Chapter 7
“Wake him.” Levi crossed his arms, standing at the side of the filthy mattress.
The synthetic was currently unconscious, and Fiora had been allowed in to check on him. She was scanning his body with a machine, running her hands over him for this or that reason.
The blanket he’d tossed over the synthetic’s lower half remained in place, but Levi kept a close watch. The second she tried to move it, he’d—
Good Light.
What was he thinking?
“I’ve grown attached to the specimen,” he announced.
“Only just now figuring that out, huh?” Koah called from the other side of the bars. He had not been permitted to enter. When Levi set a steely look his way, he slid back a step and dropped his gaze respectfully.
“It’s probably a mixture of your insatiable curiosity and his extremely dominant pheromones, no need for concern. Your reaction makes sense. Distance might help,” Fiora replied, clicking a few buttons on the devices she held before pursing her lips. “He’s slipped into a coma.”
“How?”
“His body wasn’t able to handle the stimulation of a heat with no outlet. Pheromone blockage.” She stood. “You said he’d filled the room?”
“You can still smell it,” Koah stated, answering for Levi.
“It’s too early to tell if this is permanent or if his pheromones will eventually level out and make him weaker,” Fiora said.
“You think he’ll eventually stop being a dominant and become average?” Koah glanced at the unconscious form on the bed.
“You’ll never have him,” Levi declared.
“If you don’t think I’m suitable for this project, then give me leave to find someone who is.”
“Unfortunately, if you aren’t strong enough, no one in our ranks will be,” Fiora sighed. “If only this had happened last year. Baal would have made for the perfect alpha candidate. Since he can no longer sense other omegas in heat, the task is going to have to fall to you, Levi.”
“That was never up for debate,” he stated. “You two were merely wasting your breath.”
“And as per usual, you didn’t think to stop us?” Koah chuckled. “Well, it doesn’t seem like anyone is going to get to be his stand-in alpha. Not if he stays unconscious.”
“When will he wake?” Levi asked, not even entertaining the idea that he wouldn’t.
“Hard to say.” She frowned. “Right now, the best thing we can do is try to regulate his pheromones. He’ll need a constant stream of yours. Even then…it might not be enough.”
“I shouldn’t have made him go through heat without a knot.”
“It was important data to collect,” she disagreed. “And we had no way of knowing it would turn out like this. Don’t worry. All is not lost. I’m confident, with your pheromones, he’ll wake eventually, it’s just a matter of when.”
“Tell Wook to move all of my meetings to remote, and have my things from the office brought here.” If the synthetic needed a constant flood, that meant the two of them would be attached at the hip for the foreseeable future.
With the Eumia actively on the lookout, leaving the estate with him was out of the question.
“Put the main house on lockdown afterward,” he continued, turning to Koah. “Read Wook into the situation. Until I say otherwise, he’s the only one allowed in or out. Have meals delivered at the door.”
Wook, his secretary, didn’t know about the synthetic, but he was essential to ensuring work ran smoothly, especially if Levi was relocating and working from home.
He would have to add some duties to his list, take over for some of the staff who usually worked to set the table and do basic cleaning, but Levi would ensure he got a hefty bonus at the end of all of this to make it worth it.
Unlike his father, Levi had chosen not to run the White Frost off of fear alone. He still wanted it, even from his men, but money spoke louder than reason. With more of it than he could possibly spend in his lifetime, it made sense to use it to buy loyalty.
“What do you plan to do?” Fiora asked.
He bent down and tightened the blanket around the omega’s waist, then slid his arms beneath him and lifted him up. “Do you expect me to spend my days rotting down here?”
“Not at all.” She stepped aside when he went to pass.
* * *
The synthetic was heavy. Nothing like the softer omegas that typically came on to Levi. The sturdier ones were usually too afraid, ironically enough, forcing Levi to hunt them down whenever it was his rut period that he didn’t control with inhibitors.
Alphas and omegas could take pills to skip their mating periods, but it was unhealthy to do so too frequently, and it was suggested they have a natural one at least once a year.
On average, a healthy Syn would go into rut/heat every two or three months.
There were some who entered it more frequently, but less than that usually meant there was a problem.
