After lunch, we all went out. Ben and Stefan kept themselves busy in a store nearby while Tyler and I went to get my haircut. Tyler had a suggestion for me, shorter on the sides, a little longer on top, and I let him tell the hairdresser what I wanted, shut my eyes, and surrendered. Anything to get rid of the horrible, childish mop I’d had on my head to start with.

When I opened my eyes, I was shocked by the handsome young man staring back at me. I reached up, running my fingers through the soft, textured auburn hair the hairdresser had left on the top of my head. It was much less than I’d had before, but it felt and looked better than ever. My jaw and cheekbones seemed to stand out, my eyes were unobscured, shimmering hazel amazement back at me.

“Wow,” I whispered.

“Do you like it?” the hairdresser asked.

“I love it,” I admitted.

Tyler shook his head, grinning at me in the mirror.

“What a difference, huh? Now let’s get you some clothes that fit.”

Tyler taught me that I was only a men’s small or medium, and shouldn’t bother to buy anything larger, even if I could technically put it on my body. He found me what he called ‘fall colors,’ warm burgundies and forest greens that brought out the shade of my eyes, hair, and skin. He seemed like a bit of a genius, to me.

“Screw engineering,” I told him, “You should be a life coach.”

He laughed. “I’m pretty sure this isn’t what life coaches do.”

I gave him a wide smile, my confidence boosted by clothing that hugged my slender body the way it was supposed to.

“Maybe it should be.”

Tyler insisted on a big reveal, and convinced Ben and Stefan to meet us back at the apartment. He made me wait outside the door, and then, finally, opened it to show me off. It could have been degrading, but I was too anxious to see Ben’s reaction to mind.

They stood together in front of me, Stefan holding Tommy in one arm, Ben next to him. He stared, shocked, as I did a nervous little twirl.

“Do you like it?” I asked, running my fingers compulsively through my light, layered hair.

“James...you look…” He cleared his throat. “Older.”

Stefan nudged him in the ribs as I looked at him in confusion, trying to figure out if that was good or bad.

“Sexy,” he added honestly, and I saw the flush on his cheeks and realized he wanted me. He really wanted me. “You look sexy, James. Tyler did an amazing job.”

“I had the perfect canvas,” Tyler said, and hugged me briefly before going to his husband and taking his hand. “C’mon, babe. I think it’s time we get out of here.”

He shot me a wink and pressed a box into my hand as he and Stefan left, the door shutting behind me. Ben and I were still staring at each other, tense, barely breathing. I needed him, and the look in his eyes, as they scanned my body, was too hungry. He needed me, too.

I finally glanced down at the box in my hand and saw condoms. Panicked, I awkwardly shoved it onto the bookshelf next to me and acted like I hadn’t, walking over to Ben. I tried to be seductive, pressing close, but it was wasted. He grabbed me around the waist and kissed me, hard, his tongue pushing into my mouth with aggression that made it absolutely clear what he wanted.

Groaning, I pushed him into our new bedroom, down onto the bed.

“Where are the cuffs?” I demanded.

He grinned. “Suitcase.” He reached up to touch me, stroking his fingers through my soft hair. “You’re so beautiful.”

I blushed at the compliment, climbing out of his lap to search in the suitcase for what we needed.

“Get naked,” I demanded, and watched with satisfaction as my alpha obeyed his omega without question.

Without even waiting for him to offer this time, I grabbed his wrists and locked them around the bed, and then stripped off my clothing, climbing on top of him. He gave me a little smirk.

“You know, most alphas wouldn’t let you do this every time. When do I get to touch you?”

“Shhh,” I insisted, pressing the tip of my finger against his soft lips. I already had a plan for that. I wanted it this way, one last time, before everything changed. “Just let me make it good.”

I was learning all the time. I knew what I wanted, and I knew how to make it good for Ben, too.

Ben playfully sucked my fingertip into his mouth.

“As you wish,” he murmured.

I moaned softly, playfully fucking his mouth with my finger, before I leaned down to kiss him, my tongue darting into his mouth, teasing him into further arousal. I could feel him straining against the cuffs. The closer to heat that I got, the more I liked how strong he was, how he could break those cuffs and tear me apart if he really wanted to. I nibbled on his bottom lip, grinding against him, the tension rising between our burning bodies.

"Ben," I moaned, "I'm close to heat. You can feel it, can't you?"

