Chapter 4
Being back on Eila felt strange. Surreal. It was hard to believe it had been only a week since he’d boarded Anthony’s ship. He didn’t feel like the same man.
Michael managed to sound normal when he said goodbye to Anthony. He even smiled and joked about Anthony being barred forever from picking the destinations for their hunting trips. Anthony rolled his eyes but laughed good-naturedly, clapping Michael on his back before getting into his helicopter.
Michael got into his own helicopter and relaxed back into the seat as the pilot took off. His skin prickled where Anthony’s hand had touched him, and he felt—
Michael gritted his teeth and stared out the window. He was back home. Everything was back to normal now.
But no matter what he told himself, it wasn’t.
Days later, his body still felt like a foreign thing, not his own. Other alphas’ scents agitated him now, and Michael found himself snapping even at his secretary when he came to update Michael on the paperwork he’d missed while away.
Maybe his body just needed to forget what had happened—forget the unnatural way he’d been forced to submit to another alpha. He was an alpha. An alpha who loved sex. Sex with omegas.
That was how Michael found himself watching porn that evening.
The omega on the screen was exactly his type: a red-haired young man with a beautifully proportioned body. The omega was moaning as he stroked his slim body, tweaking pink nipples, his thighs spread, his hole glistening with slick. He was hot.
Michael stroked his hardening cock, relieved that his body was responding as it should.
A bigger body stepped into the camera frame.
A tall, dark-haired alpha. His long cock was almost touching his muscular stomach.
Michael stroked his cock faster. The alpha yanked the omega’s thighs open and settled between them.
The camera zoomed in on the alpha’s cockhead as it pushed into the omega’s hole.
So fucking big. It must feel so good—it must feel so good being inside that pretty omega.
Michael moaned, stroking himself faster and harder as the alpha fucked into the omega’s hole.
“So damn tight,” the alpha growled, pounding into him. “So wet for me. Such a slutty hole.”
Michael arched and came, his asshole clenching around nothing. Empty.
“Fuck,” he whispered, staring at the ceiling dazedly.
***
Michael did his best to put it out of his mind.
He threw himself into managing his estates and finances. He dutifully attended balls and parties. He flirted with some of the most beautiful omegas in the country.
Everything was fine.
Michael was relieved to find that his body reacted to omegas as it used to—as it should. Omegas’ scents were still very pleasant. They still appealed to his senses. He could still imagine fucking them and knotting them, marrying one of them and having a bunch of kids.
There was nothing wrong with him.
“Who pissed in your drink?”
Michael flinched, every cell in his body snapping to attention. He drew a steadying breath, forced his face into neutrality, and turned.
Anthony was watching him over the rim of his glass, one dark brow arched.
“No one,” Michael said, before taking a long sip from his own drink. To win some time. To quash the cowardly instinct to flee. This was Ant. His closest friend.
“Could have fooled me, with the way you were scowling.” Anthony stepped forward and leaned against the wall next to Michael with one shoulder, his dark suit hugging his tall, broad frame.
Michael looked around the ballroom, for the first time glad how crowded it was. The smell of so many people pervaded the air, making it difficult to discern individual scents.
“I’m not scowling,” he said. “Just tired of—of everything.”
Anthony hummed, glancing around the room with a sardonic smile. “Can’t blame you, with the way half the room is eyeing you like a prize stallion.”
His lips twisting, Michael snorted. “At least the other half is ogling you. It’s much worse when you aren’t here.”
It was true. Anthony’s presence never failed to draw a good share of attention away from him.
Although Anthony’s title wasn’t as high-ranking as his, he was considered one of the biggest catches in Pelugian high society.
He was very rich, very handsome, and very well connected.
His commanding military bearing didn’t hurt, either.
He exuded a certain aura of self-assured masculinity that would be undeniably attractive to most omegas. They all but drooled looking at him.
Anthony shook his head and took another sip of his drink, his heavy-lidded blue eyes flicking over the crowd idly. “The difference is, the ones looking at me aren’t looking for marriage. I’m not looking for a mate yet. You are. Your mother all but announced it.”
Michael winced. “Don’t remind me.” He leaned against the wall, more relaxed now that there was nothing weird about their interaction. He felt totally normal. He wasn’t thinking about the fact that the alpha beside him had fucked and knotted him.
Michael cleared his throat, tugging at his collar. “Why aren’t you? Looking for a mate? You’re older than me.”
Anthony gave him a strange look before looking away. “There’s no rush. Unlike you, I don’t have a concerned mother pressuring me to sire an heir.”
“What about your instincts?” Michael said. After a certain age, alphas started feeling restless if they didn’t have a pack. With Anthony’s parents being dead and his siblings being married, he couldn’t even rely on his pack bonds to them. The itch to start his own pack must have been there.
Anthony grimaced slightly. “It’s manageable,” he said, his voice a little clipped. “I see Jules and his kids often. It helps.”
Michael hummed. “But your brother and his pups have their own alpha,” he said, referring to the crown prince of Pelugia. “I doubt it satisfies the instinct.”
Anthony shrugged. “It’s fine,” he said curtly. “I’m not a slave to my instincts. I managed fine without a pack for more than a decade during the war.”
Looking at him curiously, Michael opened his mouth to tell him that it was different—wars tended to help, satisfying alphas’ instinct to protect—but he was cut off by another voice.
“Lord Blake!” A man approached them.
It took Michael a moment to recognize him.
Wren Lockwood, a widowed omega in his thirties.
He was beautiful, with red hair and beautiful gray eyes that were now fixed on Anthony.
