Chapter 31
Ethan
Just a dream, I thought, as I woke with a start. Just a fucking dream.
So why did I stagger out of bed, my cock not piss proud, but throbbing as if it was my dick Nadia sucked or it was my knot that wedged itself inside her.
My hands shook as I wrapped my hand around my shaft.
Hadn’t woken up hard and horny since I was a teenager, but this was more than a wet dream.
Heart smashing against my chest, I let out a helpless little moan as I worked my hand up and down my cock, erupting into the toilet seconds later.
Just a dream, I reiterated, but in a completely different tone.
Sleep and afterglow had my body feeling heavy with pleasure, but my heart?
It still ached in my chest, because there was no way for it to get a hard, fast release.
What it wanted, what it needed. I stared in the bathroom mirror, my eyes glowing in the darkness.
Was locked up in a room inside Crowe Corp.
Rescheduling all of our jobs for the next few weeks did little to settle the restless feeling inside me. Neither did doing a few loads of washing, including Tex’s. When I found myself in the shower cleaning the grout with an old toothbrush and some bleach, I admitted defeat.
This was not where I wanted to be.
Right as I was trying to manufacture an excuse to head back to Crowe Corp and see how everyone was going, my phone rang.
My chest lightened, sure it’d be Grey telling me I packed the wrong black socks or Tex wanting me to go on a Macca’s run or something, only to see my mother’s contact details flash on the screen.
“Mum,” I said, smiling as I put the phone to my ear. “How’s things?”
“Can’t complain,” she replied briskly, “and no one will listen if you do.”
That was her standard refrain growing up, but right now, it hit differently.
“I’ll listen.” Sitting back on my heels, I dropped the toothbrush to the floor. “Right now I’m scrubbing the tiles in my bathroom, so trust me, tales of the latest stupid thing your boss has done are way more interesting.”
“Scrubbing tiles?” Uh-oh. Mum’s Spidey senses were activated.
“Did you get that gel I told you about? It does wonders… But why are you cleaning your bathroom on a weekday? Have the jobs dried up? This bloody economic downturn is affecting businesses left and right. Another shop closed on Main Street.”
“Mum—”
“What’re you going to do? You know Smith’s Decorating are looking for a painter at the moment. You could—”
“Mum.” Apparently being half an alpha was useful. I could inject just enough command into my voice to stop her in her tracks. “The business is fine. We’ve actually got more work than we can handle right now.”
“So why aren’t you doing it?” she asked with a sigh.
“We’ve had to go on a temporary sabbatical,” I replied in carefully calm tones. “Grey and Tex, they’ve found their mates.”
“They what! Why didn’t you start with that?
” I shook my head, able to imagine Mum hurrying around the kitchen to put the kettle on.
All major life events needed tea to go with it.
“Letting me go on about the economy.” I heard a click and then the clunk of mugs being put out.
“Who is she? It’s a girl, right? I know omegas can be male and—”
“Nadia’s a girl, woman,” I corrected myself. “And she’s…” Right then, the tiles faded away, replaced by a crowded cafeteria. You give a good hug, that’s what my friend’s mate had said, which just had me wanting to step closer and wrap her in my arms. “She’s amazing. Smart, cute, funny—”
“And how did you meet this girl?” Mum asked.
“Ahh… at work.”
That was the safest way of putting it.
“So she’s Grey’s and Tex’s mate, but not yours?”
Her voice had become impossibly soft and somehow that was worse than facing a barrage of questions.
“I am unlikely to have a mate,” I told her. “Remember what the doctors said.”
“Them.” Her huff came down the line. “They don’t know everything.”
“Well, the same team is looking after Nadia right now, because…” I didn’t really want to bring this up with Mum. What happened to me was shared trauma. “It looks like she’s a latent too.”
“A latent? Bloody hell.” The whistle of the kettle interrupted her for a second. “Well, if you aren’t busy, you should come around for dinner tonight and tell me all about it. I’ll make your favourite.”
“Shepherd’s pie?” I said. “With pumpkin in the mash?”
“Which will piss Geoff off no end,” she muttered.
Geoff was my brother. As the oldest, it was past time he moved out, but he could never seem to ‘find the right place.’ Probably because wherever he went there would be no Mum to do his washing and cook him dinner. “So yes, I’ll put extra pumpkin in.”
So that’s how I ended up walking in through the front door of the family home, a bottle of wine in one hand and a shopping bag with some apple pie and ice cream in the other.
