Chapter 10
If I didn’t know he was Marshall’s father, I would’ve thought he was closer to my age.
Only a small amount of wrinkles around his bright green eyes betrayed his age.
Every strand of red hair on his body was as bright as his son’s.
Dark brown freckles dotted his skin, mixing in with the thick red hairs on his chest and the rough planes of his cheeks.
I took a deep breath, trying to offset the shock, and his scent surged through my nostrils.
His Alpha pheromones overpowered me with one inhale.
Fuck. I knew some Alphas had more potent scents than most, but his were the strongest I’d ever smelled.
They were earthy and alive, as if I were sniffing a potted plant.
A second whiff of his scent went straight to my cock, making it throb to life, straining against my pants.
Slick pooled in my ass, the intensity of my arousal growing with every second.
My knees wobbled, and my pheromones strained against their containment, begging, pleading, needing to be set free.
If Marshall wasn’t in the house…
What was I thinking? Calm down, Casey. You can’t jump your boyfriend’s dad??
But his scent… his thick, muscled chest… those deep green eyes… they called to me, singing a song of desire only I could hear. I’d never been so drawn to an Alpha before, not even with Marshall.
“Dad, this is Casey,” Marshall said, his voice floating somewhere over my head. “He’s my boyfriend.”
A flurry of emotions raced across the older Alpha’s face. Anger. Shock. Desire. Until his expression relaxed and went blank. Erased. As if he felt nothing at all.
“Casey, this is my dad, Adam Wilson.”
Adam. The name seemed to reverberate throughout my body, and I gulped at the thought of speaking it aloud.
“I…” I what? I can’t think because my cock is so hard? I want you to fuck me? No, no. Stop it. This was a fluke. A primal reaction to his scent. I could ignore it. I had to ignore it. “N-nice to meet you, Mr. Wilson.” There. That felt formal enough.
His eyes stared right into mine, the intensity of those green globes making me hot all over. Did he feel the same as me? Was I the only one about to burst with desire? I hoped not. But at the same time, I knew this wasn’t right. I shouldn’t want him like this.
He said nothing else, no social platitudes or niceties. He just watched at me, his eyes pouring right into my soul and leaving me panting for more. That glint in his eye… I knew that look well. He did want me. He wanted to rip my pants off and fuck me against the wall. His eyes gave it all away.
Resist. I had to resist. If he stayed away, I could too.
“Let me help you finish dinner, Marshall,” he finally said with a slight tremor in his deep voice. Mr. Wilson grabbed his shirt from the bed and left with Marshall right behind him.
With them gone, my knees buckled beneath me, leaving me in a breathless puddle on the floor.
What the fuck just happened?
This was insane. I couldn’t be attracted to Marshall’s dad. It was my hormones acting up. Some remnant of my heat. A side effect of my meds. It had to be. It had to be.
I took a few minutes to compose myself, hoping my dick would calm down in the process, but no. I still had a raging boner no matter how long I waited. Great. Standing, I tugged my shirt to hide the bulge in my pants and hoped no one would notice.
The kitchen was oddly quiet when I went down the stairs and peeked my head around the corner. Marshall was opening the oven door, and the warmth spread throughout the room as he checked on our dinner. It smelled delicious. He had always been an excellent chef.
A surge of heat rushed over me when I saw his father again.
He was calmly standing at the other end of the counter, as if nothing had happened.
I gulped to keep my focus, but not even that was enough to stop myself from staring at him.
He poured himself a glass of the wine I spilled on myself.
Dirt flecks were visible beneath his fingernails.
He had a vine tattoo on the side of his neck and an array of piercings on his right ear.
There was a hoop in the middle of the lobe with a chain that connected to an earring, and a metal bar across the top of his ear.
I knew I was gaping at him, but it was impossible to look away.
