Epilogue six years later
“ I t passed.” The words had come out of his own mouth, but he still wasn’t sure they were real.
Both before and after the White Cats, he’d built his entire life around the laws that allowed sports teams to treat omegas like sexual slaves. And for all he’d left professional hockey six years ago, for all he was happy and fulfilled... the war hadn’t ended. He’d just switched sides. To the losing side, he’d thought.
He’d done it anyway, because it was right and the only way he could live with himself, forgive himself.
It'd been a long time now, and he had forgiven himself, paid his penance by standing up in a courtroom and telling a truth he’d have rather hidden. Putting McKinley away and getting the White Cats penalised for not protecting him had felt like a miracle, more than he could possibly ask for no matter how much everyone told him he deserved it.
Giving their money to Fair Sport had been a relief after that.
His career teaching lure there hadn’t been an escape, but it had been a way to help omegas live better within the system. And it’d been great, a blessing he gave and received every day—a reason to wake up every morning. A fight he could win. A small one, yes, but only as small as a fellow omega’s life.
It had been more than enough for him. He’d still gone to the marches and talked to people at parties when Analisa told him to.
But he’d never expected...
He turned away from the screen, the newscasters’ voices fading as he did, and met Levy’s eyes. His throat was so tight he was having to keep his mouth open to breathe.
His partner was staring right back at him, frowning a little, and on the verge of what felt like hysterical laughter. These days, any intense emotions would get them in sync almost instantly.
“They did it...” It came out uncertain, and Levy shook his head and repeated it with more force, “They passed it.” And there was his smile, still a little incredulous but lighting up his face in a way Kallen couldn’t help but echo.
It suddenly became imperative to be closer. He was already crawling closer across the sofa and Levy met him halfway, tugging at his clothes until Kallen could either knee him somewhere delicate or sit on his lap.
Levy looked up at him, now grinning like a maniac, but his voice was barely a whisper when he said, “Kallen, we can play .”
Kallen hadn’t been thinking of that, and the words were so shocking he leaned back a bit, making Levy tug again to keep him upright. When his gaze refocused, Levy’s own had softened. “We can , but we don’t have to.”
“No!” Kallen shook his head. “I know, it’s just...” He shrugged a little. “I was thinking of the kids, not me. Us.”
Levy didn’t call him up on that faux pas. They’d both received offers to come out of retirement in the six years since they’d walked away from their professional hockey playing careers. At first Kallen hadn’t understood why, after what they had done. But apparently, the teams had figured that given that they’d both publicly denounced the system, any team they chose to join would enjoy instant public approval.
Kallen had mostly kept his role to speaking about how lure could give omegas enough power to assert their own needs and find balance with alphas in both their personal and professional lives. It was just the facts, and he wanted as many people— omegas in particular, but also any alphas or betas that wanted to help their loved ones—to get it.
But Levy’s job had still been hockey. Most parents were quite happy to have a former professional player teaching their little ones, but they weren’t as keen when said alpha lost it on camera at yet another demand as to whether he could do more good in a team. Levy’s boss had been instrumental in both saving his career and refocusing his indignation towards something more productive, and it’d been enough for the teams to get the message at long last.
After that, the offers had stopped. Kallen had felt nearly as guilty as relieved. He’d seen firsthand what treating omegas like they were nothing more than warm bodies to fuck had done to Levy, held his hand through therapy and sex that got to be too much and nightmares that came back in force when life got stressful. But he’d also felt the temptation too strongly himself not to want to remove it from Levy’s plate.
“Sorry,” he said now, swallowing his pride. “I wasn’t thinking—”
“ Darling ,” Levy cut him off. “You have been keeping it in a box for a long time, you can think about yourself first.”
He rubbed his cheek against Levy’s, relishing the stubble he found there and inhaling deeply, his muscles unlocking at once at the scents of sandalwood and apples and Levy.
Levy laughed under him, shifting to hold his weight. “You wanna celebrate?” he whispered, and the low rasp of his voice was enough to get Kallen’s cock twitching in his boxers.
Even after six years together, it wasn’t often he’d turn down an offer like that. But time had taught him some self-control, he straightened to look down at him. “You think we could use the rink tomorrow if we call now?”
Levy’s pout made him laugh again and he leaned in again until his lips were brushing over the sensitive shell of his partner’s ear. “Or you think I’ll be too sore to skate?”
