He hung up the phone and looked at his notes. What possessed two omega brothers to commit suicide so shortly after each other? Something in their family situation? Abuse?

  A quick research uncovered that Colton’s brother, Adam, had worked at a nursing home as a nurse’s aide but quit a few months before his death at age twenty. Palani decided to pay the nursing home a visit to see what he could discover about the McCains.

  “A real tragedy,” the nurse supervisor, Nancy, told him. Palani caught her at the right time, minutes before her scheduled break, so she was happy to talk to him as long as she could smoke a cigarette outside.

  “How long did Adam work here?” Palani asked.

  “He started right after high school as part of our in-house training program. He was a sweet kid and popular with our residents.”

  “Why did he quit?”

  Nancy looked around, even though they stood outside, perched under a small overhang to protect them from the miserable rain that had been coming down all morning. “I’m not supposed to talk about it,” she said.

  Palani knew how to play this game. “How about I ask questions and you answer with a yes or no?”

  After a slight hesitation, she nodded, then took another drag from her cigarette.

  “Did he do something wrong that would’ve gotten him fired?”

  “No. It was not his fault.”

  “But something did happen?”

  She nodded, tapping with her foot and avoiding his eyes.

  In Palani’s experience, most issues arose from three origins: power, money, and sex. Since he’d been an omega, power wasn’t the most logical reason. That left money and sex. But Nancy had said he hadn’t done anything wrong, so money wasn’t likely either.

  “Something sexual?” he guessed.

  “Yes.” Her cheeks colored red.

  “But it wasn’t his fault, you said. Was he assaulted?”

  “They claimed they couldn’t help themselves, that he was irresistible…” Nancy clamped her mouth shut.

  “They? More than one alpha assaulted him?”

  She nodded, her lips still pressed together.

  “Two?”

  A headshake.

  “Three?”

  She affirmed his question with a slow nod.

  Why would three alphas sexually attack an omega at work? That didn’t make sense. Sure, sexual assaults on omegas happened, but the majority was either by acquaintances at home or in public places or in social settings like at parties, in clubs, and such. For three alphas to assault an employee, something extraordinary had to have triggered it.

  Nancy had said they’d claimed they couldn’t help themselves. They were blaming the victim, the omega. Had he come to work during his heat? Even then, it shouldn’t have been that much of an issue. Unless…

  Palani’s gut churned. “They claimed he was irresistible?”

  “They’d never smelled anything like it, they’d said. Sex daze. They were barely aware of what they did to him, but they…”

  Again she stopped, terror on her face.

  “I won’t tell anyone what you told me,” Palani said.

  “But you’re a reporter,” she protested. “Sooner or later, this will come out.”

  “Even then, I’ll never betray you as my source.”

  Her jaw set. “It wasn’t right, what they did to him. Blaming him, then making him quit.”

  “Did he press charges?”

  “No. My friend works in HR, and she told me they put pressure on him not to. Told him it was useless, since he’d never said no. They claimed he begged them to…to have sex with him. That doesn’t sound like him at all. He was shy, socially awkward. But so sweet. Wouldn’t hurt a fly. I can’t imagine him begging three practical strangers, including our boss, for sex.”

  “When he started working here, had he experienced his first heat already?”

  “He hadn’t. He told a coworker of ours once that he was a late bloomer, that most omegas in his family were.”

  She took a last drag of her cigarette before putting it out and throwing it into a trash bin. “They told us he suffered from depression, but I can’t help but think it was because of what they did to him.”

  “Thank you, Nancy. I appreciate you telling me this.”

  Fifteen minutes later, he was at the flower shop where Lance McCain, a cousin of Colton and Adam, had worked before he’d died of an accidental drowning at age twenty-one.

  “You wanna talk about Lance?” the owner, a fortysomething beta named Larry, asked Palani. “Why? It’s been two years since he died.”

  “Just a follow-up,” Palani said. “What can you tell me about him?”

