C
Owen glanced toward the clock. There were still ten minutes to go before his first counseling appointment began. He needed to find out what kind of establishment 2749 9th Westhoused.
Before he forgot, he tucked the scissors, the collar, and the letter into the locked drawer of his desk and made sure it was secure. After that, Owen pulled his phone from his back pocket and brought up a web browser. Knowing Crawford, the location wouldn’t be somewhere Owen had ever beenbefore.
He keyed in the address and waited for the results to show up. The page lagged as the map loaded at the top of the screen, and Owen drummed his fingers nervously on the desk as he waited. Finally, the results on the screen loaded, and Owen scrolled down to the first result with batedbreath.
2749 9th West was home to a place called The Shepherd, but it wasn’t the name that caught Owen’s eye. The description beneath was much moretelling.
Aurora’s PremierKinkClub.
Owen’s lips parted in shock, and he set the phone down on the table and turned the screen off. Heart racing, he glanced to the closed drawer of his desk. Inside was a collar—his invitation to a life he’d neverenvisioned.
An invitation to beowned.
Owen sat back heavily in his desk and tilted his head upward, staring at the ceiling for a long while as he tried to slow the rapid beating of his heart. He’d shaped his career by liberating oppressed omegas—why was he even entertaining the notion that he might show up for Crawford’s twisted idea of a date? It wasn’t like him. He didn’t do alphas, and he certainly didn’t docollars.
But despite himself, he couldn’t escape the desperate need that unfurled from his core and spread into every part ofhisbody.
Crawford was different. Crawford was the promise he needed that after so long spent struggling, his life was going to be okay. If Owen decided what Crawford wanted wasn’t for him, he’d leave. Owen was strong enough to walk away. Since he was sixteen he’d been in control of his own destiny. Life had hardened him, but instead of folding, he’dfoughtback.
He could fight back now if he wanted, or he could give in and see if the comfort Crawford offered was what he really needed, or just an erotic fantasy better leftunexplored.
A willingness to please, and a need to leteverythinggo…
The way Owen’s cock stirred at the memory of Crawford’s words told him everything he neededtoknow.
7
Crawford
All tender soulswho cravedguidance eventually found their way to The Shepherd. The last five years of his life, Crawford had seen more young men and women come and go than he could hope to recall. Some faces became familiar. Some were never seen again. The world within The Shepherd’s walls was in a constant state of flux, and Crawford had come to accept it. He learned to touch without expectation of anything more. With those who wandered freely, there was no promise of forever. Crawford’s heart was too easily entangled to risk the disappointment, and he refused to getattached.
But Owen wasdifferent.
Crawford had never invited anyone to join him for his evenings out. He’d never offered a collar before. There had been certain young men in the past who’d made him consider the idea, but he’d never followed through with it. If someone were to wear his collar, he wanted more from them than a fleeting moment spent together before their fancy waned and they reneged on the agreement. As Crawford sat back on the button tufted back booth at The Shepherd, arms spread across the top, he considered the things he wanted, the things he needed, and why he’d made the decision to trust such a gift to a nearstranger.
The look in Owen’s eyes when Crawford had refused his kiss hadcinchedit.
Crawford was familiar with omegas. During his youth, anticipating that his son might follow in his footsteps, Crawford’s father regularly brought him to Stonecrest. Crawford had seen it all. Young men so ruined by the contrast between their instinctive drives and society’s demands that they had become pliant and lifeless. Women abandoned with families so large there was no way to care for them. Omegas, young and old, who weretired. Tired of being who they were, tired of being who they weren’t, and tired of having it figure it all out ontheirown.
When Crawford knotted into his hand for the first time at thirteen years old, he finally understood why it bothered himsomuch.
Omegas deserved independence, but they also deserved to be given the care their bodies needed. Suppressing an omega’s desire to submit was hazardous to their health, and while Crawford wholeheartedly agreed that rehabilitation was best for omegas who had suffered at the hands of an abuser, he also understood that most omegas had an intrinsic need toplease.
They weren’t theonlyones.
If Owen came tonight, Crawford intended to spoil him. The omega who wore his collar would be deprived ofnothing.
“Crawford?” It wasn’t Owen’s voice that spoke so close to Crawford’s ear, but Crawford was glad to hear it anyway. He lifted his chin and turned his head to the side to look the young man over in full. Adrian was shirtless, his nipples already hardened into pebbles. Crawford’s eyes dipped down Adrian’s front until they found the upper limits of Adrian’s skinny leather pants. He glancedbackup.
“Yes?”
“Are you busy tonight?” Adrian raked his teeth across his bottom lip and scooted a little closer. The scent of his heat wafted into the air between them, and Crawford breathed it in deep. Adrian wasn’t quite ripe yet, but it wouldn’t be long before he was overcome by his instinctive drive to breed. “… or for the rest oftheweek?”
Other alphas had started to encroach on Crawford’s booth. None of them were foolish enough to challenge him, but neither were they willing to let their eyes part from a fertileomega.
From time to time, Adrian was Crawford’s. They weren’t unfamiliar with each other’s bodies. There were times when Crawford considered turning the fun they had into something more serious, but Adrian wasn’t one to settle down. After weeks glued to Crawford’s hip, he’d latch onto another alpha and act like he’d never cared for Crawford at all. Crawford was tired of how he ran hotandcold.