A sharp inhale announced his victory, and a moment later Levy was pinning him to the sofa. “Definitely too sore,” he promised, hazel eyes dark but dancing with amusement. Kallen shivered—this wasn’t a threat, but a promise.
He licked his lips, delighting in the way his alpha couldn’t help but follow the movement, hips hitching against him. “We can’t afford another sofa this month.”
“Huh?” Levy blinked at him, as if he was actually struggling to process the words.
“Take me to bed,” Kallen translated, and even though he’d asked, he still gasped when his partner somehow threw himself backwards and dragged him along to his feet. Kallen might have been working religiously on his mental fitness, but it was Levy who never skipped the gym. He hardly needed to be at the top of his form to keep up with the kids he taught, and Kallen hadn’t questioned why he still worked nearly as hard as when they’d played professionally. It wasn’t unhealthy, and when he did get himself to the gym too, he actually remembered the rush of adrenaline that came after a good workout and regretted not doing it more.
Besides, he was the one who reaped most of the benefits.
Levy could easily get his hands under his thighs and lift him until Kallen’s legs were wrapped tight around his waist, smirking in a way someone who loved him any less would have surely found obnoxious. “Showing off for me?” he asked, warm and pleased.
“Always,” Levy told him, already turning them towards their bedroom. The jostling pushed his erection against Levy’s abs, and he clenched against a slickness that hadn’t been there before.
He groaned, doing it again, greedy for any contact like he got every time his arse got involved in sex. He loved pretty much everything they’d ever tried in bed—and other less cushy locations—but there was something about getting fucked that drove him a little wild, no heat required.
Levy echoed him with a pained sound, dropping Kallen on top of the covers and fumbling with his own trousers to free his cock. He was already fully hard, red and fuck... leaking. Kallen swallowed, pulse in his throat and whole body tense like he was about to snap.
It wasn’t just him either, Levy was falling back on top of him, making room between his legs with a hip check and pressing their erections together, his precome marking up Kallen’s dick.
“Oh,” Kallen sighed, head falling back, and hands coming up to clutch at Levy’s curls. He was probably pulling too hard, but his partner was too busy nosing at his throat to complain. They were making a lot of noise, whimpers and cut off words and panting desperate breaths any time their mouths weren’t on each other’s skins. Levy pushed his shirt up as far as it would go, shoving the silky heat of his cock against Kallen’s belly and hiding his face in his neck at the sensation. His bare thigh was giving Kallen some contact too, and he wanted more but he couldn’t find words to ask for it, thrusting upwards with little coordination, mouth watering at the smell his alpha was covering him on, wishing he could suck on it and still not able to let go.
He wasn’t aware of how close to the edge he was until he fell right off it when Levy slammed both his wrists against the bedding, jerking on top of him and starting to come himself, shooting all over Kallen’s belly and chest, each thrust wetter and messier and fuck . It was like a wave hitting him abruptly, his own arousal rose with Levy’s until he was screaming and coming, underwear still around his thighs and arse leaking steadily as if to beg for what he needed.
Levy was still twitching on top of him, but he loosened his hold, patting clumsily at Kallen’s wrists. Kallen laughed a little hysterically, breathing heavily. It took him a moment to realise something was off and lift his hands to Levy’s head, rubbing softly at the vulnerable back of his neck with one and scratching at his scalp with the other. “Hey.”
The alpha shook his head, forehead heavy on Kallen’s chest where he’d curled up.
“Okay,” Kallen told him, lowering his arms to hold him properly. Like most of the time when they had sex, they’d synced up, which was why Kallen had come before he’d expected it. It wasn’t always what he wanted, and Levy tended to insist on making him come first, so the sympathetic orgasm was dessert and not the main event for him.
But this time, the connection hadn’t survived orgasm. Now all he could sense through the low-level bond that no longer dissipated in between moments of connection was that Levy was scared.
He had no idea why, but he trusted that once they talked it over, they’d figure it out. They’d had a lot of practice over the years. “You want me to find the oasis for us, babe?” he offered.
It surprised him when it got him a head shake, but it wasn’t unheard of for Levy to want to stay with whatever emotion had overtaken him a bit longer. Kallen let his eyes close and focused on evening out his own breath, settling down to wait.
