Braun loved Tarek’s home immediately. The instant Tarek parked in the short driveway, he fell in love with the single-story, white and blue cottage, tucked away on a quiet street with similar homes that showed the same wear and tear. The large porch had all kinds of potted plants on it, and even a big white swing. It was the kind of home Braun had dreamed about, instead of the cheap, dirty government housing they’d ended up in.

Tarek led him inside. The front room was open and airy, with light furniture and gauzy curtains. A high fence kept nosy neighbors out, and so much natural light streamed inside that Braun wanted to lay down and bask in it. He ignored his body’s new urges, the way his insides were shifting to accommodate the heat, as Tarek gave him a tour.

The kitchen took up a good quarter of the house, with modern appliances and a small dinette set modeled after a popular retro style. A little mudroom in the back with a washer and dryer led out to a well-tended backyard, that had a brick patio and covered barbecue.

“Dex and Serge love having cookouts in the summer,” Tarek said. “They always volunteer my place, since they can’t have a grill in an apartment with no balcony.”

“I can’t wait.” Braun didn’t care how that sounded, as if assuming he’d still be there next year, when the weather warmed again.

He wanted to be. He loved this house, and he wanted to stay.

Tarek pointed out the bathroom, and next to it, the house’s only bedroom. “I’ll sleep on the couch, while you’re in here.”

The bedroom was as airy as the rest of the house, with pale green walls and three huge windows. They faced the back and side yards, so there were no curtains, but Braun spotted packages of curtains and rods in the corner. He pointed.

“I wasn’t sure if you’d want them,” Tarek said, his cheeks pinking up, and how adorable was it to see a big alpha blush? “For privacy.”

“I don’t know.” Braun walked past the big bed to stand at one of the windows. Yes, the fence blocked the neighbors, but what if an alpha walked by and could scent him from the street? What if he waltzed into the yard to investigate? Braun would die of embarrassment if a stranger caught him mid-heat, fucking himself silly with a dildo.

“I’ll hang them anyway,” Tarek said. “You can close them if you wish.”

“Thank you. I love your house.”

“I can tell. Your face completely lit up when you came inside. It’s as if you belong here.”

I do.

The air between them shifted, growing heavier with need and desire.

Tarek cleared his throat. “Serge is coming by later with all of the groceries he bought for you, since I don’t have a lot that’s healthy. I can cook in a pinch, but it’s no fun doing it for one, so I tend to order delivery or eat frozen pre-mades.”

“Makes sense.” They really needed to get out of this bedroom that was filling with their combined scents before—oh. Lust pooled in his groin so quickly Braun gasped. His passage pulsed, and a warm slick scented the air with its unique fragrance. Braun’s skin burned with need, and he took a full step backward from Tarek. “Too late for the curtains.”

“What?” Tarek’s nostrils flared. His body jerked in Braun’s direction as he fully scented Braun’s heat. His complete, full-on, slicked and ready heat.

Braun couldn’t move. This was the moment he’d feared—the moment when Tarek either proved himself a true, awful alpha and bent Braun over, or he proved to be a man of his word and respected Braun’s wish to get through his heat alone. His entire body ached with need, and Braun fought his own instinct to fall to his knees and put his ass in the air, because that’s all he wanted. That’s all he was. A hole to fuck, a womb to fill.

Tarek walked out and shut the bedroom door. “The keys to the locks are on the dresser. Use them.”

It took Braun several seconds to understand the words over the cravings of his body. He walked to the door, Tarek’s scent still so close and so potent. With trembling fingers, he turned both hasps and snapped the locks into place.

“Oh goddess.” The first surge of need sent Braun to his knees, so powerful he wasn’t sure what to do. He pressed his face into the cool hardwood floor and tilted his ass into the air, needing someone to fill him. To fuck him. To knot him and calm his body’s rioting desire. But no one did, and the intense burn-itch of his skin made him whine.

“Make it stop,” he said to no one.

