Chapter 25
HADES’ PAST
Aaren wet his lips, his heart thumping. “Were any of these scars from yardwork?”
Hades huffed. “Nope. Well, maybe a couple of small ones. The rest of them were from fights.”
“Who did you fight with?”
“All kinds of people.” Hades’ gaze turned faraway.
“My parents were addicts. Most of the time, they didn’t even remember that I existed.
I stayed away from home a lot. Got in with a bad crowd.
The thing is, it’s very difficult to want to keep on the right side of the law, when you’re hungry.
I managed to find some work that paid under the table.
Not much though, not when I was that young.
So I learned to fight and steal. More importantly, I learned how not to get caught. ”
Hades drew a deep breath and looked down, clenching his fists. He continued, “As I grew older, I learned that I had a violent streak a mile wide, and that I loved wiping the smug grins off alpha faces. I learned that I was really good at taking them down. Still am.
“I was deep in street gang crap for a while. One day, a turf war broke out after months of buildup. Two rival gangs had been planning on taking out each other. I was in there, getting bloody with the rest of them. Then the police raided the place and gassed us. It was all I could do to get myself away.”
“Oh no,” Aaren whispered, his heart clenching. “Did you get caught?”
Hades gave a wry smile. “I ran for a long time. Got into a neighborhood I wasn’t familiar with.
It was late at night. I ducked into a convenience store and asked the guy behind the counter if I could hide there for a while.
He was an older guy, short and portly with the kindest eyes I’d ever seen.
He said I could use the washroom to rinse the tear gas off my face.
Then he let me curl up behind the counter.
After a while, he lent me one of the magazines to read, and he said it was okay since it was an old issue anyway.
“His name was Vivaldi. He asked how old I was—middle school—and how long I’d been doing the gang stuff.
Then he told me about his nephew, who had just gotten a scholarship for college.
Said nephew was going to study something that would make him lots of money.
” Hades sighed. “I told Viv there wasn’t any point in telling me that because I had already fucked up my grades. But you know what he said?
“He said his nephew had been sickly for years, missing school and everything. Except the kid didn’t give up; Vivaldi’s nephew dragged up his own grades by sheer hard work. That was how he got the scholarship.”
“What happened after that?” Aaren whispered.
“Viv and I talked about all kinds of things that night. Right before I left, he gave me a cookie and said I was welcome to visit anytime.” Hades sighed.
“I wasn’t planning on it. But two weeks later, I had a very bad day.
My dad OD’d and I was too late to stop him.
No one gave me a doctor’s note, so when I got to school, the teachers didn’t believe me when I told them what happened.
I was so desperate for someone to talk to that I skipped detention and went back to Vivaldi.
“He convinced me to give my grades another shot. In fact, he said that if I had a big improvement by the end of the semester, he would buy me a sketchbook and a few pencils as a reward. It was enough to make me try.”
Aaren’s heart ached. He wrapped his arms around Hades and hugged him tight. “Did you do it?”
“Yes,” Hades said pensively. “It wasn’t easy.
I went to the nicer students for help; the ones with good grades who were being bullied.
I fought off their bullies, and in return, they helped me with my schoolwork.
Except we found out that my basics were fucked; I couldn’t grasp the concepts being taught in class.
They had to explain things from previous grades, get me up to speed before I could learn the new material.
“It took me two years of catching up before I could even think about scholarships. Viv had started feeding me so I didn’t have to hang out with the street gangs.
Between after-school lessons and working different jobs, I got more involved in keeping Viv’s neighborhood safe.
See, Viv wasn’t a fighter; he had family in the area and he always worried about them.
So I watched out for danger in the alleys, helped stop the muggings. ”
Aaren digested all of this, slowly putting together the pieces of Hades’ past. “Wait, you said you helped the kids who were good with schoolwork. What about the kids who weren’t good with school, but who were also being bullied?”
Hades gave a sharp grin. “They paid me in other ways. Notebooks, pencils, things from their school lunches, clothes that their friends and families didn’t want. I ran a pretty damn good business.”
Aaren laughed. “Why am I not surprised? Did Vivaldi buy you a sketchbook?”
Hades’ smile softened around the edges. “Yeah. It took him almost a year to be satisfied with my grades, but after that, he got me my very first sketchbook and some pencils.”
“How did he know you wanted them?”
“I was doodling on the backs of the receipts,” Hades said quietly. “He saw them and said I had talent.”