It was possible to have them as often as the synthetic was, but only with the use of inducers, which did the opposite of inhibitors and initiated an unnatural mating period in whoever took the drug.
Because Rebirth was forcing a full system reboot, it made sense the synthetic wasn’t sticking to any set schedule. Some mornings, Levi would wake with the man hard and leaking next to him in bed, the arousal having nothing to do with heat, and him still unconscious.
Wook had to change and launder the sheets three times before the first week was through.
Levi didn’t touch him sexually when this happened, merely carried him into the bathroom and ran a cold shower for them both.
“Do you work out?” Levi found himself wondering aloud one day after the synthetic had soiled the bed with slick yet again.
His arm was banded around his tapered waist, keeping him on his feet, while his free hand rubbed soap suds over the impressive planes of his abdominals.
He’d noticed before, of course, but a week into things, smaller details were beginning to be a lot less easy to ignore.
“What did you do back on Glyph?” There were calluses on the synthetic’s hands, and Levi ran his thumb over them as he washed between the younger man’s fingers.
When he was done, he dressed him in white sweatpants and a loose white t-shirt, then kept to their usual routine and carried him down to the main level, where he took breakfast with the omega sat next to him, head on his shoulder.
Having a point of physical contact helped keep the flow of pheromones steady, a thing that had taken Levi some getting used to, since he usually avoided the touch of others.
It wasn’t that he had a strong aversion to it or anything, there was simply never a good enough reason for them to put hands on his person.
“Has First Corp reached out?” Levi asked Wook, who was standing across the table, arms clasped in front of him. He read through the report collected by his promotional team and sipped at his coffee as he waited for a reply.
“I spoke with them an hour ago,” Wook said. “They’ve invited you to the conference next month. How should I respond?”
“Accept the invitation for now.” If the synthetic was still unconscious by then, they’d need to come up with a different treatment plan. Levi wasn’t willing to put his entire life on hold indefinitely for this one experiment, no matter how invested he was. “What about the Moores?”
Breakfast lasted exactly thirty minutes and no longer, and then Levi and the omega relocated to his office on the second floor.
He took calls at his desk with the younger man on the floor, propped against the side of Levi’s right leg.
Every now and again, his hand would wander down to check his temperature, but otherwise he went ignored.
When he read through files, he’d move to the leather couch, bringing the omega with him, and lay the younger man down with his head in his lap. Sometimes his fingers absently found themselves combing through strands of inky dark hair.
The omega never gave any responses aside from a muscle twitch here and there, an involuntary movement that always had Levi pausing and paying far too much attention, only to be let down when the synthetic didn’t wake.
They carried on like that for a week. Then two. The monotony of routine helping the time to move quickly, despite the lack of results.
After around three weeks, the synthetic finally stirred.
But only because his body had entered another heat cycle.
* * *
“Shh.” Levi hushed the crying omega, pouring soothing pheromones into him as he brushed damp strands of hair off his forehead. They were in his bed, the omega bound at the wrists and ankles and secured to the head and baseboards to prevent him from trying to overpower Levi.
Again.
The heat had come on in waves, but Levi had been too interested in seeing what would happen next to think to guard against a dominant omega in the throes of his mating period. Fortunately, they’d already been in the bedroom, Levi preparing them for sleep when the signs had started.
Sweat on his brow.
A lengthening cock.
Wetness pooling between his cheeks.
Even unconscious, the omega had whimpered and moaned, and within minutes, his hips had begun to undulate.
His eyes had popped open and he’d jumped Levi in a flash that had managed to catch Levi off guard, rolling them onto the king-sized mattress and pinning Levi beneath him. He’d rubbed against him, growling primally when he found Levi wasn’t hard, then snapped his teeth over his face threateningly.
Levi had overpowered him with pheromones and brute force, but had gentled his approach after he’d secured the omega to the bed. The toys he’d prepared for this came out of the drawer, and he’d wasted no time filling the omega’s hole with thick silicone.
He wouldn’t repeat his last mistake and deny the poor thing what he needed.
“It’s about to knot,” Levi reassured, continuing to pet the omega writhing and struggling against his bonds. He was on his side next to him, still dressed in the crisp black shirt and dress pants he’d worn for the day.