Chapter 79: Knotted by my ex’s Alpha Father -2

Her voice came through sharp. "I heard. Ren already told half the office you two are done."

"I need something."

"I am not getting in the middle of whatever this is."

"I need an invitation to the Vale Holdings gala on Friday. Can you get me on the list as a plus-one for someone low enough that no one will check too hard?"

Silence lasted three full seconds. "Why?"

"Does it matter?"

"If it involves Ren’s father, yes."

Kai kept his voice steady. "I just need to be in the room. One night. That is all."

Maya sighed. "I can move a name. Junior analyst from compliance. She is not going. I will put you down as her guest. Do not make me regret this."

"I will not."

He hung up and stared at the confirmation email that arrived twelve minutes later. His name sat on the list. Guest of Elena Cho. That was enough.

The next three days he timed his suppressants carefully. Not enough to kill the scent completely. Just enough to keep the pre-heat edge from tipping into full heat. He needed Dorian to notice him without the older alpha writing him off as an omega already lost to instinct.

Thursday night he stood in front of the full-length mirror in the bedroom and practiced.

He wore the black shirt he had bought that afternoon. Soft fabric that clung just enough across the chest and waist. Dark trousers tailored close. No cologne. Only the faint natural sweetness that the suppressants could not fully erase.

Kai looked at his own reflection and spoke the lines he had rehearsed.

"Mr. Vale. I am sorry about the drink. I was not watching where I was going."

He tried it softer. "I did not mean to interrupt. I will get out of your way."

Then he tried the version that left room for more. "You do not remember me. That is fine. I only wanted to say your speech earlier was the only honest thing in the room."

He stopped talking and watched his own face. The eyes still looked too open. Too easy to read. He needed to fix that.

His hand drifted down the front of his trousers. He pressed the heel of his palm against the growing hardness there and exhaled.

"You are going to look at me the way he never did," he said to the mirror. "You are going to want me because I am standing in front of you and not because I asked."

He unzipped and pushed the fabric down enough to free his cock. It was already flushed. He wrapped his fingers around it and stroked once, slow. Slick had started to gather between his legs the way it always did when he let himself think about being taken.

Kai watched himself in the glass while he touched. He imagined hands larger than Ren’s. Older. More controlled. He pictured Dorian standing behind him, chest against his back, one hand around his throat just tight enough to keep him still.

"You would not ask," Kai whispered. "You would just take."

He turned sideways so he could see the line of his own body. His free hand slid under the shirt and across his stomach, then lower, between his legs. Two fingers found the wet heat and pushed in without ceremony. The stretch made him rock forward onto his toes. Slick coated his knuckles immediately.

He fucked himself with those fingers while he kept stroking his cock. The mirror showed everything. Flushed face. Open mouth. The wet sound of his own body.

"You would bend me over the first surface you found," he said, voice rough now. "Table. Wall. Desk. You would not care that I used to belong to your son. You would care that I am wet and quiet and already presenting."

He added a third finger. The burn felt good. He worked them deeper, searching for the angle that made his knees weak. When he found it he stayed there, pressing hard while his other hand twisted over the head of his cock.

The fantasy sharpened. Dorian’s voice in his ear, low and unhurried. Legs forced wider. The thick push of an older alpha’s cock stretching him open in one continuous thrust. No soft words. No checking if he was ready. Just the heavy weight of a body that had already made one son and could easily ruin another.

Kai’s breath stuttered. "Knot me. Keep me full until I forget his name. Make me say yours instead."

He came hard across the mirror, white streaks hitting the glass and sliding down. His fingers stayed buried inside himself through the pulses, milking every last shiver.

Slick ran down his wrist and dripped onto the floor. He kept moving his hand slowly until the sensitivity turned sharp, then he pulled free and braced both palms against the wall beside the mirror.

His reflection looked wrecked. Pupils blown. Lips parted. Come still drying on the glass in front of him.

Kai cleaned the mirror with a towel, then cleaned himself. He set the clothes out for the next night and checked the suppressant schedule one more time. Everything was ready.

Friday evening the venue lights were low and expensive. Crystal and dark wood. The kind of crowd that smelled of money and carefully controlled alpha pheromones.

Kai kept to the edges at first, glass of something clear in his hand that he never drank from. He watched the room the way he had planned.

Dorian Vale stood near the far windows with two board members. Tall. Gray at the temples. Suit that fit like it had been built around him.

He did not smile when people spoke to him. He listened, answered in short sentences, and dismissed them with a slight turn of the shoulder.

Kai waited until one of the men left. Then he moved.

He timed the approach so that a waiter with a tray of drinks crossed between them at the exact moment he reached the open space.

The collision was soft. One glass tipped. Clear liquid splashed across the cuff of Dorian’s jacket and the back of Kai’s hand.

"I am so sorry," Kai said immediately. He kept his voice low, eyes up just long enough to meet the older alpha’s. "I was not watching. Let me find someone to..."

Dorian looked at the wet cuff, then at Kai. His gaze moved once, slow, from face to throat to the line of the black shirt. The scent of him was deeper than Ren’s. Heavier. It settled against Kai’s skin like a hand.

"It is fine," Dorian said. His voice was quieter than Kai expected. Controlled. "You are not the first person to spill something at one of these."

Kai did not step back. He let the suppressant-thinned sweetness of his own scent rise just enough to register. "Still. I should not have been that close."

Dorian’s eyes stayed on him. "What is your name?"

"Kai."

"Just Kai."

"For tonight, yes."

A faint shift in Dorian’s expression, almost interest. "You are here with someone."

"Elena Cho. Compliance. She could not make it. I came in her place."

"And you decided the best use of that place was to walk into me."

Kai held the gaze. "I decided the best use of that place was to stop pretending I did not want to speak to you."

Dorian studied him for another long second. Around them the party continued, voices and glasses and distant music. None of it touched the small space between them.

"Walk with me," Dorian said. Not a request. "There is a quieter room down the hall. You can explain what you actually want while I get this jacket sorted."

Kai’s pulse kicked hard under his skin. He nodded once.

"Lead the way."

Dorian turned and moved through the crowd without checking if Kai followed. Kai stayed half a step behind, close enough to catch every shift in the older alpha’s scent, already calculating how far he could push before the night ended.

The door to the side room closed behind them with a soft click.