Chapter 15 Theo
THEO
Being alone with Dalton was less awkward than I thought it would be, but the silence in the apartment felt heavy, like the air before a thunderstorm.
Stay or go? I’d decided to stay. Worry plagued me as soon as I hung up the phone.
Having arranged coverage for the store, I couldn’t shake the awkward thought that both Peyton and Dalton might feel disappointed when they found out just how unimpressive my heats were.
I had the impression they were expecting me to go all omega, humping anything that moved because I was so overrun with hormones.
The fact was, I’d never had a heat like that in my life.
My heats had always been almost nonstarters; wimpy little blips that barely registered.
Not even worth getting hard over. Kind of like my whole life.
I’d had more twinges in my cock the last few days since meeting Dalton and Peyton than I had my entire life.
How did I explain to these two men—who I wanted to impress more than anything—that I wasn’t a sexual person? That I was defective?
The fear coiled in my stomach, cold and sharp. I was afraid I’d disappoint the two of them to the point they’d turn around and walk away the minute they realized how broken I was. That thought terrified me in a way I’d never felt before. I didn’t want to lose this thing before it had even started.
“You look like you just got punched in the gut,” Dalton said, his voice closer than I expected. His breath tickled my ear, sending a shiver down a spine that felt too rigid. How had he gotten so close without me noticing? My senses usually weren’t this dull.
“I, um…” Not knowing what to say, my throat swallowed convulsively.
I felt like I was standing on the edge of a cliff, waiting for a gust of wind to either save me or push me over.
I tried to figure out how I was going to survive this heat without disappointing either of the two men who had suddenly become very important to me.
“Hey. It’s okay to be nervous. You can always back out if you’re anxious. We can get you through your heat without sex if that’s what you need.”
“What?” The words didn’t compute. Why would they do that? “You don’t want to have sex with me?”
“That’s not what I said. Believe me, I want you more than I’ve wanted anything in a long time. I’m pretty sure Peyton does, too. But there are lots of ways to help you through your heat without sex if that’s what you need.”
Looking at Dalton, the honesty shining through his expression told me more than anything he meant what he said. The knot in my stomach loosened just a fraction. Maybe this whole heat thing didn’t need to be a freaking disaster after all. Maybe we could take this thing slow.
“I want this, Dalton. Believe me, I haven’t wanted anything more than I want you and Peyton right now.”
“Good. Sounds like we have this then,” Dalton said, a smile spreading across his handsome face. It was a grounding anchor, that smile.
By the time Peyton came back, I was more relaxed than I thought I’d be. I was about to spend my heat with an alpha. And not just an alpha but his beta as well. Two men. How was that even possible?
Talking to Dalton had taken some of the pressure off, though.
I didn’t feel stressed when Peyton walked in the door loaded down with groceries.
I moved to help him, forcing a casualness I didn’t feel.
I had to admit the food would come in handy.
I wasn’t exactly the best cook. There was a reason why I ate at the Hillbilly Diner several times a week.
Between the diner, the local pizza place, and even Sugar Sweet Bakery where I gave in to my sweet tooth more often than I should, I rarely cooked.
When I did, I grabbed prepackaged meals I could stick in a microwave.
Occasionally, I even let my mom fill my refrigerator with home-cooked meals.
We’d settled on once a month. It let her feel like she was still taking care of me while I managed to maintain a semblance of independence. After all, no one wanted a mama’s boy.
“Let me grab those bags,” I said, reaching out.
Then it hit me.
It wasn’t a gradual warming or a subtle shift. It was a physical blow. As Peyton stepped fully into the small kitchen, the musky, spiced aroma of Alpha slammed into me like a tidal wave. The room tilted. My knees buckled, and I had to grab the counter to keep from face-planting onto the linoleum.
Blood didn’t just surge to my cock; it roared in my ears, drowning out the hum of the refrigerator.
My vision blurred at the edges, tunneling down until all I could see was Peyton.
But it wasn’t just desire. It was terror.
My body was seizing up, wires crossing, systems firing that had sat dormant for twenty-five years.
“God,” I gasped, the word tearing out of my throat. It hurt. Everything hurt. My skin felt too tight, my clothes like sandpaper. “You smell… too much.”
