4 he asked about you
“Tanner! Get down here!”
Dad’s voice echoes through the house, and I can’t immediately tell if he sounds angry or just loud.
I haven’t done anything that I know of to piss him off recently, but there’s always a chance.
This summer has shown me how much of his mental energy used to be poured into Atlas before my little brother up and left.
My father and I were not meant to have this much quality time. I don’t think either of us is enjoying it.
I scamper downstairs anyway, finding him in the kitchen, leaning against the counter with a beer in one hand and his beat-up old phone in the other.
“What are you planning to do with your time for the rest of the summer?” he asks, and it makes my brain record-scratch to a halt.
“I thought you wanted me to stay around the house, sir. To look after it while you’re on the road.”
We definitely discussed it, because I would have been doing anything else, otherwise.
At the very least, I can get some extra studying done before I go back for my final year—and therefore last chance to pull my GPA up to something less humiliating.
At least when he’s on the road I can read in peace, without anyone taking my book out of my hands or calling me a pussy.
Dad’s pffts at my words, shaking his head.
“It’s a house. It sits here and takes care of itself. Besides, it’ll have to be used to being unoccupied once you go back to the city.”
I go to a very small branch of the state college in a place called Last Ditch.
Last Ditch, as most people can guess from the name, is not exactly a thriving metropolis.
It can generously be described as a town, but it’s the closest college I could get into, because he didn’t want me going any farther from home, but sure.
It’s ‘the city’. He says the words like they put a bad taste in his mouth.
At least when I’m there, I have two hours and plenty of farmland between me and my father.
Indecision freezes me because I have no idea where he’s going with this. It’s okay, though, because Dad plows through without waiting for a response.
“Gray has been asking after you. All you boys, of course, and it’s nice to see him take an interest. But I think he has a soft spot for you. He was a scrawny one, too, once upon a time. Believe it or not. I imagine it’s not easy being locked up in that shit heap of a house all by himself.
No one to help, no woman for company. The man shouldn’t be punished for being too busy serving his country all these years to find a good mate. I thought I’d send you over there for a while, do some work on the remodel for him.”
I don’t know how Dad manages to phrase things so weirdly without knowing it, sometimes.
If I even cracked a joke about two men together in some kind of seedy situation, he’d lose his shit.
But he manages to phrase this offer of summer work like he’s sending me there as some sort of concubine. Company for a lonely, unmated alpha.
It’s fucking baffling to me how he doesn’t notice how it sounds, but at least I know he doesn’t mean it that way.
He wants me to impress his friend. I’m good at construction and general handy work, for all my other flaws, and he wants me to play the dutiful son and good neighbor so everyone in town can see.
The problem is, he has no idea about the shit that Gray pulled out by the lake, and if he did, he’d never let that man near our family again. I’m not going to tell him, of course. Whatever the man’s aims were, he seemed genuinely well-intentioned. I realized that once I calmed down.
Misguided, obviously, and talking out of his ass. But he seemed to think he was being helpful.
Spending more time with him, not knowing what he’s going to say and having to lie about it to Dad, makes my stomach cramp and my fingertips tingle. Please, fuck, don’t make me deal with this. I just want to get some sleep and studying done all summer. Keep my workouts up. Nothing else.
“I, uh…”
Dad is staring at me expectantly while I scramble for any kind of excuse.
“If you don’t need me around here as much, I was thinking of getting a job in town. Save some money for after graduation, sir.”
Dad snorts again.
“You don’t need to save money. What you need to do is take care of your pack, like a good alpha would. Your community. What are you going to do in town? Flip burgers for minimum wage? You keep your eyes off women’s work and focus on this. This’ll get you some good construction experience.
You don’t need money; you’re not paying rent.”
You don’t need money because you’re never leaving here, is the part that’s not being said out loud.
I’m staying here forever, surrounded by a family—or pack, as he always puts it, even though it’s an antiquated concept—that doesn’t like me, constantly behaving like a good alpha would to make Dad happy, even though I’m never going to be a fucking alpha.
