Page 4 of Where the Current Takes Him
He winced as Bill knocked back a tequila shot and tapped something on his screen. “Here.”
Loriun glanced down. A handsome, young Omega with sandy brown hair, deep, dark eyes, and smooth, golden skin smiled back at him.
“Pretty thing, ain’t he?” Bill laughed, pulling the phone away. “What d’you say? Want me to give you Ashford’s number?”
Loriun frowned. “Why would you give me his father’s number? This Omega is a grown man. Surely he can make his own decisions.”
Bill’s smile faltered a little. “Ah, well, y’see, he wants to weed out the bad apples so Beaumont doesn’t have to waste his time. Just makin’ sure his son only has to deal with the cream of the crop.”
The cream of the what?
Something about this whole thing felt off.
“If you don’t want him, I’ll take him.” Keld, the company’s gilt-scaled head of accounting jabbed Loriun in the ribs.
“Hey now, not so fast,” countered Zasia, a female Alpha. “You’re not the only single Alpha here my friend.”
“That Omega’s on the hunt for a male Alpha.” Keld rolled his eyes. “Come on, now.”
“Even seaweed has a straight stem—”
“Fine,” Loriun said loudly. “I’ll contact Ashford.”
He watched as all the hopeful Alphas around him deflated.
“Okay, well, if Loriun doesn’t make the cut, I’m next,” Keld grumbled.
∞∞∞
“Beaumont has selected you, Mr. Kolhn.”The politician’soily, nasal voice did nothing to put Loriun at ease.
“Has he? How is that possible? We haven’t even spoken yet.” Loriun fought to keep his voice calm. He’d spent the past few weeks compulsively looking at the photo of Beaumont Montgomery that Bill—whose real name turned out to be Jonathan—had emailed him. The Omega’s handsome face and endless brown eyes made his fins flutter. He was aware, rationally, that he knew nothing about Beaumont, yet he felt some strange form of connection to him.
“Mr. Kolhn, Beaumont trusts my judgment and he has seen your profile,” Ashford responded. “He feels he knows everything he needs to know, and wishes to meet face to face. Now, there is one last matter to resolve. Beaumont will be needing a number of things in order to prepare for the move. As you know, I am in the midst of a reelection campaign.”
“I am aware.” Loriun did not like where this was going.
“A financial donation via my campaign would aid me greatly in arranging Beaumont’s transition. Furthermore, with your name on my donor list, it will show voters I have the support of a company at the cornerstone of our city. Not only will this reinforce interspecies policies, but it will protect my son from dissenters.”
Loriun was rendered speechless for a moment. The gears in his brain ground together, trying to determine whether the politician’s reasoning made even a modicum of sense. But Ashford did not give him the time to figure it out.
“So, Mr. Kolhn, are you willing to make such a donation? To protect your future family? The amount is, of course, up to you.”
“I—” When he put it like that, what else could Loriun say? “Yes, Mr. Montgomery, of course.”
“Wonderful! You can find the donation page on my campaign website. I encourage you to carefully considerthe value of a fine Omega and the political connections he brings. When I have confirmed your donation, I will begin preparations for my son’s relocation.”
“But—”
The line was already dead.
Loriun dropped his phone to his desk and groaned.
“Did I just buy a human?”
∞∞∞
As it turned out, getting a human Omega to the Paeil Islands required an obscene amount of paperwork. Filling out forms for an interspecies house, applying for an interspecies mating license, registering him at their new district’s Omega clinic…
