Work Text:
Nate slowly woke to find himself alone in bed.
In the pale light of encroaching dawn, he rolled over onto his side and stretched his arm out across the expanse of the mattress. Any lingering traces of sleep were suddenly swept away by a wave of aching numbness that washed over him. The sheets were stone cold to the touch, any traces of Eric’s scent difficult to pick out from his own.
That night marked four night’s in a row that Eric had shunned his bed.
Nate had received a cursory phone call the evening before with the same epithet Nate had received the previous nights, I have to work late again sweetheart, the company is making some changes in the way things are run and they want me to head the improvements. I’ll make it up to you later, I promise. No, no, don’t wait up for me, I don’t want to trouble you.
I promise.
His hand clenched into a tight fist in the sheets. The silver promise ring that Eric had given him a month ago on his index finger caught the pale light, the edge of the metal cutting into his skin. He stared at it despondently, that aching numbness flaring into something akin to grief that buried deep in his chest, worming its way inside of him to take root.
Despite what Eric might think, Nate wasn’t an idiot. He knew where Eric was, who he was with.
I promise.
Such pretty words always did come so easily to Eric’s lips. About as easily as it was for Nate to believe him.
It was a ridiculous idea, degrading in every sense of the word, but Nate couldn’t help himself. He had to see for himself, had to see the two of them with his own two eyes, he had to-
It was raining. The heavens above the city had opened and a deluge of water had swamped the morning’s commute, the roads and pavements turning into little rivers of their own, people hurrying under umbrellas or soaked briefcases to their destinations.
Nate, in his steadfast determination to catch them together, had gone out the door without his own umbrella. He stood under a shop awning, hugging his jacket around himself as dark blonde hair dripped water down the back of his neck. He had been there for over an hour, his fingers numb with the cold, his shoes sodden from the puddles collecting on the asphalt, staring across the busy street at the corporate building that Eric worked at since he had met him over two years ago.
He wouldn’t leave, not until he was sure, not until all the excuses he had made up in his head for all the absences, all the distance that Eric had put between them, would all fall away in the bare face of such hurtful truth.
Another ten minutes of agonising wait and finally, hatefully , Nate saw them turn the corner of the street towards the building.
There was Eric, in an immaculate dark navy blue suit with the deep purple tie Nate had bought him as a gift for his recent promotion. His blonde hair was styled back from an exquisite face, his white polished teeth flashing in a bright smile as he laughed at what his companion had said to him, an arm wrapped proprietary around their waist as they shared an umbrella.
Nate’s eyes fastened onto Eric’s companion. They had been introduced when Nate attended Eric’s office Christmas party, Eric showing off his new personal assistant that came with the new job. The demurely pretty Penelope Saunders, call me Penny. From that one interaction, Nate had known that the end of his relationship would be soon. He had seen them together, the way they couldn’t help but lean in close as they spoke to each other, that the promise ring on Nate’s finger meant nothing anymore.
Despite the high heels, call me Penny came up to Eric’s shoulder. She had the delicate body frame that was standard for an Omega, wide green eyes that were framed by long pretty lashes as she stared adoringly up at Eric. She had a wealth of auburn hair that was twisted into a side braid and Nate knew that Eric enjoyed running his hands through the length of it.
They looked as pretty as a picture together.
Ugly raging jealousy bubbled up inside of Nate as he watched them walk down the street and he felt the powerful urge to step across the road and intercept the couple, watch the recognition dawn on Eric’s face as their eyes connected and he would know his little deception was up.
He took one step forward but faltered, body freezing like a deer caught in headlights as he watched Penny tilt her head back to laugh and he caught sight of the fresh mating mark at the juncture of her neck, something the collar of her white blouse couldn't properly hide.
I promise.
There were no words for the feeling that he felt at seeing the mating mark from which Eric had denied him for so long. It had always been the wrong time, one more promotion and then we will be financially stable to mate, to make a proper home for ourselves. Nate had believed him again and again, had been obsessively planning for their future, had trusted in Eric to be making the right call for the both of them. Wasn’t that what Alpha’s did for their intended?
But Nate hadn’t been hearing him clearly enough. What he meant by the wrong time was really the wrong mate .
Nate’s hand went to the cold ring around his finger. His shaking hands pulled the slim band off and, numbly, he dropped it to the ground at his feet, not watching where he ended up. With one final look at his broken future, he turned his body around and walked back to a house he could never consider his home anymore.
The rain masked the tears on his cheeks.
Two weeks after the breakdown of his relationship, Nate came home from a completely banal day at work to find Eric in his apartment.
Or at least Nate thought it was Eric until the man turned and Nate caught the Alpha’s scent on the air. It was not unlike Eric’s, which tended to happen with family members, but it was spicier than Eric’s scent, a tang to it that always caught in Nate’s nose and stayed with him long after the Alpha had left.
Nate growled low in his throat as he slammed the front door shut behind him and Luke, Eric’s older brother, turned his head to face him. “What the hell are you doing here? This is my home, you have no right to enter it without my permission.”
Luke was sitting in one of the chairs in the living room, long lithe legs stretched out in front of him and crossed at the ankles. He was dressed in a soft looking v neck black sweater and fitted jeans and Nate couldn’t remember a time where he saw Luke in anything but a tailored suit that cost more than the whole of Nate’s wardrobe combined. Seeing his more relaxed attire was probably just as jarring as seeing the Alpha in his home.