“Hello, love,” Mum called out as I walked down the hall, finding her in the kitchen, stirring the pie meat in the frypan. I leaned in and pressed a kiss to her cheek. “How’d you go with the bathroom? Get it all cleaned up?”
“That and went to the shops to pick this up for you,” I said, presenting the bottle of wine.
“You didn’t have to do that,” she said, but her pleased smile and the way her arm went around my waist for a hug made it worthwhile.
“Of course I did.” Pressing a kiss to the top of her head, I breathed in the scents of home.
Lamb cooking, her perfume that reminded me of white flowers on the lemon tree in the backyard, and home.
“The bottle shop guy seemed to think this was a good drop.” Pulling away, I found the bottle opener and unwrapped the plastic around the cork before working it free.
“A glass of wine while the food cooks. I bought some dessert as well.”
The pie was slid into the fridge, the ice cream in the freezer.
“Now, that looks like it just needs to simmer for a bit,” I said, eyeing the pan. “How about you sit down for a bit—”
“Muum…!”
The sound of slamming doors and lots of feet made clear I wasn’t the only visitor to the house. My two nephews, Will and Charlie, appeared in the kitchen seconds later.
“Nanna!”
“Hello, my darlings.” She turned and swept Charlie, the youngest, up in her arms, the other grabbing Will in a hug. “And what’ve you little monsters been up to?”
“Too much.” My sister-in-law, Kelly, walked in with a wry smile. “They just had footy training where I swear they spent most of their time deliberately throwing themselves into muddy puddles. Hey, Ethan.”
Before I could reply, the kids threw themselves at me.
“Uncle Ethan, I kicked three goals at training!” Charlie said.
“Well, I kicked four,” Will grumbled.
“Did not.”
“Did too!”
“Will missed the goal posts by this much.” Charlie spread his arms wide. “Then he pushed me into the mud when I laughed.”
“Charlie… Will…”
I glanced from one to the other, not sure who deserved to be told off.
“Which is why we’re a bit late.” My youngest brother, Noah, walked in, then stopped when he saw me. “Whoa, the big bad alpha’s here?” A familiar smirk appeared. “Took some time off from sniffing each other’s butts and pissing on fire hydrants to come see your family, did ya?”
“Don’t say the p-word in front of the kids,” Kelly hissed, but the damage was done.
“Dad said a naughty word! Dad said a naughty word!” the kids chanted in a sing-song voice.
“If he was still a little boy,” Mum said, “I’d have washed his mouth out with soap.” She produced the hand soap container with a flourish. “Maybe I still should?”
“Yeah!”
The blood was in the water and these two little sharks were ready for their next victim.
“No chance of that.” Noah plucked the soap from her grip, then placed it back on the sink. “Though if you little gremlins have energy to burn, you could wash your hands for dinner.”
“I wanted to show Uncle Ethan how high I can kick the ball.” Charlie threw his arms in the air. “I could kick it all the way over the house.”
“Can not,” Will said with a frown.
“How about we go outside and you guys show me what you’ve got,” I suggested. “No kicking it too high, though. If the ball goes on the roof, it stays there.”
“Thanks.”
Kelly gave me a heartfelt look as I poured her a wine as well, pushing it towards her, before shepherding the kids outside. The cool night air bathed my face as we headed towards the back shed. Mum kept an array of balls and other play equipment there for the boys to use.
“Let’s use these star pickets as goals,” I said, shoving one into the ground by the side of the house, then another. “If you go above here.” Gesturing to the windows, I gave the boys a hard look. “You get no points because Nanna will be real mad if you break her windows. So who’s going first?”
“Rookie mistake.” Noah appeared beside me, then fished out a coin. “Heads or tails, boys?” Each one chose a side and then their dad flipped it. “Heads it is. Will, you’re first.”
The two boys lined up, each with a football in hand, then Will held it out and ran forward, dropping it, then punting it through the ‘goals.’
“Well done!” I said, giving him a clap.
“Good job, mate.” Noah squeezed Will’s shoulder, right before my nephew ran back to take position behind his brother.
There was some age appropriate trash talking going on, which had me snorting, Noah too.
“Haven’t seen you for a while,” he continued, staring at the kids, not me.
“Kids have been asking after you.” Finally his eyes slid sideways to meet mine. “What’s been going on?”
“I…” How the hell did I put this into words? “You know. Same old, same old.”
“No, Ethan, I don’t know.” His voice was low, pitched so only I could hear it. “That’s why I asked.”