The omega's cloying sweet scent fills the room the longer he looks at Travis, body pressed on his, feeling all touchy after their quick endeavor.
It's the closest thing he can do because he can't scent Travis nor kiss him, or his neck will be snapped. He knows the rules.
"Call me?" the omega drapes his lithe body against Travis, eyes lingering on his lips as his hands run up and down his chest.
Travis removes the omega off him, not so gently, which makes the omega wobble before he rights himself, straightening his clothes with a sweet smile.
"Sure," Travis nods, his gaze stone as he watches the omega. The door opens, and Travis looks up, seeing his secretary, Zacari, opening the door and holding it open.
The omega gets the hint, and he sways with as much dignity and seduction as he can muster to the door. He does look back one last time, eyes begging, the smile on his lips starting to droop because he is realizing that he isn't getting what he hoped he would get.
When Zacari finally locks the door, and they are both gone, Travis turns towards his desk, ready to start his work.
"Wow," Travis's best friend chuckles from where he is seated on the couch. "That was … something."
Travis almost forgot that he wasn't alone.
"What do you want?" Travis asks as he walks back to his chair behind the large mahogany desk. "I am not one for voyeurism, you know that."
"Looks like he was," Liam chuckles, coming to take a seat opposite Travis. "New boyfriend?"
"toy of the week. Now, tell me what it is that brought you here so that you can leave me alone."
"That's no way to talk to your best friend, whom you haven't seen in over a year. You have gotten grumpier."
"Are you here to apply for a job? Perhaps as my mom?"
Liam rolls his eyes before looking at the skyline behind Travis, eyes clouding for a second, but then he looks at Travis, the playful charm back on his face. "I am moving here. New school and all."
Travis waits for him to start laughing, but he doesn't. "You are joking."
"Not at all. I would have told you, but you were busy sucking face with that omega most of the morning, so" he shrugs.
He doesn't say anything, opting for silence because he knows Liam will talk.
"Father kicked me out."
"he can't kick out his heir. He needs you."
"Well, he did not kick me out per se, but I need to be away for a while. It's too much being there, and I would rather stay here, with you."
Heirs don't run away from home, Liam. He will come drag you back to your duties sooner or later."
Liam has issues with his father. Major ones and mostly to do with Liam never wanting to be the heir, but being crowned as one anyway. Soon, he will be the head alpha, and then none of this running away tactic will help his case.
"Well, before he does that, I will be at my new school. I guess we have the same classes," he snatches a paper from the desk and looks at it. The new semester schedule was sent in this morning.
"Just like old times, huh?" Travis smiles as he sits back in his chair.
"Just like old times," Liam sits back. "So, really, not your boyfriend? You looked awfully domestic."
They weren't.
"I don't do boyfriends, you know this."
"Well, he sure was acting like one," Liam places the sheet back on the desk. "It could be a good thing."
"So how is your father dealing when you told him you can't mate a woman?"
That shuts him up. "Gods, you don't have to be a jerk and pull out the big guns on me. Tell me to drop it and I will."
Liam won't, and Travis knows this.
Just then, the door opens, and Zacari walks in with a file in his hand, which he places on his desk.
"This is the file that your grandmother faxed in this morning. She told me to pass on that she will expect feedback that you picked one of the candidates."
Great. Travis exhales, feeling anger rolling off him in waves. As if in response to his irate mood, Zacari permeates the air with calming pheromones to soothe him. It helps a little. Betas are good at calming.
"I don't want any calls from my family today, Zacari," Travis says as he opens the file, and pretty, fragile-like faces of omegas fill his eyes. Names, class, strengths, and families they are all from. All for him to choose a good enough candidate for him to mate and appease his grandmother.
He snaps it shut, the sharp sound resonating in the large office.
"I will," Zacari smiles, and then looks at Liam before looking at Travis.
"You can say anything, he is good."
Liam snorts, but Travis ignores it and waits for Zacari to talk.
