Captive Mate BL-Chapter 451: + - +

Jael stopped to grab coffee on his way to FluxCorp, he already knew how Rosie liked her coffee, sweet, with almond milk.

As he made his way through the quiet but bustling foyer, he considered convincing Asher to get a company. The serious-faced employees all walked to their respective stations quietly, snippets of softly-murmured company-related conversation drifting to him.

If he was truly being honest, it was usually quiet around this time at Asher’s clubs. It was mid-morning so all of the late night stragglers would have been kicked out, the only buzz came from the cleaners and the morning shift staff prepping for a new day.

By afternoon, early day drinkers would have already shown up, mostly camped out in the bar area of the club. The one consistent thing throughout all of that, was the music, low thumping rap, smooth blues, catchy hip hop; it was constant.

Here it was nothing but silence, occasionally he could hear the ping of a machine or a printer going off but that was all there was.

Jael easily found Rosie’s office, the secretary was behind her desk, already busy. He strode in, holding out a covered cup of coffee. "I got you coffee."

Rosie held out a hand to take it, not mentioning the fact that she had already had coffee that morning. "Thank you."

Jael invited himself to a seat in her office, he didn’t drink much of coffee, so he had gotten himself some iced tea instead. At the club, the fanciest thing he would have gotten was a cocktail.

He kept on making parallels and it was just his second day away, maybe he was starting to miss his old job. Getting a break every now and then was nice, but he couldn’t stand to be idle for long.

"Need any help with the paperwork?" He blurted out after sitting in companionable silence with Rosie for several long minutes.

The secretary peered at him over her monitor, thinking of the best way to break it to him that she had been scrolling through the same emails ever since he stepped into her office.

Lake had been too efficient, there was practically nothing to be done. She had a feeling that the trio of secretaries were probably watching a show with drinks at the moment.

"No, thanks," She muttered, refocusing on the screen.

Jael figured she would say that so he only leaned back in resignation and stared at the ceiling. He might as well spend the time watching shows if there was nothing better to do, so he rose to his feet and wordlessly made his way out.

Rosie already knew where he was headed so she didn’t bother questioning him, there was a chance she might end up joining him at the leisure room if her day continued being this slow.

-+-

Angelo woke up groggy, his scent had always been absent for most of his life so he was particularly sensitive to it. So as soon as he woke up, he noticed something off about it.

His lips turned down, a niggling feeling bugging him. Without stopping to splash some water on his face, he hurried out of his room. His hoodie was sleep rumpled and his hair was wild but it was beyond Angelo to notice.

His destination was the living room, he needed to make a quick call to Silvia.

The line connected as soon as he made the call, it was almost like his boss had been anticipating another call from him.

Angelo was filled with trepidation as he thought about a sane way to phrase the questions he had to ask.

"Are you alright?" She asked hesitantly when he said nothing.

"I’m not sure," Angelo began slowly.

He could practically hear Silvia’s frown, "What do you mean?"

"What will happen when my hormone inhibitors wear off?"

Silvia was so stunned that she was silent for a good long while, when she spoke again, her tone was calm and measured. "Angelo? How long ago did they wear off?"

Angelo could practically feel the dread come off Silvia in waves, "Two days ago," He answered meekly, he expected Silvia to be upset that he didn’t tell her, he didn’t expect terror.

"And you’re asking now because you noticed something different, right?" Silvia went on calmly, a telltale rustling from her end that indicated that she was already coming over.

"Yes." Angelo’s voice became smaller, he didn’t know why he felt like he was being scolded.

He started using hormone inhibitors because he didn’t want to be an Omega, outside, it would have been shoved in his face at every turn, but here, no one seemed to notice, he might as well be trying a new perfume.

It might have lulled him into a false sense of security; for someone who had never really dealt with what it was like to be an Omega, the possibility of side effects never occurred to him, especially not one that would happen so quickly after getting off hormone inhibitors.

Silvia lowered her voice to a whisper like she was sharing an important secret, "I want you to stay out of sight until I get there."

"Okay," He whispered as well, starting to panic for the first time.

When he decided to stay off the inhibitors for the rest of the week, it was a spur of the moment decision, just like his request to stay for a week. He wanted to have a bit of a buffer period before he went back to the life he used to have.

"You can go see her if you want," Nikolai’s quiet voice intruded into the conversation.

Fortunately, Silvia had hung up by then, no doubt to better hurry over. Angelo turned to see the Mafia King leaning against the wide doorway that led to the hallway, wearing a loose sweater.

He put the phone down, self-conscious. "She’s actually coming over," He reported with a small wince.

Nikolai studied him curiously, there was something off about the assassin that morning. After finding out all of his secrets, Angelo had become less on guard around him but today, he seemed almost anxious, it was out of place.