He didn’t want this. This intense ache in his passage, the slick gathering there, the need to be used over and over, until exhausted. He ripped his shirt off, but even the cool floor didn’t ease the burn. He tried his pants and underwear, rolling his overheated body around on the floor, but that did nothing but leave smears of fluid behind.

I can’t manage forty-eight hours of this. I can’t.

A horrible thought occurred to him as he writhed there, alone in Tarek’s bedroom: he’d left the dildo at the apartment.

Tarek sat with his back to the bedroom door, dick in hand, and he jerked himself hard to the noises and smells coming from behind him. He needed to take the edge off so he wasn’t a complete bastard when Serge stopped by. He also needed to call in a few days of sick leave so he could be here to protect and support his omega.

His omega, who was moaning and cursing constantly, begging for it to stop, and Tarek couldn’t do anything to ease Braun’s misery. The alpha in him demanded he rip off the door, or smash one of the windows, anything to get to Braun. Anything to be able to slide his hard cock into that willing, slick hole.

No. You won’t go to him until he calls for you.

Period.

He’d never betray Braun’s trust by forcing his way into the room. Never.

His balls tightened, and he came into a wad of tissues. It helped a bit, but his erection didn’t go down. It probably wouldn’t for the next two days, not while the house was full of their pheromones, and he didn’t dare open the windows for fresh air. Every alpha on the block would end up prowling his yard.

Tarek slipped out of his uniform shirt—in his haste to get Braun here, he hadn’t managed to return to the locker room to change—then got a t-shirt from the dirty laundry, as the rest of his clothes were temporarily off-limits. He had enough stuff in the cupboards to throw together an easy dinner of spaghetti and jarred sauce, slightly doctored with spices and parmesan cheese, and it was ready when Serge showed up at six, bogged down with shopping bags.

“He’s in heat, isn’t he?” Serge asked, tilting his head at the shut bedroom door.

“Almost as soon as we got here.”

“How are you handling it?”

Tarek waved a hand at his tented work trousers. “The locks are all on his side of the door.”

“Smart move.”

They unpacked the groceries, and then sat down to eat. Feeding Serge was thanks for the handful of favors he needed to ask before Serge left. After they ate, Tarek fixed a smaller plate for Braun and added it to a tray with two sports drinks and a bar of dark chocolate. Serge gave him a funny look over the candy.

“What?” Tarek grumbled. “It has antioxidants or something good for you.”

Serge knocked on the bedroom door and announced himself. It took several minutes for Braun to unlock the door and let him in with the tray, as well as a screwdriver, the dildo he’d brought from Braun’s room at the apartment, and Braun’s phone. The blast of slick-scented air had Tarek racing for the bathroom before he came standing in the kitchen.

He stood over the toilet and jerked off for the second time in less than an hour. Despite having taken his usual shot of alpha suppressant that week, his body was still responding uncontrollably to his omega. His body knew his omega needed him, and only his strong mental control was keeping Tarek out of that bedroom.

After he shot into the bowl, he took a cold shower. Serge would be busy for a while; Tarek had asked him to hang the curtains, so Braun had his privacy. Tarek was dried and dressed in dirty clothes, and he was as far away from the bedroom door as possible when Serge finally emerged, his face a little green around the edges.

“You owe me big time for this one,” Serge said. He threw two sets of clean clothes at Tarek, which scattered across the living room floor, and then went to the refrigerator to grab a can of beer. Snapped the tab and gulped.

Tarek grumbled as he collected his clothes. “I’ll buy you a bottle of that expensive bourbon you like.”

“Okay, good.” Serge sank onto the sofa across from Tarek, his skin reeking of Braun, and Tarek growled, not liking that at all. “Down, boy. I didn’t touch him.”

“Good.”

“I did, however, have the unfortunate experience of listening to him fuck himself with that dildo while I tried to hang curtain rods straight.” Serge shuddered. “I mean, I’m no prude, but it’s different when someone is delirious with hormones and crying for the real thing.”

Tarek slammed his eyes shut against the mental image of Serge seeing his omega in such a vulnerable, private position. It wasn’t Serge’s fault. He’d asked his friend to do him the favor, but he couldn’t help hating Serge a little for having seen it. “Did you make sure he ate?”

