Chapter 25 Warren
WARREN
The next day, Warren went to class. He was just exiting the second lecture of the day when Josh accosted him.
“Dude, what the fuck was that?”
Josh pulled him away from the lecture hall door as soon as Warren made his exit, dragging him down the hall away from the flow of students so that they could have privacy.
Warren hadn’t even gotten in a hello.
“What was what?” Warren asked, even though he knew exactly what Josh was talking about.
“The werewolf at your apartment last night,” Josh said. “Who the fuck was that?”
“That was Max,” Warren said, realizing that he’d never actually told Josh about him.
“And Max is?” Josh demanded, impatient.
“He’s Harland’s boyfriend.”
“Is Harland collecting a harem?”
Warren blushed, and Josh immediately clocked it.
“Are you collecting a harem?” Josh let out an exasperated breath. “Warren, a vampire is one thing, but werewolves are territorial. What’s going to happen when Marcus finds out? What if they fight?”
Josh lowered his voice on the word “fight,” looking around as though worried someone had overheard him.
“They all know each other,” Warren confessed. “They kind of want to date me as a group.”
Josh blinked, looking like he was blue-screening. After a moment, he grabbed Warren’s shoulder and leaned in.
“Warren, what have you gotten yourself into?” He glanced around again. “Do you need help? My uncle is a detective in New York. I can call him.”
Warren smiled. “I’m fine. I mean, I’m not sure what I’m going to do about them all wanting to share me, but I don’t need help.”
“Are you sure?”
Warren nodded.
“So, what exactly is happening?” Josh looked him up and down. “Because, no offense, two werewolves and a vampire all wanting to date you in the span of like two weeks is suspicious as fuck.”
“I think they think that I’m their mate.”
Warren hadn’t really admitted that to himself. It made everything seem so incredibly serious. Everyone knew how werewolves were about their mates. It was like marriage on steroids.
“You think that they think, or you know that they think?”
Warren bit his lip. “I know?”
Josh stared at him.
“They claimed me.” Warren pulled down his turtleneck to show off the topmost two bites on his throat.
Josh’s eyes went wide.
“Holy fuck. If you try to leave them, they are totally going to kidnap you and I’ll never see you again.”
“They wouldn’t do that,” Warren objected. “It’s actually a little cute. They’re trying really hard to date me the normal way.”
“Yeah, and if that fails, they’ll kidnap you.”
Warren rolled his eyes. “They won't. Besides, they won't have to kidnap me. It’s not like I’m going to ditch them. I like them.”
“So why was Max so moody last night?” Josh asked. “I swear he was looking at me like he wanted to rip my head off and throw it out the window.”
“He did not. He actually gets very sad when people think he’s intimidating.”
“Then what was with the murder stare?”
Warren huffed. Max had been in a bad mood, yes, but he hadn’t projected any of that bad mood onto Josh.
“Harland and Marcus were fighting, so Max and I went back to my place while they figured things out.”
“Fighting, like screaming at each other, or actually fighting?”
“Actually fighting,” Warren confessed. “But they worked it out, and now everyone is friends.”
Josh’s eyes widened. “Were they fighting over you?”
“And Max,” Warren said. “They’re both used to being in charge, and neither one of them wants to submit. They reached a stalemate.”
Josh put his hand on Warren’s shoulder. “Warren, please don’t take this the wrong way, but I am very worried for you and I think you should run away.”
He looked completely serious.
“I don’t want to,” Warren said.
Considering how iffy he’d been on the idea of being with Max, Marcus and Harland, it was remarkable how resistant he felt about the idea of giving them up.
It was unthinkable.
“This is so stressful,” Josh said. He rubbed his eyes. “Okay, here’s what we’re going to do. I’m going to tell them that I’m watching them, and if they hurt my friend, I will…”
“You’ll what?”
“I don’t know!” Josh blurted out. “What am I going to do against werewolves and vampires. That guy last night could have broken me like a twig with his pinky.”
“I’m sure you’d think of something.”
“I’d call the police and the media. I’d blast them on TikTok.”
“I think they censor those pretty heavily for anything werewolf-related.”
“I know,” Josh grumbled.
“I’ll be fine,” Warren said. He pulled Josh in for a hug. “They’re very nice to me. You don’t have to worry.”
“Nice people don’t fight each other with violence when they disagree on something.”
Warren shrugged. “They heal pretty much right away, and they don’t act like that with humans. It’s just with other alphas.”
“I’m going to get an ulcer.”
“No, you’re going to go get lunch with me. I can hear your stomach rumbling. Come on.”
Warren dragged Josh away from the empty hallway, handing him his mittens as they made their way to the exit.
It was nice to have such a good friend.
After lunch, which mostly consisted of Josh picking at his food while searching the internet for information about werewolves and humans mating, Warren gave his friend a hug and told him he’d meet up with him after school.
“How can there be no information?” Josh asked as they parted, indignant. He held up his phone. “The post I made to ask questions was taken down in a second! A second, Warren.”
