“About time,” JT hissed, taking the call out of the bedroom and into the spacious, tastefully decorated living area. Waking Alec would only anger him more than taking Parrot’s call.

After ignoring him for two weeks and then some, he finally got around to answering JT’s messages. The asshole. All JT thought when he carried the phone into a quieter, Alec-free space and stared at Parrot’s number and name on his caller I.D. was how the beta better have a good reason for not calling earlier.

“You could have picked up a fucking phone, too,” Parrot snapped, his anger firing up JT.

Glancing over his shoulder, JT growled, “Careful.”

“Or what?” Parrot challenged. “Also, I could ask you the damn same: where the hell have you been? No club meetings anymore. Would you like me to rip your patch off now, or will you be mailing them here? You know, unless you’ve forgotten where you used to live up until you decided to ditch me.”

Ditch him?

JT ground his teeth together, calling for calm in the raging storm battering his heart and insides, making a mess of his rational functioning. But if he had any chance at talking to Parrot, getting through to his friend, and mending their fragile friendship, he had to get a grip on the anger that wouldn’t help break down barriers.

After a long silence, JT tested the other line. “Still there?”

When Parrot grumbled, “I thought you hung up on me.”

“I thought the same thing,” JT admitted. He sighed then. “You want to know where I am, but that’s not important. Let’s just say, I’m trying to help you.”

“Help me?” Parrot echoed, his sulkiness intensifying, deepening his voice, robbing it of its more usual carefree cheer. “Oh, you mean the debt.” Then he laughed shortly, bitterly. “Of course, it’s all about the fucking debt. I said I had it handled, but it’s not enough, is it? It’s never enough if you aren’t handling it yourself.”

“Don’t,” JT warned. The nostalgia tainting Parrot’s tone hinted at where his friend was leading them, and he damn well wanted to steer clear of what they had as lovers. The alpha looked over his shoulder again, toward the white panelled French doors, to the bedroom where Alec lay sleeping in the bed alone, sleeping off having given his virginity to JT.

They definitely weren’t going to talk about what JT had with Parrot years ago. Three to be exact. After Alec stepped into his life, and JT hadn’t thought of anyone else in that sense again.

“JT,” Parrot called, his anger shining bright again. At his grunting acknowledgement, his friend flew off the handle once more. “What the fuck? I keep calling your name. Are you busy? Then why the hell did you call me back? I can’t even—this shit you’ve been pulling lately. On me. I don’t deserve it.”

“I’m the one pulling shit?” JT gripped the phone closer to his ear, growling low. “You’re the one who brought a loan shark to our door. You’re the one who’s been acting like my fucking child, and not my roommate. And you’re the one who’s way out of fucking line here, Wren.”

“Oh, fuck you, Jeremy,” Parrot said. “And by the way, if I don’t see you at the next meet in three days, you’re fucking out. For good.”

“Leadership getting to your head?” JT taunted, his body quivering with the heat of his wrath. “Careful. You have a big head as is.”

“Go fuck yourself. I’m still club president. Dick.”

“Yeah, well, if you want your fucking patches, come and get them.” JT swiped to end the call first, the bittersweet triumph undercut by his swelling frustration. He resisted the urge to chuck his phone, smash it to smithereens and satisfy the rage wreaking havoc on his better senses.

JT backed toward the bedroom, figuring snuggling Alec and a nap could cure his irate mood. But he halted at the sight of Alec perched at the edge of the bed, his hands swiftly buttoning his dress shirt, his features stony and his gaze fixed on the floor.

“What the hell are you doing?” JT thawed from his shock, his argument with Parrot fueling him forward. When Alec didn’t stop, reaching for his tuxedo jacket, JT grasped his wrist and freed the jacket, pulling the omega to a stand and facing him.

“I heard you,” he said at last, freeing JT of the worry that started gripping his throat, squeezing off his air supply. Alec narrowed his eyes. “I heard you talking to Wren. I imagine it’s Wren Forrester. My security tech guy.”

“And my friend,” JT stressed, drawing Alec closer until his omega’s glower stilled him again.

Alec raised his head, his bottom lip trembling even when his chin pointed defiantly at him, and his brows furrowed with disappointment. “I just want to leave. Then you can do whatever…with whoever.”

JT sagged, and Alec slipped free. “It’s not what you think,” he said, watching Alec scour for his pants. Once he found them, he slipped into them and tugged them on, sans underwear. He shoved that into his jacket pocket.

“Then what is it? Why were you talking to Wren?”

JT shook his head. “It’s not my place to tell.” Because it wasn’t. That and he wanted to keep these two worlds separate.

Alec was his…and he didn’t want Parrot ruining this too, since his friend seemed incapable of not messing up his own life, let alone others.

Alec’s annoyance melted, and in its place was sadness. It shone back at JT from those dark eyes. So softly that he might have missed it, Alec said, “That’s too bad.”

Then Alec left him, and JT did nothing to stop him.