the stairs before he remembered that he’d forgotten his phone. He ran back up the stairs and retrieved it, and then jogged down to meet Marcus.
As a result of his rush, Warren was slightly out of breath when he reached the front door and walked into the frigid cold beyond.
Marcus looked his usual gorgeously hunky self, standing there in a sleek overcoat and blowing into his hands to keep them warm.
“No gloves?” Warren asked, realizing that he’d forgotten his own gloves.
“Lost them,” Marcus said. He grinned down at Warren, the smile freezing on his face when he looked at Warren’s neck.
Warren spent all of a second being confused before he slapped his hand up on the mark that Harland had bitten into his skin.
With the whole omega thing, he’d completely forgotten about the new bite. Marcus’s reaction was exactly what he’d worried it would be.
“Did you want to go?” Warren asked, zipping his coat all the way up in hopes that it would hide the mark.
It didn’t, though it hid the one left by Marcus.
Seeing Marcus’s nostrils flare, his jaw tight, Warren quickly unzipped his coat so that both marks were visible.
“Sorry.” Marcus visibly pulled himself together. “I have reservations at the hotel restaurant. I thought we could try it again, since we got so impatient last time.”
“Sure,” Warren said. He licked his lips. “I wanted to talk to you, so that sounds good.”
Marcus raised his eyebrows. “That sounds serious.”
He was clearly trying to make light, but Warren just nodded.
“I hope you’re not breaking up with me,” Marcus said. He offered Warren his arm, leading him down the stairs.
“Are we together?” Warren asked, the idea of this already being a relationship catching him off guard and making him blurt out the question before he could think better of it.
“Ouch,” Marcus said, sounding genuinely hurt. He laughed, the sound self-deprecating. “I guess I still have to prove myself, huh? Don’t worry. I’m willing to put in the effort.”
Marcus’s car was parked on the curb right at the end of the steps.
Marcus guided Warren to the passenger side door with a hand on the back of his neck.
After climbing inside, Warren couldn’t help himself.
He turned to Marcus and asked, “Why didn’t you tell me that I could become an omega if I slept with you? ”
Marcus sighed, which was not the reaction Warren had been expecting. He’d thought that Marcus would look caught out and guilty.
“I assume you’ve been talking to Max and Harland Hill?”
Warren nodded.
“Let’s just say that I don’t share their view on the likelihood of you turning into an omega. In addition, I don’t intend to share you, so it’s a moot point.”
“But what if it’s too late?”
“I’d force Harland and Max to donate their sperm, using force if I had to, and then I’d have my pharmacist make you enough omega maintenance pills that you’d never have to worry about feeling the effects of the addiction.”
Marcus climbed behind the wheel, leaving Warren speechless.
There were pills?
“My brother-in-law is an omega,” Marcus said, looking at Warren and turning on the engine.
He left the car in park, but turned on the heat.
“We figured out how to turn his alphas’ come into pills that keep his withdrawals completely away.
If Harland is right, the worst-case scenario is that you have to take a weekly pill. ”
“Oh,” Warren said.
That was much better than the scenario Harland had painted for him. Then again, Harland was old. It probably hadn’t occurred to him that modern werewolves had modern solutions to the problem of humans being turned into omegas.
“Though it would probably be for the best if you limited yourself to just sleeping with me, going forward. You wouldn’t want to risk it.”
Marcus’s mouth curved up in a cocky smirk as he delivered the suggestion, and even though it made Warren feel like an absolute slut, he laughed.
“I’m not actually that experienced,” he said. “I know that my recent behavior wouldn’t make you think it, but before this week I’d only ever slept with two people.”
“What are their names?” Marcus asked, making Warren laugh again.
Marcus just looked at him, the question apparently not a joke.
The possessiveness should have been a red flag, but Warren was ashamed to admit he was into it.
“I don’t think I should tell you.”
Marcus made a sound in the back of his throat like he disagreed, but he let it go. He put the car into drive and pulled away from the curb, starting the drive back to the hotel.
Dinner, when they arrived at the restaurant, was nice.
Warren was still uneasy about the whole omega thing, but Marcus made it feel like such a non-issue that he was able to relax enough to enjoy himself.
It was a far cry from the fraught evening he’d expected.
“So what, you’re like the werewolf version of a feudal king?” he asked after Marcus was done explaining the structure of his pack. They’d been talking for over an hour, and Warren was fascinated by the description of Marcus’s pack and the politics that went into being the alpha.
Marcus looked thoughtful, considering the question, and then he made a gesture that was halfway between a nod and a shrug.
“I never thought of it like that, but sure.” He cut into his steak and took a big bite, grinning as he chewed. “Maybe I should make my pack call me ‘your majesty’ instead of alpha.”
“Do they really call you ‘alpha’?” Warren asked.
Marcus grinned wider. “That’s what I am. I’m the strongest, so they all have to do what I say.”
That was so obnoxious. Warren couldn’t believe that it was doing it for him. He was so into Marcus’s cocky attitude that it was all he could do not to crawl under the table and blow him.
He wished Marcus would ask him to shove his face into his lap again.
When had he become such a slut for alpha-male bullshit? Warren didn’t usually find it hot. Then again, most guys who expressed alpha-male bullshit couldn’t back it up with the fact that they were an actual werewolf alpha with a pack of their own.
“So, you have your pack, with all your little deputies, and you have the other big packs,” Warren said, setting up the premise for his question. “How does someone like Harland fit into that?”
“Well, he doesn’t,” Marcus said, matter-of-fact. He scooped the rest of his baked potato out of the skin and shoved it into his mouth. “He’s a vampire. I wouldn’t want him living in my territory, but I wouldn’t kick him out unless he was causing problems.”
“And Max?”
Marcus made a face and put down his spoon. “He’s so weird. I’m going to have to notify the council about him and have them launch an investigation. Did he tell you he was adopted by humans?”
Warren nodded, a little confused. He hadn’t realized that Marcus and Max knew each other. In fact, he was pretty sure that they didn’t. On their last date, Marcus had referred to Max as ‘that werewolf you spent time with earlier today.’
Marcus kept talking.
“It’s so fucked up. There’s so much you have to learn as a werewolf teenager – especially as an alpha. It’s a miracle he’s as well-adjusted as he is. We need to figure out who lost him and if it could have happened to anyone else.”
“He’s pretty intense.” Warren flashed back to the first time they met, when Max wanted to chase him through the woods.
“He’s a puppy,” Marcus said, sounding fond.
“You like him?”
“What makes you ask that?” Marcus was suddenly defensive.
“I don’t know. Your face when you talk about him, maybe? It seems like you like him.” Warren scraped his fork across his empty plate. “I didn’t even realize that you knew him, other than through me.”
“We met last night,” Marcus said. He then proceeded to tell Warren about how Max had attacked him – which Warren thought he was way too blasé about – and how they’d spent the night running through the woods and hunting together.
Warren was surprised to find himself getting a little jealous.
“You actually ate a rabbit?” he interrupted at one point, grossed out. He didn’t want to kiss someone who put raw, freshly killed rabbit in their mouth.