Chapter 15
M onday morning, he rushed through getting changed and packed everything he’d brought over into his bag. He couldn’t see Levy yet since his family wasn’t leaving until mid-morning. But nothing was stopping him from going to the arena and skating a little before practice, maybe someone else would be there he could have lunch with.
The usual chaos was unfolding around the house as he made his way to the door, but Merle caught his eye. “Morning, stranger.”
“Good morning, Merle,” he said, politely, forcing a smile. “Heading out now.”
“Have a good day,” she replied, catching little Tilly as she sped by, only one shoe on.
At least Johnson was still busy somewhere else in the house when Kallen got out.
HE DIDN’T SEE LEVY until practice itself, where he did his best to hide his own smile as his friend patted his back with his usual unbounded enthusiasm. “Hey, man!”
“Hey,” Kallen allowed, then tilted his head towards where Coach was clapping his hands to get their attention.
Practice went well. Kallen even forgot he’d been itching to get home all weekend in the rush of skating. This was why it was worth it, he reminded himself, grinning widely.
“You brought your car?” Levy asked when they got to the parking lot.
“Well, yeah, I didn’t know if you were free.”
Levy shot him an incredulous look. “Really? Like I’m ever not free for you.”
For a moment, Kallen didn’t know what to say. Then he just looked away. He knew there was no reason to feel hurt that Levy had had his family over. It wasn’t like Kallen had wanted an introduction. He’d just missed him, and the whole thing with Johnson was making his home life weird.
It was just bad timing.
“Whatever,” he replied. “Race you home?”
“No way!” Levy said. “You think I haven’t seen you drive? Last thing I need is to encourage you to speed.”
HE HADN’T BEEN TRYING to win, since they weren’t competing, but he’d still entered the building garage ahead of Levy. His smile when his friend got out of his car and gave him a look could have been about that. Then he went to get the grocery bags they’d packed into his more generous boot.
“I found my present,” Levy told him in the lift, and Kallen turned to look at him. “I love it.”
Kallen had got him a set of professional knives and cutting boards, all magnetic so they could be attached to the wall and not take up counter space. He’d left it on Levy’s bed while his friend had been out picking up his family at the airport and he’d forgotten about it until this very moment.
“Oh.” He managed a wobbly smile, genuinely pleased. He’d never been the best at picking presents for his family, and he’d never had a chance to buy anything for a friend since he’d started having disposable income. “I’m glad.”
“We gotta install them and test them, though. You ever make bread?”
“Bread?” Kallen echoed. “Is that on our new nutritional plan?”
Levy shrugged, holding the door open for him. Kallen reached out and took one of the bags hanging from his left forearm.
“I’m fine,” Levy insisted with a sigh, but allowed it.
“Great to hear,” Kallen replied with a sunny smile he knew made him look like a psychopath—Levy had told him so several times.
“Anyway, homemade bread is better, we can add seeds to it, that’s on the nutritional plan. Plus yeast has probiotics.”
Kallen laughed at him. “Yeah, when it’s alive!”
Levy hip checked him away from the fridge so he could start unloading the cold food.
The bread was apparently necessary to test the bread knife that came in the set, but Kallen managed to argue they should do it later in the season when they’d all have started losing weight.
“Are you worried about your waistband?” Levy teased, right into his ear, front plastered to Kallen’s back and squeezing him around the middle. He wanted to lean back into the solid warmth of Levy’s body, but he shoved an elbow back instead. Not too hard, just with enough intent to mark his words, “Fuck off, you wish you had my abs.”
Levy sidestepped his blow, one of his hands slipping under Kallen’s shirt in a teasing caress. “That I do,” he admitted cheerily.
They’d made dinner together, Levy directing as usual, but by now Kallen felt confident in sorting out his part of the meal—the vegetables—without explicit instructions. And when Levy stepped close to adjust the angle of the knife, thumb careful on his wrist and cheek brushing against his own, it felt more like an excuse than a real correction.
Maybe it was both. Either way, he didn’t resist the urge to turn his face into the touch.
It was good to be home.
AFTER HASTILY EXCHANGING hand jobs the previous night, Levy had curled up behind him and Kallen had fallen asleep with a smile on his lips, but he’d woken up alone the next morning. It wasn’t the greatest.
It was Levy’s bed, so it wasn’t like he’d been abandoned, but... He’d forced himself not to rush to the common areas to find him, instead dragging himself to the bathroom to wash his face and brush his teeth.
When he did make it to the kitchen, he found Levy nursing a half cup of tea he’d clearly just reheated.
“Hey.” He smiled as soon as he saw Kallen, just like always.
“Hey,” Kallen said back, a little stunned by the way his chest seized at just that look. He took a couple steps closer before taking a sudden turn and going for the fridge. He had to eat, it was all.
