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Charlie shivers as one lone bead of sweat escapes the back of his neck and trickles down the length of his spine. He feels sick, his limbs ache, his breath is shallow, and he cannot concentrate on the work in front of him.
He wonders if he should open a window, but it is a ridiculous idea for a typical British February day in the north of England. Perhaps he is sickening for something, loads of people on campus have been down with norovirus, and Sai was coughing loads the other night. Shit! He cannot afford to be ill right now, not with his paper on the fields of probability due in on Friday… he’s already behind despite working on it day and night for a week. Shit! Shit! Shit!
May be if he sleeps on it a bit. That is a good idea. His clothes seem all tight and itchy. He’ll just slip into his pyjamas and tuck in between the sheets. Perhaps he could risk a nap, even thirty minutes and then he will wake up refreshed ready to put his paper to bed.
Bed… seem so appealing right now. Dear God, please don’t let him be coming down with anything.
Charlie does feel better, the moment he is out of his restricting clothes, his pyjamas however feel just as bad when he picks them up, so he puts them down again and slides naked into bed. It feels wildly decadent to be in bed, in the middle of the afternoon, may be that is why the moment his skin touches the cool cotton sheets he becomes so… painfully aroused.
Reaching beneath the quilt, Charlie allows his hand to toy with his erection, and his mind to wander to his favourite fantasy…
He knows he shouldn’t, it is nothing short of an abuse, and hell, he would be mortified, he would probably have to leave the university in shame, if the person in question ever discovered the truth, but in the quiet moments like these, Charlie cannot resist following where his imagination leads him… to the strong arms of his best friend, Nick Nelson.
It doesn’t take long; he must be really keyed up this afternoon. He doesn’t even have time to relax and enjoy it before he is blowing his top. He reaches for the wet wipes in his drawer and gives his belly a half-hearted swipe, he will clean himself properly later. But now he thinks he will just rest his eyes…
******
The friendship between Leeds University’s rugby king, and the Maths Department’s number one nerd was an unlikely association but came about for the most practical of reasons. To Nick Nelson’s secret shame, he had left school without passing GCSE Maths. What did it matter? Nick had thought to himself as he had delightedly thrown his Maths books on the annual Truham Grammar School end of exams bonfire, he could add up and take away well enough to know he wasn’t being scammed at the checkout, and what else did anyone need maths for.
It turns out that if you want to go into primary school teaching, GCSE Maths matters a great deal. Panicking at the discovery halfway through his second year, Nick had eighteen months to achieve at least a grade four to enable him to stay on at Leeds to do his PGCE. His careers advisor suggested he look for a maths undergraduate who would be prepared to tutor him.
Charlie doesn’t really want to do it, he has heard of Nick Nelson by reputation, but when his tutor suggests that Charlie takes him under his wing, is instinct is to reply with an emphatic NO. Nick Nelson is exactly the kind of homophobic meathead who gave him hell when he presented as an Omega in year nine, and while he has got over that on the whole, therapy, heat suppressants and scent blockers have done their part, he still has no inclination to voluntarily spend any time in that kind of person’s company.
Once he meets Nick then his resolution wavers, the rugby king is nothing like the guys from Charlie’s old school. He is softly spoken and mildly self-effacing, embarrassed at his lack of maths skills and humbly grateful that someone as brilliant as Charlie would even consider helping him. Of course, the fact that he is drop dead gorgeous, with his strawberry blonde hair, and chestnut eyes, and those arms… has nothing to do with Charlie’s decision. Being a primary school teacher is a noble calling, and Charlie just wants to help another human being achieve their goal.
Charlie does not expect to become friends with Nick, the second year just needs him for his math skills, so he is confused when Nick acknowledges him around campus. Seeks him out in the library, invites him to join him and a couple of his friends for a drink in the bar. Nick for his part, doesn’t not examine his feelings for his new friend too closely, he thinks he is cute and funny, he is proud that someone like Charlie would be interested in hanging out with him.
Charlie is a good teacher too, endlessly patient. Nick thinks if he had had a teacher like Charlie in the first place, he might have passed his maths at school. But then he wouldn’t have met Charlie and that doesn’t bear thinking about.
When Jack drops out of uni at the end of his second year, Sai, Christian and Otis are happy to agree to Nick’s suggestion that Charlie take his room in their shared house. They like the lad, and Charlie for his part has spent so much time hanging around with these second years that he hasn’t thought much about where he will live when he moves off campus. Of course, living in the same house as his crush is likely to be hell, but then Charlie is used to that.
The fact that Nick is an alpha is blatantly obvious, although he is on scent blockers, they are compulsory in the university except for bonded pairs, every now and then, Charlie with his heightened sense of awareness will catch a whiff of alpha pheromones from his friend. They are at their strongest when he has been exercising, at the gym or on the rugby field. No wonder Charlie often takes a walk to the university’s playing fields to coincide with the end of the match.
