Beck hated leaving Fagan tucked up in their bed alone, but he had a lot of phone calls to make and Fagan needed his rest. Beck had woken him more than once in the night and pounded him into the mattress. He probably should have gone a little easier on Fagan, but he couldn't seem to keep his hands off the sexy little man.
He grabbed a cup of coffee and a muffin from the kitchen then headed for his office. He doubted he'd eat the muffin, but it was the principleal of taking the damn thing. He had to look as if he had plans to eat it. For some reason he couldn't fathom, people tended to get fussy if he didn't eat breakfast.
Namely Greyson. Luckily, the man was still in bed.
Beck smiled as he set the muffin down on the edge of his desk then sat down. Maybe he didn't have to eat it after all. He didn't hear any other movement from anywhere in the house so he suspected he was the only one up at the moment. That would certainly make his phone calls a little easier.
He had spent twenty-five years protecting the high council. He'd made a lot of contacts during that time. Some above board and some not so above board. He was positive at least one of them had the information he needed.
Beck glanced at the clock on the wall. It was just a few minutes past eight o'clock in the morning. Good. That meant a few of the people he had to call would be up by now and a few hadn't gone to bed yet.
He picked up the phone and made his first phone call. "Hello, Elder Ramsey," he said when the man answered the phone. "This is Montgomery Beck. I wonder if I can have a few minutes of your time?"
"Beck, I didn't expect to hear from you. Shouldn't you be with your mate?"
Beck smiled. "I just left him sleeping upstairs, sir."
"To call me? Why, Beck, I'm touched." The man chuckled. "And slightly disturbed that you would be calling me instead of snuggling with your mate."
"Yes, sir, but I'm calling about my mate."
Ramsey's voice became serious when he asked, "Is there a problem, Beck?"
"You could say that, sir. I'm not sure if you are aware, but I was attacked a couple of days ago heading home from council headquarters."
"No, I wasn't aware. Are you okay?"
"I am, sir. Greyson and the others went and got my mate. Bonding with him and shifting healed me."
"Are you calling to lodge a complaint then?"
"Yes, but not about the attack." Although, now that he thought about it, the attack seemed a little too coincidental. "When Greyson picked Fagan up, the man had no idea who I was or what mates even were. He didn't even know shifters existed."
"What in the bloody hell are you talking about, Beck?. Omegas are sent to the monastery to learn about us, about what being a mate means. That's what we pay those damn humans for."
"Oh, Fagan was given an education all right. He was taught how to serve his master."
Dead silence.
"Sir?"
"Did you say master?" The question sounded bitter.
"Yes, sir, I did. Fagan has grown up his entire life knowing he would be serving his master, although he was never informed of who that master was to be. Like I said, he knew nothing about me, shifters, or mates."
"I see."
"There's one more thing, sir."
"What?"
"Did you know all omegas are born blind?"
"Blind?" Elder Ramsey barked. "The Sidhe are giving us defective mates?"
Beck's rage was instant. "Fagan is not defective," he snarled. "He's perfect."
"Thank you for that, Beck."
Beck's head snapped up. He winced when he saw his mate standing in the doorway. "Fagan."
Fagan smiled and sauntered into the room as if he'd been in there a million times before and had twenty-twenty sight. He easily moved around the desk then walked over and sat down on Beck's lap.
"Beck?" Ramsey called out. "Beck, what's going on?."
Beck wrapped one arm around Fagan then set the phone down on his desk. He hit the speaker button. "Elder Ramsey, my mate Fagan is here with me. I've put you on speaker so he can hear you."
"Oh...uh...good morning, Fagan."
"Good morning, Elder Ramsey," Fagan replied. "How are you this morning?"
"A bit confused actually. Beck informs me that you were unaware of shifters or mates before you mated him. Is this true?"
"Yes, sir," Fagan replied. "I was being trained to serve my master. I was never taught about shifters or mates or anything having to do with your world. I didn't even know I was Sidhe, sir. I thought I was human."
"Do you have any bloody idea what this means, Beck?"
Beck snorted. "It means someone fucked up."
"The question is who?" Ramsey asked. "Who is doing this and who knows about it?"
"Sir?" Fagan asked. "I don't understand why we were never taught about shifters or mates, but I can tell you we were given a very good education. We were taught languages, manners and etiquette, cooking, self- defense, sex-ed, you name it, we were—"
"You were taught sex-ed?" the elder asked.
"Of course. We needed to know how to pleasure our masters."
Beck's jaw clenched with anger at the dismissive way Fagan spoke about being given sex education. It was so clinical, almost as if it had just been another lesson he'd learned, another class he'd taken. Considering how passionate he'd been in bed last night, he seemed totally disconnected now.
