Shaken and Stirred: M/M Mpreg Alpha Male Romance Read online

  Chapter Six

  Sam hadn't wanted to leave Logan standing out there in the alley behind their two places, but what was he supposed to do? Logan hadn't invited him back anywhere, and there was no way that Sam was going to invite Logan upstairs. Not when Silas was home. So he trudged up the stairs to find Kaylee hand-feeding Silas some kind of rice-type goo from her place.

  Silas hardly noticed Sam walking in the door. That was kind of hard to take.

  Not that Sam begrudged Silas, not at all. He didn't begrudge Kaylee, either. He was glad that they'd found one another, and he wanted every happiness in the world for his amazing older brother. He just didn't want to sit there and watch every happiness in the world happen to his amazing older brother, in real time. He especially didn't want to sit there and watch it happen while his own love life was in such disarray.

  So he did the decent thing and trudged off toward his bed, closing the door behind him with a soft click. He didn't bother heating up dinner. It wasn't really worth it, not for one person, and he'd do fine without it anyway. He didn't have the stomach to eat.

  Did Logan's company really have a Wives and Omegas Charity Circle? The whole thing sounded pretty creepy to Sam. A bunch of people who'd all known one another since they'd been kids, all gone to the same schools, done the same things and even picked out one another's partners. How could that be anything but creepy?

  Apparently they didn't think that it was creepy. Logan made that abundantly clear, at about the same time that he was making it clear just how much Sam didn't belong. Sam could never belong. They couldn't be together, because his omega needed to be someone from that little coterie. Someone an omega from that clique picked out for him.

  Probably someone with short hair, and no tattoos, who looked away and blushed and didn't speak when a strange alpha spoke to him. Definitely not someone who would go toe to toe with an alpha and was just as likely to come out on top.

  Sam got ready for bed and laid down, but his eyes refused to close. The soft laughter that he heard from the living room might have had something to do with that. He'd always figured that it would be him and Silas forever. Sure, Silas hadn't been with Kaylee all that long, but Sam hadn't seen his brother get this doe-eyed over a girl in at least a decade. Heck, maybe he hadn't seen it at all.

  And truly, when he thought about it like a rational human being, it wasn't right to think about the future as himself and Silas against the world. They were both relatively normal guys. They were brothers, and they had no one else. They'd always be close. That didn't mean that they'd never have anyone else. Silas deserved to have a wife, someone who would wake up with him and tape up his bloody knuckles. Sam wanted Silas to have someone else.

  Sam deserved someone too. He knew it wasn't that easy. He wasn't the kind of omega who most alphas wanted. He was too mouthy, too strong, too independent. He'd had that lesson drummed into him by plenty of people, and he'd never cared.

  Until now. As he lay in the dark, he stared toward his ceiling and wondered why he suddenly wanted a someone of his own. Was it just because Silas and Kaylee had hit it off so well? Was it a biological clock thing? He didn't think so, he was only twenty-four, but he hadn't gone to school for omega studies or anything like that. Maybe he was getting older, feeling some kind of urge to mate.

  Maybe it was just Logan. Maybe he just wanted Logan.

  He finally fell into a fitful sleep. He woke up early, more in need of rest than when he lay down but powerless to do anything about it. He thought about going back to sleep, it was one option available to him, but his phone was ringing loudly and he figured that he might as well get up. "Hello?" he grunted.

  "Sam, hi, it's Logan."

  Sam flopped back down onto his pillow. Screw Logan anyway, for putting these thoughts into his head. "What's up?" He scratched at his belly and yawned. "What time is it?"

  "It's eight thirty. I just got a call from some guys trying to make a delivery — and tell Kaylee that she owes me, by the way — and I found something out here that's pretty damn disturbing. Can you come out?"

  Disturbing? Sam sat up and grabbed for a pair of jeans. "That doesn't sound ominous at all, Logan. Yeah, I'll be right out. Is there anything else you need?"

  "A blanket you don't mind not seeing again and maybe a stiff drink."

  "You've got better booze in your bar than I do. But the blanket I can do." Sam buttoned his jeans and grabbed a flannel shirt from his closet. "Give me a second."

  He darted into the bathroom to clean his teeth and grabbed an old blanket from the chest, one that they never used. It wasn't like they got a lot of overnight visitors anyway; it would be a while before anyone noticed it was missing. He ran downstairs and scanned for Logan.

  It took a moment, but he finally found the alpha crouched over by the back door to the trattoria. The delivery men from the dairy wholesaler were standing near him, all three of them clustered around a patch of something on the ground. Sam frowned and approached.

  They parted when he walked up to them. Logan looked up at him with tears in his eyes. "Who would do something like this, Sam?"

  Sam covered his mouth with one hand. Someone had tied a dog to the back door of the building. The poor thing had been badly beaten and left out in the cold; her gray coat was thick with blood. She lay on her side now and only lifted her head a little bit when Sam approached.

  He held out a hand, just enough that she could sniff it. Ordinarily, he'd let her come to him, especially since she'd obviously been traumatized, but anyone could see that she couldn't get up to make that choice. When she wagged her tail a couple of times and licked his hand once, he decided that it was okay for him to approach. He sat down next to her head, which she put into his lap with a little sigh.