“They do that,” Warren agreed.
“But there’s so much porn,” Josh wailed. “Why do they censor basic information when there’s a whole industry catering to people with a werewolf fetish?”
“You’d have to ask someone in charge.” Warren patted Josh’s arm. “Please don’t stress, okay? It’s fine.”
“If they ask you to make porn, say no.” Josh wrinkled his nose, thinking about what he’d just said. “Though they probably won't. Marcus Miller is a billionaire businessman. I doubt he’d do porn.”
“He wouldn’t,” Warren agreed.
Though maybe he’d be up for making some of the private kind? Warren was very curious about what he looked like when he was getting hot and heavy with his alphas.
“I have to go. I have a meeting with my thesis advisor.” Warren stepped away, waving goodbye. “I’ll see you later.”
Josh was just a little shocked, Warren reasoned. Once he got used to the idea that Warren was dating – and maybe mated – to three alphas, he would calm down.
The meeting with his thesis advisor went pretty well. Warren was doing a case study on a merger between two oil companies in Texas – or at least that had been the plan.
Apparently, he had a job offer.
“So, they just offered this out of the blue?” he asked.
“Your internship advisor actually recommended you, and then the recruiter reached out to me. I, of course, gave my wholehearted endorsement.”
The job was with a small, but still very respectable, consulting firm. They were offering to sponsor him as he wrote his thesis, on the condition that he wrote it on a topic they chose and that he came to work for them once it was submitted.
“And it’s remote?”
Larry, his advisor, nodded. “But with an option to come into the office whenever you want.”
Warren scrolled through the email Larry had forwarded to him.
“Their office is in Anchorage?” he asked, everything suddenly making sense when he reached the part of the email detailing the remote work arrangement.
This was Marcus trying to get him to Alaska.
Warren should have been creeped out. This wasn’t a company reaching out to him because Marcus asked them to – this was a plot involving a recruiter, his old internship boss and now his advisor to set up a job he had in no way earned.
Warren would bet anything that the explicit mention of the Alaska office was a mistake. If it hadn’t been for that, Warren would have fully believed that the conversation between his former internship supervisor and the recruiter where she recommended him was a coincidence.
It was so wrong. There was a huge difference between offering Warren a job and trying to manipulate him into one.
He should not feel this flattered.
He forwarded a screenshot of the email to Marcus with a question mark.
“I’ll have to think about it,” Warren said, putting his phone away. “But thank you for your recommendation. I really appreciate it.”
“Of course. It’s a good offer, but you have to do what’s right for you.”
They said goodbye and Warren headed home, intending to do some reading for his finals, stopping to pick up a sandwich wrap on the way home to have for dinner later. He was in line to pay when Marcus responded to his message by calling him.
“You got the job offer I arranged for you,” Marcus stated when Warren picked up. “Congratulations.”
“I don’t appreciate being manipulated.” Warren wasn’t actually angry, but he needed to set some boundaries.
“How am I manipulating you?” Marcus asked, sounding calm and a little befuddled.
“I told you I would have some recruiters work on getting you a job, and they did. You’re free to decline the offer.
In fact, I think you should decline and come work for me directly.
I have a position available under my desk that I think you’d be perfect for. ”
Warren blushed.
Maybe Marcus was right. He wasn’t trying to manipulate him. He was outright trying to get him to move without being the least bit sneaky about it. He had mentioned that he’d get a recruiter to help him out.
Heavy-handed seemed to be Marcus in a nutshell.
“So how did they get me the offer?” he asked, ignoring the offer to spend his days under Marcus’s desk.
He could just imagine it: the cramped space made smaller by Marcus’s meaty thighs and long legs, his bulging crotch, the sensation of a hand pushing him down into his lap… There was something so humiliatingly submissive about it.
Warren didn’t know why he was so into it.
“You’re qualified, and you came recommended from someone they do a lot of business with. I think you underestimate how much of getting a job is just who you know.” Marcus sounded matter-of-fact. His voice lowered, his tone seductive. “What about my other offer?”
“I could sub in as a temp, on occasion,” Warren suggested, not managing to deliver the line nearly as smoothly as he’d intended. He blushed, glancing around to make sure no one was listening in on his conversation.
“Sub in,” Marcus repeated, making it sound lecherous. “Nice.”
Warren’s blush deepened.
“I’m in line at the store and it’s almost my turn, so I have to go.”
“I have to go back to Fairbanks for a few days,” Marcus said. “I’m leaving tomorrow morning and coming back in a week. Would you like to come with me?”
Warren was completely unprepared for the offer. He couldn’t just up and go to Alaska. It was so far away.
“I can’t,” he said. “I have lectures and finals to study for.”
“That’s fair,” Marcus sounded disappointed, but he moved on quickly. “In that case, will you go on a date with us on the Saturday after I get back?”
“Sure,” Warren said. “That sounds nice.”
“Perfect, we’ll make a day of it.”