4

They decided to turn the plan into action the very same evening. Liam was having doubts, but Jules convinced him that they should do it while their uncle wasn’t home. They might not get another chance like this anytime soon.

So Jules huddled in the cupboard near the basement, waiting for Liam to do his part.

He didn’t have to wait long.

Soon enough, there were Liam’s panicked shouts and then the sounds of people in heavy boots running past the cupboard.

Then everything went quiet.

His heart pounding, Jules got out of the cupboard and quickly headed to the basement. He had no idea how much time he had: probably ten minutes, if he was lucky. It should be enough. It had to be. Hopefully the guards wouldn’t think to check on their prisoner—they rarely seemed to—so Jules hoped they wouldn’t find out that the Xeus was missing until the morning. And hopefully no one would notice that Jules was missing, too.

Jules knew there were too many variables in his plan. So many things could—and probably would—go wrong. But he had little choice. His uncle was going to have the Xeus killed after they were done experimenting on him. He couldn’t just do nothing. He had to help him.

The Xeus was already looking at him when Jules entered the basement, his glowing green eyes alert and more than a little unnerving. His tall, large body seemed tense, his muscles rigid. There didn’t seem to be any new wounds on his body, which was a relief—there was no time to patch him up.

“Hey,” Jules said, stepping closer to the metal table and pulling out the keys he’d stolen from his uncle’s room. He felt a jolt of anxiety, but the third key he tried did the trick.

He grinned in relief when the manacles unlocked. His smile was wiped when a clawed hand grabbed his wrist in a punishing grip. A second later, Jules found himself on his back, with the alpha looming over him, his glowing eyes glaring down at him. Sharp claws pressed against his throat.

Jules moistened his lips with his tongue, his heart thudding against his ribs. “Rude,” he said with a shaky smile. He felt hot. And shivery. In his defense, he’d never had a naked alpha on top of him. “I’m trying to help you, big guy. Don’t you remember me? And we really, really have no time for this. Let me go.”

The Xeus inhaled deeply, his nostrils flaring. Gauging Jules’s sincerity? Was his sense of smell that good, even despite Jules’s suppressants?

Jules forced his body to relax, emanating safe-nonthreatening-omega. It seemed to be working, because the predatory glint was fading from those glowing eyes, some rationality slipping back into them. Some being the key word. There was still something distinctly primitive about the way the Xeus was looking at him. A different sort of primitive.

Jules swallowed, becoming increasingly aware of the heavy, naked body on top of him. Of the hard hip between his thighs. Of a strong scent that was pure alpha—a scent that was starting to do terrible things to his body again. He smelled so good. How could someone who probably hadn’t had a real, non-sonic shower in ages smell so good? It was fucking unfair. Jules could practically feel his higher brain functions shutting down with each greedy inhale, his cock stiffening and his hole becoming embarrassingly slick. He was wet again, just from having this strange, ugly alpha on top of him. It was fucking horrible. He wasn’t a goddamn animal, and yet.

And yet he found himself lowering his eyes timidly and baring his throat.

The Xeus growled and shoved his face into his neck, his pheromones thickening and becoming so overwhelming that Jules whimpered and spread his legs, aching with need between them.

The arousal was as sudden as it was overwhelming. Jules whined, his body shaking with impatience and the rush of hormones. He wanted. He wanted… something hard inside him. He wanted a cock. He wanted this alpha to fuck him with his cock.

Part of him, the part that was still trying to think, was screaming, Stop, what are you doing?

But Jules couldn’t. He’d had no idea it was possible to want so much, so fast, to feel so desperate for it, like he’d fucking die if he didn’t get this alpha inside him, now.

As if hearing his thoughts, the alpha growled into his neck, his powerful body vibrating with tension. There was the sound of fabric tearing, and Jules realized that the Xeus must have ripped his pants and underwear, leaving him naked bellow his waist.

Yes, yes—

The alpha pushed his thighs wide and pushed his cock into him.

