Alpha Assignment (BL) Chapter 4 (Early Access) (Patreon)

Quinn let his eyes wander from Remi (and Remi's ninety-nine percent full mug) and a spike of stress shot through him. His watch was silently screaming at him that he was very behind schedule. By this time on any other day he would have finished his breakfast and set up his workspace. He jumped up from his seat and Remi immediately followed suit, although he didn’t know why they were moving yet.

“I’m going to be late,” Quinn hissed to himself.

Remi gasped as though he had been notified of a horrific accident. “I will get out of your way, Alpha.” He hurried to the other side of the living room, skidding on the carpet as he turned to the door that lead back to the hallway. “I will get washed and dressed now. Please let me know if you need anything from me.”

“Sure,” Quinn grunted. He laid out his laptop, planner, notebook, pens, mouse and mouse pad, wrist rest, water bottle, mug, and cafetière in their perfect places. As soon as he plugged in the charger, he pushed the power button and let his laptop bring itself to life while he neurotically checked his watch.

Remi was back in a flash, face still a little damp but now he was dressed in jeans, a t-shirt, and a woolly cardigan.

"Can I help, Alpha?"

"Um, no. Sorry, Remi." Quinn left his laptop's side to join Remi in the living room. Standing over the omega's tiny figure, he realised he didn't have anything for him to do with his time, helpful or otherwise. "How about you sit here?" He gestured to the sofa with a hand wave and watched Remi follow the command without hesitation.

Remi's droopy cardigan took up more sofa space than the omega himself. The cushions didn’t sink beneath his weight and his feet could no longer reach the ground. He wiggled his way to the back of the seat and his toes pointed up at Quinn where they hung over the lip.

“As soon as I’ve caught up with my colleagues and set up my plan for the day, I can find something for you to do while I work,” Quinn promised, hurrying to the laptop on the dining table at the other end of the room. He never skipped breakfast and was definitely never late.

"Yes, Alpha," Remi called, still sat perfectly still.

"I need you to try and stay as quiet as you can, just for this first part, as I may have a catch-up call with my boss."

"Yes, Alpha."

"After that I can get you a..." Quinn floundered with his lack of experience in entertaining guests. The connection to the company's secure network finally halted the spinning dots on his login screen and allowed him to type in his credentials. "Movie... or something."

This time, Remi whispered, "Yes, Alpha."

Quinn nodded to himself and began clicking open all of his most important tabs. Jordan had sent him a message in their private chat from the train, already complaining about having to go into the office. They both worked hybridly, but Quinn was lucky enough to live a fifteen minute drive from the office building in the centre of town. Jordan had to commute for an hour on a bus and a train, but he lived in a more rural area. Very beautiful, from the pictures Quinn had seen at least. If the Assembly territories didn't cover just about every pastural piece of land in the continent, Quinn would choose to live somewhere similar. To get anywhere close to a forest or fields, meant putting yourself in the Assembly’s grasp.

Placing himself outside of their boundary lines hadn't stopped them dropping an unwanted dependent on his doorstep, though. Quinn sighed quietly to himself and forced his eyes to remain on his screen as he sent an unsympathetic reply to Jordan.

They had a report due Friday reviewing the conversion rates of the ad campaigns the marketing team had been running. The marketing team did not always appreciate the stats that Quinn brought to those meetings, but the numbers were what they were. Just because the head of that magazine sends you gift baskets and invites you to fancy dinners doesn't mean their website will bring in anything more than empty clicks for the company.

Quinn didn't mind being the one who had to disappoint them with the truth. Jordan revelled in it.

Work expectations set with his colleagues and manager, plan laid out for himself, and all emails and direct messages responded to, Quinn could finally relax into his seat for a moment.

A soft snore jerked him back into perfect posture again. Remi. He had stayed so perfectly silent that Quinn had completely forgotten he was there. From his seat, he could only see a lump of cardigan on the sofa at the opposite end of the room. He crept through the archway that separated living room from dining room, approaching the snoozing omega with the lightest of steps.

Remi’s small feet were curled and his cheek was squashed up against the pillow. It brought an ache to Quinn’s teeth to watch him sleep so sweetly. Something deep in his gut told him that the only way to relieve the ache was to sink them into Remi’s skin. For a few minutes, he stood over him, casting an ominous shadow over Remi’s innocent slumber. A mindless beast hibernated inside of him, and Remi’s presence stirred its consciousness. How much longer could Quinn contain it? Playing human day in and day out couldn’t last forever… He shook his head against the unwanted thoughts. It wasn’t true. He was fine. A moment of weakness meant nothing. He was in control and his beastly instincts were just a warning light on in the background. Irritating, but possible to ignore.

Quinn stalked away. They both needed breakfast, and he needed a repetitive task to clear his mind. He cut a variety of fruits and distributed the pieces between two bowls. He added a tablespoon of Greek yoghurt to his own and sealed Remi’s to go into the fridge.

Back at his laptop, he ate with one hand and ran data exports with the other.

Remi woke around eleven. A sudden gasp announced his return to the conscious world, and gave Quinn a scare that almost caused a coffee spillage. When he turned to the sofa, Remi was sat up with his cardigan hanging off from his elbows and fluffy hair loosely flicking out from his head. His hair tie had clearly been eaten by the couch creases.

