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It was amazing to be a Lotus Boy, at long last. And not only because Zach didn’t sleep in the run-down, old dormitories of the Blossom Boys anymore, since he’d graduated. It was just a relief not to worry about exams and the bullying of the older boys anymore, that was all.
Of course, now he had to seduce a rich alpha and he’d be set.
Okay, truth be told, being a Lotus Boy was weird. The whole concept of Lotus Academy was to prepare suitable omegas for rich alphas, teaching them everything and anything they might need to hook a good mate, including cooking and household lessons, dancing, playing music and doing a sexy striptease, pleasuring your alpha and learning ways to keep his interest aroused—pun intended—as well as pregnancy challenges, birth and caring for a baby.
Everything an omega might need to land the perfect stud with the big bank account.
And alphas loved Lotus Boys, though generally it was in the way one loved a good meal or a good movie. They loved coming to the shows and watching them from afar, chatting them up afterward, and trying to get between the omega’s legs.
But they rarely considered Lotus Boys good mating material. Lotus Boys were kept virgins by the academy hoping to attract the alphas, but they almost never came from good houses. Hell, they usually came from the street, recruited by a Lotus academy agent, or from orphanages. No family name, not a penny to their name, nothing but their looks and what they learned at the academy to give them a chance at a future where they wouldn’t starve and beg for money at a street corner.
Zach had sworn he’d never beg for money on the street again.
So why was he now sitting in his room in the academy, all dressed up and coiffed and ready to go and felt like shit?
It probably had to do with Valerian.
He swallowed around a lump in his throat. The handsome alpha had seemed interested before Zach’s graduation. He’d even bought him Courting gifts, including a necklace that had stunned Zach. He was toying with it now. The chain slipped through his fingers, cool and fine, the pendant in the shape of a running wolf, delicately carved in bone.
Why give him something this fine and avoid him afterward? Spend money on gifts, devour Zach with his eyes, ask him when he’d perform again so he could see him, imply he wanted more and then vanish?
God, why was he even wondering? Guy probably had more money than he knew what to do with and more omegas around him than he required to satisfy his needs. Why would he go for a Lotus Boy, a glorified and—granted still virgin—whore?
Zach closed his hand around the pendant, letting it dig into his palm, welcoming the sting.
Get over it, he told himself. Get over Valerian. It had seemed too good to be true from the beginning, hadn’t it? Face it. When something seems too good to be true, it usually is.
And Valerian was. He’d dug around about him when he’d first shown interest. A buddy of Alexander, the alpha who’d mated with Kai, Zach’s bestie at the academy, he was rich and powerful and sexy like a god.
And there you had it.
Too good.
Therefore impossible.
A knock on his door snapped him out of his thoughts. The pendant dropped to the floor with a clink. Stepping over it, he went to open.
“You ready?” Tate asked, his remaining friend at the academy since Kai left to live with Alexander and their twins.
Tate was super pretty, his auburn hair caught in a high ponytail, his green silken tunic tied around the waist with a wide belt that signified his Lotus Boy status. With his wide silken white pants and his fine sandals, he looked great.
“Hey, Tate.”
“You’re not ready.” Tate sighed. “What’s going on with you, Zach? We’re going to be late!” He brushed by him and made a beeline for the closet, throwing it open. “Where are your clothes? And your hair isn’t even done yet.”
Zach grunted as Tate started throwing clothes onto the bed.
“This is our debut month! We need to make a splash, make an impression. What’s going on with you these days?”
Zach really couldn’t say.
“You’re pining,” Tate accused him, lifting a purple and blue tunic for inspection. “Stop pining.”
“Why, yes sir, of course, right away.” Zach groaned and dug his fingers through his hair. “It’s so simple, I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before.”
“Ow. Sarcasm. Already forgetting your lessons? Sarcasm is not becoming of an omega.”
“You’re not an alpha I’m trying to seduce,” Zach grumbled, even as he let Tate choose his outfit and hunt for a brush. “You’re my friend.”