Does Nick know that Charlie is an omega? Charlie has no idea. Male omegas are a rarity and Charlie is borderline obsessive in taking his medication. Even if Nick does know, it is immaterial, Nick is officially the straightest person he knows. It is obvious that he only likes girls.
******
When Charlie wakes the room is dark, he has slept for hours. He tries to sit up in a panic, he still has two thousand words to write to be on schedule with his paper, but his limbs don’t seem to want to behave. They feel languid, hot, and heavy, and that is not all, despite his activities earlier that afternoon, he feels horny.
He wants an alpha.
He craves an alpha.
This can’t be happening to him.
Fumbling for the bedside lamp he switches it on and rummages in his bedroom drawer until he finds his heat suppressants, the foil on the blister pack marked up with the days of the week. It is as he feared, Saturday. It is Wednesday, he hasn’t taken his suppressants since he pulled that all-nighter to finish his statistics assignment, drinking so much coffee that he was shaky all day Sunday, that was four days, almost five. How could he have been so stupid. Surely after all these years it should be hard wired into him… but apparently not. He looks at the blister packet, maybe if he took the tablets now? But deep down he knows it is too late. Perhaps he should write his paper on the probability that Charlie Spring is a massive idiot who is going into heat.
His first heat in six years.
Without an alpha.
It is going to be brutal.
His remaining brain cell tells him he needs help. The Leeds house is just an ordinary terrace, it doesn’t have a heat room, or panic room as they are sometimes known. Charlie will be at risk from every unbonded alpha in the neighbourhood, worse than that, so will Sai and Christian and Otis, innocent betas who could easily get caught in the crossfire. There is only one thing for it, he needs to find an alpha who will stake their claim first… and only one alpha will do.
On trembling legs Charlie manages to get out of bed and stagger to the door, as he does so he feels a gush of something, some liquid spill down his leg…
Fuck! It is slick!
Even when he first presented, he hadn’t had to deal with that, but he is a mature omega now, ready for breeding.
Fuck! He isn’t even on the pill.
No time to worry about that, he reaches the door and opens it a crack and calls feebly,
“Help! Someone! Anyone! Help!”
It is Sai who comes to his aid. Sai, the beta, who still puts his hand across his nose and mouth and exclaims,
“Whoa, Christ on a bike, that’s ripe… is that you Charlie, is that coming from you?”
“Get Nick, Sai, please I need Nick…”
It is Sai the law student who replies, “Are you sure Charlie, there is such a thing as informed consent.”
“Please, Sai, just get Nick, I am begging you, please, get Nick.”
Sai still hesitates, Charlie issues a desperate moan, “Please Sai, it is Nick or some unknown alpha, what choice do I have?”
Torn between loyalty to both Nick and Charlie, whom Sai considers equally as friends, he takes the view that this is a medical emergency and a matter of life and death. Retreating from Charlie’s bedroom door he finds Nick’s number in his phone and dials.
“Sai?” Nick’s voice is confused, they never speak on the phone.
“Where are you?”
“In the union bar.”
“Get home, get an uber, but get home as quickly as you can. We have a situation.”
******
Nick is back at the house in ten minutes. He doesn’t need telling twice what is up, his alpha senses can detect the pheromones of an omega in heat before he even exits the cab. Perhaps it is merely paranoia but as he climbs the front step, he gets the feeling that somewhere in the shadows, the house is already being watched.
He lets himself in through the front door to be greeted by Sai.
“Where is he?”
“He’s in his room.” Sai doesn’t question why Charlie has called for Nick; he guessed his friend was an alpha long before he spotted the scent blockers in his washbag. He hadn’t suspected Charlie though, if he had he might have thought twice about inviting him to share a house with an unbonded alpha.
“Are you sure about this, Nick, you know we could take him to hospital, or call the police.”
“What? Take an unbonded omega to a place full of alphas? Get real. Anyway, I have never been surer of anything in my life. I just hope Charlie feels the same in three days’ time.”
“Okay, well, Otis and Christian are on their way back. They are stopping off at Tesco for supplies.”
“Supplies?” Nick asks distracted, mind already on the distressed omega upstairs.
“I googled it. Red Bull, Proplus, chocolate, lots of. Energy bars. Bottled water. That sort of thing. Once they come back, we’ll be off. Christian and Otis are going to stay at Will’s. I was planning to go home tomorrow anyway; I can go tonight instead.”
“You don’t have to.” Nick protests.
“Believe me we do. I’ve a brother who’s an alpha, there’s a reason people have heat rooms in their houses. Now get upstairs and see to Charlie, poor guy’s in a state.”
After a quick detour to his bedroom for a few things he needs and to get changed, he is wearing his good jeans and he doesn’t want to ruin them, Nick tentatively knocks on Charlie’s door.
“Charlie, it’s me. If you’re sure, then let me in.”
The door swings open, and there is Charlie, standing naked and proud, skin glistening with a light sheen of sweat.
“You’re here. You came, you came.” He cries pulling Nick into the room.
Nick nearly does on the spot.
