David didn’t care that his ass was sore. For one thing, that orgasm when Jake was inside him had been several orders of magnitude better than even Jake’s hand, never mind his own. For another, he was so wonderfully happy in the afterglow of Jake’s claim. He knew claiming could be good with the right alpha but he hadn’t been prepared for just how good. Maybe it was better for him because he’d already bonded with Jake. If that was the case, every omega should bond prior to being claimed.
Jake got a damp towel to clean them up. David reveled in the care. He was content to bask in serenity for a while, until he wanted to confirm something because the sex had been really, really good. “We’re going to do that often, right?” he asked.
“Have sex? I hope so.”
“Oh, good.”
“Like I said, there are lots of fun things we can do in bed.”
“Mm, like what?”
Instead of answering, Jake asked, “Haven’t you watched porn?”
“No. Aunt Julie and Uncle Ed blocked it very effectively.”
“Really? They didn’t strike me as the ultra-conservative, porn-is-evil type.”
“That’s not why they blocked it. I only learned last year they did it because they worried most porn is really degrading to omegas and they didn’t want me to see that, and either be traumatized or think I had to accept it. At least that’s what Lori told me.”
“They have a point there,” conceded Jake. “We’ll explore together, figure out what you like. It’ll be fun.”
“I liked what we just did, after it stopped hurting.”
“It won’t hurt so much once you get used to it.”
“Even better.” Because he was eternally inquisitive, he asked, “What do you like?”
“Besides what we just did? I like oral, giving and receiving.”
The concept was somewhat familiar to David. He did read a lot, after all, and he’d been known to sneak some of Aunt Julie’s heterosexual romance novels simply out of curiosity. “Giving, too?” It seemed very un-alpha-like. Or maybe that was just the books he’d read.
“Yes. When it comes to anal, though, I’m strictly a top.”
“I figured. You’re an alpha.” Alphas liked to be in control. “Anyway I really, really liked it just the way we did it.”
“I’m glad.” Jake kissed him. “I wanted your first time to be amazing.”
“Mission accomplished.”
“Sometimes it’s nice just to keep things simple and stroke each other, or rub against each other until we come. Not to mention that once my knee is better we’ll have more options for positions.”
This all sounded very promising to David. “As long as I get to have you inside me on a regular basis.”
Jake smiled. “You will.”
“I hope I didn’t come off as too selfish when we were talking in the hospital,” he said.
“You didn’t. I hadn’t realized so many alphas were actually bastards, but I never thought you were selfish. You just wanted to make sure I’d treat you well. And I will.” He reached out to stroke the side of David’s face. “It’s a privilege to be your alpha, David. I hope you’ll let me know when there are things I can do better, things you need or want.”
“Okay. You know I do want to be a good omega for you.” Now that Jake had claimed him, David could be a calming influence on his alpha, among other benefits such as cooking and, eventually, bearing Jake’s children. “I want to make you happy, too.”
“Just be you,” was Jake’s reply. “I’m awfully fond of you.”
“I’m pretty fond of you as well.”
This post-claiming interlude was ideal and David didn’t want to get out of bed, but eventually his stomach complained audibly that he was overdue for lunch. This prompted Jake to remark, “We should eat.”
“Ugh. Eating means moving.”
“Come on. You need to keep hydrated, too. My uncles figured we wouldn’t want to go out for a couple days so they brought over enough food for a week.”
“That was nice of them.”
“They can’t wait to meet you. Mom and Dad want to meet you properly as well.”
David reluctantly followed Jake in putting on boxers and heading to the kitchen. “What’s this about not going out for a couple days?”
“I think that’s mostly on my end. I’ve got all these crazy protective and possessive instincts running rampant right now and I’ve gotta get used to that so I don’t freak out when anyone gets close to you.”
“That’s okay. I’m happy to have you all to myself.”
“What do you want for lunch?”
David considered the available options before deciding, “How about meatball subs? We have plenty of meatballs.”
“Sounds good. I’ll get the sauce and meatballs heating up if you want to toast the buns.”
“No, I’ll get it,” countered David, with an eye to Jake’s crutches.
“I can still manage.”
“I’m sure you can, but you don’t have to. Besides, what happens if you spill hot pasta sauce all over the place?”
Jake didn’t like it but conceded, “You have a point. How about I sit and slice up a cucumber?”
“Sure.”
He worked on lunch while simultaneously admiring Jake. Even on crutches, his alpha exuded strength and power along with a kind of natural dominance. Not in a menacing way, though David had seen in the warehouse that Jake was more than capable of being menacing if the situation warranted it. All of his very alpha traits coexisted with gentleness and kindness.
He was jolted out of his introspection when Jake said, “You mentioned you haven’t gotten out much lately.”
“Once I hit maturity I got too much attention. With online education it’s becoming more common for omegas to finish high school, and it was important to me because that’s something nobody can ever take away from me. There’s still a perception that a mature, unclaimed omega is actively looking for an alpha, so we were always dealing with alphas interrupting us. One time I was getting a haircut when the beta hairdresser started talking up her alpha brother.”