Had Luke ever been to his home when Nate was dating his brother? He didn’t think so. Luke was a highflier, his corporate job brought in six figures and he often went on glamorous around the world trips that were Instagram worthy. Nate knew all of this because Eric would often complain habitually about Luke the ‘golden boy’ of the family. It was sort of amusing to think of Luke relaxing in Nate’s two bedroom flat with its years old ikea furniture. The two together didn’t compute.
When their eyes met, Nate felt his stomach give a funny little flip at seeing that face again. Despite being Eric’s older brother, the resemblance between the two was faint at best. Eric had blonde hair and laughing green eyes, a ready smile for everyone on his lips. He looked very much like the boy next door, handsome, friendly and oh so charming.
Luke, on the other hand, was anything but the charming boy next door. He had dark hair and brown eyes so deep they appeared black in the light. He took after their beautiful mother with a fine boned face so exquisite that every men’s health magazine would have fought each other for the opportunity for Luke to be on their front cover. He had the moody look of a model too, Nate never really saw the Alpha smile much.
He never smiled at Nate, at any rate. Ever since Eric introduced Nate to Luke a couple months into their dating, Luke had always acted like Nate was nothing more than an irritation to him. That Nate was someone who didn’t belong in their prestigious family and Luke went out of his way by showing that ill feeling in his sneering little comments or his cold shoulder behaviour whenever Nate was in the same room with him.
Which, by the end of Nate’s relationship with his brother, was not a lot. If Eric invited Nate out for drinks with Luke there, Nate would give an excuse to be somewhere else. It suited them both to not have to deal with each other.
And yet, here Luke was, in Nate’s home acting like he owned the place. He didn’t appear to be embarrassed to be caught in Nate’s home like a thief and It rubbed Nate up the wrong way. This was his home, his safe space, and Nate shouldn’t feel like the interloper in his own space, damn it.
He slammed the front door shut louder than he meant to but he couldn’t bring himself to care enough. Kicking his shoes off to land where they may, Nate didn’t wait for the Alpha to answer his questions and brushed past him into the kitchen. Setting his work bag down onto the kitchen island and shrugging out of his heavy raincoat, Nate opened a cabinet to grab a glass to fill it up with tap water. Without pause, he downed the water in heavy gulps.
Nate heard the clinking of metal behind him and, after taking his time to finish the water, he turned to find Luke had followed him on silent feet and was now leaning against the door jam, a set of keys swinging carelessly from his fingers. “Eric sent me to pick up the rest of his stuff.”
Nate turned back to the sink to hide his hurt scowl. Of course he did. It was becoming clearer with each day that passed since Eric had walked out the front door to never return that the Alpha had been born without a spine. He couldn’t bring himself to look upon the omega he had so carelessly rejected and see what he had wrought with his infidelity. Instead he sent his big brother to clean up after him.
His hand clenched around the glass and the pressure threatened to break it to pieces. “All of his belongings are in the guest room,” he said curtly. “I’ve packed it all away in bags. Take it and leave me alone.”
Luke made a humming sound in the back of his throat. “That’s no way to treat a guest in your house.”
Nate shrugged his shoulders carelessly. “You’re not a guest though, are you. You're the brother of my ex who broke into my house without so much as a by your leave.”
“I didn’t break in, I had Eric’s keys.”
Nate dumped the glass into the sink with a worrying clanking sound and spun around, hand outstretched as he waggled his fingertips. “Thank you for reminding me. I’ll have his set of keys back now. Thank you for returning them to me.”
Luke seemed to hesitate, contemplating Nate’s outstretched hand like he really was going to keep them, before he let Nate have them back. Their fingers brushed together and it was like an electric current passing between them. Nate quickly withdrew from him, dropping the keys into a drawer and slamming it shut.
Nate turned back to find Luke appraising him, his dark eyes trailing up and down Nate’s body with a contemplative look on his face. Nate was instantly on his guard, cheeks reddening in embarrassment to be on the receiving end of such a look from an Alpha like Luke. “What?” he asked, wary.
“You’ve lost weight since the last time I saw you.” Luke said eventually in reply. “You were always slim, but now you’re…” He seemed to flounder for words and Nate couldn’t help but be surprised by that. The great Luke Miller, master of talking people to his way of thinking in important board meetings, lost for the right things to say? Surely not.
Honestly, Nate hadn’t really noticed that anything had changed in his appearance. What he looked like wasn’t a big factor in his life at the moment and he couldn’t remember a time that he had given himself more than a cursory glance in the mirror to check that his suit was on right or that his wavy hair wasn’t sticking up at odd angles. But now Luke had mentioned it, his trousers were a little more loose around the waist and the shoulders of his shirts and jackets were a little less fitted than what they had been.
When was the last time he actually prepared a decent meal for himself and not simply eating cereal straight from the box or a pre-packaged sandwich from the local tescos? He couldn’t remember and that was slightly worrying.
Luke’s next words almost echoed Nate’s inner thoughts. “Are you eating properly? When was the last time you cooked?”
Nate snorted inelegantly at that. “What’s my diet to you?”
The muscle in Luke’s cheek jumped as he ground his teeth together in irritation. “You should be taking better care of yourself.”
