Chapter 20

CHAPTER TWENTY

Simon

I t happened so fast that I wasn't even sure what was going on.

As soon as the vote was passed, Vincent rose to his feet and shouted at everyone, "Are you all out of your minds? I built this company. I made you what you are. Everything you have is because of me."

The board members squirmed, but most of them looked away from Vincent, turning to Vivien like they were her slaves and she was the undisputed master.

Until the board members who were opposed to the change started shouting and picking arguments with those who had voted in favor, which was the thing that prompted the massive, roiling argument that descended on the boardroom. I almost cowered, the chaos was so loud. I was just waiting for someone to pick up their chair and throw it.

The only one who didn't get up to argue or fight or throw their weight around was Victor. Victor sat back in his chair, smiling across the chaos at Vivien. His confidence and excitement had me feeling hot all over.

Vivien's smug smile faltered when she saw how unaffected Victor was by everything she'd just made happen. That expression sank even more into confusion, and she grabbed the copy of the bylaws in front of her and flipped through the pages. It made me question whether she'd actually read through the work my parents had done before hatching whatever plot she had or if she'd just searched out the bits that would benefit her and assumed the rest was to her liking.

She wouldn't have been the first person to be so bored by legalese that she skimmed a contract, and from what Victor had told me about her minimal involvement in the company so far, I wondered if she really had the chops for what she was trying to do now.

Whether she saw the change to the non-compete clause or not, she was quickly distracted by Vincent stepping around the table to shout at her, "You would stab me in the back like this? Your own father? This is akin to patricide!"

"I did what I had to do," Vivien shouted at him. "And you were never a father to me. You wanted Victor, never me."

I felt so sad for her, but in a distant sort of way, like she was a character on a television show, not like she was someone close to me.

From Victor, I felt relief and satisfaction. I also felt the tell-tale signs of closure as one part of his life ended and, hopefully, the next began.

"Come on," he said, standing and pushing his chair back. He then took my hand and started walking for the door. I buzzed with pride in him, and with love.

"Wait!" Artemis leapt after us. "Where are you going? What's going on?"

We'd made it to the door and stepped out into the hallway, which was a relief, since the shouting in the boardroom had only grown louder, but Victor stopped to talk to his friend.

"Victory Holdings will go on," Victor said, smiling like he couldn't help himself. "Clearly, Vivien alerted the board members that there would be a vote to change the bylaws this morning, and she won enough people over to her side, by hook or by crook, that you all snapped your fingers and the old constraints vanished."

"I thought we were voting to change the bylaws so Vincent could be forced to retire," Artemis said, his frown even more pronounced.

I was so disconcerted by him all of a sudden that I stepped back, half hiding behind Victor. Some omega instinct in me was suddenly making me deeply wary of other alphas, not to mention making me feel all hot and itchy.

"You were voting for that," Victor explained with a nod. He shifted his stance, half to protect me, then asked, "Did you get a copy of the new bylaws before the meeting started?"

"About fifteen minutes before," Artemis said. "The relevant sections were highlighted."

I suddenly wondered if my parents highlighted the non-compete changes or if they slipped them in where people might not notice them.

Victor smiled. "Then what's done is done. It was a legal vote of the board to accept amended bylaws. Even you voted for it."

"Because I thought it would help you," Artemis said, still deeply confused. "I didn't expect Vivien to swoop in and get rid of you, too."

"Neither did I," Victor admitted with a shrug. "But it doesn't matter. You didn't just vote to eliminate everything that would allow one of us to be removed without breaking the company, you voted out the non-compete clause as well."

"So you're free to leave and start your own company," Artemis said, realization dawning on him. He laughed. "You clever little sneak."

Victor shrugged modestly at the compliment.

Artemis's smile dropped a moment later. "You realize this means your uncle could start a new company, too."

"It does," Victor nodded. "And I'd like to see him try."

"He might," Artemis said.

"Oh, I'm sure he will," Victor said. "But what he does is his business. I have enough money of my own, money I've made certain is separate from the family money, to start something new. I might even have a potential business offer on the table."

"They'll try to attack you, you know," Artemis said. "Vivien and Vincent."

"I predict they'll be too busy attacking each other to worry about me," Victor said. "And besides, going after me simply for revenge will waste company and personal resources. Vivien only cares about money and my uncle only cares about power, which he'll be busy trying to wrestle back from Vivien. I'd say I've got plenty of time to start something new and shore up my position before they have time to attack me. By then, they might not care."