Jules cried out, his eyes widening and becoming unfocused. Gods. Such a rush. Had he just come? He wasn’t sure. But it felt so good. The thick length in him would have probably hurt if he weren’t so wet, so ready for it. His walls were squeezing the cock in him greedily, and he keened, impatient for more.

The Xeus gave him more. He started fucking him, hard and fast, low animal growls leaving his throat as his cock pistoned in and out of Jules’s hole. Oh fuck, fuck, so good. Jules was whining and growling with every powerful thrust. He couldn’t get enough, clenching around the cock in him, his fingernails sinking into the alpha’s muscular back, urging him on. Yes, yes, please, so good, more—

Part of him was mortified by his own shameless behavior—he was letting a strange alpha fuck him, as if he were a bitch in heat and not the noble, untouched omega he was. Not only that: the alpha was a Xeus in a feral state, all claws and fur. It should have felt terrifying. It should have felt disgusting. He shouldn’t have been moaning and clenching around this strange alpha’s cock, begging for more. But he couldn’t stop. He felt like he’d die if the alpha stopped fucking him. He felt like he’d die happily on that cock, he loved this, he needed this, he wanted this more than anything—

Jules arched, pushing back onto the cock pounding into him. “Ah—deeper!” He knew he was being illogical—there was no possible way the alpha could fuck him any deeper—he could feel his cock practically against his stomach, but somehow it wasn’t enough. He needed—he needed… “Deeper!”

The Xeus growled and sank his teeth into his scent gland, and the world exploded, his senses going into overdrive, wave after wave of pleasure washing over him. Jules came with a sob, clenching around the cock in him, hard. So fucking good.

The alpha went rigid, and then Jules felt the thickness in him growing, alarmingly so. Hot liquid filled him up.

Jules opened his eyes dazedly and stared at the ceiling as he realized what he was feeling. The Xeus had knotted him, pumping him full of his semen. He had knotted him.

A giggle left Jules’s mouth, and then another, before turning into laughter. He’d somehow managed to lose his virginity to a Xeus alpha—and had a knot in him—and he still hadn’t even been kissed. It was kind of hilarious, in a way.

The alpha on top of him made a questioning sound, his face still buried against Jules’s neck as he scent-marked him lazily. His teeth were still—

Jules’s smile froze on his lips.

Fuck. The alpha had bitten him. And knotted him. Did that mean… Did that mean they were bonded now?

He focused and listened to his senses, but it was difficult. His body still felt too mellow and satisfied, the knot in him making him feel almost high on the feeling. He couldn’t tell if the mark had taken. But the fact that he still had no desire to shove the alpha away despite feeling sated was probably worrying. In fact, the mere thought of being apart from this alpha caused a panicky feeling in his chest, and Jules found his arms tightening around the alpha’s back.

Fuck.

They were bonded.

Now what?

All right. There was no need to panic yet.

First things first, he needed to get the Xeus out of the basement. He still needed to help him escape.

How long did it take for a knot to go down? Probably more time than they had. He should move—he should pull away…

Jules lost his train of thought, a wave of warm pleasure spreading through his body when he tugged on the knot. It felt unbelievably good, as if it was meant to be there, inside him. It was a pleasure different from the mind-blowing orgasm he’d just had, more mellow and low-key satisfying—and incredibly hard to give up.

All right. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to lie like this for a bit. It wasn’t like he could help the Xeus escape while they were stuck like this.

So Jules relaxed and closed his eyes, figuring he’d wait for the knot to go away. He kind of felt too good to worry about anything else.

He honestly had no idea how much time passed. It could have been minutes and it could have been hours. The knot in him felt amazing.

At long last, Jules opened his eyes, realizing that the alpha was fucking him again—this time less urgently, but definitely fucking him. The knot was gone. But the cock in him very much wasn’t.

“Look,” Jules said with a laugh that came out more like a moan. “We don’t have time for this—we need to get you out of—oh yeah, there!”

So he might or might not have let the Xeus fuck him again.

He might or might not have come apart on the alpha’s cock with shameless moans that would have made a whore blush.

At least this time he managed to stop the alpha from knotting him.