He nodded, a growl in his voice. He gazed up into my hazel eyes and I smiled, my cock twitching against his. He knew, but he had still let me cuff him to the bed. I wouldn't ever find an alpha I could trust as much as Ben, I knew that, suddenly, with great conviction. When I went into heat, I wanted it to be him. It was almost guaranteed that some alpha would find me, and by then I might be desperate enough to beg for it, but I wanted it to be Ben, no other. Ben was my alpha, even if I'd never intended for him to be. Maybe it was silly, but it was also right. It felt so right.

I moved my body, changing positions so that I was on top of him, but facing the opposite direction, and I slowly lowered my cock down into his mouth, my knees on either side of his head. He gave a low moan and that hot mouth surrounded my aching dick, giving me the sort of pleasure and comfort I so desperately needed, that close to heat.

At the same time, I nuzzled against his cock, inhaling his musky scent. It made my cock throb and drip into his mouth, and I felt him swallow me deeper.

"Oh, Ben, yes," I gasped, and at the same time, I opened my mouth to his cock, letting it slide into my lips. On top of him, with him bound, I had most of the control, and I slowly let him slide deeper and deeper until his little shallow thrusts made him fuck my throat. I wanted all of that enormous, thick cock. My hands slid over his thighs, hair beneath my fingertips, and I fondled his heavy balls as my tongue and lips worked at him. Between my lips, I felt his knot begin to swell. More curious than I had ever been before, I pulled my head back, much to his protest, feeling him whimper and moan around my cock buried in his mouth, which kept him from begging for more. He still made himself clear. He didn't like that my mouth wasn't around him anymore. Well, he'd get it back, but first I needed to know more about the thick knot growing at the base of his already sizeable dick.

I licked at the head of his cock to sate him, and to clean up the dribbles of precum there, while I stroked him, and then, as that knot got so big it stopped me from being able to easily stroke, I squeezed and massaged his knot, feeling it grow more and more by the second. It was almost twice the thickness of his dick, and it seemed impossible that such a thing could fit inside me, but I wanted to see it full size, I needed to know what I was getting into if I ever did decide to take his knot.

I kept squeezing it, and that seemed to drive him crazy. He bucked beneath me harder than ever and began to suck so hard on my dick that it actually hurt, and I cried out, trying to pull away from his mouth before he forced me to come.

I didn't stop playing with his knot, though, so maybe it was only fair. It seemed like having it squeezed was somewhat painful for him, too, but in the best way. I suckled on the head of his cock and began to bob my head again as I touched him, and then I felt it. As he shot jets of hot cum inside of me, his knot pulsed, full sized now, burning hot, and he filled my mouth for a long time, more and more come covering my tongue. I groaned, so close to heat that the taste of him alone was an aphrodisiac, and fucked helplessly into his mouth until I came too, screaming and trembling for him, flushed all over.

His knot was still swollen, and I kept gripping it, curious. How long would it take? Slowly, over the course of several minutes, it began to shrink back down, and after what had to have been ten or fifteen minutes of me licking up the last dribbles of cum from his cock and slowly, gently massaging that knot, it finally became just a little roundness, like it normally was, small enough that, were it inside me, it would be able to slip out. So that was how it worked, how he would lock himself inside me and breed me deep. My cock throbbed again. I rolled off of him.

He gave a low, throaty groan. “Fuck, baby, that was...holy shit,” he breathed, then whistled, and gave me an obnoxiously charming grin. How did he still manage to be so cool after I’d spent the last half hour milking his knot?

I chuckled softly and shook my head, unlocking the cuffs. I freed him and tossed them on the bedside table. We were going to need them again later.

He stretched and I heard his joints pop, and then he wrapped his arm around my shoulders and tugged me in to cuddle. I didn’t mind at all. I was quiet for a few more minutes as I nuzzled into his chest, tracing my fingers over the soft swirl of dark hair I found there, inhaling his masculine scent, which only drove me closer and closer to needing him inside me too much to resist.

“Ben?” I asked softly.

“Yeah?”

“Would you do something for me?”

Ben chuckled.

“Almost anything, James. What is it?”

I didn’t miss the sincerity in his voice when he said he’d do almost anything for me. It surprised me, and scared me a little, but I went on.

“I’m getting closer and closer to heat with every minute that goes by. I don’t want any other alphas to get me, Ben. Just you. I want you to tie me up. Keep me safe. And I want you to fuck me. I don’t want to suffer. You can use a condom, and … and I shouldn’t get pregnant. Right?”