Because I Want To - Grace R. Duncan Page 0,4

would realize later that they thought they were safe without him there—and so Adam peeked in to see what was going on. Even as young as he was, he could figure out what they were doing. That in itself hadn’t bothered Adam—he’d seen it before on his way to the bathroom late at night—though not the same exact thing—and none of the sounds had been bad. But this time, as he was about to turn away, his new stepfather pulled his mom’s hair aside and bent his head, his mouth hovering at the nape of Mom’s neck. A few seconds later, he bit down.

And the muffled scream of pain his mother let out would never leave him as long as he lived.

Adam had completely forgotten his teddy bear as he fled down the stairs to the front door. As he was slipping through, he could still hear his mother’s cries of pain.

When Adam had come home the following day, she’d seemed fine. She’d certainly looked happy, and not like she’d had any problems or was still in pain. Adam didn’t know what to do with it, so he’d done his best not to think about it. He was wary around his stepdad for quite a while, afraid his new stepfather would hurt him the same way. But when his stepdad never showed anything but gentleness and love, Adam let go of the fear that he would get hurt.

Years later he found out that his stepdad was overwriting the pair bond his mom had had with his alpha father and that his stepdad—the one he now called Dad—was doing what his mother wanted. When his mother sat him down to explain his nature to him and that she was an omega herself, he’d started to understand. Then, the class at school had explained even further, finally allowing him to let go of the last of the worry about his mom and dad.

However, even understanding, he knew he never wanted to go through that himself. So, he simply wasn’t going to risk it.

But the other problem—the bigger problem—with Matt biting him was that Adam was pretty damned sure Matt wouldn’t ever leave him. But Matt wouldn’t stay because he wanted to be there. No. Even if Matt found someone else he loved and wanted to be with, he’d stay with Adam because Matt wouldn’t want to consign Adam to a lifetime without sex, nor would he want Adam to have to go through the kind of physical pain breaking a bond entailed. Thus, Matt would end up trapped.

And the last thing Adam wanted to do was put his best friend—the man he loved—in that position.

Even so, his options were limited. If he didn’t let Matt bite him, he could allow another alpha to bite him, but that also brought the possibly of going through the kind of excruciating pain his mother had gone through. Or he could simply manage and deal with his heats. In his opinion it was a no-brainer. He’d choose the third option.

Adam scrubbed his face with his hands and sat back up. He wasn’t the least bit hungry—he rarely wanted to eat during his heats as it was—but he needed fuel. When the heat hit later, he’d need the energy for the sex his body would demand. Despite understanding that, he picked at his sandwich in little bites.

One of the things that irritated him so much about his heats was being cooped up in the house the entire time. His pheromones would drive any alpha crazy if he happened to get anywhere near one. Adam had never tested the distance, and the fear of some random strange alpha losing control and biting him was enough to keep him firmly indoors.

Adam jumped up, leaving the sandwich on the side table, and paced to the window. There wasn’t much of anything to see from there except treetops and, in the distance, another hill dotted with houses. He’d looked out that window so many times during the last two years, he was pretty sure he could draw it from memory.

Shaking his head, Adam forced himself back to the bed to eat. Alone. Yet another problem with being in heat. Aside from Matt, he spent the entire time alone. Adam didn’t want to consider how much Matt felt duty-bound to spend time with him since he was pretty much the only one who could. Of their close circle of friends, only one other was an omega, and while Ethan visited now and