Chapter 13 Elias #2
“Mobster chic. I like it.” He drops into his leather chair with a groan. “Ollie calls it mafia-mod.”
Who is Ollie? Does Elias’s alpha have another love?
“Ollie is my admin.”
Elias flushes. Struggles to bring his brain online enough so that he can at least think before he speaks. Instead of sounding like the jealous idiot he is. “Sorry.”
Connall’s face falls, jaw clenching. He grips the arms of his chair, sinking his claws into the leather like Elias would try to take it from him.
“Don’t say that. It’s me who should be sorry.”
“Maybe we can both be sorry, but for different things?”
A flash of a smile and a nod make Elias feel like a puppy who’d been told he was a good boy. Oh god. He can’t think about Connall calling him a good boy, at least while keeping himself from begging and embarrassing himself.
“Why are you here, Eli?” Connall asks, his voice harder than it had been a minute ago. Eyes tired but glittering midnight blue in the low light of the office.
“Elias Durand.”
A look of confusion passes over his face. “Who?”
“That’s my name. I’m here about my—our—mate.”
Connall flinches at the mention of the word our, but bites out their mate’s name between clenched teeth. “Izzy.”
“Isaac Fletcher. He’s dying.”
“You said he was hurting!” Connall is on his feet. “Where is he?”
“He’s in the hospital. He collapsed when you…left. Seizures. The doctor says it’s Rejected Bond Syndrome.”
Connall sits hard in the chair. At least Connall is listening and not running away. Or throwing him out on his ass. Maybe he can be convinced to help Isaac before going back to his life. He hadn’t wanted them before, but surely he won’t let Isaac live a life of misery.
“That can kill him? Fuck.” He slams his fist on the desktop, cheeks flushed red with anger. At whom, Elias can’t be sure, but the sight sends a tingle of arousal down Elias’s spine.
It takes considerable effort to meet his eyes. He can’t bear to repeat Finn’s words back verbatim, and while physically Isaac might recover, he won’t be the same. Elias knows that’s worse than death.
“He needs you to bond with him. Then he’ll be himself again.”
Finn had said it wouldn’t fix the feeling of being rejected emotionally, but Elias can love Isaac enough for them both. For a hundred alphas who don’t care.
“You said I was too dangerous.” Connall’s tone has gone flat. Gone are the moments of humor, the small glint of light in his blue eyes. “You didn’t want me,” he accuses reluctantly. If Elias didn’t know better, he’d think the big alpha’s feelings were hurt.
“I…” He wants to say that he doesn’t want him. That he wasn’t sitting here with half his brain on his omega mate, and the other fighting his wolf off so that Elias doesn’t end up in Connall’s lap, riding him until they both come.
Connall sags, all frustration ebbing away like someone had let the air out of him. “Relax, Elias. You were right. I am too dangerous. You know who I am, and even if Izzy—Isaac—didn’t, you were just protecting him. You’re a good man.”
It’s not quite the good boy he’d imagined earlier, but it’s almost as good. “I’m trying to do what’s best for him now.”
“I am sure that’s a full-time job,” Connall mutters, his own eyes far away as if he’s recalling a memory. “He seemed—seems full of life.”
Elias pushes his glasses up his nose and climbs to his feet, slowly approaching the desk.
Connall visibly plants his feet to stop himself from rolling his desk chair back, just to maintain the distance.
He wonders what it is about him that makes Connall cautious enough that he wants to avoid Elias’s proximity. It makes him want to test the theory that Connall might be afraid instead of just cold and frustrated.
“That’s why I had to come. He might barely survive the rejection physically, but mentally and emotionally, he’ll be a shell.
You can understand, even after those few minutes, what a loss that would be.
” To me. To the world. “You might have been willing to live without him in your life, but I’m not. ”
“Elias. You don’t understand—”
“I do. I do understand. You’re a coward.” Elias slams his palm on the desk when it sounds like Connall is going to deny them. “I should know, because I am too. But Isaac isn’t. He deserves to have a full life…and you are going to give it to him.”
Connall’s fangs drop as he snarls, apparently offended at Elias’s demands. He’s on his feet, and Elias has a face full of angry alpha wolf. Connall’s frigid winter scent overpowers his scent blocker patch, nearly sending Elias to his knees.
This is what poking your dominant Alpha gets you, Eli. It sounds like Isaac’s voice, but it isn’t reprimanding. No, this is the alpha male Elias had lusted after when he watched Nashville Now.
He tries to reel in his aroused scent because getting Connall riled up isn’t his goal (today), and he is owed a degree of deference.
But Elias won’t back down. Connall is not owed Isaac’s life.
Elias has to be worthy of Isaac, and if he’s honest, he has to know he can prove to Connall that Elias is a worthy mate—that he’s strong enough and brave enough to stand by his Alpha’s side.
WWID.
With Isaac’s voice ringing in his head, he pokes Connall in the chest, nose an inch from his. “You owe it to him. He’s a gift, and he deserves better. Better than me and sure as fuck better than you. But that doesn’t mean we stop trying.” He adds a final poke as Connall’s eyes flash red.
With a gasp, Elias bares his throat, but he doesn’t back away.
Relief (and regret) is a physical thing when Connall’s head hangs with resignation, as if it’s too heavy for his neck. He folds in on himself as he drags in big gulps of air. The words are pulled from him like they physically pain him. “Oh Goddess, fuck. What if he hates me?”
Elias has heard that in his own head every time he’d had to reel Isaac back in. Every time his mate used to slam the door in frustration when he was on the tail end of a heat, and he couldn’t go to the store for fabric.
It’s something they have in common, where half a day ago, he’d have said they hadn’t a thing. Now, they both wanted to be worthy of Isaac Fletcher.
He slowly takes Connall’s hand in his. It’s the first time Elias touches him of his own volition, and if it’s the last, he’ll at least have this.
The hum of connection is the same as before, sizzling along his nerves.
Elias isn’t foolish enough to think he can have this forever, but he won’t know for sure unless he tries. If he could just be brave.
“Then we keep trying to make it up to him. Will you come with me to the hospital? We can ask him.” He doesn’t tell Connall that when he’d left, Isaac had been unconscious.
“I’m not sure I can keep you safe. I’m—” He breaks off, and Elias is sure he was going to add something else.
“You don’t have to be sure,” Elias says. “Just brave enough to try.”