“There’s bacon,” he was reminded, which did help a little with his mood. They’d also got mangoes, which over the years had become a treat the way sweets had been when he’d been younger. He added a few extra slices just in case Levy wanted to steal them.
He sat down across the table and Levy set down his mobile, full attention on him like he’d just been passing the time while he waited for Kallen.
It was both a little heady and a lot intimidating.
“Did you sleep well?”
Kallen stole a glance. “Yeah.” He had, truly, even if the wake up could have used some work. A kiss might have been a fine addition, for one.
Levy smiled and reached out and took a piece of mango from his plate, not even trying to be quick about it. Like he knew he was welcome.
It wasn’t a big deal, but Kallen’s face felt hot and his chest felt tight.
“So... My sister’s just got engaged,” Levy revealed.
“Oh,” Kallen swallowed the half-chewed bit of mango he’d put in his mouth. “She did?”
“Yeah!” Levy continued, as enthusiastic as Kallen had ever seen him about a goal. “She’s young, just twenty-two, but they have been together since they were... fifteen, I think. And besides, Lucas is a good guy. Never gave me any reason to smack him, anyway,” he added with a twist to his smile.
“Isn’t he older than you?” Levy would have been twelve when his sister’s romance had begun.
“So?” the alpha asked, imperturbable. “She’s my sister, I’d have done something anyway.”
“What about your dad?”
“Sure, my dad would have helped me do something,” Levy insisted, but his eyes were bright with mischief. “Back then I used to walk in on them all the time,” he added. “Like, now I realise I was being a cockblock, but at the same time...” He shrugged.
At the same time, his sister was a female omega, the kind whose virtue mattered. The kind who could get pregnant if she slept with an alpha without protection. The kind whose family were committed to guarding from any harm, even the kind motivated by love.
He swallowed all the things he couldn’t say. “I guess it worked out anyway.”
“It did!” Levy agreed. “And that means any day now I’ll be an uncle!”
Kallen stared at him. “What? Are they even... Like, do they have a date?”
“Oh, yeah, they don’t want to wait any longer. They are not a hundred per cent settled on the date because they are looking for a location, but definitely soon. Nothing too fancy. Well, that’s what Leila is saying, my mum might go overboard anyway.”
He nodded. “So, you like kids?”
“Like?” Levy laughed. “I love kids! They are the best. Like they literally give you a bullet-proof excuse to goof out. If you are with a kid, you can roll around in the snow, or like, jump on a trampoline, no shame.”
That much was true, Kallen supposed. It was just that being the youngest, he didn’t have much experience with them. He mostly found them a little overwhelming. “You could volunteer,” he told Levy. “Like, in a little league?”
Levy nodded, sucking mango juice from his fingers. “Yeah, I thought about that, but I think I should focus on getting my hockey up to a level before I start handing out advice, you know?”
“What level?” Kallen demanded, almost indignant. “You are amazing.”
Levy tucked his chin in a little, a slight flush creeping over his cheeks. “Am I?”
And right then, Kallen had been incensed enough to stand up, lift his chin and plant a kiss on him.
Levy had kissed him back at once, sucking on his tongue and pulling until Kallen had straddled him.
It’d gone great until the chair had given under their considerable weight, and they’d ended up sprawled all over the kitchen tile, laughing and groaning before they’d decided they were too horny to care. Levy had rolled them over to the side and aligned their bodies and Kallen had braced his knees and clung to him as the alpha pulled both their cocks out of their underwear and started stroking them in earnest, spreading his precome on Kallen’s cock until he couldn’t handle it anymore and he lost it all over both their bellies.
Since Kallen had most definitely needed a shower after Levy had gone off right all over him, Levy had stayed behind and cleaned up.
All in all, it’d more than made up for the way he’d woken up.
“ Fuck! ” he punched the sofa next to him. “I’m an idiot.”
Levy glanced up from the puzzle he was doing on his coffee table. He’d got into it during his convalescence, and he said it quieted his mind. “What happened?”
“Left my laptop downstairs.”
“So go get it?” Levy said slowly.
Kallen glared at him.
“Whoa, man, what’s your deal? You technically live there, why—”
He huffed, irritated. “I’m fucking her husband in, like, three days.” He hid his face in his palms. “Is it so weird I don’t want to look her in the face?”
“Oh.”
“Yeah,” Kallen confirmed.
“I’ll go.” Levy was already getting up. “It’s in your room, right?”
BY THE TIME LEVY GOT back, he’d had plenty of time to regret his outburst.
He received the laptop without quite meeting his friend’s eyes. “Thank you.”
“No problem,” Levy said easily.