I’m going to be the one left to take care of him, because he’s also lonely and without a mate, but refuses to admit it.
I have no more space to maneuver in this conversation; I can see it in his face.
“Of course, sir. Can I have his phone number? I’ll talk to him about it and sort something out.”
Dad nods, handing me his phone so I can transfer the number and address into mine.
I’ll talk to Gray, of course. But I’m going to tell him to explain to Dad that he doesn’t need my help and never will, and then he’s never going to let my name cross his lips again, before someone gets suspicious about all this concern he’s showing for my well-being.
why have you been talking to my dad about me? I thought you agreed to mind your own business and not spread your lies
Old Man
Tanner?
who else have you been saying creepy shit to ? yes, it’s me.
I promise you, I haven’t told him anything. I only checked in to see how you were doing. I was worried about you after the party and I wanted to make sure you didn’t take what I said the wrong way.
Clearly, you’re adjusting well to the concept.
there’s nothing to adjust to because what you said isn’t true
you need to tell my dad that I can’t work for you during the summer… he already has a fucking scheme about it
not. happening.
There’s a pause, then dots flicker on the screen as he seems to start writing and stop a bunch of times.
I’ll talk to him.
I wait, but that’s all he says. Good. This is what I wanted. It’s a little weird, because I was geared up for more of a fight and now I have all this extra anger and nothing to do with it, but still. This is the best result.
After another few seconds of silence, I type one more thing and jab at the screen to send it.
lose this number
I don’t expect to get a response, but Gray starts typing again.
Fine. But I meant what I said, Tanner. And when you can’t hide from the truth anymore, you’re going to wish you’d taken me seriously while you still had the chance to get ready.
At the very least, do some research. Anything.
I won’t text you again. But I’m still here if you need help dealing with Frank.
Who does he think he is? This guy is a fucking stranger. Just because he saved my dad’s life a million years ago doesn’t mean he has the right to pull this kindly uncle routine.
I’m about to tell him as much, but I change my mind and throw my phone onto the nightstand instead.
Fuck him. Fuck him and his nosey attitude. I’m fine.
I’m normal.
It’s not possible that Frank Dawson bred one of the few male omegas around. It’s just not a thing.
It takes a long time for the tension to leave my body enough to sleep, and if I have to focus that anger on Gray to give me something to think about, then so be it. By the time I’m drifting off, I’ve thought of all the clever, cutting things I’m going to say to him the next time I see him.
That’ll show the old man. He can’t fuck with a Dawson and get away with it forever.
Gray is hazy in front of me, but his scent is everywhere. It pushes against me, telling me something I can’t quite understand.
I thought I was standing, but I must not have been because right now my face is buried in a pillow and I’m buck naked on some soft bed sheets. I jolt when hands grab at my ass—strong, firm hands—and the way my cock drags against the sheet is exquisite, bordering on painful.
As soon as I realize my fucking asshole is wide open to the world, something pushes inside it. It’s hard, but not too hard, and it’s stretching me open more than I thought was possible.
This can’t be real. I feel like I’m trapped in someone else’s memory right now. This isn’t something I know how to do.
But my body does, apparently, because it welcomes the intrusion and before I know what’s happening, that thing is fucking me harder than I knew was possible. And I’m out of my mind, because I’m screaming for more, stretching myself open impossibly wide.
Gray’s voice whispers “Good job, Tanner. You can do it,” in my ear, and I explode all over the sheets while the cock inside me starts to pulse.
It takes a long time for me to go from dreaming to awake, but when I wake up back to reality, I find I really am face-down on the bed with cum all over the sheets and a softening erection.
Nonononono I think, desperate for this part to be the dream.
It’s not a dream. Not anymore. The room is dark and stale and profoundly real around me, and I am sleeping in a puddle of cum I created by dreaming about a fucking man.
I am absolutely fucked. I know Dad can’t see into my brain, but it still feels insane. This isn’t the life I was meant to lead.
Tomorrow I’m going to see Gray and tell him to cut all of this out. I think he pulled some weird alpha pheromone shit on me and it’s fucking me up. None of this is real. It can’t be.