“Good morning,” Quinn called.

A flash of fear rippled from Remi’s face down his body: limbs tucking in closer to his torso and a shiver running over his skin. The pitch black of his eyes made the shaking of them that much more noticeable. Just a moment earlier he had been sleeping peacefully. Not a nightmare, then, but Quinn’s presence had given him a shock when he woke up. Maybe he’d forgotten where he had ended up.

Drawing attention to it wouldn’t help, so Quinn announced, “breakfast is in the fridge for you. The wrapped bowl.” The coffee had gone cold, it didn’t seem that Remi had drunk more than the initial tasting sip. Quinn could take a hint. He added, “there’s yoghurt, too, if you want it.”

Remi rose slowly, tugging his cardigan around him more closely despite the warm house. As he shuffled towards the kitchen, he dropped his eyes again. A factory reset back to his original omega behaviours. Quinn tried not to look disappointed. He liked seeing Remi’s eyes in full dark force.

Quinn returned to his work, or rather, responding to Jordan's incessant messaging about anything other than work.

“I’m sorry, Alpha.”

“Sorry?” Quinn repeated, distracted by the SEO audit that had finally arrived in his inbox. Six days late.

“I shouldn’t have fallen asleep. I’m so sorry.” The trembling tone of Remi’s voice cut through Quinn’s train of thought. His head snapped up to where Remi hovered in the kitchen doorway, twisting his thin fingers into a twig pile. His eyes were low and his lips shaking. He looked awful.

“Remi!” Quinn gasped. "What's wrong?"

Remi’s eyes flashed up, but only to lock onto Quinn’s face filled with fear. “I didn’t mean to,” he sobbed.

Quinn rose from his seat and the smaller man’s entire frame began to shake like it had when he first arrived.

“You’re not in trouble!” Quinn reassured him, palms raised in what he hoped was a non-aggressive gesture.

Remi sniffed and shook and then there were tears rolling down his cheeks.

"You're not-" Quinn reached for him and immediately retracted his hands when Remi flinched. He began to openly cry, mouth agape and chin dripping. "I'm not-" Quinn was floundering again, stuck between his instinct to hold and his logic to retreat. Remi wasn't hearing his words, but he didn't know how to act in a way that spoke for him.

The sniffles of his cries caused hiccups that caught Remi's breath in his chest. He was frozen with fear. All it seemed he could do was cry and try to breathe through it. Quinn had seen small children in the supermarket get this upset before, one of them vomited right by his cart.

"Remi, you need to calm down!" he whispered as gently as he could. "You're going to make yourself sick."

Tiny hands clenched together as Remi looked to be attempting to force his body to stop moving completely.

"Don't- just-" Quinn turned on the spot, looking around the room for anything that could help him. Why didn't he keep the paper bags his groceries came in?

There was only one thing that he knew Remi would respond to for definite, but he really didn't want to do it. The short gasping breaths of the distressed omega behind him confirmed he didn't have a choice. Just this once.

Quinn turned back to Remi, bent his knees just enough to force eye contact and spoke in his firmest and most forceful voice. "Omega, sit down on that chair." He pointed to the dining chair at the furthest point of the room from them. The bond opened between them, but flowing solely from Quinn to Remi. There was no reply or push back along the connection. "Now."

Immediate, and possibly instinctive, movement. Remi almost ran to the chair and hopped onto it with half his behind hanging off.

"Sit properly," Quinn ordered.

Remi shuffled back onto the seat until his feet were no longer touching the ground.

Quinn took a deep breath and approached. He could see Remi's knuckles had gone bone-white as he clutched at the armrests, but he was breathing at a normal rate. His focus locked onto Quinn so intently that his body could take over and regulate. That was the important thing, more important than the self-disgust that was bringing an acidic sickness to Quinn's stomach. He squatted in front of the chair, close enough to touch but keeping his hands draped over his knees, and locked their eyes again.

"Omega." He was going to need at least five heartburn tablets after this. Maybe a glass of milk, too. "You are not in trouble.” Slow, solid statements. “You are allowed to sleep when you like and where you like. I am not angry with you. I am worried about you and I need you to calm down for both of our sakes. Can you do that for me?"

Remi nodded. It shook off the tears that had been hanging on the edge of his jaw.

"Would you like some water?"

Remi nodded again.

"Did you eat your breakfast?"

Remi sniffed and shook his head, the guilt returning.

"Do you not like fruit?"

"I do," Remi croaked.

"Then I'll bring it out and you can eat it here."

Remi pulled his cardigan over himself, more a blanket than a garment, and hid the lower half of his face in the fluffy knit.

Once he turned away, Quinn felt the bond connection fizzle out. The sensation came with a wave of relief.

Quinn presented Remi with the fruit, yoghurt, and water, and left him to gather himself in peace. After a wiggle of his mouse to keep his status active, he retreated upstairs. Quinn needed a few moments to himself as well. He shut himself in his bathroom and stared at the alpha in the mirror who had just used their natural authority over an omega in distress.

He chewed six chalky tablets from his bathroom cabinet, wondering if it was cowardly to push away the burning guilt. Maybe it was deserved.