Nate crossed his arms in front of his chest, defensive. “I’m doing just fine, thanks.”
“Are you?” Luke pushed away from the door frame, straightening up to his full height and stepping further into the kitchen. He seemed to take up the space with his presence, making Nate feel crowded against the sink. “Really? Because from where I’m standing, it doesn’t look like you are. You’re practically wasting away from lack of decent food and your apartment looks like its been turned into a dumping ground for your neighbour’s trash-”
“It does not!” Nate squawked indignantly. He furtively glanced around the room and clocked the mountain of dirty laundry piling up outside the washing machine, the discarded newspapers and various work papers all over the kitchen island, and the overflowing recycling bin with the aforementioned cereal boxes. Guiltily, he changed tactics. “I’ve been working a lot lately, if you must know. I haven’t had the time to spruce the place up for visitors who won’t mind their own damn business-”
“Your pining away to an early grave and for what? My good for nothing brother?” He sounded incredulous. “He gave you a promise ring, started to make a home for the two of you with the intent of a happily ever after, while at the same time he was whispering sweet nothings to his vapid naïve personal assistant.”
“Stop,” Nate said quietly, heart hammering in his chest at hearing it.
Luke’s eyes flashed with his anger, the most emotion Nate had ever seen from him. “So now your eyes are opened to what Eric really is, the selfish cold hearted coward that he always had been since he was a child, and instead of thanking your lucky stars you found out before you mated permanently with him, you retreat from the world.”
“Stop it,” Nate said with more force.
Luke didn’t seem to hear him. “You cease to exist, nothing more than the hurt and the shame that he has dealt you-”
“Shut up, shut up, shut up!” Nate screamed, effectively quieting the Alpha with his own rage. Nate breathed heavily, like he had run a mile full tilt. Pure anger made Nate see red, it had his hands flexing on his arms as he wanted to take a step closer, curl his fingers into a fist and ram it into that beautiful face with as much strength as he could muster. To break some bones, to make blood spurt from his nose and drip from his chin. He wanted to hurt Luke instead of being the one to hurt.
“You don’t get to say those things to me,” Nate said, voice trembling with emotion. “You have no right, when all you’ve done since the moment we met is put me down and degrade me because I was never good enough for your brother to be in a relationship with in the first place.”
Luke blinked at that. “That was never my intention.”
Nate snorted inelegantly. “Right, and I’m just supposed to believe that, am I? You could barely stay in the same room as me, and when you did, you always had something rude to say. If you really didn’t think I was worthy enough, then what was it all for?”
Those dark eyes shuttered and Luke’s face became unreadable. “You got it the wrong way round. It was never about you being worthy of being courted by my brother. It was that you were too good for him.”
Nate stared wide eyed, utterly speechless, as the Alpha silently left the kitchen and disappeared into the guest room to collect Eric’s things. Nate stayed frozen against the sink as he watched Luke emerge with the bags over his shoulders. Pausing with his hand on the front door handle, Luke turned back to Nate with a severe frown.
“Eat something, for god sake. You look like a waif with those big eyes of yours.” With that order hanging between them, Luke left with Nate staring after him.
It was an unlucky happenstance that Nate caught sight of it.
Nate had popped into the newsagents In his work lunch to grab a bar of dairy milk chocolate that he had been craving for since he entered his office that morning. Waiting in the small queue to pay, Nate fished around his suit trouser pocket for spare change and managed to drop the coins all over the floor in his fumbling's.
Cursing softly under his breath, he bent to pick them up when a stack of newspapers next to him caught his eye. Or rather, the society news pamphlet that was slipping free from it’s pages caught his eye. Splashed on the front cover was the dashing smile of Eric Miller, his arms wrapped around his incandescent personal assistant Poppy Saunders. Beneath their smiling visage was a small column of print which read:
It is with great pride that the Miller family and the Saunders family announce the upcoming wedding of their children, Eric Daniel Miller and Penelope Louise Saunders.
Eric and Penelope will become Mr. and Mrs. Miller on Saturday 18th July before friends and family at Pankhurst Manor in Westchester.
Saturday 18th July, Nate thought numbly. That was four days away from now.
“Sir? Are you alright?” The teenage cashier asked as she stared down at his hunched form with growing concern on her face. “Do you need any help?”
“No. No, I’m fine.” Nate swallowed with difficulty, straightening up and almost stumbling to the cash register. He paid for his suddenly uninteresting chocolate bar without another incident and practically ran away from the shop in his hate.
Once outside, he breathed the fresh air deeply, trying to get himself back under control. His hands were shaking and he balled them into fists, sticking them into his pockets to hide them. There was no promise ring on his finger anymore, and the absence of it was still jarring. Eric had been morose to find out that Nate had thrown the expensive item away when he had come home and Nate had confronted him with what he had seen. But even then, there had been some small hope, a ting thought that Nate hadn’t realised he had been harbouring inside of himself that Eric would finally see he had made a big mistake and come back to him…
Well, no matter. Nate had always been an idiot when it came to his heart. It made no difference that it was now in black and white print.
It started with an abundance of groceries being delivered straight to Nate’s door.
“I didn’t order any of this,” Nate said with mounting confusion as the deliverer brought in bag after bag to be placed at his feet. They were Waitrose bags, Nate has never shopped in the fancier supermarket in his whole life.