The omega bowed to Michael first, as manners dictated, but spared him only a glance before turning a pretty smile on Anthony.
“I’ve heard of your terrible misadventure in the Outer Worlds,” Lockwood said, stepping closer to Anthony and laying a slim hand on his bicep. “I was terribly worried when we heard that you were stranded on some barbaric planet.”
“Were you?” Anthony said with a sardonic little smile, exchanging a look with Michael.
Michael smiled back faintly, gripping his glass harder.
It wasn’t the first time he’d seen omegas throw themselves at his friend, but this time it grated more than usual.
They had been talking. It was pretty damn rude to interrupt their conversation like this.
Not to mention Michael could fucking smell how wet the omega was, even through the cocktail of scents thick in the air.
It was beyond vulgar, even if the omega was widowed.
They were at a goddamn ball. The king was present.
“Of course,” Lockwood murmured, looking at Anthony through his eyelashes and stroking Anthony’s arm with the tips of his manicured fingers. “I was wondering if—”
“I hate to interrupt, Wren, but I need to talk to my brother,” a familiar voice cut Lockwood off.
Michael put on a more genuine smile and bowed to Prince-Consort Julian, or Jules, as his family called him.
Smiling mischievously, Jules practically wrenched his brother’s arm from Lockwood’s grip.
“Of course, Your Highness,” Lockwood said with a strained smile, bowing before striding away.
“Ugh, I bet he’ll cook up some nasty rumor about me in retaliation,” Jules said. “Why can’t you sleep with less obnoxious people, Ant?”
Anthony’s lips twisted. “Their personalities aren’t exactly the draw,” he said, exchanging an amused look with Michael.
Michael forced a chuckle.
Jules scrunched up his nose. “Ugh, you’re annoying me on purpose. I know you hate it when omegas throw themselves at you. You looked like you needed rescuing.”
“I didn’t, but I appreciate the effort, kid,” Anthony said, giving Jules a light bop on the nose.
“That’s Your Highness to you,” Jules said pompously before ruining it by giggling.
He hooked his other arm through Michael’s and smiled widely at him.
“I haven’t talked to you in a while. I usually barely see you through the crowd of your admirers.
I can rescue you too if you need it, just let me know. ” He winked at him.
Michael smiled. Anthony’s siblings were the best.
“Tone down the flirting, kid,” Anthony said before he could say anything. “Devlin is starting to side-eye Michael.”
Jules laughed, glancing toward his husband and blowing him a kiss. “He’s so ridiculous, like he isn’t the most handsome man on the planet. Though Michael definitely comes close.”
Anthony made a thoughtful noise, his eyes dancing with mirth. “I don’t know, Devlin doesn’t have those luscious golden locks or such deep, chocolate-brown eyes.”
“Knock it off,” Michael said with an eye-roll and took another sip of his drink. He didn’t have luscious locks. His hair barely reached his ears.
“Hmm, Ant is right,” Jules said, giving Michael an exaggeratedly appreciative look. “You’re outrageously gorgeous for an alpha. I’m envious of your bone structure. If only Liam married you... you two would have made outrageously beautiful babies together.”
Michael choked on his drink.
“Brain-to-mouth filter, kid,” Anthony said with a wry smile. “You aren’t supposed to talk about making babies in polite company. And Michael could have still been nursing a broken heart.”
“He isn’t,” Jules said, before looking at him a little uncertainly. “You aren’t, right? I never thought you had deep feelings for Li.”
Michael shook his head. “The heart is very much intact,” he said with a crooked smile.
“I’m glad,” Jules said simply, squeezing his arm. His face lit up. “Do you want me to help you find a good match?”
Anthony snorted. “He hardly needs your help. He can barely beat them off with a stick.”
“I could weed out the fortune-hunters and awful people,” Jules said, unfazed.
“Thank you, Your Highness, but I’m sure you have more important matters to attend to than my love life,” Michael said.
“Pfft, you don’t have to Your Highness me,” Jules said, wrinkling his nose. “You’re one of Ant’s closest friends—you’re practically a brother to him, which means you’re family to me too.”
Michael cleared his throat. He met Anthony’s eyes and quickly looked away. “That’s very kind of you, Your Highness,” he said, bowing slightly.
“So polite and well-mannered,” Jules said with a grin. “No wonder omegas are lining up to be your mate. Pay attention, Ant.”
Anthony smiled wryly. “Thanks, Juli, but I do all right.”
Rolling his eyes, Jules chuckled. “Only because you’re stupidly handsome. Take that away, and no one would look at you.”
“Now, let’s be fair,” Michael said, his lips twitching. “He’s rich too. That alone would make him attractive—even if he were ugly as sin.”
“That’s rich, coming from someone who’s wealthier than ninety-nine percent of this room,” Anthony said, knocking their shoulders together. And then he stayed there, in Michael’s personal space.
Michael stiffened, his palms suddenly sweaty. He fixed his gaze on Jules, trying not to breathe too deeply.
“He has a point,” Jules said with a grin. “You two are the prime example of life not being fair. Some people just get everything.”
Michael searched for words, but his thoughts scattered.
Anthony was too close—close enough to send his instincts haywire.
Part of him wanted to shove and roar, to reassert himself as an alpha.
The other part wanted to shrink, to bare his throat in submission.
The clash was maddening. He couldn’t take it. He couldn’t stay.
“I think my mother is trying to get my attention,” Michael lied and, bowing to Jules, strode away.
The back of his neck prickled.
He felt Anthony’s gaze on him like a physical thing, but he didn’t look back.