Chapter 57 Warren
WARREN
“Knock, knock!”
Warren looked up from his phone at the unfamiliar voice coming from the doorway.
He was finished packing – not that he had much to pack – and he’d been reading up on the consulting firm where Marcus had gotten him a job offer while he waited for Cain to come pick him, his sister and Harland up for the trip home.
He was trying to decide whether or not he was going to accept the offer.
“Hello?” he called back, feeling nervous. Marcus had mentioned that Dylan – the other omega – might drop by and say hello before he left.
The door opened wider, revealing a pretty man dressed in a rumpled t-shirt and a pair of jeans. He was around Warren’s age, with a slim build and a friendly aura.
He was very cute.
“Hi! I’m Dylan,” the guy said, staying in the doorway. He had his hands in his pockets. “I’m mated to Steve, Marcus’s brother. I figured I should introduce myself since it seems you and I are kind of in the same boat. Marcus told me you were okay with me stopping by?”
“I am!” Warren scrambled off the bed and ran a quick hand through his hair to make sure it wasn’t sticking up all over the place. “I have so many questions!”
He went over and shook hands with his… brother-in-law? He’d have to ask later what the proper term was.
Dylan smiled and chuckled. “I’m happy to tell you anything I know.”
Warren looked back into the room. There was an armchair by the fireplace, but there was no real place to sit and talk.
“Do you want to go to the kitchen and get a coffee or something?” he asked. “I think I saw a coffee machine in there earlier.”
“Sure, I like coffee,” Dylan said.
Warren nodded. “Great, just let me put on my shoes.”
The kitchen was empty, so Warren and Dylan had the space to themselves to sit and talk.
Dylan directed Warren to sit while he made the coffee. “I heard that you’re leaving today?” he said, turning on the machine and sitting down while they waited for the coffee to brew.
Warren nodded.
“Yeah, my sister and I both need to get back to school.”
“I bet Marcus tried to convince you to stay anyway,” Dylan said with a knowing look.
Warren laughed. “He did, but I have finals starting the day after tomorrow. I can’t miss them.”
“Of course not. What are you studying?”
Dylan looked genuinely interested. He was giving Warren his full attention, and if Warren hadn’t been neck-deep in werewolf mating drama, he would probably have been a little flustered by the attention.
Dylan was extremely cute.
“I’m getting an MBA,” Warren explained. When Dylan kept looking interested, he talked a little about the program and his current quest for a job.
The coffee machine let out a beep and Dylan rose to his feet.
“What about you?” Warren asked as Dylan set cups, milk and sugar on the table before getting the pot from the machine. “Marcus said you’re getting your PhD?”
“I am,” Dylan said. He sat back down. “I’m working with LupiMed on a project for making custom 3D surgical prosthetics. It’s pretty interesting.”
Warren recognized the name of the company. It was one of the ones owned by Marcus’s pack.
“Would you recommend working for a company owned by the pack?”
“Oh, for sure,” Dylan said, no hesitation.
“It doesn’t get awkward?”
Dylan shook his head. “No, and it’s great for my university.
LupiMed is funding a whole boatload of projects in my department, and they have an internship and hiring agreement that’s been very beneficial for the school.
” He tilted his head. “Why? Is Marcus trying to get you to work at one of the pack’s companies? ”
“He pulled some strings and got me an offer at a consulting firm. I just don’t know if I want a job that I didn’t earn, you know?”
“I can understand that,” Dylan said, though he didn’t sound like he agreed with the sentiment.
Warren sipped his coffee.
“So, what’s it like being mated to three werewolves?” he asked, changing the subject.
“It’s awesome.” Dylan grinned and leaned forward. “It’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I’m so happy with them that I sometimes feel like I’m going to explode with how much I love them.”
Well, that was promising.
Warren chuckled. He’d been a little worried that Dylan would share some horrible downside that Marcus and Harland hadn’t wanted to tell him about, but seeing the grin on Dylan’s face, that obviously wasn’t the case.
“So, being an omega isn’t terrible?”
Dylan made a weird expression and Warren’s stomach dropped. Seeing Warren’s reaction, Dylan rushed to explain.
“Oh no, it’s not terrible. Sorry. I mean, if you go without sex or the pills for too long, it’s pretty miserable, but I only felt that once.
I didn’t really understand what was happening at the time and I ended up embarrassing myself pretty bad, but it worked out.
Other than that, I haven’t really noticed a difference. ”
“Embarrassed yourself how?” Warren warmed his hands on his coffee cup and leaned his elbows on the table. “If you want to tell me, you don’t have to, of course.”
“No, it’s fine.” Dylan sighed. “When you don’t get…
you know, the stuff, for a while, you start feeling this…
hunger. It’s like you’re empty and you need to fill that emptiness.
Since I was by myself, and this was right when I was just starting to date August and Ryker, I tried to deal with it on my own.
I ended up getting a shampoo bottle stuck, you know, up there, and I needed to get help from August to get it out. ”
A shampoo bottle? That was pretty funny.
There was a reason you needed a flared base on anything you put up your butt. Warren was glad he’d learned that lesson the easy way – by reading gay sex advice blogs as a teenager.
“Sounds scary,” Warren said. He’d never felt the urge to use anything but his trusty dildo, and that was only for special occasions.
“That need to be filled was terrifying,” Dylan said. “You get to this place mentally where you’d agree to do anything to make it go away.”
“But your mates don’t…?” Warren didn’t finish the question, but Dylan understood what he was asking.
“Oh, no, not at all.” He grinned. “Not that it matters. After that first time, my mates made sure it never happened again.”
“Because of the pills they developed?”
