Alpha-mates Chapter-2/ ?
Chapter-2
Jared wondered if there would ever be an end to his abasement as they were first hosed down and then searched for contraband. Admittedly, the other alpha had done what he could to help him without arousing the guards’ suspicions but even then, the constant catcalls and slurs managed to wear on him in a way their rough handling could never have.
He was almost relieved when he was shoved into the cell with a muttered ‘time for you to spread your legs, Bitch’ when he registered the miniscule dimensions of their cell. He could have crossed the ‘room’ in twelve steps and the walls on either side felt close enough that he could stretch and brush them both at once. The sound of the steel door closing behind him sounded amplified in the tiny quarters and he started hyperventilating.
“Hey, come on... it’s gonna be all right man. Calm down. Hey-”
He registered the words dimly, but they could have been spoken in Martian for all the sense they made. He was vaguely aware of being manoeuvred into a sitting position; his mind a loop of ‘the walls are too close. Walls are closing in. Did they move? Yes, the walls are closing in. I’m going to die. Don’t wanna die. I’m- going- to- die. -Don’t -wanna- die.... so soft.
That broke through the incessant loop. Soft?
But yes, something soft was pressing gently against his lips. Maybe water?
He gave a tentative lick and jolted back in surprise when it felt like skin.
Worried green eyes met his, “Jay- can I call you Jay?” Then at his nod, “You back with me?”
He gave a shaky nod, abruptly realizing that the other alpha had just kissed him. The man seemed to read his mind because he gave a wry grin, rubbing a hand through his tousled hair; “Yeah, sorry about that. Didn’t know how else to distract you.”
But, now that he had drawn back, Jared could see the drab walls of their cell again and he felt himself panicking once more, “Kiss me again?”
The man huffed a laugh, but appeared to understand his desperation and leant back in, licking at the seam of his lips gently till he parted them, granting permission. And then the kiss was like no other he had ever participated in, Jensen mapped the insides of his mouth oh-so-gently that he failed to hide his thrilled whimper, and then their tongues entangled in a mock battle of supremacy which convinced him that he must be dead and in heaven. However, they could not live without air and ultimately had to part-albeit reluctantly. Both gasping for air and flushed from their make-out session.
“We should do that again!” he laughed, and though Jensen joined in, the alpha neither agreed nor disagreed with his declaration.
They lay like that for a few minutes before Jensen got up to poke around the room. The man finished a complete circuit of the room- not that that took more than a minute and a half-before moving to face him.
“Umm, what now?”
Jensen slid to the ground gracefully to lean back against the far wall as he looked up at him, appearing far more relaxed than he had any right to- under the circumstances.
“I guess we could start getting to know each other? Let’s start with …uh… our families?”
At Jared’s scowl, he raised a curious eyebrow, “Seriously? I thought that was the easiest place to start- I’ll go first, if you want. Dad passed away awhile back; so now, it’s just Mom, my kid sister and me. I have an older brother too, but he’s settled abroad, so…” He paused, shifting slightly as the first hints of discomfort flickered over his face; “And, I suppose you have been wondering about my ‘beta’- comment at our claiming… I uhm…knew someone.”
The last was said so quietly that Jared had to strain to hear even in the confines of their little cell. He guffawed, “I should have suspected- bloody betas. Duped you as well, didn’t they? And here I was wondering whether you would understand. There was this beta-” his tone shifted till ‘beta’ sounded like a slur- “I know that not all are like that, and have met more than a few who are really nice, but … anyway, I knew her back in college. Fell head over heels in love, you know? My family… well, they disapproved. In fact, Dad straight out told me that she was nothing more than a gold-digger. Fool that I was, I didn’t believe him. He uh- disowned me. I was already working my way up in this company by then, so it’s not like I was out on the road or anything; but she-she said she could not be with someone without prospects. Guess our parents do know best, huh?”
Jensen’s eyes had flashed briefly during his rant against betas, but he had not interrupted. “You, uh- spoken with your Dad since?”
He shook his head, “Don’t need to hear his gloating I told you so.”
The alpha gave a sharp nod. An uncomfortable silence descended in the room and just when Jared was starting to feel antsy, Jensen spoke again; “My uh… experience with betas has been slightly different. This beta I was talking about? She died.”
He could have bashed his head against the wall at the faux-pas he had just committed, but Jensen didn’t seem to be expecting an apology, he was just correcting an assumption- and Jared was really grateful for that.
“You... wanna talk about it?”
“No. Maybe later... but right now, I- I can’t.”
He nodded. He understood the sentiment- besides, given the fact that he had just spent the last few minutes expounding how much he hated betas, Jensen was perfectly justified in not wanting to speak to him on the subject.
They slid into a not-quite-uncomfortable silence again, and Jared found himself wondering how they would endure forty-eight hours incarcerated like this if they kept running out of things to talk about.
His alpha seemed to be honing his uncanny ability to read Jared’s mind; “You know, it’s really great that we get this chance to be away from the world for awhile, isn’t it?”
“Are you kidding me?”
“What? Your claustrophobia aside, we have tons of stuff to figure out before the world starts making demands on us again.”
“Alright, I’ll play along. Give me one good reason.”
“Uh... We need to discuss our companies?”
“Excuse me?”
“You don’t think we can continue to compete, do you? ‘Cause that’s kind of what got us into this mess in the first place.... Plus, wishing ill of my own mate? I don’t think I can actually do that, man.”
“We were both chomping at the bit to take the other down not two days ago; and now you think you can’t compete with me? You hit your head or something?”
