1. The Hot New Neighbor

1

THE HOT NEW NEIGHBOR

Niall’s inspiration had dried up.

He stared at the blinking cursor on his screen, willing some ideas to enter his brain.

Alien invaders? Nah, that didn’t fit his brand. Hot mountain alpha? He’d already written that once. Billionaire daddy? He’d written three of those.

What could he possibly write that was similar to his other books, yet different at the same time?

A zookeeper? A marine biologist? An astronaut?

He was about to do a search for the weirdest jobs in the world, when something thumped just outside the house. Loudly.

Niall almost jumped out of his skin.

He shoved his shriveled hand against his pounding heart and took a deep breath. “Fuck.”

You’d think, years after The Bad Times, that he’d get slightly less jumpy. Nope. His body still freaked out like it expected to be captured, all over again.

So much for human adaptability.

“You’re safe,” Niall whispered to himself. “It’s nothing dangerous.”

To convince his heart that it could calm down, Niall stood, edging closer to the window to investigate.

A large moving truck had pulled up outside the empty house next door, alphas prowling down its length to open the large back door.

Niall gulped and tucked himself just out of sight.

He should’ve kept the curtains shut—those let him peek outside without being seen. Closing them now would only attract attention.

He left his office to check the other windows, just in case the sound hadn’t come from the truck.

When Niall was satisfied that the only danger was his new neighbor, he made himself as small as possible, and peeked out of the window again.

The moving truck was actually a truck from a furniture store. Two uniformed alphas hauled bulky items into the house: a huge bed, a stainless steel fridge, a shiny washing machine and dryer.

Niall was about to search out his new neighbor when a tall, muscled alpha came striding out the front door.

He was an older man in his early forties maybe, with grey streaked through his dark brown hair, a strong jaw, and a way of holding himself that said he wasn’t afraid of anything.

At first glance, he seemed to be fully dressed; his top half was colored with splotchy greens and blacks.

But no. A shirt wouldn’t move as though it was painted on someone’s body. The alpha’s pecs and biceps flexed with every movement; his abs rippled like a work of art.

No, those were tattoos on his skin.

The tattoos flowed from his arms to his shoulders to his chest, down his front and back, diving behind the waistband of his pants.

Niall had to tear his eyes away from the very prominent bulge between the alpha’s legs, because his grey sweatpants hid nothing.

Worse, that bulge swayed heavily between the alpha’s legs with every step.

Like it was flaunting itself.

Like it was saying, I can stretch open an omega’s hole, and make him feel so good.

“Oh, gods,” Niall choked. “He’s not wearing any underwear.”

His hole squeezed like it was answering the siren call of That Bulge.

He shoved his bony wrist against himself, cringing when he remembered the abject state of his hands. On each hand, his fingers were squashed together, withered and curled up as though he had two massive, dead-looking talons at the end of each wrist. The damage went up his forearms, too—he had little strength in his lower arms, and none at all in his fingers.

Most days, everything was a struggle. What else was new?

It wasn’t as though his new neighbor was ever going to find him attractive, and besides, Niall was afraid of alphas.

He wasn’t thinking about getting into that man’s pants. He was just... admiring.

The alpha strode up to the furniture truck and spoke with his delivery people. Did those other alphas see his bulge swaying back and forth? Were they jealous?

Niall was so distracted that he didn’t notice immediately when the alpha turned.

When he looked up, he found the man watching him.

His stomach clenched. He stumbled back and hit the wall, his blood running hot and cold. Oh, gods!

He curled into a tight ball and tucked himself into a corner, so the alpha couldn’t see him even if he came all the way to the window.

Niall made himself breathe until his ears stopped ringing. Then he slumped against the wall, and didn’t move until someone knocked on the front door.

Oh gods, oh gods, oh gods.

He waited in his corner for as long as he could, his limbs shaking. He didn’t open the door for anyone, period.

When he poked his head above the windowsill, he found his neighbor’s front yard empty. In fact, the delivery truck was long gone, and Niall had been so freaked out, he hadn’t even noticed.

“He’s not at the door, right?” Surely the alpha had gone home to admire his shiny, new things.

To be safe, Niall waited for what felt like ten minutes, before crawling out of the room on his forearms and knees. He only stood upright when he’d reached the front door.

To prevent himself from accidentally rattling the door, he braced his wrists against the doorjamb, tiptoed, and looked through the peephole.

The alpha was still there. Looking at the peephole, right at him.

Niall’s stomach gave an anxious jolt. He froze and didn’t even dare to breathe. “He can’t see me through the peephole,” he whispered to himself. “It doesn’t work that way.”

And yet the alpha waited, patiently, like he had nowhere else to be.

Up close, Niall realized that the man was really handsome. Full lips, shrewd brown eyes, a crooked nose, and silvery scars across his face. He was tall, too, and twice as broad as Niall.

He was still only wearing his grey sweatpants.

Niall blushed hotly. “I shouldn’t want him,” he told himself. “I can’t trust alphas.”

But Hot Neighbor Alpha was exactly the sort of alpha that belonged in a romance novel. He seemed like the sort of alpha that would come to an omega’s aid, and protect an omega from danger.

What if he came to Niall in a story, wanting his help urgently? And what if he found Niall absolutely desirable? What if he wanted to hold Niall like he was someone precious, even though Niall was badly messed up?

Maybe, in their story, Niall had perfect hands, perfect teeth, and nothing was wrong with him.

The alpha lingered on his porch for a few more moments, before turning away and going back to his house.

Was that relief in Niall’s belly? Or disappointment?

He carefully stepped away from the door, going straight to his computer.

He had the beginnings of a story now. He had the characters, and a secret fantasy he could explore in the safety of his own books.

No one would find out.