"Fagan, how old were you when you learned you were to have a master?" Elder Ramsey asked.
Beck could see where the man was coming from with that question, even if he didn't like the way the man phrased it. If they knew how old Fagan had been, then they might have a timeline of where to start looking for answers.
Fagan shrugged. "I've always known, sir.
Shit!
"That gives us a window of twenty to twenty-five years," Beck pointed out. "Something else, sir,. I didn't think about it too much at the time, but Greyson said the headmaster didn't want to release Fagan. He told Greyson that Fagan had been promised to someone else. He only relented when Greyson threatened to call the high council."
"I didn't know that," Fagan said. "Who did he say I was promised to?"
"He didn't," Beck replied, "but Greyson said he seemed pretty scared of whoever it was. Only the threat to call the council changed his mind."
"You suspect the headmaster?" Ramsey asked.
Beck didn't want to point fingers, but..."I just think his behavior was out of place, sir. He knew Fagan belonged to me. I've sent enough money to that school over the years to pay for Fagan's education ten times over."
Fagan's brow flickered as he turned. "You sent money to the school for me?"
"Yes, of course."
His frown deepened. "Why would you do that?"
"Every shifter king is required to pay for his mate's education and upkeep," Elder Ramsey supplied. "It was part of the agreement we established with the humans who train them."
"How much?"
"Fagan," Beck started, "it doesn't really matter how—"
"Over a quarter million dollars during the course of your stay at the monastery," Elder Ramsey supplied again.
Beck grimaced. He really wished the elder would stop offering up information so easily. It wasn't that he didn't want Fagan to know what he'd done, but more that he wanted to explain to the man in his own time, in his own way. He didn't want Fagan top think he'd been bought and paid for.
"A quarter of a million dollars?" Fagan paled. "What were you paying for?"
"You," Beck insisted. "I wanted you to have the best education and life that you could before you came to me."
"You don't understand," Fagan whispered. His milky white eyes flooded with tears. "We had nothing. I had nothing. I was allowed two changes of clothes. I never got to read a book of my own choosing or go to do what I wanted. My entire life was scheduled from the time I woke up until I went to bed at night. My down time was spent in heavy meditation, not because I wanted to meditate, but because I was ordered to."
Beck growled as rage began to sizzle under his skin. It sounded to him as if Fagan had been a virtual prisoner in that damn monastery. A slave taught to serve his master.
"Ramsey—"
"I know, Beck, and I'll look into things on my end. You need to look into things on your end. Call me if you discover anything."
"Can you get me a list of the shifter kings who have gone before me?" Beck asked. "I'd like to touch base with them and see if their omegas went through some of the same things Fagan did. It feels as if this has been going on a lot longer than we know about."
And that wasn't good.
"Let's keep this under wraps until we have concrete evidence something is actually going on," Ramsey said.
"You know that—"
"Yes, Beck, I know something is going on, but until we have proof, I can't take this to the other members of the high council. And, while I believe you, this story is so outlandish, it's insane. I need proof."
Beck huffed. "Okay, I guess I can understand that."
Regretfully, he could. He just didn't like it. Someone was messing with the carefully achieved balance of peace between the shifters, humans, and Sidhe. The ramifications if all of this was true were humongous. It could start another great war.
"Call me tomorrow morning at this same time and we'll touch base."
"Yes, sir," Beck replied. "Thank you, sir."
"One more thing, Beck," Ramsey said. "Keep an extra close eye on your mate. If what the headmaster said is true and he was promised to someone else, I doubt they are going to give up simply because you claimed him. They've invested too much in training him to let him go now."
Beck tightened his grip on Fagan when the man shivered. "No one is going to take my mate away from me."
He'd kill anyone who tried.
Beck hung up the phone after saying goodbye to the elder. He had more phone calls to make, but he needed to comfort his mate first. He pressed Fagan's head down against his shoulder then wrapped both arms around him.
"I won't let anyone take you from me, Fagan. You know that, right?"
"I know you'll try to keep me safe, but you can't plan for every eventuality."
"No, that's true." As much as he hated to admit it. "But I will do everything I can to make sure you're safe."
"Do you really think someone might come after me?"
"Until I figure out exactly what is going on here, I can't dismiss anything."
Beck was a shifter king. He hated not being in control. It was part of his genetic makeup. Being a shifter king meant he was supposed to be at the top of the heap, dominant, and always in control.
Right now, he felt very out of control.
"You are mine," he whispered against the side of Fagan's head. "You gave yourself to me and I refuse to let anyone take you away from me."
He'd spent twenty-five years fighting for the right to have Fagan at his side. Now that he'd actually held the man in his arms and felt the comfort of his embrace, Beck would fight till his last breathe to keep Fagan.