  He scratched the dog between her eyes, right on the bridge of her nose. She didn't seem to be hurt there. "Hey, Logan, do me a favor and grab my phone out of my right pocket? Come at me from the back though. I don't want to scare her any more than we have to."

  "What are you going to do?" asked one of the deliverymen, as Logan went for Sam's phone.

  "My buddy Phil is a cop, and he's on duty today. I'm going to ask him to swing by and file a report or whatever it is that they do about animal cruelty." He looked down at the dog's sweet face. "Then he's going to escort me down to the nearest animal hospital and we're going to see what they can do for this sweet baby girl here."

  Logan nodded. "What's he in your contacts under?"

  "Phil the Cop." Sam blushed. "What? That's his name."

  Logan explained to Phil why he was calling from Sam's phone while the delivery guys milled around for a little while. When Logan hung up with Phil, he called Kaylee and asked her to come down and accept the delivery, which she did with ill grace until she saw the dog. Silas was still less graceful, until he received assurances that Logan had not spent the night there.

  For his part, Sam focused on the dog. He covered her with the blanket, since the poor thing was so cold that she wasn't even shaking, and he let her rest her head in his lap. If he had to guess, he figured she was one of those shorthaired German dogs, or at least in part. She had a pretty, trusting face and looked up at him with loving eyes as he scratched her where there weren't any injuries and told her she was a good girl.

  Phil showed up three minutes later. He took one look at the poor dog and recoiled. Sam thought he might be sick, but he pulled himself together and got down to business. Phil was pretty professional about that sort of thing. He took statements from the delivery guys first, since they were the first ones to find the dog, and then moved on to Logan and then to Sam. He got pictures of the poor dog, too, and got footage of the scene from the security cameras that Sam and Silas had on the alley. "I've got to say, this is pretty awful, and it's unusual for anyone to do more than get a fine for animal cruelty."

  Sam sighed. "I know. But at least they'll get that." He shrugged. "If there's a report, and more of this kind of thing starts to happen around here, it wil
l show a pattern. And once that pattern is established, we'll be able to prove ill intent. Right?"

  "Absolutely." Phil looked around. "Let's get the poor girl into the squad car. I'll give you a ride to the vet if someone can give you a ride back."

  "I'll do it." Logan stepped forward. "I don't mind. I mean Kaylee can handle things for the time it takes to get from here to wherever it is and back, right?"

  Kaylee nodded. "No problem." She looked up at Sam with big brown eyes. "Good luck, Sam."

  The dog cried out as the men lifted her into the back of the squad car, but Sam stayed in the back with her and held her shaking body in his arms as they drove through the Westbrook streets.

  The drive over to the nearest animal ER only took four minutes, and Phil was able to radio ahead so techs were waiting for them with an actual gurney when they arrived. Sam followed them in, feeling a little useless. Was he supposed to wait? Hang out with the dog? Sit in the waiting room out front? Leave?

  Eventually a woman in cat-print scrubs came with a clipboard and brought him into an exam room. They had the dog on the gurney and a vet already checking her out. "What's the dog's name?" the vet asked, scowling at Sam.

  "I don't know. We found her like this. Someone tied her to the back door of the restaurant next door." He sniffed. "I don't know who, or why, and I've never seen her before."

  "So where will she go, if she's able to leave here today?" The tech curled up her lip at him. "You want to release her to a shelter, right after surgery?"

  "No!" Sam shook his head. "I mean, if there's no sign of who her actual people are, she can come home with me." He reached out without thinking about it and put a hand on the dog's head, and she calmed down. "I wasn't planning on getting a dog or anything, but I'm not throwing her away either." He frowned. "I don't see how someone could."

  "All right. I'm a little uncomfortable with that, but Phil told us that he does know you and that you're a good guy. Sign here." She pushed the clipboard into his hands. "And think of a name."

  Sam's head spun, but he signed where he was told to sign, did what he was told to do, and told the dog to be good for the vet. Then he let them wheel her away for treatment while he was ushered out to a waiting room.

  Waiting took time, and plenty of it. He passed that time texting the others. Hey bro, he texted to Silas. We might be getting a dog.

  Silas sent him back an emoji of a hand, flipping the bird. Guess we can't exactly say no, huh? She's staying with you, though. I don't like cold wet dog noses.

  He paced. He'd never given much thought to pets. They'd never been something that was inside the realm of possibility for him. When they'd been kids, they couldn't have one with Dad around, and couldn't have afforded one anyway. He couldn't have had a pet in foster care. Even now, he couldn't say he exactly wanted a dog. It was more like he couldn't stand the thought of turning this poor creature away.

  Five hours later, when the vet tech came out with a smile on her face, Sam leaped to his feet. "Is she okay?"

  The tech nodded. "She's in a lot of pain, and she's going to be pretty groggy for a few days. Your dog is about three years old, and she's got a spay scar so that's taken care of. She had a lot of cuts, which needed stitches, but the worst that she had was a fracture to her right front leg. We've got a cast for that. She'll be in a cone for a while to keep her from chewing at her stitches, but your dog is going to be okay." She bit her lip. "You're sure you're willing to take her in?"