I beamed at my wonderful master. He was right, I was sure. Other companies and families might have reacted differently, but he knew the Woodburys and Victory Holdings well enough to hold all the cards.

Artemis seemed to see it, too. He smiled and clapped Victor on the shoulder. "Once you get whatever comes next set up, if you're hiring, I'd be interested in applying for a job."

"I'll definitely need loyal friends, whatever I do," Victor said with a nod.

They might have said more, but the arguments in the boardroom started to bleed out into the hall, making me jumpy to the point of panic.

"Let's get you out of here," Victor said, not just taking my hand, but slipping an arm around my waist as he ushered me down the hall toward the reception area and the elevators.

We reached the elevators and the door slid open, but Vivien's call of, "Wait! Victor!" stopped us in our path.

Victor thrust an arm out to hold the elevator as we turned to her. "Yes?" he asked.

Vivien stomped her way over to us on her impossibly high heels. "That's it?" she asked. "You're just going to walk away like that? You haven't even heard the deal I have yet."

Victor shrugged. "I don't need to hear your deal. I think it's time for me to set off and start something of my own."

"But you can't," Vivien growled. "Victory Holdings' non-compete clause?—"

"No longer exists," Victor said. "Check those new bylaws you just pushed through with lightning speed. I'm impressed with how you were able to do that, by the way," he added. "Did you call everyone on the board before the meeting and either threaten or bribe them into voting with you?"

"That's not the point," Vivien said. "You can't just sneak a change to the non-compete clause under my nose."

"Did you read the complete revised bylaws before you pushed through the vote?" I asked.

The look of pure hatred that Vivien sent me was all the answer I needed.

"I'll challenge it," Vivien said, glancing back to Victor. "The vote can't be legal. I'll take it to court and have it nullified."

"Then your father will have control of the company again," Victor pointed out.

Vivien sputtered. "I'll have the non-compete clause reinstated," she threatened.

"You do that," Victor said. "I've already been ousted, and I officially quit on top of that. I won't be a member of the company when you reinstate it, so it won't apply to me."

Vivien yelped. "I'll…I'll make sure it applies to owners of the company as well."

Victor just shrugged. "I think it's a good idea for me to sell my shares anyhow," he said. "The profit will help fund my next endeavor."

"You can't do this!" Vivien shouted, near to tears of frustration. "Don't I mean anything to you? Are you abandoning me, too?"

Victor did something I wasn't expecting, then. He let go of my hand, then moved to enclose Vivien in a tight hug.

"Hey," he said as Vivien burst into tears. "I'm always going to be there for you. You're family, Viv. You're like a sister to me. We're always going to have that between us. But it's not a good idea for us to be in business together anymore."

Vivien sobbed and sagged in his embrace for a moment, throwing her arms around him and burying her face against his shoulder. I felt Victor's heart nearly break for her.

"I'll be here whenever you need me, okay?" he went on, rubbing her back. "I'll give you whatever help you need with Victory Holdings going forward. But I can't be a part of it anymore. It's all yours now. It's your company, your life, your future. And I forgive you for giving me the boot."

"I was going to have them vote you back in," she said, sniffled, then stood straighter, dabbing at her face and her evidently water-proof make-up with the edge of her sleeve. "Just as soon as you agreed to do things my way."

Victor shrugged and caressed the side of her face, wiping her tears with his thumb. "Now you won't have to worry about that. You can put your effort into running Victory Holdings all on your own. I know you're smart enough."

"Thanks," she said, still working to pull herself back together.

The noise from the hall was starting to pour into the lobby, and when a pair of board members came around the corner, looking furious, I tensed.

Vivien glanced from me to Victor, then said, "You'd better get your omega out of here. I'll handle everything else."

"Thanks," Victor said, then leaned in to kiss Vivien's cheek.

She sighed heavily and turned to face the oncoming, angry board members. Victor and I stepped into the elevator, which was now being held by some poor young woman who had been in it already, and who had watched the emotional scene with wide eyes.

Victor nodded sheepishly to her, then pushed the button to close the doors, then the button for the parking garage.

As the elevator rushed down, the relative silence within the tight space rang in my ears. That was it. Victor's dealings with his messed-up family and with Victory Holdings were done. I knew enough to know there would be weeks of legal wrangling as the bylaw changes and other company turbulence was smoothed out, but I was confident the end result would be Victor's freedom, Vincent's retirement, and Vivien coming into her own.