“So you can be sarcastic to me, no problem.” Tate shrugged, finding the brush and returning to drag it through Zach’s pale blond hair. “Sit, and let me help.”
“Sorry,” Zach muttered, doing as he was bidden, sitting down on the edge of the bed and keeping a hiss between his teeth when Tate tugged on the brush, catching on a snarl in his hair. “You’re the best, Tate.”
“You’re not that bad yourself,” Tate said, a smile in his voice. “Finding the right alpha isn’t always that easy. Even Kai who found one right away went through a lot of trouble before they could be together. Maybe Valerian wasn’t meant to be.”
It was an echo of Zach’s earlier thoughts, and yet it hurt. He sat there, head bowed, a pain in his heart, letting Tate do with him as he willed. He was vaguely aware that Tate brushed his hair back and did a complicated do with braids and beads and ribbons, and then stood up as instructed and shed his clothes to slip on the silken costume. He shoved his feet into his golden sandals and blinked.
Tate was right. He had to get his head out of his ass and back into the game. Because it was a game and it would define his future. Pining for Valerian, wondering why, would bring nothing but lack of focus and sorrow. He should concentrate on grabbing another alpha and finding a home for himself. His debts to the academy wouldn’t pay themselves.
He had to get an alpha to bid high for his V-card, for starters. And hopefully to Claim him afterward. Not everyone was Kai who’d found his mate from the start and had babies with him before he’d even graduated. Kai had found his home already, with a loving alpha Mate and cute little babies.
It was hard not to be jealous. He only managed because Kai was so sweet and nice and deserved his happiness a thousand times more than Zach ever would.
This is business, he told himself. Stop mixing emotions into it. You barely know Valerian anyway. How come you’re so depressed and on edge? Why did you expect to hit the jackpot right off the bat? You got to work for it.
Nothing new there.
So why did you expect any different?
Yeah. No idea. Maybe because he was plucked out of hell and placed in this academy that promised better things. Maybe because he thought he’d seen something in Valerian’s gaze that had slid through all the defenses and stuck his heart.
It didn’t matter. It was time to stop and face the music. After all, he was expected to dance tonight.
So fitting.
***
The event was being held in a well-known teahouse, one that Zach had never visited before. With them were three other Lotus Boys who’d accompany them with instruments while he and Tate danced. The focus tonight was on them, while on other nights they were the ones accompanying with instruments as others danced. No wonder Tate had been so stressed.
And strange that Zach barely cared at all.
At the end of the day, however, the focus was on all the Lotus Boys participating in the show. The idea was that all eyes would be on the boys on stage¸ no matter what they were actually doing. They might as well be posing or curling down to sleep. They’d still be seen.
But of course, the dancers, the moving figures, would draw most of the attention.
They entered through the back door, the staff of the teahouse staring openly at their elaborate hairdos and colorful clothes, then the manager came and bowed and led them to the back where they’d put the final touches to their appearance, tune their instruments and wait for the moment when they’d start.
A Blossom Boy was with them—Ember—to carry their stuff and help them dress and undress, and it was a flashback to a few months back when that had been Zach’s role and his only chance to get out of the academy and see how the world worked—the flamboyant, glittering world of performing events and arrogant alphas, not the real world.
He knew all about the real world.
The crowd was thick inside, the tables packed with tall and muscular bodies. So many alphas. Zach had never seen so many together except at events like this. So much testosterone stuffed into a low-ceilinged, narrow place, the alphas’ spicy scent intoxicating. It felt as if the teahouse was about to explode outward and up in the air.
“Oh, God.” Tate went pale.
“What is it?”
“That alpha is here.”
“Which alpha?”
“The one that hangs out with Alexander.”
“Valerian?” Zach scanned the crowd more carefully. There was Kai with his mate Alexander, come to see him. They didn’t have the babies with them. He didn’t see Valerian.
Oh, come on, he scolded himself. Stop looking. But that handsome face flashed through his mind anyway, as it often did. Dark hair pulled back from a square-jawed face with sharp cheekbones and an aquiline nose, bright amber eyes with long lashes, a body like a professional athlete with sculpted muscles, broad shoulders, and long legs.