“He ate a few bites, but he really didn’t want me near him. I’ll check on him again in a little while.”

“Thank you.” He opened his eyes. “I know this isn’t pleasant for you, either.”

“No, but I’m a nurse. I’ve seen omegas in heat before. It’s different when it’s a friend, though. Someone I care about.”

“I want to go to him so badly,” Tarek admitted. “So, so badly. He’s my mate, Serge, I know he is, and I need to help him. But we also talked about this, and I promised him I wouldn’t until he let me in.”

“He’s lucky to have you.” Serge gulped more beer. “So what exactly happened at Kell’s house today?”

Tarek gave his friend an abbreviated version of the story, careful to keep his anger in check, so he didn’t let hormones send him back to Krause’s house in a rage. He’d kill the man if provoked, Tarek knew he would. Krause had tried to rape his omega today, and Tarek deserved to have his revenge. So did Braun.

Stuffing Krause’s ass full of railroad spikes is a good start.

The violent thought curbed his arousal a bit, but not enough to make his pants any more comfortable.

“You genuinely care about him, don’t you?” Serge asked.

“I do. He’s mine, and I’ll do anything to protect him. I think I love him, but I don’t want to scare him off by saying it too soon. He’s so skittish about mating, and he has his reasons, so I have to be careful. I can’t lose him.”

Serge grinned. “In all the years I’ve known you, I’ve never heard you talk like that about anyone.”

“I’ve never met anyone like Braun. He thinks he’s weak, but he’s so strong. I saw that same spirit in his brother while he was in the hospital. I hate that I can’t do anything for Kell. Helping him would make Braun so incredibly happy.”

“You’re a constable. Isn’t there something you can do?”

Tarek shook his head and grumped. He wanted a beer, but he needed to be clear-headed for Braun. “Not yet. It’s completely legal for an alpha to allow betas to adopt an omega or beta child, and we have zero laws about domestic abuse between alphas and omegas. It’s always been socially accepted that the omega deserves the discipline, even if they’ve done nothing wrong.”

“Even if someone fucks up, that’s no excuse to hit them. Ever. I can’t think of a single thing short of cheating on me that would ever have me raise a hand to Dex.”

“But you’re betas.”

“So? Gender shouldn’t matter when it comes to physical violence. Omegas don’t deserve to be beaten simply because society assumes they’re weak. Alphas shouldn’t be excused for violence against the other genders simply because they’re alphas!” Serge’s voice rose by the end, and his cheeks blazed.

His anger poked at Tarek’s own temper, but he kept it in. “I’m not trying to excuse alpha violence at all,” he said gently. “I would die if I ever raised a hand to Braun, or to you or Dex. You guys are my family.”

Serge gulped down the rest of his beer, then squeezed the can into a strange shape. “I know, I just…violent alphas are a trigger for me.”

Tarek sat up straighter and studied his friend. A friend he’d met through Dex and who didn’t talk much about his past. And it hit him. “An alpha hurt you.”

“Yeah.”

“Who?”

“No one you could possibly know. It happened back in nursing school, and they moved to another province years ago.” Serge’s eyes flashed with pain. “Let’s just say until I met Dex, I never wanted to be in a relationship with anyone, not ever. Meeting him saved my life.”

“Then I’m glad you did.”

Tarek remembered the first time he’d heard Serge’s name fall from Dex’s lips, more than five years ago after the pair had gone on their first date. Dex had been smitten even then, intent on snaring the quiet, antisocial beta nurse he’d met through a friend of a friend. They broke up and made up several times over the course of five months, before realizing they were meant to be together.

“Does Dex know what happened?”

Serge’s lips pressed into a thin line. “Yes.”

“Good. I’m glad you could tell someone.” Whatever Serge had gone through in his past, Tarek was grateful he had Dex in his life to share the burden. “May I ask you something personal?”

“I don’t want to talk about nursing school.”