Fagan wiggled around on his lap, eliciting a deep groan from Beck as the sexy little man's ass rubbed against his aching cock. Beck grinned as he leaned down to press his lips to Fagan's. He tasted just as good as he smelled, all sweet and tangy.
Beck wanted to devour him.
He leaned down to capture Fagan's lips again as he sat the man down on his desk, scooting between his open thighs. He thought he could die a happy man just kissing his mate, but he wanted more. A lot more.
Without lifting his lips from Fagan's, he began stripping the clothes off of his mate. Anything he couldn't pull off, he ripped off, tossing everything to the floor. Once he was naked, Beck began to explore every inch of naked skin his hands could reach. As small as the man was, that was still a lot of skin… a lot of soft, silky, naked skin.
He groaned as he leaned down to swipe his tongue along Fagan's neck. The man's high pitched moan echoed through the office. Beck's grin was almost feral as he scooted down Fagan's chest, his tongue licking a trail down his golden skin. He found one brown hued nipple with his lips and tugged gently.
Fagan went wild. He started frantically humping his hips against Beck's stomach, his hands clutched in his hair. His head thrashed around on the desk. When Beck used his teeth, biting down a little harder, Fagan screamed. He arched his body into Beck's, filling the space between them with his seed.
Beck watched his mate climax, more turned on than he could ever remember being in his life. Fagan was breathtaking in his pleasure. Beck wanted to see that look on his face at least once every day, if not more.
Beck leaned down to take Fagan's nipple into his mouth again. He was rewarded with a deep groan from his mate as he swirled his tongue across the hard little nub. He ran his hands down Fagan's side, past his hips to his thighs. Grabbing them, he pulled them up and out, even as he scooted down until Fagan's jutting cock was bouncing in front of him.
"Fuck, Fagan…you're perfect." And he was. His cock had a nice mushroomed head, thick, and just long enough. Oh yeah, Beck was going to have fun with this. He leaned down and swiped his tongue over the top.
Beck tasted a small drop of liquid from the small slit in the top. Sweet and tangy, just like Fagan. Beck knew he could quickly become addicted to the way Fagan tasted. He licked his way around the head and down the thick veined sides.
As his tongue moved down to lick at Fagan's balls, they drew up tight against his body. Fagan screamed again, his thighs quivering. Beck lifted his head just in time to see cum shoot out of Fagan's pulsating cock and all over his stomach.
Damn! He had just come again. Wanting to cash in on the euphoric feeling Fagan was experiencing, Beck lowered his head and licked at his small puckered hole. He swiped his tongue over it several times, all to the delight of his mate.
Before his cries of release could even quiet down, Fagan was moaning again. Beck scooped up some of Fagan's cum then pushed a finger into his tight hole, then another, scissoring the two together. A third finger had Fagan pushing his hips back at Beck.
Beck stood up between Fagan's thighs. He withdrew his fingers then unbuckled his pants and pushed them down past his knees. His breath caught in his throat as he grabbed his cock and pushed it against Fagan's eager entrance.
Beck looked down at Fagan's flushed face. "Are you ready for me, mate?"
Fagan nodded his rapidly.
"Say it, Fagan, say you want me to claim you as my mate," Beck demanded. They'd already done this, but Beck wanted to make sure their bond was unbreakable.
"Yes, please, claim me!" Fagan cried out.
That's all he needed to hear. Guiding himself in, Beck pushed with his hips, past the first ring, then more, until he was seated all the way inside of his mate. Oh fuck! The feeling was unbelievable.
Pulling out until just the head remained inside, he grabbed both of Fagan's legs, pushing them up against his chest. Then he pushed back in, slowly, inch by wonderful inch. He pulled out again repeating the slow process until Fagan was nearly crazed with need.
"Please… please…" he begged.
Wrapping Fagan's legs around his waist, Beck leaned over until the chests were pressed together, his face in the soft skin between Fagan's neck and shoulder. His thrusting became more frantic as the deep scent of his mate's arousal filled his nostrils.
He knew he was nearing completion, just as Fagan was. He wanted them to come together as he claimed him. Feeling himself beginning to peak he growled into Fagan's ear. "Now, little one, come for me."
He heard Fagan scream out as he sank his long canines into the soft flesh in front of him. Thrusting deep one more time, Beck groaned between his teeth as he filled Fagan with his release, the sweet taste of his mate increasing his pleasure tenfold.
Beck thrust a few more times then carefully withdrew his canines from Fagan's neck, smoothing over the rough bite with his tongue. Lifting his head he looked down into his mate's face, a wide grin on his lips.
"You are perfect, mate."
Fagan's grin was a little loopy, his face flushed. "You're not so bad yourself."