Page 118 of Full Body Hit, Part 1

He wanted what Beau and Emilio had. That closeness. That support. That compatibility. He didn’t want to keep pretending, to keep playing silly games with Aunix like he wasn’t falling in love.

Because fuck, was he falling fast and hard.

They hadn’t met. Hadn’t seen each other’s faces. Hadn’t scented. Had been talking for two months. It was ridiculous to have let this feeling burrow so deep. To have allowed it to metastasise, spreading to every organ, every thread of muscle, every pumping artery.

But Chase wasn’t going to lie to himself about this. He was falling in love with Aunix, and there was no way he could go any further without telling him the truth about his scent.

He should probably wait until he was calmer to say anything. To think about how to phrase things. How to explain everything in a way that made Aunix want to keep him.

The thought of having to keep this information secret, letting it breed images of how Aunix would react, how he’d reject Chase in a plethora of horrible ways, made spiders crawl under his skin.

It had been such a good dinner with friends. Chase didn’t know how he made everything such a fucking drama.

Charlie

Hey daddy you busy?

Aunix

Nope. What’s up, baby?

Charlie

Was just wondering if you wanted to chat no worries if not

As a response, Chase’s phone started ringing. Dumbly, he let the tune play for a few seconds, his intestines writhing like worms in mud.

“Hey, Daddy.”

“Hey, baby. You good?”

“Yeah.” There was a pause. “You?”

“I’m good,” Aunix said slowly. “What’s up, honey? You sound a little off.”

Chase tried really hard to swallow around the lump in his throat.

The only person he’d ever told about his scent disorder was Sammy, and he’d reacted well, but this was a completely different situation.

“No, I’m—I’m good. I just…I want to tell you something. About me. That maybe you won’t like much. And that’s totally okay if you don’t. Really, you don’t have to lie or anything.”

Another heartbeat of silence. “Okay, baby. If you need me to help you hide the body of the person you just killed, I’m gonna have to buy some rubber gloves.”

That startled a laugh out of Chase. “You really shouldn’t be helping me if I just murdered someone,” he admonished.

“If you killed someone, they deserved it.”

Chase huffed, melting into the couch. Trust Aunix to make him smile right then, when everything in him wanted to hide or run away. “Well, I didn’t kill anybody.”

“Great, so it can’t be that bad.”

Chase’s heart lurched, a swaying, piercing pain. “Well…okay, so, um…”

This was why Chase should have thought of what to say beforehand. The words were getting caught in his mouth, crowding there with sharp points that stung the back of his throat.

He took a deep breath. He just needed to let it out. No sugarcoating. “So when I was thirteen, I hadn’t presented yet…which I know now isn’t actually a big deal, but I thought there might be something wrong. Or, I guess, my mom thought something might be wrong, especially because I wasn’t getting big like the other kids who were presenting as Alphas and it was affecting my opportunities in…in life,” Chase began, catching himself from saying ‘hockey’ just in time.

“Okay,” Aunix said, in a soft ‘go ahead’ tone.