  Sam took a deep breath and smiled. "I didn't know I needed her when I woke up this morning, but I can honestly say that I've been on pins and needles waiting to hear she'd make it. She's going to have the best damn life of any little gray dog from here on out."

  "Okay. Well, you can go ahead and call for your ride. Like I said, she'll be groggy for a while, but she's going to heal up just fine." The tech beamed at him. "What did you decide to name her?"

  He chuckled. "Siena. That's the name of the restaurant where she was found."

  "All right then. Siena it is." She went to go get Siena, and Sam texted Logan.

  When Logan showed up, the car wasn't empty. He had a bag of premium dog food, a pretty pink collar and leash, and the nicest, softest dog bed that Sam had ever seen. Sam just shook his head and laughed as he helped his new dog into the car.

  "I guess I'm not the only one who fell in love with her, huh?"

  Logan grinned. "Well, she's pretty easy to fall in love with, right?" He checked to make sure that Siena was comfortable. "Come on. Your brother's made space for her in the office at Joe's." He put an arm around him as they drove back to the space they shared.

  ***

  Logan decided that he could be forgiven if he sneaked out back once an hour or so and tiptoed over to the back entrance of Joe's. Sure, they were supposed to be enemies. They were enemies, at least on a professional level. That didn't mean that he didn't have a vested interest in that poor dog's well-being, or want to check on her.

  He wasn't the only one, either. He saw Kaylee sneaking over there on her breaks.

  Seeing Sam with Siena had done powerful things to Logan. Logan had been concerned about the poor dog, of course. Who wouldn't be? But the minute that he'd seen Sam get down onto the ground and take that dog into his arms, Logan's heart had dissolved into putty. Sometimes it was easy to forget that Sam was an omega. Sure, the scent was right, but everything else was way outside the norm. He was big, he was strong, and he was assertive. He was not shy or demure. Logan could forget that Sam was capable of giving birth, of raising children.

  Siena had responded to something in Sam, something that Sam couldn't hide. Sam hadn't tried to hide it from her, either. He'd wanted to take care of that dog, and that dog had fallen in complete love with him.

  So once Kaylee told him that Sam was going to keep the dog, courtesy of Silas, Logan sneaked out to the nearest pet supply store. He knew that Sam was going to need things for the dog, and he knew that Sam wasn't going to have a chance to get them. When Sam saw the supplies in the back seat, his eyes had lit up, and every switch in Logan's mind had flipped.

  Getting through Saturday turned out to be a nightmare.

  There were no disasters. Nobody dropped anything, no more food got wasted than was typical for a high-end restaurant on a weekend, and no customers threw hissy fits over nothing. The only problem was Logan himself, and his desire to see Sam and Siena.

  The night wore down to a close. Cleanup and lockup happened in record time. Logan drove the deposit over to the bank and headed back to Joe's, where Sam met his eyes and brushed his fingertips against Logan's hand as he gave Logan his traditional martini.

  Silas glared. He'd been willing to let Logan peek into the office, from outside the door. He wasn't willing to let the manager of a business that was trying to put Joe's out of business spend time in his office, and Logan couldn't fault him for that. He could wait to check on the dog.

  "Sam's smitten," teased Phil, who was now off duty and clad in denim in the seat beside Logan at the bar. "He's checking on that dog every fifteen minutes."

  "She's a good dog." Sam blushed. "She deserves to know that she's not alone."

  After last call, when the night ended, Kaylee caught Logan's eye and winked. "Hey, Silas. Why don't we go make your deposit together and then you can come back to my place?" She trailed a hand down his arm. "I know that you're not necessarily enthusiastic about the cold, wet dog nose in the morning."

  Silas glowered at Logan for a moment, but Kaylee gave him a little squeeze and he yielded. "I'll see you in the morning, little brother." He snarled at Logan, without words, and left with Kaylee.

  Sam and Logan were alone together now. "I'm just going to bring Siena out for a walk." Sam picked up Siena's leash and coaxed her to her feet. She limped along after him, cast thumping on the ground.

  They returned after five minutes, and Sam's cheeks were already red from the crisp fall air. He picked up his dog with careful arms and led Logan up the stairs. Logan carrie
d the dog bed and the dog food.

  Once upstairs, there wasn't any time for awkwardness. They moved right into Sam's bedroom to get Siena situated. The dog tried to paw at her cone, but Sam explained to her that she had to keep it on until she healed. She settled into her bed with a little sigh, but whimpered until he gave her the blanket with which she'd gone to the hospital.

  Sam tucked her in lovingly and made sure she was settled in, and then smiled. "I think she's going to be happy here."

  "I love how much you love that dog already." Logan stepped forward and put a hand on Sam's hip. "It's incredible. It's like you've just decided that she's your family and that's it."

  Sam blushed and looked down then looked up at Logan through his long lashes. "Well, yeah. That's pretty much it. I've got room in my life for a dog, you know?"