“How unprofessional,” remarked Jake, “not to mention rude.”
“The worst part is that I couldn’t control my physical reaction. No matter how much I hated it I was turned on to some level by the presence of alphas. It’s not like many people imagine where I was overcome with lust and couldn’t think, but I was aroused and the alphas knew it. It just got to the point where going out wasn’t worth it.”
“That sucks.”
“It did,” agreed David, “though it was my choice. Aunt Julie and Uncle Ed wanted me to stay with them until I graduated and turned eighteen. She said sixteen was too young to be claimed. We didn’t start seriously considering alphas until the beginning of June after my birthday. But if I’d really wanted it they would’ve let me earlier.”
“I’m glad you didn’t.”
“Me, too.”
“We can go all over now. Nobody will bother you when you’re with me. Of course it’ll be easier once I’m off these damn crutches, but we don’t have to wait. Where would you like to go?”
“I haven’t been to a movie theater in a year and a half.” He tried it once and lasted about ten minutes because no less than three alphas came to sit near him and Uncle Ed.
“That I can handle even with crutches. Just give me a couple days so I don’t go nuts the first time someone notices how hot you are, and then we’ll go to the movies and wherever else you want.”
Oh, it was thrilling to hear his alpha mention how hot he found David.
“You can drive?” David couldn’t say he’d ever paid much attention to driving because it wasn’t a skill he needed. He was allowed to get a license by some stretch of legal reasoning that escaped him, because how was it that of all the rights omegas were denied, driver’s licenses were deemed crucial? Something about licenses already not being restricted to legal adults, if he recalled correctly. However, it was too risky for him to go anywhere on his own. Even claimed omegas were prone to harassment without their alpha or at least other family around, and if he wasn’t going out by himself he didn’t see a point in learning to drive.
“Sure,” said Jake, “my right knee is my driving knee. What else besides a movie?”
“Honestly? I’m even looking forward to grocery shopping.”
“That makes one of us.”
“I’d like to be able to go out to events. Authors speaking about their books, special exhibits at the museums, summer festivals, that kind of thing.”
“The Christmas fair?” suggested Jake. People came from all over for the Christmas fair. Among other attractions, the local Greek Orthodox congregation sold baklava which was not to be missed.
“Definitely.”
“Alright. Let me know when there’s something you want to check out.”
David wasn’t looking forward to such events merely to get out and rejoin the world, though that was of course true. He also found himself thinking that going with Jake would be a lot of fun. If his alpha could make terrible sci-fi movies amusing, anything would be enjoyable with him.
* * * *
He woke himself up screaming, because in his dream he’d bonded with Roger, who was then stripping to claim him.
“David.” The voice didn’t belong to Roger, and he listened for more as a soft light came on. “It was just a dream, sweetheart.”
Only one person called him sweetheart and that was Jake. He turned over, letting his alpha pull him into an embrace. His real and wonderful alpha who was not Roger. “It felt real,” he said into Jake’s shoulder.
“Yeah. Nightmares can be like that.”
“The police,” he swallowed hard, “they had no idea, Jake. Of course they looked into everyone who’d asked to be considered for me, but Roger still went into work every day and nobody suspected. How does that even happen? If you hadn’t been there when you were, I’d have ended up bonding with him. And then he would’ve…” Unable to say the words out loud, he stopped there, but Jake knew. As soon as he’d bonded with Roger, something easily tested by the presence of another alpha, Roger would have wasted no time in raping and claiming him. Even if the plan to disappear with Jake’s parents’ money hadn’t worked, even if Roger went to prison, he would have been Roger’s. Aunt Julie and Uncle Ed could have fought the forced claim, but half the time those cases were decided in favor of the alpha, he’d never bond with a decent alpha anyway, and it was all so much, David could barely breathe, thinking about how close a call he’d had.
After a minute of gently rubbing David’s back, Jake said, “I think I should make you an appointment with a therapist. You went through hell and I can’t just make it go away.”
It was a good idea. “You don’t need it?” He knew Jake hadn’t been in the warehouse for very long and wasn’t mistreated the same way. Besides, the worst of the ordeal for David was the ever-present terror that he would bond with Roger, something to which Jake couldn’t relate.
“Not like you do. Maybe to be on the safe side I’ll go for a few sessions with my old therapist since it reminded me a little of last time.”
David wanted something to distract from his nightmare. “There was another time?”
“After I was injured.” Jake sighed. “It’s not my favorite topic of conversation but you should know, I guess.” He shifted, getting comfortable before resuming, “My team was parachuting in for a hostage rescue. Don’t ask where, I can’t tell you. I think someone in that damn corrupt government tipped them off that we were coming because it was night and they knew exactly where to fire at us. My chute was hit multiple times and damaged enough that I landed hard. Hit my head and blacked out, woke up a prisoner. It was five days before we were rescued.”
