Ten: Crazy

*thanks to Entity, Niya, gelfling65, bleh_bleh, B, and Jae for your support!!*

Slight mature content warning.

***

Beau called Wren the day after his heat ended. His heat – which was possibly the most uncomfortable and downright maddening week of Wren’s life so far. After the first day where Wren had been unable to… achieve completion, it had only gone downhill from there. He managed to find release twice. Over five days.

It was safe to say Wren was not in the best mood when Beau called, but he pushed down his irritation, hoping Beau wasn’t one of the intuitive types like Will who could sense when something was wrong from a single word.

He was.

Wren barely got his hello out before Beau was cracking down on him.

“What’s wrong? You sound hoarse.” He paused, gasping. “Were you crying?”

No, Wren thought. I’ve just been screaming into my pillow for the past few days because I can’t orgasm. Anyway, how are you?

Wren cleared his throat. “No. What’s up?”

There was a pause as Beau made a noise of suspicion, but he let the topic drop, thankfully. “Hmm. Want to meet up for coffee? I’ll pay.”

Wren wasn’t particularly in love with the idea. Not only was he recovering from a rough week, but he also just didn’t like social outings. Not that Beau was bad company or anything – Wren was. He had a terrible time keeping a conversation going, especially with someone he barely knew. He much preferred companionable silence, but unfortunately, you had to get to know someone fairly well before you got to the easy silence stage, and getting to know someone usually involved a lot of pointless small talk first.

Additionally, pretty much everyone in Wren’s life agreed that he needed to make more friends, so turning down an opportunity to make one was probably not the best idea.

Having a social life was so tiring.

“Sure. When?” Wren asked, holding back a sigh.

“Right now, silly!” Beau giggled. “Unless you’re busy?”

Regrettably, Wren was not busy. He and Beau talked for a few more minutes, agreeing to meet at a coffee shop not too far from Wren’s office, before hanging up.

Well, at least going out would take Wren’s mind off the Vincent situation. If it could even be called a situation. Wren wasn’t sure why Vincent would go out of his way to drive Wren home the other day if he knew he was about to go into rut. Whenever Wren felt himself about to go into heat, he locked himself up in his apartment. It was in the best interests of everyone. Wren certainly wouldn’t go out just to give the person he – he liked – a ride home.

Thinking about it now, it occurred to Wren that he didn’t know how Vincent always knew when he called for a taxi. Did he actually work for the cab service? It was beginning to seem less likely the more Wren thought about it, especially given how he scared away the other driver before.

Whatever. It was giving Wren a headache to think about (and heart palpitations, but he was conveniently ignoring those), and he had places to be.

So with a resigned sigh, Wren threw on a soft black sweater and a pair of jeans, grabbed his wallet and keys and headed for the coffee shop, hoping that Beau wasn’t in the mood to tease him too much.

That was probably too much to ask. Beau seemed to be created to tease people. The second Wren walked through the doors of the coffee shop – a small place called Nobility Coffee Co. that shared the building with a bookstore – Beau whistled at him suggestively from his seat by the doors.

Beau was wearing a soft green collar today, paired with a loose white silk shirt and black jeans. There was a series of red bobby pins pinning his white-blond bangs back away from his forehead.

“Why hello handsome. Mind joining me for a drink?” He held up his coffee cup and shook it a little, a flirtatious smirk on his lips. Wren wanted to roll his eyes, but he wasn’t quite comfortable enough with Beau to be that cavalier.

Wren went to the counter to order his own drink before joining Beau at the table.

“So,” Beau began, “as my new best friend – don’t look at me like that, I’ve decided, it’s too late – you have to tell me all about you, starting with why you look so pooped.”

Wren wondered where Beau got the confidence to declare a virtual stranger as his best friend so easily. He was a little envious, but mostly baffled about why Beau wanted anything to do with him – and nervous because Beau was a very high intensity person.

Wren shrugged, hoping he looked casual as he replied, “Just finished a heat.”

Beau nodded in understanding, but still had a suspicious glint in his eyes. “What about your alpha? Vincent, right? Didn’t you spend it with him? You should be glowing right now.”

Wren choked on his coffee, coughing violently as his cheeks burned red. Beau reached around to pat his back, looking surprised.

“He’s not – ” Wren started, but coughed again. “He’s not my alpha,” he finished.

Beau smiled, though it was tinged with concern as he sat back in his seat, probably worried about sending Wren into cardiac arrest if he pushed too hard.

“Is that so?” he said. “You can tell he wants to be, though. He was jealous of me, back at the store. Me, of all people. Do I look like I could push you down and have my way with you? I mean, come on. I suppose you could push me down, but you don’t seem like the type who would want to, you know?”

Wren closed his eyes briefly, trying to tamp down his growing embarrassment. Beau was a very…open person.

“We’re not together,” Wren said at last. “He, um. He talked to me about it, but I’m not sure.”

“What are you not sure about?” Beau exclaimed. “He’s like, the hottest person I’ve ever seen, not including you, and he’s into you. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity!”

Wren hesitated, taking a sip of his drink to avoid responding right away. He didn’t know how much he wanted to tell Beau, who despite claiming to be Wren’s best friend, was still mostly a stranger.

Well…being friends required a certain amount of soul-baring, Wren supposed. And besides, he kind of wanted to talk to someone about it. There was Will and Adam, but Adam was too busy with his own life to worry too much about Wren’s, and Will would probably fly over immediately to track Vincent down and ask him to marry Wren.

Not ideal, obviously, which left Beau, who while pro-relationship for him and Vincent, was more likely to look at the situation from an unbiased perspective. Perhaps it was a poor decision, but Wren decided to confide in him.

“Actually, I’ve never been in a relationship before. Plus, I’m not really…great at handling pheromones. Alpha pheromones, specifically.”

Beau frowned, spinning his now empty cardboard cup around in circles on the table. “What does that mean?” He paused, brow furrowed for a moment before it abruptly smoothed out, something like delight lighting up his expression. “You mean you get scent-drunk? That’s so cute!”

He leaned forward, suddenly animated. “Does Vincent make you scent-drunk? I’d say that’s a plus for the relationship, not a reason to avoid it.”

Wren ignored the heat in his skin that was starting to become a permanent feature. “But I don’t like it. I lose all control. And also…I think his rut triggered my heat.”

Beau went silent. The cup on the table went still while he processed this, something knowing in the way he started to smile, but quickly suppressed it. Suddenly it was as if an aura of evil mischief came over Beau. Wren could almost see it, like a dark cloud surrounding him.

That’s…probably not good.

“So that’s why you look like you’ve been hit by a truck. Rough week, huh?”

The look on Beau’s face told Wren he knew exactly why Wren looked so wrecked. Wren avoided his eyes, thinking that it was probably a mistake to trust Beau with this information.

“But I’m guessing that you’re not sure if his rut really did trigger it.” He waited for Wren’s nod, and then went on, leaning forward over the table with his fingers steepled in front of his mouth like some kind of cheesy supervillain in a movie.

“In that case, I know exactly what you should do.”