“Almost done. Five more minutes.” Marshall's voice startled me, and I gladly focused on the food that was cooking. Closing the oven door, my boyfriend busied himself with a pan of potatoes on the stove. “If David takes forever to get here, like always, it should be ready by then.”
As if on cue, the front door opened, and another tall, Alpha redhead came inside.
He took off his jacket and hung it on a coat rack by the door, toeing his shoes off as he did.
David, I was guessing. His jacket had a sheriff badge on the front, and his clothes looked like a uniform.
His pheromones joined the scents in the room, a subtle smell of leather and oil.
He removed his belt and hung it beside his jacket.
It had a pistol, handcuffs, and a radio strapped to it. David was a cop. Great.
“Smells good, Pops,” he said as he walked over to the kitchen.
Mr. Wilson swiped the wine bottle, as if he had already expected David to go straight for it. “Marshall made dinner.”
Marshall left the hot pan of food long enough to give his brother a hug.
“Good to see you, little bro,” David said. “Been too long. Still fixing people at the hospital?”
“Still arresting people for urinating in public?”
David chuckled at that. “That’s only Mr. Swanson, and he promised he would stop.”
“Doubt it,” Marshall said. They laughed together over their private joke.
When he turned towards the refrigerator, David finally noticed me standing beside it.
“You must be Marshall’s boyfriend. I’m David.
” He held his hand out, and my small fingers were almost crushed in his firm handshake.
His leathery scent was a little stronger than Marshall’s, but nowhere near as potent as their father’s.
I couldn’t stop myself from glancing at Mr. Wilson.
He was looking back at me, intently focused on the way his son gripped my hand.
“I’m assuming Marsh didn’t tell you much about me.
I’m the Sheriff of Oakridge. But don’t worry.
I try not to arrest people for running stop signs unless they make a habit of it. ”
David got three beers from the fridge while I was still trying to think of something to say and twisted the caps off with his bare hands.
They were not twist-offs. Alphas truly were something else.
Handing one to Marshall, he held the third out for me, and I happily took it, taking a long swig when no one was looking.
Beer in hand, David trekked around the kitchen island and hauled himself onto the stool beside Mr. Wilson. Mr. Wilson. That felt so formal. But what else should I call him? I couldn’t just call him by his first name without permission. The mere idea of saying his name made me shiver.
“Sooo,” David started, his voice high and bright in that ‘I need all the gossip’ tone. “How long have you two been together?”
Marshall shoved his hands into some oven mitts and took a glass dish out of the oven. “We can save the interrogation until after we’ve eaten.”
“So defensive,” David teased as he sipped his beer. “You can’t blame me for being curious. I didn’t even know you were dating someone.”
Marshall hadn’t told them about me? I mean, yes, I was clear about not wanting to meet his family, ever, but I didn’t think he would hide me from them. My parents knew about Marshall, and they also knew he was never coming over to meet them.
“David, shut up,” Mr. Wilson barked. His green eyes slowly landed on me, his dirty fingernail tapping the side of his glass. “Marshall told us he was seeing someone. We knew.”
David chuckled and wiped his lips on his sleeve. “Always gotta ruin my fun, Pops. There’s still things I don’t know. Like how long they’ve been dating.” He raised his eyebrows, giving a pointed look to both of us.
My boyfriend didn’t offer any extra information, and by the time everything was ready and the dining table was full of food, the anxiety in the room was through the roof.
Maybe that was just me. The only spare seat was across from Mr. Wilson, and I tried not to stare at him as we passed around the bowls of food to serve ourselves, but it was impossible to look away.
He caught me staring when Marshall was busy spooning out some potatoes for himself, and a thrum ran through my body with Mr. Wilson’s eyes on me.
Steady, Casey. Ignore it.
People went through this all the time, right? A random attraction to someone you weren’t interested in. Because I wasn’t. Mr. Wilson was my boyfriend’s father. If there was a list of people I shouldn’t be interested in, he would be at the top.
If only my body could remember that.
“You got enough, Case?”