Hades had shown Aaren the painting and charcoal drawing from the day of his heat. He had put more work into both of them; in each piece, he had made Aaren look... stunning. Like Aaren was someone to be treasured.
And in both pieces, there were wobbly lines that Hades had not tried to erase. Aaren liked them. They reminded him of the way Hades had sat behind his easel, his hands shaking with desire.
“He saw right,” Aaren said. “You draw amazingly well.”
Hades flashed a quick smile. “Viv offered me a part-time position at the convenience store, on days when he needed some extra help. He asked around with his friends and got me some better part-time jobs too. With his help, I graduated middle school, then high school, then got a partial scholarship and went to college.”
“And then you went to prison?” Aaren asked warily.
Hades’ lips twisted. “I was away at college for a while. Then I moved from place to place, doing contract work for different companies. It was only when I went back a few years ago, to visit him for real, that I learned he had gotten into trouble with a gang that moved into the area.”
Aaren’s heart sank. “Oh no.”
“Yeah.” Hades sighed heavily. “The fucker didn’t tell me because he didn’t want me to worry.
Or he didn’t want me to get involved with the gangs again.
I don’t know. I didn’t get to ask. I was staying with him for a few days when I visited, except he didn’t come home one day.
That was when I found him in the critical care unit; they hurt him badly enough to put him there.
And he died in there without—without saying goodbye. ”
Hades looked away, working his jaw. Aaren’s heart broke for him.
What did you say to someone who had suffered such a great loss? Aaren hugged Hades tightly, rubbing his back. Trying to offer any kind of comfort he could.
“Thanks,” Hades said, his voice rough. He cleared his throat and squeezed Aaren. “I went on a bit of a rampage after that. Took out some of the street gang, bloodied my hands. But in my rage, I got careless, and I got caught.”
“I’m sorry,” Aaren whispered, wrapping his leg around Hades too, to make it a full-body hug. “I don’t know how else to help.”
“Just by being you.” Hades blew out a deep breath. “I’ve had a while to grieve. It still hurts, but it isn’t quite as sharp now.”
Aaren pressed kisses all over Hades, wherever he could reach. Hades leaned into his kisses.
“So... yeah. Blood on my hands,” Hades said, his mouth pressing into a thin line. “You should keep that in mind before you make any long-term decisions about me. I don’t want you to have any regrets.”
Aaren shook his head firmly. “You’ve never hurt me or the people I care about. All the other alphas I’ve tried to be with, they’ve hurt me more than you ever have, or will.”
Hades looked so choked up, suddenly, that Aaren cradled his face and kissed him. Hades returned it ever so gently, for someone who had such a violent past.
“You’re so beautiful,” Hades whispered against Aaren’s lips.
They kissed for a while, until the lump of sadness in Aaren’s chest began to ease. Slowly, Aaren began to grow sleepy again. Hades petted his hair and rubbed his back. Then those familiar fingers slipped between Aaren’s cheeks, barely brushing his hole.
“Too sleepy for this?” Hades murmured.
“Mmm. I’m just gonna lie here and take it, if you don’t mind,” Aaren said, flopping onto his belly and opening his legs. His eyelids were growing heavy. “I may or may not fall asleep. You’re welcome to keep going until you knot inside me.”
“Mmmm. Sure.” Hades kissed Aaren’s shoulder and dragged his fingers up and down Aaren’s crack, squeezing his cheeks one at a time.
He played with Aaren’s hole, light touches at first. Then he began to massage it, grinding down with longer strokes until it yielded and took him in.
Aaren moaned; Hades got behind him and licked his hole, spreading his cheeks and closing his mouth over it.
“H-Hades,” Aaren whimpered.
“Mine,” Hades growled, his voice vibrating through Aaren’s sensitive parts. He didn’t spend long kissing Aaren there; instead, he covered Aaren with his body and lined up his cock, pushing in with a smooth, deep thrust.
Both of them groaned, Aaren stretching around his alpha. Hades held Aaren down and rolled his hips, feeding him inch after inch of his thick length.
Half-asleep and full of pleasure—this was amazing.
“Such a good omega for me,” Hades murmured, settling into a slow, rocking rhythm that made Aaren’s breath stutter and his cock swell.
Aaren was getting close to the edge in his pleasant hazy sleepiness, when his phone rang.
He flinched at the sound. Hades swore, his cock jerking.