Chapter Eighteen
After that first night he’d slept in Griffin’s bed, Beau tried to go back to sleeping in the room Griffin had given him. It had its own comfortable bed and a window where the sun peeked through in the morning time. Yet, Beau couldn’t settle there. The room seemed strangely empty and cold, no matter how many blankets he piled on. He tried the lounge instead, settling down on his favorite cushion. But though he slept there during the day, at night it was different.
In the early hours of the morning, he made his way to Griffin’s room. The omega was asleep, lying on his stomach. Not wanting to disturb him, Beau settled down at the foot of the bed. It was easy to sleep there, the room felt warm, Griffin’s scent surrounding him.
He was woken a few minutes later by Griffin’s hand shaking his shoulder. The omega was sitting at the foot of the bed, staring down at him. He patted the space next to him, and Beau got up, sitting beside him.
“Still can’t sleep?”
“Not without you.”
“Why? Can you explain it to me?”
The omega didn’t seem angry, just curious.
“When you’re not there, it’s too quiet. The sound of my heartbeat is too loud. I can hear everything, sounds from the house, from outside.”
“And when you’re here?”
“It’s like you block it out; your heartbeat is all I can hear, your scent is all I can smell, and I can rest.”
His words prompted a tired smile from Griffin.
“Well, I guess I’m okay with it. As long as you know there’s no pressure, no expectations.”
Beau frowned at the omega. “I don’t understand.”
“You are welcome to sleep in my bed. But I want you to know that I’m not expecting anything in return.”
“I could sleep on the floor,” Beau pointed out. “It’s comfortable.”
“Not for me. If you want to sleep in here, but not in my bed, I can get you a bed of your own.”
Beau suddenly got what Griffin was hinting at when he said expectations.
“So, sharing your bed doesn’t make me your boy-toy alpha?”
He’d heard that expression from the betas who fed and cleaned the fighters.
Griffin snorted with laughter. “No, it doesn’t. Like I told you before, I don’t want someone who’ll submit to me, I like a partner who knows their own mind.”
That opened up a possibility. “What if I know my own mind? What if I know what I want?”
The omega watched him curiously. “Oh? And what’s that?”
Beau moved slowly, taking the initiative but giving Griffin the chance to pull away. The omega leaned forward instead, meeting Beau in the middle. Beau cupped Griffin’s cheek, rubbing a thumb across his jaw before moving closer, scenting him before pressing his lips to the omega’s mouth.
Griffin pushed closer, deepening the kiss before he parted his lips, his tongue seeking Beau’s. That was new, different. But he liked it. When he broke the kiss, Griffin chased him, pressing hot kisses along Beau’s throat, his hands on Beau’s shoulders. Then the omega pulled away, and Beau almost whined.
“I can feel the tension in your muscles,” Griffin told him, tilting his head to the side. “That must be hurting.”
Beau shrugged a shoulder. What he and Griffin were doing was a good distraction.
“Would you let me take care of that?”
He nodded cautiously and found himself lying on his stomach a minute later, Griffin straddling his lower back. It was a strange position to find himself in. It almost felt a little too open.
Griffin had retrieved a bottle from his bedside locker, and Beau heard the click as he opened it.
“This is just some lotion. I used it when I’m playing a role. Can’t have an omega with rough hands, can you?”
Beau opened his mouth to reply, but all that came out was a long moan as Griffin’s hands settled onto his upper back, kneading the muscles with long, firm fingers.
“That’s the way. Got to get all these knots out.”
Griffin leaned in, upping the pressure, and it felt wonderful. He worked his way across both shoulders and down Beau’s arms, doing each one in turn.
When he turned his attention to the long expanse of Beau’s back, his fingers found the long, jagged scar that crossed his scapula.
“What did this?” the omega wondered.
“A tiger.”
“Tiger, huh? Quinn’s a tiger… but you probably already knew that.”
Beau was good at identifying a shifter’s species. In a fight, that kind of information was invaluable.
“A tiger and a wolf. Most packs wouldn’t even have one of those, let alone both.”
“That’s true,” Griffin agreed, sounding distracted as his fingers traced the scar over and over. “That’s probably why their pack were so eager to send them both for training. They knew they were much more valuable as trained fighters than as alphas. Tell me about the rest?”
It took Beau a moment to realize Griffin meant the other scars. He had his fair share, not unexpected for an alpha fighter who’d been in the game as long as he had, but probably less than most.
Reaching a hand behind him, he caught the omega’s arm, fingers trailing their way down to his wrist before he brought Griffin’s hand to rest on his hip where the scar from a bite mark stood out.
“This was from a wolf. We were both in shifter form, but he got the jump on me.”
“Did you… win?”
Beau hid his smile in the pillow. “I won, by the skin of my teeth. It wasn’t a death fight, we both walked away.” Fights to the death weren’t overly common, but they drew huge crowds and a lot of money, making it worth the fighting clubs while despite their losses.
Griffin’s hands traced over this scar like it had the other as if trying to memorize it.
The third scar was on Beau’s thigh, just below the curve of his ass. He felt Griffin’s fingers over it before the omega made a guess. “Lion?”
Beau almost didn’t want to admit the truth.
“Um, boar actually. But this guy was huge.”
He expected the omega to laugh at him, tease him, but all Griffin did was run his hand along the scar again.
“I’d say he was,” the omega murmured. “He did this much damage with a tusk?”
“It was three against one. They dropped him into the ring while I was distracted. He had that tusk buried in me almost before I realized he was there.”
“You won that one too.”
It wasn’t a question but a sure statement.
“I always win,” Beau replied, but there was no pride in his voice just an empty echo. There was a time when he would have felt proud. When being the best meant something. But seeing how easily he’d been tossed aside after he’d turned feral, how the people who’d invested in him, who he’d given his life to fight for, had been so willing to sell him to the lowest of the low for whatever last bit of profit they could eke from him… it showed him his life in a new light. The reality wasn’t pleasant.
He tensed a little when sure fingers glided across the scars on his neck, distracted from the dark thoughts swirling in his head. Had the omega known where his mind had wandered?
“Does that hurt?” Griffin asked him.
“Not really. Sometimes it aches there.”
The omega gentled his touch at Beau’s words but kept working at the scarred skin. The ache became a warmth, a sensation that grew and spread, pushing away the last of the tension. Distantly, aware he was falling asleep, he felt Griffin move, the omega’s chest pressing against his back. And then there were lips, soft but sure, kissing the nape of his neck. He murmured something, reaching a hand to touch Griffin.
“Sleep, Beau,” the omega said. “I’m right here.”
When he woke the next morning, Griffin was asleep next to him, Beau’s arm thrown possessively across his waist. It felt right somehow, like he belonged.