“This is all your fault,” Jules complained when it was over, scrambling away from the Xeus and nearly falling to the floor, his limbs were so shaky. His body felt… well used, his thighs trembling and muscles he hadn’t even known about pleasantly sore. “I came here to help you, not to lose my v-card!” He fished his phone out of his pocket and cursed when he saw how much time had passed. Over an hour. Damn it. “There’s no chance the guards haven’t returned. What are we going to do now?” All the planning he’d done—it was all for nothing now. They were lucky the guards hadn’t noticed that the door was unlocked, but how long would their luck last? They were bound to notice it soon.

The Xeus got to his feet, too. He stretched his muscles, grimacing slightly—they must have been stiff after a month of being shackled to this table. In fact, his supernatural regeneration was probably the only reason he wasn’t in immense pain now.

Rubbing his lips, Jules forced his eyes away from the alpha’s muscular body and looked back at his phone. He had four messages from Liam, each more alarmed than the previous one.

The fire is out. They’re going back! Where are you?

Did you manage to get him out? Everything is quiet.

Jules???

If you keep ignoring me, I swear I’ll kill you next time I see you!

Jules sighed, wondering what he should do. Liam would be beyond pissed if he found out that Jules had wasted the opportunity Liam had given him.

Jules looked down at his ripped pants and boxers. They were barely holding up. What was left of them resembled a tattered skirt. Just great. Fucking fantastic.

He reached down to his bag and pulled out the clothes he’d found for the Xeus. “Here, these are for you,” he said without looking at the alpha, wishing he had something to change into, too. The clothes belonged to one of their servants—a tall, large alpha—so they wouldn’t fit Jules anyway. “Get dressed.”

For a moment, he thought the Xeus didn’t understand him, but then Jules heard the rustle of clothes and exhaled in relief.

Then he went back to worrying. What were they going to do now?

Jules was snapped out of his thoughts when a hand gripped his arm and none-too-gently pulled him toward the door.

“What are you doing?” Jules said, looking at the alpha. He was dressed, thank fuck, but the strange, disturbing effect he had on Jules’s body was still there. Fuck, he smelled amazing. Like everything good in the world. Jules could barely stop himself from shoving his face into the Xeus’s neck and breathing.

No. He needed to get a grip. He needed to get his brain to focus on their course of action, not to keep fixating on his base, primitive wants.

The glowing green eyes flicked to him for a moment, the alpha’s nostrils flaring.

Jules blushed and cleared his throat. “There are guards outside,” he whispered urgently. “We can’t just go out and—”

The Xeus leaned down and sucked hard on his neck—on his mark.

Jules gasped, his brain relocating to his lower body again. It took an embarrassing amount of time to remember that it was neither the time nor the place—nor the right alpha.

“Stop that,” he said weakly, even though his body was clinging to the Xeus’s. “We need to find a solution—how to get you out of here.” Something in his chest gave a jolt of unease at the thought of the alpha escaping. Leaving.

Don’t be ridiculous, Jules told himself, annoyed. Of course the Xeus would leave. He had to. That was the point of this. He had to leave or Jules’s uncle would dispose of him after he outlived his usefulness. His life was in danger. Jules shouldn’t be letting some… some pheromones affect his judgment. This was serious.

“Stay here,” the Xeus said hoarsely.

Jules blinked at him for a moment, confused.

Before the words fully registered, the alpha pushed the door open. Then there was a hard thud, then another.

Jules’s eyes widened. He ran out of the door and stared at the two bodies on the floor. “Did you kill them?” he whispered, looking at the Xeus, who was searching the guards’ pockets.

“No,” the alpha said in his gravelly voice.

Jules exhaled in relief. Glancing down the corridor anxiously, he said, “There’s an aircar parked at the western gates of the estate. It doesn’t have a lot of fuel, but I can drop you off far enough from here that you should be safe.”

He looked back at the Xeus, expecting to see confusion on his face, but there was none. Either he still had rudimentary knowledge of aircars or he wasn’t listening to Jules’s words at all. Jules frowned. It was so difficult to gauge the extent of the alpha’s capability for thinking rationally. It was obvious that the Xeus was far from being rational, but how bad was it? Did he understand him perfectly and was just unable to speak much, or was it worse?