  Larry scratched his head, then went back to bundling sweet-smelling roses into small bouquets. “He was a good kid. Worked hard, good sense for arrangements, very friendly to the customers, and always willing to go the extra mile.”

  “How old was he when he started working here?”

  “Right out of high school. I was looking for an apprentice, and his dad is my cousin twice removed or something. Said his son needed a job and that a flower shop would be perfect.”

  “Lance liked flowers?” Palani asked.

  Larry shrugged. “I guess. I think he needed a job where he wouldn’t be around a lot of people the whole day. His dad said he didn't like interacting with people. He worked the back room, making flower arrangements like funeral pieces or bouquets made to order.”

  Palani’s stomach rolled a little from the overwhelming scent of all the flowers. “Doesn’t the smell bother you?” he asked.

  “No. You get used to it, become desensitized. I can’t even smell when my wife’s in heat, you know?”

  It was all the confirmation Palani needed. The gene. They all had to have had the Melloni gene, the same one Vieno had. What had happened to Lance? He’d been safe here with Larry, a beta who could barely scent him, but what had changed?

  “The last months before his death, was Lance the same? Or can you think of anything that was different?”

  Larry looked up from his roses, releasing the flower he'd been holding. “He was different after what happened to him, of course.” He studied Palani for a few seconds. “You didn’t know, did you? That he was assaulted?”

  Palani shook his head. “No, I didn’t. But I’m not surprised. Can you tell me more?”

  “I leaned hard on him to press charges, but he ended up dropping them after the alpha who…” Larry’s jaw tightened. “He raped him. He claimed Lance wanted it, that he begged him for sex, but I don’t believe it for a second.”

  Palani’s air left his lungs with a whoosh. Oh god. There was a pattern. “What happened?”

  “Lance didn’t usually do deliveries, because I used a self-employed driver for that, but it was a last-minute order. A man wanted to make nice with his wife and ordered two dozen roses. So I sent Lance. I don’t know what happened, but the man ended up raping him…for hours. He denied up and down it was rape, said it was consensual, but that never made sense to me. I mean, the guy was married, for fuck’s sake, and Lance was a virgin. Lance pressed charges at first, but I guess the cops convinced him it was useless, and he dropped them. He was never the same after, a shadow of himself.”

  Palani swallowed. “And then he drowned.”

  Larry scoffed. “You and I both know that wasn’t an accidental drowning. My guess is he took an overdose of the sedatives he was prescribed after his rape and drowned himself.”

  Back in his car, Palani was too shaken up to start the engine. He watched his hands tremble, then lowered them and took a few deep breaths.

  It had to be the gene. Adam had been fine at work at first because he hadn’t had his first heat yet. As soon as he’d come close, he’d been irresistible to the alphas around him. And Lance had been fine in the flower shop where the scent of the flowers would have overpowered his omega smell. But his mistake had been to do that delivery.

  Both of them had been raped. Both of them would have been traumatized. Depressed. Much like Vieno… Palani swallowed back the bile that rose in his throat. Was Vieno at risk for the same?

  His agoraphobia might have ended up saving him because it had prevented a repeat of his first heat. And Palani was not only a beta who lacked the sexual aggression of alphas had but was also used to Vieno’s smell, having grown up with him.

  But even so, the depression was lurking under the surface. And his health problems had been getting worse until he’d had Lidon take care of him. The thought of Vieno ending up like these young men took Palani’s breath away.

  But he wasn’t done yet. He hadn’t found out yet what had happened to Colton. He’d been older than the others, so what had caused him to commit suicide? Had he, too, been cursed with the gene? Before concluding the gene was at fault, Palani had to know.

  10

  Vieno hummed along to Barbra Streisand as he emptied the kitchen cupboards. It had been months since he’d taken all the china and glassware out and had cleaned the shelves with the lemon-scented cleaner he preferred. Cleaning always calmed him, and considering how twisted his insides felt, like his stomach was corkscrewed, he could do with a little soothing.