"I think I should drive," Victor said once the valet, the same woman who had helped us before, brought my parents' car around. "You're looking a little flushed and flustered."

"I feel a little flushed and flustered," I said, letting Victor take the keys while I climbed into the passenger's seat.

Victor adjusted the driver's seat, then pulled the car out of the garage and into the extra-cheery Barrington sunshine.

"What do you want to do now to celebrate?" Victor asked, a smile on his face as he drove back toward my parents' house.

"I don't know," I said, grabbing the front of my shirt and tugging it a few times to get some air to my strangely overheated body. "I could go for some ice cream right about now."

Victor laughed.

A few blocks later, after I'd turned up the AC and wriggled out of my suit jacket, Victor growled, almost involuntarily.

"You're going into heat," he said, his voice deeper and his nostrils flared.

"Impossible," I panted, fanning myself with the car's manual, which I'd found in the glove compartment. "I went through heat two months ago. It'll be another four months before I'm anywhere close."

"It wasn't a question," Victor said, his voice unbelievably sexy for some reason. "You're in heat, possible or not."

"But I?—"

I breathed in suddenly, my senses suddenly overwhelmed by Victor's scent. When had it gotten so strong?

More than that, a gush of slick leaked from me, causing me to clench my ass to stop from soaking my trousers and my parents' car.

"Oh, God. I'm going into heat!" I gasped, bracing my hands against the dashboard like we were about to crash. "It has to be the bond."

That happened sometimes. It was possible for an omega to go into heat if they bonded with an alpha outside of heat. It wasn't always a full heat, since the omega's body wasn't necessarily ready for it, but it was definitely heat. I wondered if I'd actually been feeling tell-tale signs that I'd dismissed because of the timing and everything going on with Victory Holdings.

"What are we going to do?" I panicked.

Victor drew in a breath. I could feel his reaction to my heat more and more with each moment, which only worked me up even more. "We'll go to my place," he said, taking charge.

That only melted me even more. "Yes, Master," I said, panting in anticipation of what it would feel like to have my master take me through heat with all the raw power he had over me.

I could barely keep it together as Victor made a turn and changed directions to take us out to the beach and his condo. I had enough sense to text my parents with a brief explanation of what was going on. My papa replied for us not to worry about the car, they had another one, and that I should have fun and enjoy my first bonded heat.

By the time we reached Victor's place, parked the car, and rushed up to his apartment, I was so hot and horny that I just wanted to be naked and skewered by Victor's cock.

"It's never felt this strong before, I said, frantically loosening my tie and working through the buttons of my shirt moments after we stepped into his house. "I don't even know what to do."

"Stop," Victor said, setting the car keys on the dining table that was part of the open plan of his apartment.

I froze where I was, half undressed, panting. The direct order from my master wasn't as easy to follow as I wanted it to be.

At least until Victor opened the briefcase he'd just barely remembered to take from the board room and pulled out my collar and restraints. I'd been wondering what happened to them after we changed for the big board meeting. Obviously, I couldn't wear them into a situation like that.

Victor had them now, and when he brought them over to where I was shifting anxiously from one leg to another as slick oozed from my hole, I nearly cried in relief.

"Finish undressing," Victor ordered me as he held the collar in one hand and the ankle and wrist restraints in the other.

"Yes, Master. Thank you, Master," I said, grateful that I had such a strong and confident alpha not only take me through my heat but to take me through my life.

Victor's face remained the implacable one of a stern master, but I felt nothing but affection, pride, and deep, deep lust radiating from him.

As soon as I stood completely naked before him, slick already shining on my thighs, Victor breathed in deeply through his nose, taking in my scent, then said, "Give me your hands."

I held my shaking hands out to him at once. He fastened the wrist restraints in place, then my collar, then crouched to do the ankle restraints. As soon as I felt their tough leather around my skin, I felt better. I didn't have to worry about this surprise heat or anything else. My master would have me do what he wished. That was all I had to think about.

Except for one thing.

"Victor?" I asked in a small voice once Victor stood and started unbuttoning his suit jacket.

He paused, knowing whatever I needed was serious. "Yes, love?"

I swallowed hard, knowing that what I was about to say was a much bigger deal than it might have seemed on the surface, but that it needed to be said now.

"I do want to have a family with you," I said, my heart racing and my womb squeezing at the mention of children. "But I've only just found you, found myself."

Victor nodded in immediate understanding. "You don't want to get pregnant during this heat."