Judging by the fact that the Xeus had just taken money from the guards’ pockets, clearly he understood some basic concepts of survival in the modern world.

Taking the guards’ phones away too, the Xeus dropped both guards into the basement and locked the door.

Jules nodded approvingly. It would win them some time before the alarms were raised.

Then, the alpha turned and put a hand on Jules’s shoulder. “Walk,” he said shortly, his touch heavy and distinctly proprietary.

Jules did as he was told, though he felt a little miffed. He had expected that he’d be the one leading the rescue and showing the way—as opposed to being manhandled and bossed around. It also didn’t help that he felt self-conscious and flustered because of everything that had happened in the basement. Ugh, he hated his stupid biology, hated how much this alpha’s presence was affecting him. Hated it. Utterly despised it. Why couldn’t he have been born a beta? He looked like one anyway.

They somehow managed to leave the basement without encountering anyone. Not for the first time, Jules felt grateful that his mother had been against installing modern surveillance systems in the Blake ancestral home. Suppressing the wave of sudden longing—Gods, he still missed her so much—Jules led the Xeus to the aircar that Liam had parked outside the western gates. He unlocked it and told the alpha, “Get in the passenger seat.”

To his relief, the Xeus did as he was told.

Jules got into the pilot’s seat and tried to remember how to fly it. Liam was so much better at it than he was. Strictly speaking, aircars were still forbidden on Eila. They were considered too fast for Eila’s air traffic. Helicopters were widely in use by most of the population, but helicopters were too noisy and slow for Jules’s purposes. This aircar was his mother’s pride and joy. She’d had it imported from some Inner Core planet five years ago and offered to teach her kids to pilot it. Eric hadn’t been interested, but Liam and Jules had been all too happy to learn. Well, Liam had; Jules had… tried.

“Here goes nothing,” he muttered under his breath, and started the engine. Please.

He did manage to take off.

And the aircar didn’t drop like a rock, which he counted as a win.

Jules’s tentative smile transformed into a grin as he realized that this part of the plan had gone off without a hitch. Finally something had. He had intended to sneak the Xeus out of the mansion under the cover of the night, not allowing him to see anything he might identify later, before getting him as far from their lands as possible, choosing complicated routes and taking numerous turns to confuse the Xeus—and any potential pursuers. It seemed his plan was finally going as it was supposed to.

When Jules landed the aircar in the forest an hour later, there was no way the Xeus could possibly identify where they had traveled from. The Blake house was seven hundred miles away. They were now closer to the Kadarian border than to any Pelugian city. They were safe, in every sense of the word. Even Liam would be pleased—this debacle shouldn’t ruin his social season.

“Well,” Jules said, killing the engine. “This is it.” He stared at the dark woods outside the aircar for a moment before finally turning to the silent alpha.

He found the glowing green eyes trained on him with unnerving intensity.

“Go,” Jules said. “You’re free now.”

The Xeus didn’t move. He cocked his head to the side, his nostrils flaring. Was he smelling Jules’s emotions again?

“You’re free now,” Jules repeated, ignoring the uneasy, tight feeling in his chest. It was fine. Just a side effect of an ill-advised mating mark. It would pass. It wasn’t a real attachment. These… emotions… they weren’t real. “Go. You need to go. I think you might be a Kadarian. The Kadarian government is looking for a feral Xeus. Maybe they’ll help you.” And maybe not, Jules thought, his stomach clenching in sudden fear. “Be careful, all right?”

The alpha finally moved. But not toward his freedom—toward Jules. Strong arms dragged him into the alpha’s lap and tucked Jules’s head under his chin. A low, guttural sound left the Xeus’s throat, and Jules found himself relaxing, his body instinctively responding to the comfort offered to him. He breathed in greedily, inhaling the rich scent of his alpha—no, not his alpha. What was he thinking? He was being stupid, letting hormones and pheromones rule him.