The deliverer looked down at his clipboard with all the delivery details. “I don’t think so, Sir. It has your address here, plain as day. And the customer is a Mr. Luke Devereaux.”
“Ah,” Nate said with a little sigh of dawning realisation. He cast his eyes over the numerous bags, peering into them and seeing fresh fruit and vegetables, pasta, rice, eggs, a multitude of sauces for all types of meals, chicken, potatoes, homemade soups, decaf tea bags, semi skimmed milk, farmhouse bread and much more. It was everything that Nate would have picked out himself and Nate was baffled as to how Luke would know that about him. “Right, my mistake.”
“If you could sign here, please,” The deliverer offered the clipboard to him with a pen and Nate did as he was told, still bewildered by all of this.
“Thank you,” Nate said and waved the beta off as he got back into his van to drive off to his next appointment. He shut the door and turned back to the bags, eyeing them all suspiciously. He had nothing else to do but to pack it all away so it wouldn't spoil.
Which led to Nate opening the fridge and immediately blanching at what he saw. It was practically empty, but what was in there had spoiled. Wrinkling his nose at the smell, he thoroughly cleaned out the fridge and packed the fresh produce all away. The smell from the bins was atrocious, so he tied a knot tightly in the bin liner and took it out to the wheelie bins to deposit it safely.
Without much thought to what he was doing, he began to clear up the kitchen of its mess. With a fridge and pantry now brimming with delicious food, it only seemed right that he get the kitchen back under control. He cleaned the month of neglect from every surface until it gleamed with freshness. And when that was done, it brought the messiness of the rest of the apartment into sharp relief.
Nate couldn’t have that, it didn’t feel right to leave the rest of it. He then spent the rest of the day cleaning every room from top to bottom, the industriousness of his efforts after a long time of stagnation almost therapeutic to him. Seeing his progress was like a balm to raw wounds. With every spray of a disinfectant bottle, every item packed away into its proper place, was like wiping away evidence of Eric ever being there. With the heavy scent of cleaning fluid in the air, Nate couldn’t no longer smell Eric’s expensive aftershave, his Alpha scent on the newly laundered sheets being washed away.
He thought it would kill him to no longer feel or scent the Alpha in his home, but it didn’t. After a month of wallowing in his misery, he no longer felt the crushing rejection Eric had dealt him. A little numb thinking about it perhaps, but Nate felt the heavy weight of his grief finally lifting.
He even took more than a cursory look in a mirror and what he saw was a little alarming. Luke had been right, he had lost weight and certainly more than he was aware of. He had always been slim, but the weight loss made his cheekbones more sharp, his blue eyes all the more bigger in his face. His blonde hair was in need of a good cut, the length of it now touching the lobe of his ears and getting into his face. He imagined it must have been a shock to Luke to see Nate like this considering that Nate had always been a tidy person in his visage.
No more misery , he told his reflection. It was time to move on, to look to the future and figure out how he wants his life to go.
It was only a little galling that it took a kind gesture from Luke Miller, of all people, to get him to take the first step to healing.
Next came the time when Nate got home from work to find a locksmith changing the locks of his front door. Before he can demand just what the man thought he’s doing, the locksmith spots him and offers him a friendly little wave.
“Hey there, you must be Nathaniel. Mr Miller sent me to change your locks for you. He said your security could be compromised and you needed to have your locks changed for more robust ones that are on the market.”
“He- He did?” Nate stuttered, coming up short. His security was compromised? By who? Was Luke thinking of Eric, that perhaps he made a copy of the key and he knew Nate would ask for it back? What was Luke thinking his brother would do exactly? Sneak into Nate’s apartment, the Omega he left for someone else, and watch him sleep?
The idea was insane and so Alpha that it wasn’t even funny.
The locksmith turned back to his work. “You can never be too careful when your home is in the city, as I always tell my missus. But with these babies, I defy any little thief with clever tools to break in.” He tapped the heavy duty looking locks with a satisfied smile.
Again, Nate had no choice but to sit back and allow the work to happen. His bewilderment over what was happening was turning into a low burn of irritation. He was starting to feel like he was being handled, that an Alpha saw a weak, helpless Omega and didn’t think twice about making decisions for them without the thought of asking first. Nate’s diet and his locks were no business of Luke’s and yet -
And yet.
A thought suddenly occurred to Nate and his heart skipped a beat at the implication of it. An Alpha being concerned with an Omega’s sustenance and his safety, wasn’t that an Alpha’s prerogative to see to an Omega’s needs if they were interested in them in terms of a serious courtship? It was a natural instinct within an Alpha to prove to their prospective mate that they would be a successful match, that they can take care of them and be what they need them to be.
Was Luke trying to do that Nate thought he was doing? Which seemed just as insane to contemplate, Luke had never shown one ounce of interest in Nate since they had first met, so why would he be doing things like this for him?
It couldn’t be what Nate was thinking, it just couldn’t be.
Nate finally snapped when, no more than a week later, another delivery was dropped off at his doorstep. This time it was a tailored dark blue jacket of a material so soft and luxurious, Nate immediately knew it must have cost a small fortune. With it was a small hand written note that read, so you can look more presentable for your work days.