He wouldn’t be there. He hadn’t come to watch Zach, talk to him, in weeks. Not since the graduation show. Had he realized that now Zach was worthless, an omega to be bought like a trophy mate? Had he been disgusted? Or had he known all along that his interest would hit a wall there?
“No, I didn’t mean Valerian, Zachary,” Tate hissed. “Focus.”
The use of his full name was a slap in the face. Very effective. Only his fathers had ever called him that, and the onslaught of dark memories it brought with it twisted his stomach.
“Damn. Who did you mean, then?” The he saw him. “Oh. Lucas.”
He’d noticed Tate staring at the tall alpha during their graduation show, but with Kai going into labor and then attending the birth at the birth center afterward, he’d sort of pushed it to the back of his mind.
Well, and the rest of his thoughts were constantly occupied with Valerian.
“He hasn’t looked at me,” Tate whispered and for a moment he sounded heart-broken. Damn, he hadn’t realized that Tate had it so bad.
But then Zach looked again at the crowd and grinned. “Actually...” he said. “He is. Tall guy with his hair dyed blue? He’s staring at your right now. Happy?”
Tate’s bright smile was answer enough.
If only Valerian had come too...
But he hadn’t. And it was time to dance.
***
As the music began and Zach started moving through the initial sequence, he finally relaxed. He’d practiced this dance a thousand times and his limbs went through the motions without conscious thought, following the beat, his bare feet sliding across the floor, grounding him. Bell anklets chimed with every step, bell bracelets with every sweep of his hands. He loved dancing. It had been probably this favorite class at the academy.
It felt weird not to have classes anymore.
Everything was weird.
Stop whining, he thought as he moved around the stage, his movements mirroring Tate’s, long sleeves trailing in explosions of color when the spotlights hit them, the shuffling of the soles of their feet on the wooden floor a whisper, lost in the folds of the music.
He lifted his head, gaze following the arc of his hand in the air, and thought he saw a pair of amber eyes under a dark mop of hair.
And stumbled, his body forgetting what it was supposed to be doing. Tate’s horrified gasp shocked him even more as he dropped to his knees, the impact reverberating up his thighs to rattle his spine.
Damn.
Shaking himself out of it—that wasn’t Valerian, because he isn’t here, you idiot!—he managed to strike a pose on the floor, pretending it had been on purpose, and Tate circled back to him, playing along, snapping open a big scarlet fan and waving it back and forth like a peacock waving its tail.
They salvaged it, even as Zach’s heart threatened to beat its way out of his ribcage. Sweat poured down his back as he made his way back to his feet, as gracefully as he could, his knees smarting. He flipped out his fans as well, and they finished the act swirling them and curtsying to the applause of the alphas.
He’d get hell from Tate for this, no doubt, and rightly so. When was he finally going to stop thinking of Valerian and move on? He was jeopardizing his future, and Tate’s, with his stupidity.
Huffing, his sweat drying on his skin, he took his bow together with the other Lotus Boys and retreated to the back, to prepare for the second dance.
To his surprise, Tate was quiet, not commenting on his blunder.
He couldn’t take it. “So what’s up? You’re not gonna chew me up about losing my footing during the dance?”
“Uh, no.”
“Why not? I messed up. I thought... I thought I saw Valerian in the crowd. My mind’s playing tricks on me, but you were right, I need to clear my head and accept what is. I just...”
“Zach—”
“I thought he wanted me. Never thought I was so bad at gauging whether someone likes me or not, and I was so sure he felt something for me, hell, even pure lust, that would’ve been something, not—”
“Zach. Valerian is here.”
“What?” Zach gaped. “You sure?”
“Yes. You weren’t wrong. You saw him, all right.”
But had he come for Zach, or only to spend his night drinking with his friends? Zach couldn’t go to him, seek him out. Valerian had made his intentions—or lack thereof—pretty clear. Going to talk to him only to be brushed off would be embarrassing, and would crush Zach’s chances of attracting any other alpha. Any other available alpha who might be actually interested in him.
Shit.