Despite the assault on his senses, Nick gathers his wits enough to say,
“Are you sure, Charlie, are you sure?”
Not easy, when the object of your desire is rubbing his limbs against yours like an over affectionate octopus.
“I want it to be you, Nick. It has always been you since the moment I met you. Please… I need.”
“Okay, er… maybe get on the bed… Just so you know… I have condoms, I’m not going to breed you, just help you through… this.”
Nick produces the supplies he brought from his room. When ages ago Nick had enquired about sharing a heat with an omega, the sexual health clinic had given him two boxes of twelve condoms. Looking at Charlie, presenting himself in all his glory, Nick wonders if that will be enough.
******
Three days later the boys emerge from their heat haze. Sore, sated and stunned. It has been an experience neither are likely to forget. Yes, there has been sex, and lots of it. The clinic was not wrong in their estimation of how many condoms would be required, but alongside the passion there have been moments of tenderness and deep connection that leave both of them wondering how each will ever live without the other.
Not that either of them will admit it. Even in their hormone induced stupor they had agreed, this was a one off emergency situation. The sexual equivalent of the blues and twos.
Nick is prone in Charlie’s bed. The sheets are done for, he suspects they may have to burn the mattress, but he is revelling in these last few moments surrounded by the scent that is uniquely Charlie, his mate. No! Not mate! Don’t even think about it. One off FWB that’s all.
Charlie is in the bathroom, no doubt giving his bruised and battered body the restoring soak it needs. Nick sighs, if they were a true pair, he might have suggested joining him, tending to Charlie’s needs as an alpha should. One off, but what a one it was.
He snuggles down, just a few minutes longer, he too has aches and pains, he thinks he may even have pulled a groin muscle. That will take some explaining at rugby next week.
On the bedside table Nick’s phone pings. At some point during the last three days’ excesses, he must have fetched his charger. He picks it up to see a message from Charlie.
Come in the bathroom right now.
Nick smiles, maybe Charlie is missing him after all.
He hops, rather gingerly in truth, out of bed, and not bothering to get dressed, they are alone in the house after all, walks along the landing to the bathroom. The door is closed, and Nick gently taps before opening the door and going in.
Charlie is in his pyjamas, no sign that he has had a bath, instead he is standing with his right hand covering the left side of his neck, just above his collar bone.
“What’s up?”
Charlie cannot meet his eyes. Slowly he removes his hand to reveal beneath, a perfectly formed bite mark.
Nick doesn’t know how to react, he stares at the raw, red circle in disbelief.
“Oh my God. Wh… Is that… Did…did I do that?”
He continues to stare, is it his imagination, or is the mark getting bigger and brighter. It seems to be positively glowing.
“Charlie I am so sorry; I didn’t mean to… I didn’t even know I could do that to be honest.”
Nick is devastated, Charlie hears this but doesn’t understand the reason behind it.
“It’s fine, no one will know.”
“Charlie, everyone will know. You’ve just spent your heat with an Alpha, now you scent is changing, mine is too, that’s what I could recognise in bed just now, the scent of my omega, my bonded omega.”
“I’m so sorry, I am so sorry. I was so stupid, and I didn’t know what I was doing, all I could think of was you, that you could help me.”
“Charlie.”
“I should never have asked Sai to call you. You’re my friend and now I have ruined everything.”
“Charlie.”
“Perhaps we could get an annulment, is that a thing? I know you only shared my heat because I asked you to.”
“Charlie.”
“I don’t want you to be trapped because I did something stupid.”
“Charlie.”
While the omega has been talking, Nick had been inching forward, slowly, like you might with an injured animal, careful not to startle them, or frighten them away. With a final ‘Charlie’ he reaches him and pulls Charlie into his arms for a kiss.
“Charlie, I’m glad we’re bonded, I was confused about my feelings for you, but then Kieran on the rugby team said something about me hanging around with an omega, don’t ask me how he knew, and everything fell into place. You were my mate, and I decided there and then that when the time came, and we graduated, I would go to your Mother and Father and ask for permission to bond with you. I would always respect your wishes, but perhaps I had a suspicion that such a request wouldn’t be unwelcome. Was I right?”
Charlie collapses against his alpha. “I have loved you from the moment I met you. Giant rugby alpha that you are. I never thought you’d ever care for me though.”
“I do care, and I want to care for you always, and provide for you, and applaud your successes, which will be many, and make love to you and share your heats and may be one day father your children. I have wanted that almost from the first, I just couldn’t understand how I could want that from a beta. You are rather unusual, mon amour.
“And perhaps we have rather done things back to front, bonding before courting, but we’ll be fine, it’s not like the old days, there’s birth control for omegas now, you’ll still graduate and have your career.”
“Why are you so wonderful?”
“What did I do to deserve you… I can’t wait to tell my mum; she’s going to love you too…”
Charlie suddenly stiffens in Nick’s arms.
“What?” He asks, “What did I say wrong?”
“Oh God.” Charlie shakes his head and pales, “Oh God. I’m going to have to tell, my mum.”