Nate stared at the jacket for long moments before he turned on his heel, fished his coat out of the closet and marched out the door. Walking with clipped steps, he got to the main road and flagged down a black taxi, giving the address of Luke’s place of work. The taxi driver must have sensed Nate’s agitated mood as he didn’t make small talk and got to Luke’s office in record time.
It was only when he got to the reception and the young female secretary blinked up at him in inquiry that he wondered just what he was planning to do now he was here. Was Luke even going to see him, the big powerful businessman that he was?
Nate cleared his throat uncertainty. “I’m here to see Mr. Miller.”
“Do you have an appointment?” She asked politely.
“No, but if you tell him that Nathaniel is here to see him, he’ll let me in,” Nate replied with more confidence than he actually felt.
She gave him a professional smile that couldn't quite hide the doubt in that, but she pressed a number of the keys on her keyboard and spoke quietly into her headset. Another quick blink at the reply and she turned her curious eyes back to him. “You can go up now. On The Eighth floor, the office is right at the end of the hall. You can’t miss it.”
“Thank you,” he nodded gratefully to her and headed for the elevators.
Once on the eighth floor, he stepped out of the elevator and followed the hall all the way to double doors with gold lettering of Luke’s name, Luke Miller, Company Director. Luke was there already waiting for him. He opened the doors wider for Nate to step through, a concerned frown on his face. “Nate? Is everything alright?”
Nate stepped into the office with a little laugh that bordered on the hysterical. “I don’t know, am I, Luke?”
Luke shut the door after him carefully, his frown tightening and lips thinning. “Am I supposed to guess the answer to that?”
Nate raised his eyebrows sardonically and held a finger up. “How about we start with you buying my groceries and having them delivered to my house?”
Luke’s face was about as expressive as a stone wall. “Your fridge and cupboards were practically empty.”
Nate held a second finger up. “And then you thought my locks needed changing because they weren’t good enough for you.”
He shrugged. “They weren’t. You live in the city, Nate. There’s no telling what could happen if you kept those flimsy locks-”
Nate narrowed his eyes at the Alpha in warning. “And then you bought me a fancy jacket that would cost me a whole month’s wages.”
Luke simply shrugged again. “It’s a good jacket.”
“Luke,” Nate said, growing tired of the evasion and deciding to have it all out once and for all. “Are you actually courting me?”
Luke drew up short, and Nate had a heart stopping horrifying moment that he had been all wrong, that he had put his ego first and saw what he wanted to see.
Wanted?
Did he want Luke to see him like that? Nate had viewed him through the lens that Eric had provided, a lens that was coloured by a younger brother’s personal jealousy, but even then Nate could see the Alpha’s positive attributes. He really was attractive, and he was a successful businessman, loyal to his family and, it seems, attentive to Omega’s that were rejected by a said family member.
Nate’s eyes widened. “Oh God, I didn’t mean-”
“And If I was? What would you say then?” Luke said it carelessly, like a throwaway comment. Like it was a challenge, something in which the outcome was neither here nor there.
But Nate wasn’t fooled. Despite what Nate considered a limited interaction between them, he could see the little tells in his body language that he did very much care. It was in the clenched hands at his sides, his shoulders under his impeccable suit jacket stiff and straight, the slight narrowing of his eyes as he regarded Nate.
Nate bit his lip. “If that was the case, then I would have to ask you why? Every time we have met, you have acted like you can’t stand to be in the same room as me. That I was beneath you and your family and now you expect me to believe that you actually like me enough to want to court me-”
Luke makes a sound of frustration in his throat, combing a hand through his perfectly styled hair and messing it up. “That wasn’t my intention. I didn’t mean to make you feel bad being near me, I just…”
Nate watched him flounder for a moment. Where had the self assured Alpha gone all of a sudden? “You just what?”
Luke breathed out through his nose and gave a funny little smile. “I saw you first, did you know? Before Eric, before the two of you got together.”
“I-I didn’t know that,” Nate said with some confusion.
Luke didn’t look particularly shocked at that. “We attended the same New Year's party at the Key thirty three restaurant. You were with some friends and Eric and I were with some of my work colleagues. I heard you laughing and I-I couldn’t stop staring. You looked so happy and carefree and I would have given anything to have been part of your party, to hear what you were laughing at, to be the one to make you smile as you did. But I didn’t know how to put myself forward like that, to simply introduce myself to Omegas with any sort of purpose that didn’t come across as intimidating.”
Nate looked at him with wide eyes. “But Eric did. That was the night when I met him, he came right over to speak to me. We swapped phone numbers that night.”
Luke’s face clouded over in undisguised anger. “Eric is very good at insinuating himself with people. He saw the way I looked at you and he made the excuse of getting an introduction for me with you. Turns out he wanted you for himself.”
“I had no idea…” Nate trailed off as a painful thought occurred. Nate knew how Eric felt about Luke, how jealous he was of his brother’s station in life. Did he come over to Nate with the intention of getting one over on Luke? Was that the reason Eric started a Courtship with Nate and couldn’t bring himself to complete it?
That area of thinking left a bad taste in Nate’s mouth, that he had been something to rub Luke’s face in.
“It wasn’t that I didn’t like you, Nate. It was because I couldn’t stand being in the same room as you when Eric hung all over you. My anger made me snap and I wasn’t particularly graceful about it.” Luke said.