Dylan smirked. “Sure, I mean, the pills are nice and they work, but it’s not often we need them.”
Warren felt heat rising in his cheeks. Talking about the fact that you were essentially addicted to alpha sperm was pretty embarrassing.
“Right.”
“Marcus is a good guy,” Dylan said, taking a sip of his coffee. “I don’t think you have anything to worry about with him in charge, and there are some pretty nice benefits to being in a pack.”
“The accelerated healing is pretty cool,” Warren agreed.
It was so weird to think that just two days ago he’d had a concussion.
“I was thinking more about the resources at your disposal, but you’re right. I love not getting the flu anymore.”
Not getting the flu was a very nice bonus. Warren hadn’t known that the accelerated healing extended to normal illnesses as well.
“Is there anything I should know about?” Warren asked. “Anything you wish you’d known?”
Dylan looked thoughtful, but he didn’t seem to have anything immediately come to mind. After a while, he finally said, “Maybe that I’d understood how serious being mated is? I mean, they told me, but I think it’s hard for us humans to understand how intensely they feel that bond.”
Unconsciously, Warren reached up and felt the raised edges of the scars of his mating bites.
“Anything else?”
“Just communicate, especially when it comes to sex. Tell them what you like, and what you don’t like. I’d recommend doing a kink-matching questionnaire if you’re into stuff like that.”
Blood rushed to Warren’s face, his skin feeling hot from the pressure of his embarrassment.
Dylan laughed. “Sorry. I know that’s way too personal, it’s just… I’ve seen Marcus’s basement. He’s not exactly vanilla, so I figured, you guys probably aren’t…”
Warren could feel himself getting even redder, his face feeling like it was about to burst.
“Never mind,” Dylan said, the corner of his mouth lifting in amusement. “But seriously, communication is key. Don’t be too embarrassed to tell them what you like and what you don’t like.”
“Thanks,” Warren said, staring down at his coffee.
They sat quietly for a moment and Warren tried desperately to will himself into being less red. After a moment, the sound of booted footsteps coming toward the kitchen caused both of them to look toward the door.
Warren was relieved to have a distraction. The footsteps didn’t sound like Harland, but they could belong to Marcus or Max.
They belonged to neither
“Dylan? Are you in-” A man appeared in the doorway.
There was no one he could be except Marcus’s little brother.
He looked just like him, though slightly shorter and not quite as broad around the shoulders.
Seeing Dylan, a wide grin settled on his lips.
“There you are! I’ve been looking all over for you.
Are you coming to the party?” He turned his head, his eyes widening as he seemed to notice Warren’s presence. “You’re Marcus’s mate!”
“Hi,” Warren said, shooting off a little wave.
“Welcome to the family!” Steve barged toward him and Warren braced for impact.
At the last second, Steve seemed to remember himself and came to a full stop.
He held out his hand like he hadn’t just been about to pluck Warren out of his seat and hug him.
“If you ever need anything, anything at all, just let us know. We’re so happy to have you in the family. ”
“Thank you,” Warren said, shaking his hand. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“Sorry, I didn’t realize you were busy,” Steve said, moving over to Dylan and kissing the top of his head. He draped himself over the younger man’s back and hugged him. “Should I wait for you or are you working tonight?”
Dylan looked very happy to be cuddled by Steve. He leaned into the touch and patted the arm banded around his waist.
“I’ll come with,” he said. “I should take a break.”
“Do you want to have some fun first?” Steve asked, and Warren watched with wide-eyed disbelief as his hand started to slide down Dylan’s stomach toward his crotch.
Dylan grabbed his hand before it reached anywhere inappropriate.
“Stop that, you’re making a bad impression,” he hissed.
Steve laughed. “He’s mated to Marcus. I don’t think anything we do is going to shock him.”
Dylan pushed Steve’s hand firmly back up. “Behave.”
Steve let out a whine that was wholly undignified.
Warren had no idea what the ‘he’s mated to Marcus’ comment was about.
Admittedly, Marcus could be pretty dominant – and that time he’d snapped his belt and stood over him like he was considering bringing it down on Warren’s ass was burned into his memory – but it wasn’t like they’d done anything outrageous.
Then again, Warren had recently crawled into a bondage bag of his own volition and thoroughly enjoyed the experience of being carted around like luggage, so maybe his idea of outrageous had shifted a little.
Giving it some more thought, Warren realized that he knew exactly what Steve’s comment was about.
His blush came back full force. He didn’t want Steve and Dylan to know that he liked being tied up and shoved into bondage bags. Those things were private.
“Why don’t I give you my number, and then you can call or text me if you have any more questions?” Dylan said, pushing Steve away and standing up.
“That would be great,” Warren said. He was still blushing, but Dylan was tactfully ignoring his embarrassment.
They held their phones together, exchanging contact cards. Warren went into his contacts to make sure Dylan’s info had been saved correctly.
“Got it,” he said.
“It was nice meeting you,” Dylan said. They had a slightly awkward moment where neither one of them seemed to know whether they should shake hands or hug.
Dylan ended the awkwardness with a quick, decisive hug.
He grinned. “We’ll hang out on the full moon after Christmas. It will be fun, I promise.”
“I look forward to it.”
Dylan wished him good luck on his finals, and Warren wished him good luck on his thesis in return. After that Steve practically carried Dylan out of the room, making him squeal with laughter.
Warren couldn’t help but smile and feel relieved. Dylan looked happy, and he seemed to have found a place for himself in the pack where he still had his own stuff going on. It gave Warren confidence that he could do the same.
Pouring out the rest of the coffee and putting the cups in the dishwasher, Warren decided to go hang out with his sister until Cain came to collect them.