And Kallen couldn’t hold back for a second longer. “I’m sorry,” he mumbled because if he didn’t, he was going to be thinking about it for the next three hours.
“It’s cool, next time just ask me, man.” He sat back on the sofa across from him.
Kallen nearly groaned, but he made himself take a deep breath and then let it out. “Not... Not about that. Like, sure, that too. But I meant telling you about Johnson.”
“Um, what? Why would you be sorry about that? You’re right, it’s gotta be—”
He cut in, because he couldn’t stand it. Levy always tried to be nice to him, but this was ridiculous. “Because you asked me not to tell you?”
Levy had sat back down across from him on the sofa, but now he straightened. “Wait, what? When did I ask you that?”
“Last time!” His voice came out too high and he reached for the tea he’d abandoned earlier. It was cold but he chugged it anyway just for something to ground himself.
“Kallen,” Levy said slowly but seriously. He wasn’t looking away. “I’m totally lost here, what do you think I asked you?”
He opened his mouth and closed it again. He wasn’t sure why he was getting angry, except that it felt like Levy had gone and changed the rules on him. “My last heat, when I came back from the trip you said not to tell you who. You were...” Jealous. But he couldn’t say that. He was sure it was true, but he didn’t want to make things weird.
“Okay, yeah,” Levy agreed. “But I meant you don’t have to, not that you can’t. Like, what kind of... friend would I be if I told you I’m not gonna listen when you need to talk about your shit?”
Kallen stole a glance at him, still unsure. ‘Friend’ wasn’t what he wanted to hear from Levy, but he’d hesitated, hadn’t he? “Okay,” he echoed.
Not that it mattered, really, not when Kallen could offer so little.
“You wanna make out?” he asked, because he wanted to, and they had to head to practice after lunch, so he was going to make the most of this morning with Levy.
Levy had answered by flattening him onto the sofa, scattering half the cushions all over the floor in the process. This time, he’d made sure they didn’t make a mess by the expedient method of crawling down Kallen’s body and sucking every last drop out of him as he squirmed and bit his lip not to beg. It was insane how good he was at it, or maybe it couldn’t feel bad when someone sucked your dick.
Not like Kallen had any way of knowing. He kind of wanted to ask if Levy had done it before, and to whom.
He was still blinking stars out of his vision when he saw Levy had a hand inside his shorts, heavy-lidded eyes running up and down Kallen’s supine body.
“Wait,” he said, a little hoarse. He managed to sit up and catch the alpha’s forearm. “Lemme...”
Levy stopped at once, throat working hard, muscles tense with effort. Kallen thought about just bending over and sucking in his gorgeous cock, but he couldn’t bear to look away from his dark eyelashes and flushed cheeks. He wanted to fix it into his mind forever. He crawled closer instead, shoving a knee between Levy’s to make room, and slid the hand he had on his arm all the way down until he found Levy’s. He squeezed, earning a shudder, and then tugged a little. Levy let go like his cock was on fire and Kallen got his own hand on it, grip somewhat loose. And damn, it was hot, like water on the edge of burning.
His friend rested his forehead onto Kallen’s shoulder as he started stroking. Slow at first, collecting some of that lovely preseminal fluid and spreading it all over, reaching with two fingers to caress Levy’s full ball sack at random intervals until the alpha had both hands on Kallen’s upper arms, digging in hard enough at points it was likely to bruise. And then he went faster, racing towards the apex with a desperation he’d never experienced with a partner. It was like he was doing it to himself, every cut off whimper and sharp inhalation against the side of his neck making him shudder with want, and...
Clench. Fuck, he was wet . His hand tightened on the upswing, a spike of his own pleasure he couldn’t control. Levy jolted in place and Kallen felt the pulse of ecstasy go through his cock right before the come erupted all over his fingers, burningly hot and copious despite their activities earlier that morning.
He kept going, not caring about the possible mess, just wanting to draw one more chocked and desperate gasp from Levy’s throat, one more and he’d believe it wasn’t just him aching and empty, that—
Levy squeezed his elbow and tugged to get him to stop. He did at once, letting go of the still hard length, but then faltered, because if he pulled his hand out...
The laugh was a little delirious, but it was a laugh. “You could keep your hand in there forever as far as I’m concerned,” Levy suggested, a little breathless but surprisingly coherent. “But Coach might object.”
Kallen snorted, then kissed the side of his face. “Give me your shirt.”
Levy had grumbled, but he’d agreed to sacrifice his shirt to clean-up before going for his own shower. Kallen went to the guest room to change his boxers, blushing when he saw how wet he’d got them.
It had to be because heat was coming up. He hadn’t touched himself there, and Levy obviously hadn’t either, so there was no other reason he’d have got so wet so fast.