Nate rolled his shoulders in a shrug, the tension thrumming through his body made them ache. He felt humiliated. Shamed. It made him lash out. “So I’ve been caught between two warring Alpha brothers all this time,” Nate swallowed roughly, feeling that humiliation fester inside of him. It had all been a game, just a bloody game to them both. “Good to know. Well, when you boys are done grandstanding with each other, let me know. I’m done with you both.”
Nate turned and took two steps towards the door with the intention of walking right out of there. But before he could do so, strong hands caught him by the upper arms. With careful strength, Nate was swung around and guided against the large desk. Nate threw his hands out against the surface so that he didn’t end up face first into the wood. “What are you-”
The Alpha didn’t give him time to catch his breath as he used his bulk to cage Nate in, the length of his body curving around Nate like a blanket. His own hands braced them against the desk, implacable. The position put Luke’s mouth directly at Nate’s ear. “This isn’t about any war between me and Luke, this is about you and me. It always was. Whenever I allowed myself to get close to you, I smelled your interest. You were receptive to my presence. Was I wrong in thinking this?”
Nate sucked in a noisy embarrassed breath as those soft lips caressed the outer shell of his ear, tongue flicking out to catch the lobe and drew it into his mouth and immediately sucked.
Nate gave a full body shudder, his mouth opening on a silent ah! Luke wasn’t wrong, Nate had been attracted to him. It was difficult not to be, his omega side had instantly sat up and taken notice every time he had entered the room. But Nate had put it down to simple biology. Eric hadn’t completed their bond by biting him and Nate’s caveman instincts had seen Luke as a worthy potential mate who could get the job done.
He tilted his head to the side, giving the Alpha better access and closed his eyes at the sensation. His ears had always been an erogenous spot for him and Luke exploited it remarkably well. His voice came out breathy and strained when he answered his question with, “Yes.”
Nate felt the Alpha’s satisfied smile against his skin. “I thought so. Deep down, you knew Eric couldn’t cut it. He couldn’t keep you.”
“I…” Had he always known? Nate’s hands tightened on the wood of the desk as those lips began to trace the curve of his neck, tongue lapping at the sweat he found there. Right over the bond site. Heat pooled just behind Nate’s belly button, little shocks of pleasure dancing up and down his spine and he helplessly arched his back to press himself more firmly against the hard length of the Alpha’s incredible body.
Luke’s chest rumbled with a low vibration of a growl and it reverberated throughout Nate’s body, the feeling going straight to his cock. He felt himself start to grow hard in the confines of his trousers, throbbing with his quickening pulse.
“We shouldn't be doing this,” Nate said breathlessly, but he made no move to push Luke away.
“No?” Luke asked mildly. One of the Alpha’s hands left the table to wrap around his chest and he straightened up to a standing position. The move made Nate straighten up with him, pressed tight to his chest. He felt the rigid line of the Alpha’s cock against the small of his back. “Who says?”
“But the door,” Nate said in a last ditch effort for them to see some common sense. “Anyone can walk right in on us.”
“No they won’t,” Luke said with such sure confidence that Nate believed him. “They wouldn’t dare.”
Luke ground himself against Nate in a taste of what’s to come and Nate couldn’t help himself. He gave a little whimper as his brain blanked out and he ground back against him, his hips moving in tight little circles.
The Alpha’s hold on him tightened and his other hand gripped Nate’s hip, encouraging him to rub against him harder.
“Did Eric touch you here?” Luke asked, placing a soft kiss at the bond site between Nate’s neck and shoulder, before he bit gently at the skin.
Nate gave a sharp cry of pleasure at the action. It was nowhere near enough pressure to form an actual bond bite, but it was an incredibly sensitive area. Luke bit down just long enough for Nate to truly feel it and then laved the reddened skin with his tongue in a soothing gesture.
“No,” he answered, voice roughened with want. “No, he didn’t.”
The reaction was instantaneous. Luke tilted Nate’s head to the side and captured his lips in a fierce kiss that stole Nate’s breath away. The Alpha’s mouth was hot against his own and Nate surges into him with a keen hunger, trading the ghost of teeth on lips and the warm slide of tongue against tongue. Nate reached up to card his hand through those soft inky strands, using the hair to grip him closer.
The next couple of minutes were a blur as Luke divested Nate of his jacket and shirt, the fabric being carelessly tossed to the floor, the Alpha’s eyes roving over the newly exposed skin hungrily. “Beautiful,” Luke said softly as he let the shirt fall to the desk, his eyes roving over Nate’s face with a hungry gleam. “I knew you would be.”
Embarrassed, Nate didn’t answer. He turned his face back to the desk, assuming his original position with his hands in front of him on the wood, legs apart and hips tilted invitingly up. Luke growled and palmed his ass roughly, his fingertips running suggestively along the seam before squeezing the flesh.
His hands slipped underneath Nate and went to the zip of his trousers, knuckles firmly brushing the bulge of Nate’s cock that made Nate bite his lip almost bloody. He moaned encouragingly, rocking back like he couldn’t get enough of the Alpha’s touch.
He felt slick begin to gather and pool in his boxers.
His trousers were finally opened and the material peeled down to just under his ass. He heard Luke’s intake of breath and his hands fell away from Nate’s hips. “God, you smell amazing,” Luke said with a voice that was deeper than Nate had ever heard it before.