  Ten days until his next heat. Ten days until he had to make a decision all over again, to use suppressants or not. To seek a caretaker or not. To find the courage to approach Lidon…or not.

  His mind was saying one thing, his heart another, and his body, oh, his body knew exactly what it wanted. How fucked up was that? It was a lose-lose-lose situation.

  If he asked a caretaker—that’s what his mind was urging him to do—he’d lose part of his dignity, maybe even part of himself. He wasn’t sure if he would ever recover from being treated like a whore again, which was undoubtedly what would happen. His mind might be okay with it, but his soul wasn’t.

  If he took the suppressants—the option his heart was telling him—he’d reset the improvement of his health and once again start on that not-so-slow decline. Plus, they were weighing heavy on their budget, and even with both their jobs, they cost too much money to afford long-term.

  Yet if he asked Lidon—and his body was begging him to please, accept his knot again—it would chip away at Palani’s love for him all over again. How many times until there was nothing left but brokenness?

  Palani had been right that Vieno had connected with Lidon, way past mere sexual attraction. There had been plenty of that, but he could attribute that to biology. Hormones. Pheromones. How did he explain the fact that he couldn’t stop thinking about the alpha, though? That he dreamed about him sometimes, about the sex they’d shared but also about his eyes, his smile, and the way he called Vieno “sweetheart”…

  He wasn't able to reason that away so easily, and the guilt toward Palani was killing him inside. How could he betray him like that, after everything Palani had done for him? Not that he had stopped loving Palani, because he didn’t think he was capable. It was more like his heart had somehow made room for Lidon, if that even made sense. Not love, of course. He’d only met the man once. But a connection beyond attraction, definitely. He really did like him, which made the choice for his coming heat all the more complicated.

  Maybe Palani wouldn’t be mad, because he’d understand? Plus, Vieno had sensed some sparks between Palani and Enar. Was it too much to hope Palani would find happiness as well? His heart cringed at the thought of losing him, though.

  No matter what he chose, someone would get hurt. How the hell could he make the right choice under these circumstances? There was no right choice, only wrong ones.

  The story of his life.

  He put the dinner plates back in the cupboard after cleaning it, careful not to put them down too hard. He let the music settle him a little, distract him from his depressing thoughts. Barbra was just about to hit a perfect note when his phone rang.

  He didn’t recognize the number, but he often got calls from strangers because of his PA work, so he always took them. He turned down the music.

  “Hello?”

  “Vieno, it’s me. Tiva. You have to…”

  “Hey, honey, how are you?” Vieno said, his face breaking open in a smile.

  “Stop talking. I only have minutes, and this is important.”

  Vieno’s stomach dropped. The stress in her voice was obvious. What the hell was going on? A dozen questions were at the tip of his tongue, but he bit them back, wanting her to spit it out.

  “He’s coming for you again. Aloysius.”

  He couldn’t prevent the gasp falling from his lips as his hand sought the kitchen counter for support. What did his former fiancé want?

  “He wants to marry you after all, and Mom and Dad have agreed. They sold you to him. He paid them a shitload of money.”

  “But…” He swallowed, his mouth too dry to speak. “But he didn’t want me anymore. And they disowned me.”

  “Yeah, apparently both have changed. He needs an heir. His new omega died without giving him the son he wanted. He wants you, and it needs to be fast, for some reason.”

  “Tiva…” His heart skipped a few beats, then sped up into a wild race that had him desperate for air.

  “Call Palani. Tell him to get his ass home and find a solution.”

  “I… I can’t think.”

  “Vieno…” Her voice changed to pleading. “I overheard them talking about this, and Mom and Dad basically locked me up to prevent me from telling you. Dammit, I had to borrow a stranger’s phone right now to call you, told her it was a matter of life and death. I have to go. Call Palani, Vieno. He’ll know what to do.”