“And you were hurt the whole time.”
“Yeah. The lack of immediate medical attention didn’t help. Smashed up my knee, cracked a few ribs, and the concussion’s what cost me some peripheral vision. Not that much, actually, and it could’ve been worse. Just before I crashed I imagined dying or being paralyzed.”
“It still sounds traumatic.”
“It was, and then I had to deal with medical retirement and figure out a civilian life for myself. I didn’t want therapy, but one day at the store I heard people talking in Spanish. Nothing wrong with that, of course, except it triggered a flashback. That’s when I started dragging myself to a therapist.”
Going by this, David guessed Jake’s disastrous mission was somewhere in South or Central America. That wasn’t the important point. “Did it help? Therapy?”
“It did. Not as fast as I would’ve liked, I’ll admit. Therapists don’t have some secret magic words that make everything okay again. But this doesn’t have to haunt you forever.”
“Okay. Sign me up for therapy.” David did not want Roger to cast a shadow on the rest of his life, especially not since it looked as though his life with Jake was going to be particularly good. “How long ago was that mission?”
“Two and a half years. I needed help getting around at first, so I came home to my parents’ house. Once I’d mostly recovered physically I moped around for a couple months until Dad told me I could feel sorry for myself forever or I could be grateful to be alive, but either way I wasn’t staying with them indefinitely. I started looking into civilian careers, and with a physics degree, teaching seemed like a good option, so I enrolled in a teaching certification program.”
“And you like it?”
“I do. Last year was my first and there were some rocky times for sure. The good outweighs the bad by quite a bit and that’s really all you can ask for in a career.”
David wouldn’t know since omegas weren’t allowed careers.
“I’ll make the appointment in the morning,” declared Jake. “And you should look for your writers’ group.”
“How far are we from your city library?”
“Maybe five miles. Why?”
“There’s a group that meets there every Thursday evening from 6:30 to 8:30. I needed something to distract me on the ride over here so I looked into it.” Uncle Ed insisted the ride hadn’t taken hours, but it sure felt like it had.
“We can do that. I’ll bring you over and read while you…do whatever people do at a writers’ group meeting.”
“Critique each other’s work, mostly. I should send an email to make sure they’re fine with an omega joining.” He looked up at Jake’s face, illuminated by lamplight. “Is it okay if I kiss you?” He wasn’t sure if that was something the alpha was supposed to initiate.
“You can kiss me anytime you want, sweetheart.”
If anyone had asked him a week ago what he thought of being called sweetheart, David would have been ambivalent at best. Now it thrilled him, in no small part because it meant Jake cared for him as a person, not just his omega biology. After the kiss, he said, “It means a lot to me that you’ll bring me to the meetings.”
“Being an omega doesn’t mean you should be locked away inside all the time. We’ll go places, and you can hang out with other writers on Thursdays. It’s important that you’re happy.”
“What night is poker night?”
“You remembered that? Wednesdays. I don’t have to go.”
As much as David wanted Jake with him, he recognized his alpha ought to keep his preexisting recreation. After all, David wanted Jake to be happy as well. “Don’t stop on my account. If I get writers’ group nights it’s only fair for you to have poker nights.”
“That’s not until September anyway. And if you’re worried about gambling, we limit it to twenty bucks a week.”
“I wasn’t, but okay.” Generally speaking omegas didn’t deal with money and he was content to leave finances up to Jake. He doubted he’d be good at budgeting, since he’d never been great about saving the allowance his aunt and uncle gave him.
“We need to get you a debit card, too.”
“What? Why?”
“Uncle Tim suggested it’d be good if you had a little money that was yours, so you don’t have to ask me every time you want a new book or something. Funds you control, you know? It works for him and Uncle Zeke, anyway. I think Uncle Zeke spends about ninety-nine percent of his on music. I thought we could set it up on a debit card so you can buy things online, too.”
David was awed by how incredibly, thoughtfully progressive a family he’d joined. “Wow. I didn’t expect that.”
“I’ll redo my direct deposit so you get money automatically when I get paid twice a month. How about we start with fifty a paycheck and go from there? Once we don’t have to pay rent I can probably afford more.”
“That sounds great. Thank you.” A hundred dollars a month to spend on whatever he wanted sounded wonderful to David. It was significantly more money than he’d received from Aunt Julie and Uncle David who, to be fair, stretched their budget by taking him in after his parents died. He still couldn’t believe they’d put thousands of dollars in the bank to just sit and earn interest for him. Jake was right, those funds should be saved for something special.
He yawned, prompting Jake to ask, “Ready to go back to sleep?”
“Can we sleep like this?” He felt secure in Jake’s arms.
“Sure. Let me just turn off the light.”
Before drifting off, David reflected on how very fortunate he was that being kidnapped ended up with him happy and safe with his wonderful alpha.