All in all, it could have been about ten minutes of silence, though he was genuinely grateful when Levy shifted and moved off him, all that muscle was heavy. He instinctively followed him with his gaze, and caught sight of the bite mark on his upper arm at once. “Wow, did I—?” He shut his mouth, remembering that he was going to let Levy decide when he was ready to talk.
But Levy shook his head. “It was me.” He sounded rough and he still wasn’t meeting Kallen’s eyes.
“Okay,” he said as gently as he could manage. “It was quite something, this celebration...” He reached a tentative hand and rubbed at the skin below the bite.
Levy exhaled like he’d punched him, tensing back up. “I’m sorry, I—” His throat convulsed violently.
“Hey, no!” Kallen told him, taking his other hand and squeezing. “You didn’t hurt me. You didn’t do anything I didn’t want. There is nothing you got to be sorry for.”
He felt Levy’s fingers twitch, like Levy was struggling not to pull away. He didn’t do it, though, and that meant it was okay for Kallen to hold on. In fact, it was necessary because when Levy got like this, he was quite capable of convincing himself he was dangerous to Kallen and try to withdraw for his sake. When all Kallen wanted was to comfort him.
“I— I wanted to—” The alpha’s teeth clicked loudly, and he twisted his face away.
Kallen let go of one of his hands to take hold of his neck instead. “You didn’t ,” he repeated, digging his nails in to get his attention—they’d learned a smidge of pain helped ground Levy when he panicked. “Whatever you wanted to do, you didn’t. That’s what matters, remember?”
“I wanted to bite you,” Levy said, low and rough.
“Okay,” Kallen said at once, which finally got him a look, indignant and even angry, but a look. “It’s okay because you didn’t ,” he said once more.
“ Kallen .” Levy shook his head, breaking Kallen’s hold on him and retreating further right to his own side of the bed. This time, Kallen let him go. “I was so close—”
“You think I don’t want you to?” Kallen cut in. Maybe it wasn’t fair of him to bring it up right then, but tough, it was the truth.
“What?” Levy was looking at him alright. Like he thought Kallen had lost his mind.
He shrugged. “A guy can have fantasies, can’t he? I don’t want a chemical bond, but, well, I wonder what it would be like. To know all the time, to feel so close.”
Levy was frowning, clearly thrown. “Are you... Are you serious?”
Kallen nodded. “Yes,” he promised. “I have instincts too, babe, it’s not... Well, it counts, I guess, but it doesn’t count more than what we actually do .”
“Only you wouldn’t— You couldn’t do it,” Levy argued, more angry than moody now.
“No,” Kallen agreed, opting not to mention how often he’d wanted to bite at Levy’s throat. It was the opposite of instinct, or was supposed to be, and more to the point, it wouldn’t activate any bonds done that way. It was just a line he had to hold back not to cross. Most alphas wouldn’t have even been comfortable with hickeys, but Levy loved when Kallen sucked on his neck. Maybe there wasn’t any point to holding it, except not to take from Levy what he wasn’t willing to offer in turn.
Being an omega didn’t have many upsides—though lure had turned out to be a hell of a bonus—but this was one of them. It was Levy’s sole responsibility to hold back from claiming him, and they both knew it. Kallen’s role was to trust him, and it’d become easier, especially on days when Levy’s own faith in himself wavered. But it wasn’t easy .
For either of them. He knew both of them would have gladly swapped, or, ideally, shared the loads.
But those were fantasies too.
They had chosen their life together instead; with the difficulties of not bonding, their peculiar approach to sex, their perhaps extreme devotion to their careers, the philosophical arguments and the weekends playing hockey with people who had never sold their souls for the privilege.
It was a great life, full of joy, but it wasn’t perfect. And it couldn’t heal every scar their past had left on them. But even when Levy didn’t want Kallen to hold his hand, he knew he still had the power to hold himself together, to be his own oasis and wait for his lover to remember he was there.
His alpha sighed, shoulders dropping. “Sorry,” he said again, but this time Kallen didn’t argue. “I got all...” He rubbed at the bite, grimacing. “I freaked out.”
Kallen offered a hand again. This time, Levy took it, burrowing close again. “It’s cool,” he promised.
“It was good news,” Levy added. “I don’t know why it got all...”
“Big news, though.” He dragged some pillows to the headboard until he could sit against it, his lover safely in his arms. “It could change everything.”
