“Can I assume you’ve done that before, also?” Marl asked, a hint of sarcasm in his voice this time.
“No.”
Marl blinked. Hadn’t been expecting that, had he?
“Only cherry I ever popped was my own,” Beckett said, a little wild at the thought of it. “Does he want this? Does he even know?”
Marl stared at his shoes and nodded. “I talked with him.”
“Well?” Beckett waited until Marl met his eyes again. It took a moment, during which Beckett had to fight to stay standing outside the room when inside the omega was moaning in pain. In need. “Does he want it? I ain’t settin’ foot inside that room unless I know as I won’t be doin’ something he don’t want.”
“He’ll accept you.”
Not good enough. Beckett turned to leave.
“He said yes,” Marl said hurriedly. “I…gods. The poor boy didn’t know the first thing about it, Beckett. He thought he could wait until Jack got back.”
“Wait?He’ll burn out if he waits!”
“We know that. Now, after the most uncomfortable conversation I’ve ever had in my life, the duch knows it, too. He’s not any happier about it than you are, but you won’t be doing anything he doesn’t want. I gave him the choice. He chose you.”
They both flinched at the pained, choked-off scream from inside the duch’s chamber.
Marl’s reaction stopped there. Marl was a beta.
Beckett was an alpha, and Beckett threw himself against the door, a deep snarl ripped from his throat.
“Oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear. If you’d just…Beckett.Beckett, you have to let me get the key?—”
A small part of Beckett was aware of Marl trying to shuffle him aside and unlock the door, but an omega had cried outin need, and Beckett was answering. Beckett was attempting to break his way through the door to get at him.
He had enough sense left to allow Marl to shove him an inch to the side, Marl’s boots skidding on the floor with the effort as he heaved and pushed and scrabbled about to get the key in the lock and turn it, and then Beckett burst into the room.
“Be kind. It’s not his fault, Beckett. Please, be kind.”
Marl’s words rolled off him. Beckett stood, trembling, on the threshold.
“His name is Arden.”
The door closed behind him and the lock snicked shut. Beckett growled at being locked in like a beast, though he didn’t protest it or take his eyes off the bed.
That’s what he was now, wasn’t it? A beast—a stud—brought here to knot an omega silly enough to go into heat and not even know about it until it was too late to send for the man who should be here.
Beckett’s man.
He heaved in deep breaths, his lungs filling with the scent of this stranger who had shattered his most secret dreams.
The stranger who had waltzed in and taken everything that Beckett refused to admit he wanted until it was too late.
Arden.
Marl was right. It wasn’t the duch’s fault.
Didn’t change a thing, though, did it?
The curtains were open. The windows were shut. Most likely to save the rest of the estate from hearing their omega duch’s wails when the time came for his alpha to knot him.
An alpha, Beckett corrected immediately. Nothisalpha.