"No, I don't," I said, lowering my head like I was disappointing him.

I snapped my head up to face him a second later and said, "If that's what you want, then I will submit to your wishes."

Victor shook his head and stepped closer, cupping the side of my face.

"I want a family," he said. "I don't know anything about children. I've never been around them. But I know in my soul that we will have a family." He stroked my cheek with his thumb. "But you're right. Not now, not yet. I want to enjoy my slave for a while, maybe a couple of years, before we bring children into this family."

I blew out a breath in relief. "Thank you," I said. "Not every alpha would see things the same way."

Victor smiled, joy and love and hunger in his eyes. "Not every alpha is a selfish, sadistic master who wants to see his slave choking on his cock and covered with his cum, his hole stretched out from his fist instead of a baby."

I shivered all over. It was considered particularly shocking and demeaning, but secretly incredibly intimate, for an alpha to pleasure his omega with his fist. I wanted it so badly that a whimper escaped from me.

But as much as I wanted the physical pleasure and pain of my master using me, I wanted the intimacy and interconnectedness of my wonderful, strong, powerful alpha taking me through heat even more.

"Now, enough talking. I want to fuck you into oblivion," Victor growled. "Your scent alone already has my balls so filled with cum that I could drench you in it."

"Yes, please, Master," I panted, not even trying to stop the flood of slick that spilled down my thighs. I produced so much of it when I was in heat that, in the past, I'd been embarrassed.

I wouldn't be embarrassed now. It was all for Victor.

"Undress me, boy," Victor commanded me.

"Yes, Master."

I went to work immediately, peeling off his suit jacket, then taking his tie, then his shirt. I loved how Victor just let me get on with it, neither trying to help nor impeding me in any way. He breathed deeply the whole time, his pupils wide as my heat affected him. Any omega's heat affected whatever alpha managed to catch their scent, but most alphas were gentlemen about ignoring the low-level impulse to mate.

When the omega was naked and touching them, like I was with Victor, and especially when the pair was bonded, it was nearly impossible for the alpha to resist. Evidence of that was the fact that Victor's cock was already rigid and straining to break free by the time I knelt in front of him to remove his trousers. More than that, his balls had distended slightly as his body quickly produced more seed in anticipation of knotting and breeding me.

I moaned with need as I pushed his trousers and underwear down to his ankles. I wanted everything I could see and smell and touch in front of me.

"Kiss them," Victor said as he kicked his trousers and shoes aside, then assumed a wider stance. "I know you want them."

"Yes, Master," I said, then immediately leaned in to kiss his heavy balls.

That niggling sense that it was humiliating for an alpha to order me to kiss and worship his balls as I started to really suffer with the heat-need to be taken flared at the back of my mind as I rained soft, reverent kisses over both his balls. But that humiliation added spice to the hot, pulsing need within me.

"Suck them," Victor ordered with a low growl.

I obeyed, pulling one ball into my mouth first and sucking. It was so large it nearly filled my entire mouth. When I switched to the other one, Victor let out a satisfied groan and brushed a hand through my hair.

"Good boy," he said. "You exist to serve those balls. You're nothing but a vessel for them to empty in. Show them you understand."

The tender emotion I felt through our bond was so much stronger than the degradation of those words, but I loved the humble feeling the words gave me. I switched back to sucking on his other ball, feeling it grow and tense in my mouth with the need to empty.

"Don't ignore my cock, boy," Victor said. He tightened his fist in my hair, then yanked my head back so he could shift slightly and feed me his huge, hard cock. "You're hungry for it, like a good slave whore."

I was right back into the play space we'd started in, only magnified by a thousand. His deliberate use of words meant to humiliate me felt so good in my core, making my hole gush as I knelt before him.

It felt so right as he pushed his cock deep as soon as the tip passed my lips. Just like it always did with me, heat all but obliterated my gag reflex. That meant Victor could push all the way into my throat, which he did with a surprised and pleasured groan, as I wept over how right and complete I felt with him using me.

"So precious," Victor hissed as he grabbed my hair with his other hand, pumping desperately into my throat to the point of bruising it. "I want you too much."

My head was starting to get swimmy from lack of oxygen when the first burst of cum hit the back of my throat. I swallowed it eagerly, the visceral feeling of rightness, of a desperate thirst being quenched, filling me.

I was just on the edge of blissing out completely when Victor pulled back enough to pop his cock from my mouth. He was still coming, and with a few swift strokes, he spent the last of his orgasm all over my face, marking me as his.