The tension all over Levy’s body wasn’t something he could rub off by petting him, but he let the silence stand until Levy broke it, “Do you want to?”
It was a big question. Did he want to go back to playing professionally? He was only twenty-five years old, he could have another ten or fifteen years on the ice. It would mean getting back into his training, of course, and just because teams were expected to transition to rosters that contained at least three non-alpha players for the next ten years, it didn’t mean it would be easy to get a spot. There were omega and beta kids coming of age this year who might have chosen another path who would now go for it.
He smiled at the thought—he’d trained some of those kids in lure himself. “Nah, I have got other plans.”
Levy lifted his head from his chest to meet his eyes, his own were wide and shocked. “Really?”
“Yeah,” Kallen assured him. “I’m happy. I love my job. The weekend league is enough hockey for me.” He caught the flutter of dark eyelashes. “But it’s cool if you want to.”
“I...” Levy licked his lips. “I don’t know yet,” he admitted at last.
Kallen thought about it; Levy going back, travelling all the time. He’d miss him when he was away all over the continent, and maybe he’d even be a little jealous. But he could live with it. No, more than that, he could be happy with it. If it made Levy happier, Kallen was all for it, no questions asked except maybe if he could apply to the hometown team first.
“Hey, if you are willing to give up bread for most of the year...” he joked, kissing him on the side of the head he could reach.
Levy snorted. “I’ll just do more reps.”
ONCE THEY HAD SHOWERED and eaten, Kallen had opened up the chat group for the staff at the Omega Centre, which was still part of Fair Sport but operated at different levels to support omegas in other areas of life as well. To honour their name, Fair Sport now also had meetings for alphas—it’d been Levy’s idea, and he was still friends with most of the guys from the first iteration.
The chat was overflowing with gifts and happy cursing, and Leo had already begun planning a party. The kid he’d once trained had become a certified lure coach himself—a qualification they’d pushed to create with the help of tribal elders from the Eastern Islands—and he was in charge of the introductory classes while Kallen dealt with the more advanced ones and training coaches.
He wondered if Leo would jump at the chance to play professionally. It was difficult to be as ecstatic as he’d fantasised with the prospect of so many changes—most of the people around him had fought for years to change the law, it stood to reason that a lot of them would take the chance now that it had.
And Kallen was happy for them, but he was a little reluctant too. For him, the work he did had become too important to leave behind, and hockey had somehow faded into the background. He wasn’t even that surprised the answer had come to him so easily; he’d worked for hockey for a good decade, hard and constant, and he’d loved it fiercely. He still loved it. But he’d worked to learn lure for the last six years and unlike hockey, that work had paid off in spades—his salary might not have had as many zeroes, but he was treated with respect and, most of all, he’d finally got what he’d imagined a hockey team would give him—a community to support and be supported by.
But Levy had the same thing at his job, where the kids were fanatical about him and his colleagues were always inviting him out like they couldn’t get enough of him during work hours.
And he was still thinking about it.
Kallen was a bit surprised when his phone rang. It was Taylor.
“Hi, everything okay?”
His boss snorted. “Everything is great , haven’t you heard?” There was an edge to his voice that Kallen caught but didn’t dare guess at.
“Yeah, it’s—”
“Look,” Taylor interrupted, even more out of character. “I know it’s a time for celebration and obviously I am happy. But we are not really just Fair Sport anymore, you know? And what we are doing, I think it’s more important than just getting omegas fair treatment in the field. And—”
Kallen made a noise of affirmation, all he could manage amidst the barrage.
“So I need to ask you; are you staying?”
“Oh.” This was even more unlike Taylor, who was normally quite good at giving people time and space to make their own decisions. “Yeah,” he said. “I’m staying.” There was no reason to withhold the information if it would calm down the other omega. “But I think you are freaking out. Like—” He exhaled slowly. “Can you do lure with me now?”
Taylor’s response was something close to a snarl, but after a moment Kallen heard him exhale slowly.
“Damn, you were right,” he admitted after a few minutes. “I’m sorry, that was completely—”
“It’s okay,” Kallen told him. “I knew right away. You are right, our work isn’t done and it’s more important... Well, I don’t know if it’s more important than hockey, but it’s more important to me .”
Taylor sighed. “Thank the gods for that,” he said with feeling. “Karla’s leaving and if you went too...”