“Dude, you’re family!”
“And that’s your reason?”
“Okay, fine- I’ll grant that I am and have been pretty ruthless in business; but Jay, you gotta understand that the situation is completely different now...Besides, you’re not wrong about the fact that our past will be an issue. I mean, like you said; I can’t just go from hating your guts to protecting you with my life overnight... my uh- instincts will umm- want me to do that, but my conscious mind still remembers our former-let’s say interactions, shall we? It’ll take some time for that to change but-” he trailed off, shrugging.
Jared pursed his lips, he could see the conviction in the other man’s eyes; and even if he could not bring himself to believe in it, it was evident that the alpha was not all talk and no show; after all, the man had been trying to protect him since the hearing. Speaking of-
“Hey, you took the brunt of the hosing down we received this morning and I never got the chance to thank you-” he paused, wondering if he would be crossing some invisible line with his next sentence, “ would you mind taking off your shirt so that I can have a look?”
“I’m perfectly alright.” The protest was not unexpected.
“Great! Then you wouldn’t mind me confirming it.” He was nothing if not stubborn.
“Admit it; you just want to get me naked.” The man laughed even as he undid the clasps of their regulation button-downs. He dropped the garment on the floor and turned around, “See, nothing here.”
Only it wasn’t nothing. Jared blanched when he caught sight of the faint pinkish-purple marks decorating his mate’s pale skin. He trailed a gentle finger over them, trying to figure out how painful they were, but Jensen shifted away, “What?”
“You’ve got bruises.”
Jensen raised a curious eyebrow, “Really?”
“Um-hmmm...”
“How bad?”
“Not too bad, I guess... but dude, why would you do something like that?”
“You’re my mate.” And it seemed as though it really was as simple as that.
Jared sighed, shaking his head. His alpha was an enigma.
He was roused from his thoughts by the sound of an alarm. He sent a questioning glance at Jensen, “What the hell is that?”
“Last call before lights out, I guess.”
“Lights out? Dude, it’s not even late!”
“You do remember that we are incarcerated in a prison, right?” His mate’s eyes shone with mirth.
He scowled, “So, what’s the plan?”
Jensen followed his gaze to the too narrow bed. “I could take the floor?”
He turned, stunned. The man had bruises, and he was offering to sleep on the cold, hard floor? God, but he needed to start making more of an effort!
“Or, we could share?”
Although quickly shuttered, he did not miss the flash of hope in the man’s eyes, “You wouldn’t mind?”
He shook his head, “Umm... would you mind being on the inside, next to the wall?”
“Jay-” He watched as suspicion flared in those hazel-green eyes and abruptly realized that he had not even considered how bad things could have gone if Jensen had turned out to be a different sort of man. He had saved Jared, and with everyone already assuming that Jared was going to serve as the submissive in this relation, anything could have happened in the privacy of their cell. Anything could have happened -and not a single person would have questioned it or even found it odd, given their history.
And he had been naive enough to just accept it. And while Jensen had promised not to hurt him, he himself had failed to give any such assurance. No wonder the man was suspicious of his intentions!
“Jen- I can call you that, right? Since you get to call me ‘Jay’...”
The alpha gave a tiny smile as he nodded, “Okay, but I absolutely refuse to respond to ‘Jenny’, understood?”
“Deal... so, as I was saying, I promise I’m not going to take advantage of you in your sleep- it’s just that my claustrophobia-”
The man nodded, “Fine. I’ll take the inside.”
They had barely made it to bed when the lights went off, plunging the room in darkness. They lay in companionable silence for a while, each trying to keep to their side of the narrow bed.
Silence reigned for a few minutes before they heard the muffled growl from the cell next to theirs, ‘Assume position, Bitch!’
Jared stiffened- that could have been him getting abused right now if things had turned out different.
They heard sounds of a short scuffle before a rhythmic squeaking started up. A pained moan echoed through the thin walls and Jensen groaned, “There begins our late night entertainment.”
Even though it was morbid-humour; Jared could not help but laugh at that. He sobered as a thought struck him, “Jen, can I ask you something?”
“Um-hmm?”
“I was pretty much offered to you on a platter...” He hesitated, “I mean, you could have had that- if you wanted: me with my ass up- ready for the taking. That didn’t interest you at all?”
Jensen gave a mirthless laugh, “You ‘with your ass up- ready for the taking’ paints a very provocative picture, you know that?” He sighed before continuing, “Do I want you like that? Hell yes! I would have to be made out of stone if I didn’t... but Jared, I would like to have you like that out of choice- not...not compulsion. I would love to see you shiver from my touch- not out of pain or humiliation; but because you cannot have enough... You follow what I’m saying?”
He felt himself blush, did Jensen really believe that one day they could have that?
“You’re not what I pictured, you know?”
He felt the alpha shift, “And is that a good thing, Jay?”
He nodded, “Definitely.”
“You honestly believed that I would hurt you like that?”
“I had no idea what to believe, Jen... I mean we have been rivals for years now. I had no clue if you would actually jump at the chance to have me powerless and at your mercy... I had hoped not, and given your warning the other day I guess I prayed that I was reading you correctly; but frankly speaking, I had no idea what was going to happen.”
“And now?” The man urged softly.
“I think it’s going to be tough, but we may just be able to make this partnership work, you know?”
“I believe that, yeah... Goodnight, Jay.”
“Goodnight.”
He yawned, shifting to make himself comfortable as he settled in for the night. He had no idea how; but yeah, they were going to make this work.
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