"Beautiful," he panted, watching me as I gasped for breath and shuddered with need as I knelt before him.

It shouldn't have been so satisfying to let him put me in the place he wanted me so definitively. Then again, maybe satisfaction was exactly what I should be feeling in that moment when each of us was getting exactly what we wanted and needed from each other. I didn't have to fit my experience into whatever society saw as right or wrong.

As if Victor could sense my deeper acceptance of the two of us, which I knew he could, he grabbed my chin and tilted my messy face up to him.

"I love you," he said, then bent so that he could kiss me passionately.

The peace that unfurled in me was like stretching after being confined for a long time. I was so happy, and so grateful to the universe for bringing me and Victor together.

The intensity of the heat wave that now had me fully in its grip was too powerful to let me enjoy that feeling for long, though.

"Someone needs to be knotted," Victor growled as he ended our kiss.

"Yes, Master. Please," I said, weeping with the intensity of that need.

"Up," Victor ordered, hooking his fingers in the ring at the front of my collar and wrenching me to my feet.

I rose, though my legs were so wobbly I felt like I would fall over at any second, and let him drag me into the bedroom. He moved like I was some hapless, captured omega that he was force-breeding, but the truth couldn't have been farther from that.

"I want to play with you and see you suffer for me," Victor panted by the time we reached his bed, our bed now. He took a moment to retrieve a bottle of spermicide from his bedside table. "But this need to knot you is huge."

I felt his awe and desperation through the bond. That thrilled me, too.

I was about to make the suggestion that he just take me this first time and that we would play with the things we were feeling during another wave, but he beat me to it.

Without bothering to pull back the covers and slide between the bedsheets, Victor spun me to face him, then pushed me back so that I fell onto his bed. Before I could even catch my breath, he looped his arms under my knees, yanking my legs apart and lifting my hips at the same time.

I grabbed my legs when he folded me to expose my ridiculously wet, pulsing hole. He fumbled with the spermicide bottle to open the nozzle, then squirted what felt like a gallon of it into me. Then, without a shred of hesitation, he guided his cock to my hole and pushed in.

We both cried out at the pure rightness of being joined that way. Once he'd worked his way deep into me, he leaned over me and took my legs again, pinning me so that I couldn't have moved away from his ferocious thrusts if I'd wanted to. I helped the illusion that he was forcing himself on me by stretching my arms over my head and touching my wrists together like my restraints were fastened.

"Mine," Victor growled, feral in the ferocity of his thrusts. "My omega. Mine ."

I panted and whimpered as his thrusts felt like they were rearranging my insides. I was so grateful he'd used the spermicide, because every instinct I had wanted his seed to fill me and take hold. The omega urge to have a baby was all-encompassing.

But that was nothing to the shocking moment when Victor's cockhead pressed hard against the mouth of my womb, and without a second of hesitation, my womb opened for him, sucking him straight in.

I'd never had a breeding orgasm before. I didn't think omegas ever had them during the first day of their heat, let alone the first wave, but there it was, blinding in its intensity as I started to come.

Victor felt it, too. He cried out with pleasure, pumping hard as his knot swelled, not only locking us together, but locking the tip of his cock inside my womb. I felt awe and wonder from him, along with pleasure so intense it bordered on pain, as we both sailed through the single most intense feeling anyone could have.

It was like being consumed in undiluted pleasure, like becoming that pleasure in every cell of my body. My womb radiated with it, and I couldn't stop coming, even though I doubted I had that much fluid in me. I felt the same from Victor as well, like his orgasm continued on and on, even though he had nothing left in his balls to give me. My belly grew rounder with the volume of what he pulsed into me.

Best of all, the bond between us flared to something so wide and magnificent that it felt like the two of us were one. I not only felt everything he was feeling, I understood him on a profound level.

Even after the intensity of the orgasm passed and the two of us were left exhausted, limp, and still joined by Victor's knot, I felt so happy and connected that there weren't words for it.

"I love you," I panted when I finally had a voice, as the two of us lay curled around each other on our sides, still together.

"I'm so glad I found you," Victor purred, stroking my body and causing aftershock orgasms that made me feel so good. "I swear, Simon, I will protect you and honor you for the rest of our lives."

I smiled, but was beyond words. I could only send reciprocating emotions back to him through the bond. Victor was the best thing that had ever happened to me, and I swore to myself I would be the best thing that ever happened to him for the rest of our lives and beyond.