There was the sound of tearing cloth as Luke practically ripped his shirt off of himself. Nate couldn’t help but take a peek over his shoulder. The Alpha was just as Nate had envisaged. He was big and powerful, with corded muscles in his arms and down his stomach. Nate’s eyes were riveted on the dark hair from his navel to the waistband of his trousers.
Luke caught him looking and, like the self satisfied Alpha that he was, began to unzip his own trousers slowly for Nate’s benefit. The material parted and Luke pushed the material roughly down his thighs, revealing gorgeous skin with sharp hip bones and a generously sized cock.
Nate’s eyes widened as he took him in. He was thicker than any Nate had seen and already the base was beginning to swell with the beginnings of a knot. Nate’s slick started to trickle down the inside of his thighs. He may have made a noise in his throat as Luke’s cock gave a jump and Nate’s eyes flickered up to Luke’s face and the Alpha’s mouth was open on panted breath.
“I can smell your arousal,” Luke said, his eyes hooded as he reached for Nate’s hips again. “Do you know how incredible you smell to me right now?”
“About as good as you smell to me, I would imagine,” Nate replied breathlessly, his heart jumping at the thought of trying to fit that thing inside of him.
Luke seemed to read Nate’s mind as he leant forward, chest meeting back, skin against skin, and nipped at Nate’s jawline. “I’ll make it good for you,” he vowed, a hand parting Nate’s cheeks to circle his entrance with a finger. “More than that, I'll wipe the memory of anyone that had you before me.”
The blunt press of Luke’s fingers breached him and he groaned lowly, forcing himself to relax into it. The slick certainly helped, but it had been a while since the last time he and Eric had done this.
“That’s it,” Luke whispered as he scissor his fingers, “You’re being so good for me.” He worked him deftly, patiently, and when Nate was whimpering with every thrust in, the Alpha added a third finger and grazed that sensitive spot inside Nate that had him jerking forward on a loud cry.
Luke did it again and again, nailing that spot each time and Nate already felt his cock start to leak with an impending orgasm, his spine bowing so that his hips arched up for better access. He was so close, just a little more -
Those brilliant fingers disappeared and Nate made a sound of distress at the loss of sensation. “Don’t stop now.”
“Not yet,” Luke shushed, “You’ll be coming on my cock, understand?”
Nate nodded mindlessly, his arms giving out until he was leaning on his elbows, his head dipping forward until his forehead touched the cool surface of the desk as he tried to even his breathing out and reign in his violently shuddering body. “Please, now, Alpha.”
Nate felt Luke shudder above him at hearing that and he growled low in his throat, holding Nate’s hips in a tight grip that promised to leave bruises in the morning. Nate shivered at the thought of possessiveness. He liked being marked. It wasn’t something that Eric seemed particularly comfortable with, so Nate never pushed the issue, but it seemed that perhaps Luke wouldn’t be averse to it. God, he hoped so. Carrying Luke’s marks under his clothes, feeling them ache with every movement, would be a wet dream come true.
Luke lined them up and Nate felt that cock bump against his ass before pushing in slow increments. He breathed through the stretch with calming breaths, twitching as thick inch by thick inch, Luke slipped in. It was an incredible sensation, he felt every ridge of that hard length to the point of being almost overstimulated, his walls contracting around the thick flesh and making Luke break his smooth glide and thrust the last inch or two shallowly until he was all the way in to the hilt.
“God,” Nate choked out brokenly, keeping his hips still as he adjusted to the girth inside of him. Whatever discomfort he was feeling was fast disappearing in favour of a low hum of pleasure, making his toes curl in his shoes with the want of it.
“You like that?” Luke asked as he draped himself over Nate’s back, the new position adding more pressure inside Nate until he felt like he was being split in two.
“Yes, I, yes,” Nate answered nonsensically, his mind being flooded with sensation. “Please move, please.”
Luke’s hands rubbed down Nate’s arms to his hands, encouraging them forward until Nate gripped the opposite edge of the table. Nate was now lying on the table with his chest flush to the surface.
“Hold on,” Luke murmured and Nate did as he was told.
That was all the warning he got. Luke pulled almost completely out before pushing back in and setting a punishing rhythm. The thrusts had enough force to knock all the air out of Nate’s lungs, forcing a drawn-out moan past his parted lips as he continued with the unrelenting pace; knocking Nate’s hips against the edge of the desk, his cock sliding against the smooth wood. The feel of Luke moving within him was the closest thing to ecstasy that he had ever felt in his life.
Luke turned his face into Nate’s neck, nosing at the hairline, before murmuring, “Has anyone had you like this before?”
His voice is low and deep and, dare he say, possessive and it sent tingles running along Nate’s body so that he humped forward against the desk. The Alpha slid his hand under him and gripped Nate’s cock in a tight hold, rubbing at the head before sliding down the shaft with a twist of his wrist.
Nate saw stars in front of his wide eyes. “Ah!”
Nate was now trapped between the thrusting hard cock from behind and the hand that stroked hitching breaths out of him. His knees trembled with the effort in keeping him upright, his legs sliding apart further until his thighs strained with the pull, caught up in the trousers that still hung from them.
“Have they?” Luke asked again with an edge to it, the pace picking up and Nate’s limited brain power scrambled for the original question.
