Lucian scowled at himself, twisting his features until they were as ugly as they could be. Some of his natural beauty lingered, inescapable. Lucian pushed back from the sink and shookhishead.
It was the cusp of summer. Ofcoursehe was going to look like a vision ofperfection.
He was about to gointoheat.
It happened every six months like clockwork. Director Baylor, the man who’d run the brothel Lucian had called home, used to tell him that he was radiant before his heat because his body wanted to attract an alpha. Lucian still remembered the way the director had caressed his cheek and looked into his eyes, so intense and sincere on the surface that Lucian had never thought todoubthim.
Beautiful flowers attract bees to pollinate them, Lucian. Beautiful omegas are nodifferent.
For a long time, he’d thought that was true. Now he knew better. He was meant for more in life than to be used for pleasure or to be kept as breeding stock. Lucian wasn’t a flower. He was a young man whose skill sets were as vast, varied, and valuable as anyone else’s, alphaornot.
Marcus wouldn’townhim.
Lucian pried the medicine cabinet door open and twisted the orange pill bottles inside until their labels faced the front. Before he’d left, Stonecrest had made sure that he was well-equipped to combat his heat from the comfort of his new home. Lucian wasn’t going to let it drag him down. He found the bottle he was looking for and popped the cap open. The pills inside were flat and round, a little smaller than the head of a pushpin. He shook one out of the bottle and swallowed it withoutwater.
Suppression medication,check.
As long as he took the pills as directed, he wouldn’t need to worry about losing his mind to his heat, or about the scent of fertility that was sure to land him on an alpha’s radar. The pills weren’t perfect, and Lucian knew from his stay at Stonecrest that he’d still be horny beyond belief, but they took the edge off and let himfunction.
Lucian put the bottle back and selected another one. Contraceptives. If he were to miss a dose of the suppression meds or end up in an unsavory situation, he didn’t want to end up pregnant. Not now. He was only starting to get a taste of freedom, and he wanted to live his life as fully as he could before he decided to become afather.
Lucian popped a pill, put the pill bottle back, and closed the medicine cabinet. He scrutinized his face one last time in the mirror, then shook his head. It was about time he gottobed.
With a yawn, Lucian flicked off the bathroom light and headed for his bedroom. He stripped and sank into bed, staring through the darkness as he processed what had happened that evening. It had been a full night spent serving men and women who’d eaten him up with their eyes, but who were always polite and respectful inconversation.
Yet no matter how many conversations he revisited in the darkness of his room, only one returned to him again andagain.
Marcus.
Lucian rolled over, wrapping the blankets around his body tightly. He’d been able to play it cool in The Shepherd, but at home? In retrospect? The way Marcus had looked at him ate Lucian up from the inside and left him uncertain about where he stood. HewantedMarcus to look at him. There was something inexplicable in Marcus’ gaze—something that had frozen Lucian from all the way across the room and made him shiver with anticipation. That same something came roaring back, sweeping through him as he remembered the intensity in Marcus’ eyes and the smooth, playful lilt in hisvoice.
Lucian had said no in The Shepherd, but now that he was in bed, his bodysaidyes.
It was the onset of heat. Ithadto be the onset of heat. But that didn’t stop Lucian’s hand from winding its way down his torso and gripping the already hardened cock waitingthere.
What would have happened tonight if things had gone a different way? If he’d given Marcus his name and let things progress from there? Would he be in bed with a man he knew nothing about, but whom he longed to know better? Would Marcus be the one pumping his cock right now, urging himtocome?
Lucian let free a shaky breath and twisted beneath his tightened sheets until they loosened. He rolled onto his back and tented his legs, letting the pleasure of his tightened palm guide his mind from his tiny bedroom straight back toMarcus.
A man like that would know how to touch him, and Lucian knew how to touch in return. A night spent sharing each other’s bodies beneath Marcus’ sheets, chasing orgasm after orgasm from each other’s bodies, would lead to the best night Lucian had ever had. Stolen kisses and shuddering gasps. A thick cock in his ass. Frenzied rocking. Lowlights.
Lucian pushed into his hand as hisdesperationgrew.
Would Marcus take him into one of The Shepherd’s public rooms? Tie him up? Slip his cock so deeply into Lucian that Luciantastedit?
Eyes. So many sets of eyes, watching, appraising, and enjoying. Lucian was no stranger to sex, but the things he’d seen in those rooms made him blush. Was that what Marcus would wantfromhim?
Was that what he woulddemand?
Lucian bit down on his jaw and hissed a moan through his teeth. He rolled onto his side, too wound up to even think of getting out of bed to find his dildo. Marcus’ eyes ripped through him, saw all his secrets, and knew the perversion in his soul. He knew that Lucian had grown to love sex during his captivity at The White Lotus, and he knew how hungry Lucian was foritnow.
Would Marcus wait for Lucian’s heat before he brought him to bed? Until the first sparks lit inside Lucian’s groin and started the slow burn that would keep him beggingformore?
For Marcus, he’d stop his suppressants. For Marcus, he’d let himself be fucked like the animalhewas.
The clench of orgasm rocked Lucian all at once, and his body went rigid as he startedtocome.
Marcus was there, pushing into him from behind, filling Lucian so full that heneededto push his come out, because there was no more space left for it inside his body. Marcus, with his subtle laugh and playful glint in his eyes, was breeding him like he deserved to be bred.Marcuswas—