“Theo? Are you okay?” Peyton asked. His voice sounded distorted, like he was speaking from underwater. I saw his hand reaching out, big and steady, but I flinched back before I could stop myself. This wasn’t me. I wasn’t this creature who trembled and whined.
“I… I don’t…” I couldn’t catch my breath. My lungs refused to expand. Panic flared, bright and hot.
Dalton moved in from the side, his presence less overwhelming but still there, a solid weight in the chaos.
His hands joined Peyton’s as a flash of desire—violently intense and completely foreign—rushed through me.
It took me by surprise, my pants getting painfully tight in seconds, tiny flutters exploding into cramping spasms in my stomach.
Someone ghosted a kiss on the top of my head.
I couldn’t tell who as my senses overloaded.
Whimpers fell from my lips. Pathetic, needy sounds I never would have guessed could come from me.
I desperately tried to figure out what was happening to me, to claw back some shred of control, but the tide was too strong.
The room now filled with the thick, sweet scent of my own slick—a smell I barely recognized—as it soaked my underwear in an embarrassing flood.
“I don’t know,” I choked out, clutching at Dalton’s shirt like a lifeline. “My heat’s never… it’s never been like this. It’s supposed to be mild. It’s supposed to be nothing.”
“It’s okay, we’ve got you,” Dalton murmured, his voice a balm against the friction in my brain.
My skin was on fire. Sweat beaded on my upper lip, cold and clammy.
Off. I needed everything off. The fabric was suffocating me.
I tore at my clothes in a desperate, frantic attempt to get cooler, grunting with frustration when my trembling fingers couldn’t work the buttons on my shirt.
A button popped, pinging off the floor. I didn’t care.
Goosebumps prickled my arms, the hair standing at attention. I felt like I was being unmade.
Peyton stepped closer, his dominance rolling off him in waves that made my knees weak. He didn’t look scary, but my biology screamed submit. His finger lifted my chin until I couldn’t do anything but stare into his dark, dilated eyes.
“Tell me this is what you want. I need to hear the words, Theo. I need to know you’re still in there.”
I focused on his eyes. An anchor in the storm. “I… I want you. And Dalton. But… I’m scared. It’s too much.”
“We’ll make it right. We won’t let you drown,” Peyton promised.
“Dalton, take Theo into the bedroom and settle him in the bed. I’ll put the perishables away. The rest of the groceries can wait.”
The beta guided me toward my bedroom once I’d pointed out the direction.
I stumbled, my legs feeling like jelly, but Dalton held me up.
Not that there were very many options. I only had the one bedroom.
Despite my apartment taking up the whole top level of the Game Hut, there weren’t that many rooms. There was one guest bathroom on the other side of the kitchen and it was the only room in the whole apartment which had a door.
I liked having wide open spaces so the main living area was an open floor plan with one room flowing into another without walls.
A partition on one end of the apartment separated the bedroom and bathroom, hiding it from visitors.
The bedroom and master bath took up the whole end of that side of the building.
As we stepped around the partition into the room, Dalton stopped, taking in my safe place. The one room where I was completely myself.
“Wow! I’ve never seen a bed that big before.”
“It’s a custom build,” I mumbled, the words feeling thick on my tongue.
“Can’t sleep in small beds. Always falling out.
” It was a stupid thing to say while my body was literally melting down, but the mundane fact tethered me to reality for a second.
“I’ve discovered if I start out in the center of the bed, I’m usually still in bed come morning. ”
“Good to know.”
Dalton stood next to me, effectively taking over when my hands shook too much to finish the job on my clothes.
Rough fingers smoothed the fabric off my shoulders before moving to work the snap on my jeans.
The touch of his skin on mine made me gasp, sucking in air as warmth radiated out from the beta’s touch at my belly.
It grounded me, pulling me out of the spiral just enough to breathe.
No one had ever made me gasp before and I found I liked the feeling. I liked it a lot.
Soon I was standing next to the bed completely naked, my cock bouncing against my stomach.
Precum oozed out of my slit and then it was Dalton who was gasping as he looked at me.
For the first time in my life I felt desire for another person, or rather two people because I very much wanted Peyton as much as I wanted Dalton.
But the fear was still there, buzzing under the skin. I wasn’t just an omega in heat; I was a man losing control of his own body, and I had to trust these two men not to break me.