“Nowhere,” I told the bottom of the mug. “It leaves me nowhere, because it was just a goddamned one-night stand. He’s hot, all right? And I have a competence kink. It meant nothing to either of us. I scratched the itch, and the rest of it is nothing to do with me.”
Silence fell over us, stifling as the seconds dragged on.
“Bullshit,” Gage said.
My gaze flew up to his face as my temper flared again.
“What’sthatsupposed to mean?” I snapped.
Gage’s neutral expression didn’t waver. “It means you’re lying through your teeth.” He sighed, his voice lowering to a rumbling murmur. “I can see why you an’ Jez were friends. You’re both stubborn as mules.”
I surged up from the barstool I was sitting on. It wobbled, its legs screeching a few inches across the faded linoleum tile. “I’m not lying, goddamn it! It was a one-night stand, and I told him at the time that it didn’t mean anything! Hell, I don’t think he would have agreed to it otherwise!”
Gage made a considering noise. “Well, yeah.Thatpart’s probably true.”
“All of it’s true!” I half-shouted.
The alpha nodded sagely. “Right. So, you’re not upset at all about him and Jez. And he’s not calling you in the middle of the night because he’s terrified that he might’ve hurt you when he was in rut.”
Gage had been there when we were trying to get Heath and Jez away from the silos—when Heath had taken a break from growling over Jez’s huddled form, in order to corner me up against the van and snuffle along my throat. A completely unwanted spark of heat kindled in my belly; my cock twitching awake at the most fucking ridiculous possible time in response to the visceral memory.
“He’s just...” I began weakly. “He must know I have a rough background when it comes to sex. He was only trying to be decent about it.”
... And now I was defending Heath. What the hell just happened?
Gage cocked an eyebrow. “He was in full rut, and his new scent-matched mate wasright there.Yet he was still plastered all over you like a cheap suit on the way to the van. I’m not sure you really understand how mate bonds are supposed to work, Tony.”
I started pacing, wishing desperately for a bigger apartment so I’d have more room.
“You said it yourself,” I told Gage. “He was in rut. Doesn’t that mean he would have gone after anything with a pulse?”
I wouldnotthink about Heath in a mating frenzy... pushing me up against a wall and grinding against my ass while his teeth gripped my shoulder...
“You’re a male beta,” Gage said evenly. “Normally, he might’ve ‘gone after’ a beta guy, all right—just not in the way you’re thinking.”
I came to an abrupt halt, looking at him in disbelief. “Wow, thanks so much for warning me about that possibility at the time!”
Gage rolled his eyes. “He wasn’t gonna go afteryou, dumbass. Helikesyou. I just didn’t expect him to try and snort your body odor like a line of coke, either. Which, once again, is my point.”
I crossed my arms, trying to look intimidating. “Oh... you had apoint? I must have missed that part.”
“The point is that you two aren’t fooling anyone.” He huffed out a breath. “God, I forget how young you are sometimes. And I’m guessing Jez isn’t much older.” He shrugged. “Not sure what Heath’s excuse is, other than being a dried up, bitter old addict.”
“He’s notthatold.” The words came out before I’d realized I was going to say them, in all their defensive glory.
“He’s got a full decade on you,” Gage shot back. “Anyway, I can’t make you talk to him directly, and I can’t make either of you say what you really mean. But Knox is making noises like Jez is probably going to choose to terminate the mating bond, once she’s recovered a bit.”
I stared at him. “Omega mating bonds are for life.”
“Christ,” Gage said under his breath. “Someone really needs to do something about sex-ed in the public schools.” His lips pressed together, and then he continued in a more normal tone. “There’s a surgery to take out the mating gland. Without a mating gland, there’s no DNA match. No DNA match, and the bond fades over the course of a few weeks.”
He looked sick as he said it.
I frowned. “You don’t like that. Why?”
Gage shook his head. “No, it’s good that omegas have a way to get out of unwanted bonds. But... she’s ourscent match.”
He seemed really hung up on that part, and I had to accept that maybe it wasn’t something that I, as a beta, could understand.