But his body didn’t care, melting into the alpha’s embrace. He didn’t want to let go. He couldn’t imagine letting go, not ever. This was his. His. His alpha.

Jules sank his teeth into the alpha’s scent gland, needing to put his mark on him, even though rationally he knew the futility of it. Omegas couldn’t mark alphas, much less Xeus alphas with their superior regeneration. But he wanted it. Wanted it so badly he was shaking with it. He’d heard the stories of it: of omegas being madly possessive of their alphas, but Jules had always scoffed at those stories, not believing that omegas could be as possessive as those knotheads. Well, the joke was on him now. He felt nearly feral with that need to mark, to claim his alpha for his own, so that every omega knew who he belonged to. Maybe it was an instinct awakened by the prospect of being parted from his alpha. Maybe it was something else. But he couldn’t control it. He didn’t want to let go.

Jules buried his face in the alpha’s neck and closed his stinging eyes.

It was stupid. He didn’t know this man. He hadn’t even seen his real face, for fuck’s sake. But something inside him—probably something that made him an omega—was incredibly sad that he’d never get to know him.

People didn’t believe in one true mate anymore, and Jules was no exception. It had been scientifically proven that mating compatibility was just a matter of compatible pheromones. An omega could have up to ten “mates”—compatible alphas whose scents and pheromones appealed to the omega enough to easily form a mating bond. This alpha was just one of them. There was no reason to be so upset.

Except finding even one truly compatible alpha was rare enough. Jules hadn’t actually thought it would happen to him. He wasn’t a dreamer like Liam. He was the pragmatic one. When the social season started, it was unlikely he’d find a compatible alpha. It was just statistically improbable. He knew he wasn’t a beauty. Alphas wouldn’t come close enough to him for Jules to smell them. Jules had told himself it was fine. He’d told himself marriage could be good even without perfect compatibility. Not that he had expected to find someone willing to marry him anytime soon.

Since he’d already resigned himself to that, finding a match in a feral Xeus he’d never see again just seemed like a bad twist of fate. A bad joke at his expense.

Or…

For a wild moment, he was tempted to stay. Stay with this alpha, help him return home—wherever it was—and then maybe—

Then what? his rational side said. Kerosvarin had no cure. Was he really ready to bind his life to a feral alpha Jules would never even get to know for real? A feral alpha who would never love him for real, for the person he was? Pheromones and great sex didn’t make a relationship; that much Jules knew. Even if by some miracle his Xeus managed to shift back into a man, he would be disappointed to find himself bound to an unattractive omega like Jules. They had no future either way.

So this… this tight feeling in his chest was stupid. Irrational. It was the mating mark’s doing. It wasn’t real.

But it felt so very real.

Swallowing around the tightness in his throat, Jules took one last breath of the alpha’s scent and whispered, “Go.”

The arms around him didn’t loosen.

Jules bit his bottom lip hard. “Go,” he repeated, looking into the Xeus’s glowing eyes.

The alpha stared at him.

“Mine,” he said hoarsely, his arms around Jules tightening. “Come with me.”

No. He’d only slow the alpha down. And he needed to get back home before his absence was noticed. He had to get the aircar back—it would throw them off the scent and win the Xeus more time. His uncle’s men would only be searching the lands around their house if they didn’t find out that Jules had used the aircar to get the Xeus away.

He had to go back.

He had to.

But he also knew the alpha wouldn’t let him leave—unless Jules tricked him.

His stomach in knots, Jules leaned in and kissed the alpha on his furry cheek. He closed his eyes for a moment. Goodbye.

“All right,” he managed. “Let’s go. Just let me grab my bag.”

He waited until the Xeus got out of the car.

Then he locked the door.

His hands shaking, Jules started the engine and took off, quickly gaining altitude so the alpha couldn’t stop him.

The bond lit up with loss and betrayal.

Swallowing, Jules set the course for home.

“It isn’t real,” he whispered determinedly. “It’s just hormones. It’ll pass. Don’t be stupid, Jules.”

If his vision was blurry, it didn’t matter: there were only clouds in the vicinity.