"your … rut, is coming up. Would you like me to start looking for suitable partners now?" his cheeks are red, despite how much Travis can see that he is trying not to be flustered.
It confuses him, because Zacari is usually the top candidate he spends his ruts with.
"Why?"
"I am travelling next month overseas, with the merger of the company we are undergoing? A meeting that the heads of that company said they wouldn't postpone, no matter how much we asked. That's why we agreed I would represent you there …"
"I remember," Travis flicks his fingers. "It's okay. I will handle it."
Zacari nods, looking at his feet once before he straightens. "I will be at my desk if you need anything." A short, quick bow, and he walks out.
Travis counts the seconds.
"How much have I missed since I was away?"
There it is.
Liam looks at the now closed door and then to Travis with wide eyes. "You are doing it with your secretary, too?"
Travis sighs, feeling a headache coming on. "We have an arrangement, yes. Usually around my ruts and some other minor occasions."
"Do you think it could get serious?"
"No," Travis stands and walks behind the chair, to the glass wall overlooking the city. "Zacari lost a mate too, and he is older. He's mature enough to understand what I don't want and what I want. It is what we both need without the complications."
"The complications omegas in your bed bring." Liam picks the file and starts to look through it. "Why a beta, though? Don't alphas prefer omegas more in ruts?"
Travis turns around, looking at his best friend. "Betas don't break easily. And I don't want the emotional entanglement that comes after the week is done. Are you done with the questionnaire now?"
Travis glares at his friend, and Liam chuckles, putting the file down.
"Wow, your grandmother is motivated more than she was a year ago."
Travis sits back on his chair, the frustration arising from the reminder that his family is pressuring him to find a mate. The biggest condition to all this shit is that he can't have the full reins of the Kings' empire without having mated first.
Just a stupid rule out in place by his grandmother to control him, that or to have pups to dote on. He doesn't know which is which on most days, the longer the woman pulls that noose around his neck.
It gets hard to remember if they mean well or not when all he wants is to focus on being the head alpha, expand the family business further, and make sure everything else follows the strict regime he is running.
"They all know that I am not looking for anything other than a warm body in my bed."
"You don't even take them to your bed," Liam snorts as he gets comfortable on the seat. Travis looks at the alpha, frowning the longer he stares at him.
"And how would you know this?"
"Because it's you and I know you. We have been best friends for decades," he snorts, but then he sobers quickly, eyes on Travis. Travis already doesn't like this look because he knows what Liam is about to ask.
"Don't," he warns.
"You will eventually have to mate one day, Travis."
"I am mated."
"You have to let him go."
He, the unspoken one who haunts Travis day and night.
"Why don't you and my grandmother join forces and make my life hellish more than it already is?"
"You know I am right on this. It's been years. He is dead. Your wolf knows this, so why don't you?"
Travis breathes hard, eyes closing before he looks blankly at the wall in front of him. he is silent for a few heartbeats before he breaks it.
"Because we both know he isn't."
Liam looks concerned. "Travis."
"I know, I saw the body, mourned and buried him. But it still doesn't feel like he died. The idea of mating someone else, taking another mate, doesn't feel right. No one will ever take his place."
"No one is taking his place," Liam leans forward, all laughter gone, and now speaking softly. "I know they aren't asking you to replace him either. But you died too that day. Everyone feels it. I feel it. You know what mating another will bring. And you need to finally have the full control and he the official head alpha."
Travis knows all of this. He is aware of all he needs to do and what is at stake, but … today is not a good day for him.
"I am not taking another mate, end of story."
"We can take other mates, after a tragedy, and we lose our first."
"It wasn't a tragedy, though, was it?"
Just a fucked up family who would rather kill their son than let him be mated to a wild animal like me. Rather, he would rather be dead than be with someone like me, is what they said.
"I can't imagine what you went through; what you are still going through."
"I am letting go, but to take a mate, I will never. That position will forever be his, no one else's."