“No, never,” Nate finally answered and his high reedy voice was alien to his ears. It was the truth, no one had ever made him feel like this, Eric had never made him feel like this, this desperate thing clawing and begging for this pleasure. No one had ever given it to him like this, like he could take it all, take more of it, keep taking it -
“Luke!” He cried out as he felt his balls draw up against his body, the beginning of his orgasm building faster than he thought could be possible.
Luke’s hips stuttered at hearing his name, before they were renewed with vigour. His hand around Nate’s cock sped up, the grip a hot glove for Nate to fuck into. “Say it again.” Luke rasped.
Nate did so on a cry, his legs finally giving out beneath him and Luke happily held his hips up, angling him to his preference and Nate’s eyes rolled back into his head.
There was no force on this earth that could have stopped Nate from coming then and there. His cock jerked in the Alpha’s hand and he painted the desk with strips of white, all the while whimpering Luke’s name like a sacred mantra.
Nate’s walls clamped down around Luke’s cock and he felt him swell, his thrusts growing short and, with a loud rumbling groan, he came, pushing in further and rolling his hips as he rode the orgasm out.
Nate felt Luke’s knot swell at the base and he expected the Alpha to hold Nate down to the desk, to push it in and lock them together, but he didn’t. With a groan, he pulled out and Nate felt his seed splash over his cheeks and down his shaking thighs.
Raising his head from the desk, Nate looked at a panting dishevelled Luke over his shoulder with a frown. “Why didn’t you-”
“Not here,” Luke said with a voice that sounded utterly wrecked. “If I knot you here, we would be locked together for about an hour and I don’t think a desk is comfortable enough for that.” Luke’s hands were petting at Nate’s sides until their breathing and heartbeats had slowed down. “When I knot you, I want to be somewhere that we can take our time. Somewhere that I can do it all over again.”
“Oh,” Nate said and felt his already hot cheeks get all the hotter. After all they had done, it was ridiculous that hearing that made him feel embarrassed. “Yes, I. I would like that.”
As Luke helped peel Nate off of his desk, the aches and soreness finally made itself known to Nate now that the pleasure was receding. He was going to really feel it come morning.
“Well, that was unexpected,” he said, floundering for something to say as they quietly put themselves and their clothes back together. He found that he couldn’t make direct eye contact with the Alpha as reality came rushing back to him.
He had just had sex with his ex boyfriends brother at his place of work. Luke’s colleagues most definitely heard them going at it. Oh dear god , what the hell did he just do-
“Hey,” Luke said gently, reaching out and taking Nate by the hands, gripping them in his own. “This was perhaps a little fast, I admit, but I don’t regret it. Do you?”
Nate thought about it and was surprised to find that, while having sex with Eric’s brother was perhaps a little unseemly, he didn’t regret it. Nate’s feelings for Eric had been swept away on a tide of dislike for his mistreatment, and he was attracted to Luke. There was no doubt that he had enjoyed himself.
Luke tightened his hands around Nate’s. “Then how about we start this courtship the right way? Will you go out on a date with me? Say seven tonight? I’ll pick you up and we can go out to that Italian restaurant that just opened up on Cobourg street? I’ll show you that I’m nothing like my brother. I swear it.”
Nate looked up into that earnest face and believed him. “Okay. Seven it is.”
Five months later
Nate and Luke were just coming out of the theatre from seeing Phantom of the Opera, Luke’s arm around Nate’s waist and a fresh mating bite on his neck, when they were stopped by a shocked call that had their heads turning along the sidewalk.
Eric stood several feet away from them, his wide eyes bouncing between the two and an unhappy tilt to his pouting lips. Penny stood next to him, looking on with an embarrassed rouge to her cheeks as she glanced between her mate and Nate. She clearly still felt uncomfortable to be seen by Nate after their history together.
Luke’s grip on Nate tightened possessively and a wild smile graced his features as he stared at his brother. “Eric, hey. Did you come to watch the Phantom of the opera too?”
Eric’s face only seemed to become all the more unhappier. “Yes, mother gave the tickets to me for my birthday.” His eyes passed over Nate again, over the arm that Luke had wrapped around Nate’s waist, like he couldn’t keep them away. “I didn’t know you two were now courting.”
Nate opened his mouth to reply but Luke beat him to it. “It’s a little more serious than that, brother. Nate carries my mating mark. He’s mine.”
Eric’s eyes shot to Nate’s neck and he could just see the bite mark over the collar of Nate’s shirt. He had the audacity to look hurt by such a thing and Nate internally scoffed. You had this and you threw it all away.
But Nate didn’t want to give him the time of day. Not when he was warm and safe under Luke’s arm, had his love and his loyalty for his own. He turned his head away dismissively, turning his face up to Luke. “You promised me dinner in bed.”
Luke’s smile turned impossibly more smug. “I did, didn’t I. I’ll be seeing you, brother.”
With that, they headed in the other direction where Luke’s car was parked. It wasn’t until Nate was sure that Eric couldn’t hear them, that he said to Luke, “You did this on purpose, didn’t you?”
Luke didn’t bother looking guilty at the accusation. “My Mother gave me the idea when she bought the tickets. I wanted him to know what we are to each other. What he tried to stop but didn’t succeed.”
Nate huffed a breath at that. “I think he gets it now, you possessive oaf.”
“Good.” Luke said before dragging Nate closer to him and kissing the top of his head. “Just so we are all clear.”