  She hung up before he could say another word. Half paralyzed with fear, he pressed the speed dial for Palani.

  “What’s up, baby?” his kind voice sounded.

  “Palani…” He felt like he was choking, his throat cut off as if a strong hand was wrapped around it.

  “What’s wrong? Talk to me, Vieno.”

  Vieno sank against the counter, then his legs gave out under him and he half collapsed onto the floor. “Come home. Please, come home.”

  Palani must have broken quite a few traffic laws to make it home in under fifteen minutes. When he stormed in, Vieno was still on the kitchen floor, too dazed to even get up.

  “Vieno! Are you okay?” Palani’s hands checked him everywhere. “What happened?”

  “Tiva…” Vieno managed.

  Palani kneeled before him, then cupped both his cheeks and forced eye contact. “Okay, baby, take a deep breath for me. That’s it… Another one.”

  Vieno sucked in a shaky breath again.

  “That’s better. Now, start at the beginning, okay? Whatever it is, we’ll fix it.”

  Wasn’t that what Tiva had said, that Palani would know what to do? He’d always been there for Vieno, had always been able to help him with his problems.

  “Tiva called me. She said Aloysius has made a deal with my parents to marry me for a large sum of money. Fast. She said he needs an heir because his omega died.”

  He forced the words out as fast as possible, relieved when he managed to make comprehensible sentences. Palani’s eyes widened, and he let go of Vieno’s cheeks and sank back on his butt on the floor as well. “He…what?”

  Vieno nodded. “He wants me back.”

  “But…but your parents disowned you. How can they accept a marriage for you if they disowned you?”

  “Tiva said she overheard them talking about it and had to sneak away to warn me. She didn’t have time to explain more.”

  For a second Palani looked as lost as Vieno felt, but then he sat up straight. “We’ll find a solution. Why don’t you make some of your favorite lavender tea and cuddle on the couch with a book, hmm? I’ll make some calls and see what I can find out.”

  Vieno nodded, as always grateful when Palani took the lead. Palani scrambled to his feet, then gently helped Vieno rise. He kissed him on his lips, something he didn’t do often. “Don’t you worry, baby. You know I won’t let anything happen to you.”

  Vieno exhaled, his chest relaxing and the twists in his stomach unfurling. “Thank you.”

  Palani smiled softly. “I’ve got you, baby. I always do.”

  Vieno did as Palani had told him and boiled water for tea in the kettle, then let his favorite Earl Grey with lavender steep for a few minutes. Palani had walked into his bedroom to make the calls, which Vieno appreciated. Overhearing one end of the conversation would more than likely only stress him out.

  He poured himself a cup of tea, then settled on the couch as Palani had suggested, and started in the new gay romance he’d been dying to read. He appreciated the irony of him working for a horror writer when he couldn’t even stomach romances with too much angst in them. Nope, he preferred sweet, romantic reads. He didn’t mind them steamy—what idiot objected to some scorching sex scenes?—as long as they didn’t have too much angst and conflict.

  As hard as he tried, the book couldn’t fully distract him. His mind kept wandering off, contemplating all kinds of horror scenarios. So he sat, waiting anxiously, until Palani walked back into the living room. One look at his face and the pretzels in his stomach were back, even tighter than before.

  “Bad news?” he whispered.

  Palani lifted his feet from the couch and settled beside him, pulling him close. “Yeah. I’m so sorry, baby. I’ll find a solution, I promise.”

  Vieno closed his eyes as he sank against Palani. “What happened?”

  “They filed a petition with the court to overturn the legal document in which they disowned you. It’s being processed, and until it’s final, you can make your own decisions. Once the court approves it—and my sources say the court always sides with the parents unless the child can prove abuse or financial mistreatment—your parents have full legal say again.”

  A single tear trickled down Vieno’s right cheek. “Why now? What changed for Aloysius?”

 

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