I jumped, dropping my fork onto the table. “Y-yeah.” I willed myself to look away, staring so hard at my food I almost went cross-eyed.
David waited until my mouth was full before talking. “How’d you two meet?”
“David,” Mr. Wilson grumbled under his breath.
“Come on, Pops. It’s been years since we caught up with Marshall. Even longer since he brought someone home to meet us. You’re not curious?”
Mr. Wilson was completely engrossed in his food, as if we weren’t even there. “No.”
Ouch. He didn’t care about me? After eye fucking me not five minutes ago?
As the only outsider at the table, it was obvious they were all silently communicating through quick glances, throat clears, and pointed glares when they thought I wasn’t looking.
If I weren’t so hungry, I might’ve tried to fake a headache just to leave the room and let them talk without me.
There was clearly some bad blood between Marshall and his father.
Maybe the brother too, but it was hard to tell even with the silent conversation going on over my head.
Since I couldn’t leave, I could at least curb some of their curiosity.
“We uhh…” My voice faltered when Mr. Wilson’s head inclined towards me, those bright green eyes slowly trailing up to meet mine.
His hands were so big, but he held his small fork with ease.
How big would his hand look against my face?
My cock. He could probably close his entire fist around me with ease.
Ugh, this was torture. Keep talking. Think about something else.
“We met at the hospital,” I blurted out.
“Because of the hospital, I mean. They wanted a new mural for their lobby, and the company I work for came over to give our pitch for it. I work at a street art studio.”
“They didn’t get the job,” Marshall noted with a sad grin, one that brightened when he looked at me. “I was just getting off my shift when I saw Casey by the front door. I thought he was lost, and I offered to take him to the omega wing.”
That day changed everything. His kindness and gentle spirit made me feel hope again after all I’d been through.
“Marshall seemed so nice and eager to help me. It wasn’t until we got to the omega wing that I plucked up the courage to tell him I didn’t need a doctor. He laughed so hard, I thought he might pass out.”
Marshall reached across our plates and took my hand, giving me a smile as he gently squeezed my fingers.
“I was sleepy before. About to pass out. But then I was completely awake, as if I hadn’t just worked a double shift.
I asked him out for drinks, and we just kinda…
started dating. Without even making it official.
It was a full month before I realized I never asked him to be my boyfriend. ”
Someone’s foot touched mine under the table. I wasn’t sure whose foot it was, but Marshall’s smile seemed to confirm it was his. I touched it right back, sliding my bare foot over theirs, caressing it with my toes.
“Very sweet,” David declared. “And so like you, Marsh. Dating this cutie without even asking him out.”
“Oh, really? You asked Dina out yet? Or are you still pretending that’s not a thing?
” They shared another sibling coded look and David shoveled a large bite of potatoes into his mouth to avoid the question.
“It was just natural with Casey.” He gave my hand another squeeze.
I barely resisted the urge to look at Mr. Wilson, keeping all of my focus on Marshall. “Being with him has always been easy.”
Easy. Easy and safe. That’s what it was like with Marshall. I couldn’t ask for a better boyfriend.
I stroked his foot with mine over and over, eating the delicious meal and listening to David and Marshall catching up. No one asked about me or my past. Beyond those initial questions, our relationship wasn’t even part of the conversation.
Mr. Wilson barely said anything, even when prompted, and his gaze hardened every time our eyes met. He was clearly as unhappy with our situation as I was.
As soon as I was done eating, I gave Marshall’s foot one last caress and got up, taking my dishes to the sink.
“Is it okay if I take a shower?” I asked, my fingers tapping the marble countertop.
I sucked in a quick breath when Mr. Wilson leaned back in his chair, his eyes locking with mine from across the room.
That glare slowly turned into something else, a heated glint that made my knees wobble. Ignore, ignore.
“Go ahead,” David prompted with a smile.
I left them at the table and retreated upstairs to the bathroom. Safe. For now.