“Of course not. I’d never ask about that, but I would listen if you wanted to talk. No, I’m curious about when you and Dex first got together. You guys kept breaking up and then trying again. Dex never talks about why.”

Serge snorted. “That kind of surprises me since the issue was you.”

“Me?”

“When I met Dex I hated alphas. I worked with so many alpha doctors who looked down on me as a nurse, and then there was what happened in school, and I hated that you two were friends. We fought about it so many times. I didn’t understand why he trusted you until I spent more time with you.”

“I won you over with my sparkling personality?”

Serge shook his head. “Your kindness. I know it isn’t very alpha to be kind to others, but you are, Tarek. I think what sealed it for me was Dex’s birthday party that year. You had a barbecue and invited people you didn’t even know, because they either knew Dex or knew me. You went out of your way to make sure I had people around I knew, and that I was comfortable here. I’ve never forgotten that.”

Tarek wasn’t sure what to say. “Dex is my best friend. You were important to him, so that made you important to me, even if you were a little skittish.”

“Not anymore. Not like I used to be. But it’s men like Krause who give alphas a terrible image. They do what they want, take what they want, everyone else be damned.”

A loud, muffled moan came from the other side of the wall. Tarek flushed.

“Sounds like someone got through the first surge,” Serge said. “He should be able to eat and rest for a while. I’ll go check on him.”

“Okay. Thank you.”

“Of course. He’s my friend too.”

Serge crossed to the bedroom door and knocked. It took a while before the door opened for him. A dizzying waft of slick, come and his omega’s scent sent Tarek’s flagging dick back to full mast.

He scurried for the front door so he could put his head under the damned garden hose.

* * *

Six hours.

Six. Hours.

Braun had gone through two surges in the past six hours, and he was exhausted. His arm hurt from fucking himself with the dildo. His ass hurt because the dildo wasn’t what he really needed to fill his aching passage. His limbs hurt from rolling around on the hardwood floor.

Tarek really needed to invest in some throw rugs.

After the second surge ended, Serge helped him take a shower. Tarek stood outside the door the entire time, Braun could tell by his strong scent. The jealousy was a turn-on, but Braun couldn’t think about being turned on right then. His perpetually hard dick left him somewhat dizzy, and he leaned on Serge more than was probably advisable. But Serge was a nurse and his friend, and he’d help them all get through this.

Only forty-two hours left. Yay.

Kill me now.

Tarek must have gone into the bedroom to clean the floors, because it smelled fresher after Braun’s shower. He didn’t bother dressing, simply wrapped a towel around his waist and called it a win. A big, fluffy blanket had been spread out on the floor this time, so that was nice. Braun wanted to thank Tarek in person, but one look at his alpha and he’d be lost.

He. Couldn’t. Lose. Control.

He was desperate for Tarek to fuck him.

“I hate this,” he said as Serge helped him sit on the bed.

“I know,” Serge replied. He shut the door, but didn’t turn the locks. “He’s outside, it’s okay. And the first heat is the worst. They won’t all be this bad.”

“Are you sure?”

“It’s what they teach us in nursing school.”

“Oh good.” Braun stretched out on his back, exhausted, but not sleepy. “Why am I being so stubborn about this again?”

“Because you’re afraid.” Serge sat near his head, so his image was upside down and sideways.

“I’m not scared of Tarek.”

“Not in your heart. But you’re afraid of what might happen in the future, instead of embracing what you have right now. Tarek has a genuinely good heart, and not a lot of alphas do. Don’t lose him out of fear.”

“But why do I deserve him? Why do I get a kind, generous alpha while my brother suffers at the hands of his? It’s not fair.”

“No, it’s not fair, but it’s life. I never thought I’d be loved by anyone until I met Dex, and I was scared at first. But now I don’t regret a single moment, and I can look back on that fear and realize how silly it was. Our hearts know, Braun. Listen to yours.”

Braun wanted to so badly, but he wasn’t completely sure what his heart was telling him.

I want Tarek.

But was that his heart, or his heat talking? Until he knew for sure, Braun would continue to resist the lure of his waiting alpha and deal with this himself.