They shouldn’t be doing this here. But Greg shielded him from view, his fist working slow and knowing around Dale’s cock, and Dale’s legs trembled. He’d been dreaming about Greg’s touch for two months. And when Greg slowed his fist, leaving it snug around Dale’s cock, Dale thrust up, fucking into his hand just like he’d done tens of times, back when they’d still been seeing each other.
“Want another baby?” Greg murmured against his lips. “I’d give you a second one.”
Dale whimpered, remembering Greg inside him, Greg filling him with seed. Greg putting a baby inside him. The tension between his legs spiked. Pleasure crashed through him, and he was coming, spilling, moaning into Greg’s mouth as he shuddered, clinging to his alpha.
Greg pressed him against the wall. Dale panted against his lips, trying to think.
He felt safe against Greg like this. No one was shouting. There were no camera flashes, no speculative murmuring. Just his breathing, and Greg’s chest snug against his, his sweat smearing on Dale’s skin.
Dale groaned, pressing his face into Greg’s shoulder. Greg smelled like pure alpha—aspen and musk. He didn’t have another omega’s scent on him, and Dale wanted to drag his own wrists over Greg, mark Greg as his own.
“How did the ultrasound go?” Greg whispered, curving his arm around Dale’s back. His other hand stroked Dale’s cock slow and smooth, milking him for the rest of his cum.
“The baby’s fine,” Dale mumbled. “I had some blood work done. The results of the abnormality tests aren’t in yet.”
Greg exhaled, his breath riffling through Dale’s hair. “Okay. Keep me updated.”
“It’s a boy.”
“Thought of names yet?”
Dale huffed, almost laughing. “I don’t... I haven’t even processed it all. I’m just...”
And his mind cleared. He was in the campus parking lot, his pants open, Greg tracing his thumb languidly over Dale’s cock. It was wrong. And yet he felt the safest he had had in the past two months, curled up against Greg’s chest. Greg felt like home.
“I missed you,” Greg murmured, kissing his cheek. “I’m sorry. I want you back. I don’t know how to fix this. I—”
“We shouldn’t be doing this here,” Dale muttered. He needed to pull away. Leave Greg. But Greg’s touch drifted up to his belly, and he slipped his hand under Dale’s shirt, running the backs of his fingers over his baby bump. Dale’s throat tightened. “You shouldn’t be seen with me.”
Greg didn’t answer. Dale didn’t know what Greg’s circumstances were like with his parents, but he knew he couldn’t risk his new job, couldn’t risk Bernard Hastings shutting down the childcare center. This didn’t only involve him now; he would not repay Lisa’s kindness with destruction.
“You should go,” Dale said, closing his eyes.
“Am I still your alpha?”
Yes. Yes, you are, Dale wanted to say. Except he couldn’t have Greg pining for him, posting pictures of them on his Facebook. Greg needed to set his sights higher, find someone who wasn’t forty-two and on his probation period at his new job.
“No. I’m leaving,” Dale choked. He hadn’t had enough of Greg. He wanted Greg’s teeth marks on his skin, wanted Greg’s scent all over him.
Greg brought his wrist up, rubbing his scent gland along Dale’s throat, over his shoulder. Then he dragged it down Dale’s chest, over his belly, and Dale heard Mine, in his touch. His entire body ached to be pressed against his alpha’s.
Dale forced himself to step away, his heart thumping. “No.”
“You wanted me.” Greg drew his hand back, hurt in his eyes. Streaks of white glistened on his forearm.
Dale did up his pants, swallowing hard. Greg was still wearing his team jersey. He wasn’t even out of college yet. “Date someone else. Three other omegas. Ten. I don’t care. Find someone better,” Dale gasped. “I don’t believe you can’t.”
“But the baby—”
“The baby will be fine,” he snapped. “Don’t pull that on me again. Find someone else. I won’t have your father ruin everything else I care about.”
Greg flinched. Dale took another step back. In a smaller voice, Greg said, “I lov—”
“No.” Dale turned away, his chest tight. “I don’t need it.”
Greg looked at the sidewalk. In that moment, he looked fragile, like he was going to break.
“I don’t want any more of your voice messages,” Dale said, his voice wavering. He spoke louder, to pretend this didn’t feel like a knife wound. “I don’t want any of your boxes, or your cranes. I don’t want to see you ever again.”
Dale stepped off the sidewalk, crossing the road before he could change his mind. He needed Greg to stop thinking about him. To at least find someone who could stay with him the rest of his life. Who wouldn’t drag him down with a child at the wrong time.
He strode down the rows of cars, closing his eyes when he found his own by chance. Dale slipped inside, then locked the doors.
When Greg didn’t approach, Dale sank his forehead against the steering wheel, and cried.
33
Greg
Greg slammed the front door, his teeth grinding. He was leaving. After two months of staying in this damn mansion, saving money and putting up with his father’s rules, he’d run out of patience.
He needed to get away. Needed to fix Dale’s life. Needed to set everything straight again, except he didn’t know how.
They should have spoken the night his father walked in on them. Sorted things out. But none of that had happened, and they’d hung in limbo, Dale throwing Greg out of his apartment.
And in the weeks since, Greg had had alternating nightmares of fire, of losing Dale, of Tony dying over and over in front of his eyes.
He couldn’t think about his own future, even now. But he could think about Dale’s, and he wanted to help Dale with the baby, help him any way he could.
Back at the basketball arena, Dale had watched the game. He’d lied about attending; Greg had thought he might.
In the weeks before this, June had asked discreet questions about Greg’s Facebook