“Oh.” Karla was Taylor’s second in command, but she was also quite young, having started as a volunteer at seventeen, she’d ended up in charge of the youth section by the age of twenty-one. Losing her would be a tremendous blow. “But where is she going? It has been like two hours since they announced!”
“We watched it together,” Taylor explained. “You should have seen how she broke down. She hasn’t said anything, but she doesn’t need to. If she can’t get a place on a team, she’ll probably find one as a trainer. It was... She’s been waiting all these years, Kallen.”
His heart broke for her. For all those people who had been waiting. Was that Levy as well? Suddenly he felt quite selfish to be worrying about missing them, when they’d been missing out on their calling .
And yet, he didn’t think Taylor was selfish. The call had been a bit clumsy, but Kallen could perfectly understand the desperation that incited it.
Amidst the ruins of their old lives, they’d build something wonderful together, opening their doors and their hearts to friends and strangers alike, growing stronger together. Fair Sport was just one of many groups, Kallen’s settlement money one of the many sources of support, but he knew, deep in his gut, that they had been instrumental in making this happen. They had made a difference; they had changed lives.
And it was a good change, a fairer world. But it was still the end of the era where he’d found his strength and his tribe, and it deserved mourning too.
He swallowed. “I think Levy might...” He found he couldn’t finish.
“Oh, fuck ,” his boss spat, low and rough. “You— That’s—”
“It’s gonna be fine,” Kallen told him determinedly. “Like, part of me doesn’t want anything to change. But really, if we didn’t want anything to change, we wouldn’t be doing the job we are doing, right?”
Taylor snorted. “When did you get this wise, huh?”
“Learned from the best,” Kallen shot back.
THE NEXT DAY LEVY SAT him down for what promised to be a serious conversation. Kallen had already been in to work that morning for his regular advanced class, though most of his students had been too busy talking about the law passing to focus much. In a few months, they would be the third class of lure coaches graduating from the Omega Centre, and Kallen was already thinking about whether he could convince Taylor to keep at least two of them to open up more classes. The law didn’t just eliminate the role of team omega and introduce a clause forcing teams to have at least three non-alpha players in their active roster, it also made it compulsory for professional teams to provide training for all phenotypes into how to use their will safely and resist that of others. If his students passed, and Kallen had no doubt they would, every single one of them would have fifty job offers within a week. But if they stayed on at the Omega Centre, in a year, each of them could train at least fifty omega coaches.
“I’m ready,” he told his partner, dragging his mind back to the present. He was going to do the right thing, but he wasn’t sure he could feel the right thing.
Levy’s eyes flickered up to his. “Can you...?” he gestured vaguely in Kallen’s direction, which would have been complete nonsense without the low thrum of the bond between them.
He nodded and closed his eyes to best reach the oasis. These days, he could manage it under most circumstances, and even with the slight discomfort he expected ahead, he found it easily.
His boyfriend sighed in relief across from him. Kallen opened his eyes to see Levy looking down at the table between them.
“So, I... I want to do it. To play again. But I don’t want it more than our life right now. Like, even thinking about leaving the kids...” He grimaced. “So, I thought I’d make a deal with myself. I’m twenty-five and I’m still pretty fit, but teams are going to need less alpha players, not more. And they might just not want me for a million reasons.” Kallen snorted at that. “And I wouldn’t want it if I can’t live in Terali. So, if the Crocodiles are interested...” He bit his lip, meeting Kallen’s eyes once again.
He reached out and took Levy’s hand, squeezing gently. “They’d be idiots to pass you up.”
Levy was clinging to his hand a little too tightly, but Kallen didn’t complain. “You really are cool with it?”
Kallen took a moment to look away, then exhaled slowly, grateful he was still in the quiet space of the oasis. “I care ,” he explained. “Obviously I care if you end up travelling all over the continent on the regular. But I care about you more ,” he added, looking Levy right in the eye. “About us . So, if it makes you happy, we’ll make it work.” And by the time he’d said it, it was true, his mouth settling into the unmovable line he got every time he went for the goal.
Levy’s own mouth relaxed into a smile, pleased and a little wild—the one he got when they were playing on a line together and he knew they were going to light it up out there. Kallen recognised it, he still got to see it every weekend. “Cool. And if they don’t go for it, I already got everything I need anyway.”
[The end]