“Yeah, yeah. Don’t get your panties twisted in a bunch.” Ledger eyed him, sobering some. “Is that why I had to hear from a bunch of dimwitted strangers that my brother had buried his teeth into the pretty doctor's neck? Ahead of schedule, might I remind you?”
“Don’t call him pretty. Nikita’s pretty. Zane is…”
“Hey!” Ledger set the glass down on the table with a sharp clank. “Don’t insult—”
“What’s going on?” the man of topic paused at the entrance to the hallway, rubbing at one eye tiredly. He was wearing nothing other than an old white dress shirt of Ledger’s, the material going to midthigh. When he blinked and saw that Pavel was there as well, he didn’t seem even remotely embarrassed by his state of dress. Or lack thereof. “Hello.”
“Nothing, Tiger.” Ledger jumped down from the table and made his way toward the slightly smaller man. “Sleep well?”
Nikita hummed, leaning into Ledger’s touch when he lifted a hand to cup the side of his face tenderly.
That.
That was what Pavel wanted. He wanted Zane to welcome everything about him. His presence, his touch, his—
“Stop clenching your fists,” Ledger scolded, cutting into his thoughts. “And get a hold of yourself already. If you can’t be trusted to keep your shit under control—”
“Going to tell on me?” Pavel slipped his hands into his front pockets and rocked on his heels. “Do you really think Mom or Dad could stop me from going after what’s already mine?”
Ledger blew out a breath. “I’m telling you to be careful, that’s all. You’ve done a great job of appearing normal all this time. Don’t go and blow it in one dumbass move you won’t be able to come back from.”
“Is this about what he supposedly did to the Prince of Medicine?” Nikita interrupted them, shrugging when they both sent him questioning looks. “What? Everyone on campus is talking about it.”
“You see!” Ledger glared as though his boyfriend had helped prove his point. “What were you thinking, Pavel?! Attacking another member of the Retinue is already bad enough, but in front of an entire classroom?!”
“I needed witnesses,” Pavel replied.
“You say that like I’m the dumbass here for not getting that already.”
Well, if the shoe fits.
When all he did was silently stare, Ledger ran a hand through his hair in mild frustration. “I still think—”
“No,” there was no room for argument in his firm tone. “The only doctor I’ll be seeing from here on out is my own.”
“Yeah, that’s just the thing, brother. Zane doesn’t even remember you. What if he never does?”
“He will.”
“But what if he doesn’t?” Ledger insisted.
He considered that possibility, but it didn’t make him feel any differently about the situation. “Then he doesn’t. It won’t change anything for me.” It wouldn’t change the way his body physically yearned for the other man.
How intensely he longed to trap Zane beneath him, his cock tearing through his tight hole, joining the two of them theway they were always meant to be joined. Breeding his man the way he was always meant to be bred. Pavel would fuck him until his voice turned hoarse and Zane could no longer operate his legs. Fuck him in a locked room, where there was no chance of escape and he could soothe the part of himself that feared the doctor trying to run.
He’d own him then, well and truly. Own him and breed him and prove to everyone around that he’d chosen correctly when he’d imprinted on Zane—
Someone made a sound of alarm, snapping his attention to Nikita who was now unashamedly clinging to Ledger’s side.
“Cut it out,” Ledger snapped. “Your eyes are doing that freaky glowing thing.”
Had they been?
That…was a problem.
“Perhaps your concerns are mildly called for,” Pavel admitted. He was losing more control by the day. Soon it would be more than just his teeth sinking into Zane in front of an audience. If he didn’t get what he craved, he might really take things too far and do irreversible damage like his brother warned.
That was one of the major downsides to his lineage, it left him mentally unstable sometimes. There were certain hormonal influxes that were meant to lead one direction for one species they’d identified him as, but go in a completely different direction for another. Interspecies relationships happened all the time throughout the universe, but not all were genetically compatible, and many couldn’t interbreed.
