The dining room reeks of silent gunpowder. Three people sit silently on a large table, each with a carefully prepared meal in front of them, but Kaiden can’t tell what his dish tastes like. The food is heavy in his mouth; he feels sorry for whoever made dinner at his lack of appreciation.

“So you’re Kaiden?” Kaiden looks up from his plate upon hearing his name. “I’m Heath Miranda, I finally meet you.”

Kaiden thinks he heard wrong—there’s no way the Beta would talk to him—but when he sees the teal eyes directing a glare at him, he swallows the beef down his throat and forces a reply. “Yes, it’s nice to meet you.”

The clink of utensils on the plate rings loud in his ear, but the silence that follows is even louder. Kaiden never expected that he would be invited to join dinner with them yet here he is, across Heath with Damon to his right. The Alpha silently eats his medium-rare steak as he sits at the head of the table, and if he shows participation in this suffocating dinner, then it is only to ask Heath whether the food is to his liking or if he wants another glass of wine.

Kaiden isn’t offered wine, the contract forbids him from taking any alcohol—not that he wants to anyway. Is mind is already on the defensive, trying to figure out how to leave the dinner table without being chewed alive, he doesn’t need the mood-altering substance to addle it further. Thankfully, it seems that the pair of lovers chose to treat him as air, allowing him to continue his meal in relative peace.

However, the peace doesn’t last long when Heath shortly addresses him once again. “What do you do, Kaiden? I mean, before my Alpha here chose you as his bed warmer?” The Beta gingerly wipes his mouth on a napkin, even though it’s clean, as if the words he spoke dirtied his mouth.

Kaiden tries not to flinch upon hearing the words ‘bed warmer,’ opting for burning a hole at his steak instead. “I had a lot of jobs,” his voice is meek but not soft enough to be unheard, “part-time jobs here and there.”

“I heard you met at a nightclub.” Heath jabs the meat on his plate with his fork using more force than necessary, and then Kaiden really does flinch.

“Yeah.” It takes everything in Kaiden not to bolt on the spot. “I was working as a dancer and he saved me when I went to a mini-heat.”

“A dancer, huh?” Heath repeats the word as he twirls the wine glass lightly in his fingers. “Funny enough, we almost broke up that night when I told him to find an omega, and look at that, he actually did,” he spits the words like they disgust him, making Kaiden shrink in his seat.

When the Beta’s eyes rake over the Omega’s body from top to bottom, Kaiden has to tightly grip the fork in his hand to prevent it from shaking. He knows that showing weakness now won’t do him any good.

“Oh well,” Heath sighs in surrender before finishing his wine, “I guess you’ll make do. I’m sure Damon didn’t pick up some random dirty omega off the streets just to cure his pheromone imbalance. I heard he even sent you to the hospital to check if you’re clean. Right, baby?” He asks the last part to Damon who had just finished the last part of his dinner.

“I’m so lucky I have you as an understanding lover,” Damon says before kissing the back of Heath’s hand. The loving tone he uses is thick in the air, palpable, almost choking Kaiden as he chews on nothing, his appetite gone.

“What can I do?” Heath sighs again. “Not like my pheromones will work on a big alpha like you. I’m not an omega who opens my legs for anyone, after all.”

Kaiden’s shoulders pull in closer to his chest upon hearing that. It’s not explicitly said but he knows the Beta is talking about him, but he is not like that at all.

He hasn’t even had his first knot, always spending his heat alone in his pitiful nest, suffering without a partner. In fact, his first kiss is with Damon at the backseat of that car on that night.

He feels small, humiliated, as the Beta insults him while he can’t say a word in his defense. Memories of past dinner conversations where he is berated and belittled merge with the scene in front of him.

He feels like crying, the powerlessness encapsulating his whole being. He wants to get angry, to loudly assert himself that no, don’t talk about him that way, but his throat closes as he tries to force a word out. He is still so useless, nothing has changed.

Just as Kaiden is blinking tears away, he hears Damon scold Heath, “You’re drunk, you should stop. You don’t know what you’re saying.”

The memories and harsh voices in Kaiden’s head instantly vanish and something thumps loudly in his chest.

Did Damon stand up for him? Did he stop his lover from speaking badly of him? But why?

The Alpha made it clear that they’re in nothing but an employer-to-employee relationship when he highlighted that clause in the contract that states not to interfere or ask about each other’s personal lives, so why is he helping Kaiden?

Heath scoffs and rolls his eyes. “I’m not drunk but whatever.”

Damon frowns, brows pulled together in displeasure. He stands and gently pulls the Beta to stand with him. “Come on, it’s late, let’s get you home.”

He signals for Uriel to fetch Heath’s coat and the old butler obliges. They make their way out of the dining room leaving Kaiden and his half-eaten dinner alone.

The Omega drinks a glass of cold water in big gulps, hoping to cool down his hot face and calm down his beating heart. That was the first time someone stood up for him—ever, and the feeling of being protected blooms an unexplainable warmth somewhere in his body.

It’s a good feeling, his inner omega purrs in satisfaction.

As he stares at the empty chairs in front of him, he thinks that maybe the indigestion he got tonight is worth it for this feeling.