Maybe all Alphas weren’t bad, because Brad had a blinding grin on his face as he returned holding a transparent inflatable ring.
"Here, I’ll help you in," He offered, going down on one knee.
Caspian was startled by the Alpha picking him out of the water by his waist like he weighed as much as the inflatable tube, sitting at the edge of the pool with his legs in the water.
He couldn’t complain though, not when he was wearing his new pool tube.
Brad getting into the water to repeat the same move of lifting him by his waist without asking didn’t fly the second time.
He stopped him with a hand on his bare chest, his polite smile strained at the sensation of Brad’s hands on the bare skin of his waist.
"I can get in myself," He said tautly.
The naive look in Brad’s eyes hardened, "Are you sure?" He asked, not taking his hands away. "I don’t want you to drown."
Caspian would be happy to if it would get the Alpha off him.
To the people around him, they seemed to be having a private conversation but Caspian was stuck.
The Alpha’s arms were tense, muscles rippling as he held him down with no visible effort.
Caspian couldn’t budge him, it made him glance in the direction of his bodyguards.
"What are you doing?" He asked slowly, at a loss.
"Having a harmless conversation," Brad moved closer.
"What?" Caspian blurted out in disbelief.
The pool tube was the only thing putting some distance between them, or Brad would have been pressed up right against him.
"What’s a pretty Omega like you doing all alone at the pool?"
Caspian wish he could kick out his legs, he would have taken out Brad’s perfect teeth if he could.
"I’m not alone," He said coldly, glaring at his bodyguards now.
At first, he thought they were trying to go undercover by wearing sunglasses but now he was really starting to believe that they were fast asleep.
"You don’t have to lie," Brad said obnoxiously.
Caspian was running out of patience, his time at the pool was steadily being ruined by an Alpha that had zero respect for personal space, and zero idea of the concept of consent.
"Why would I need to lie?" Caspian countered, exasperated. "Let go of me, Brad, I want to get into the pool."
"Is something going on here?" Someone else joined the conversation.
Caspian looked up in relief at his potential helper, he would rather this didn’t turn into a scene.
Staring right into the eyes of another Alpha appreciatively staring at him was his final straw.
A short distance away, at a tiki bar installed at the pool was an Alpha also wearing sunglasses.
His dark red hair was hidden under a baseball cap, the rings on his fingers glinting in the sun as he crushed the paper cup in his hand.
Asher couldn’t believe that Jael had tried to convince him that he was overreacting, Caspian had barely spent fifteen minutes at the pool and he was already being taken away by two Alphas.
He slipped out of the bar and went after them, feeling his blood burn like molten lava.
Asher had initially planned to clear out the pool for Caspian but instead, he thought that this would be a perfect example for Jael, and it was.
Keith took his glasses off, as he watched the unmistakable figure of his boss, go after the Alphas who had sneakily taken him into the building.
It had been difficult to sit still despite their orders when he saw the panic in Caspian’s eyes.
"You can both take the rest of the day off," Mafia King Asher’s second-in-command showed up behind them to say.
Peter and Keith looked reluctant to do that but they nodded and made themselves scarce regardless.
Jael scratched his hair and started for the building that Asher had gone into.
When he told the Alpha to think about locking Caspian up, he hadn’t expected to find himself here.
Asher telling him about his plan had been ridiculous, but not as ridiculous as how quickly the Alpha had been proved right.
But it didn’t justify taking Caspian’s freedom away.
The Omega was beautiful enough to make two Mafia Kings bid over him, other Alphas weren’t blind.
He had a feeling that this crazy plan was made not because he was worried for Caspian’s safety.
Because even if Asher hadn’t provided the best security for Caspian if he left, Jael would do it without question.
Asher was jealous, and he was handling it very poorly.
He stepped into the bathroom, expecting to find two murders.
He didn’t expect to see Asher standing at the entrance looking confused while Caspian thwacked the two Alphas with a mop.
Caspian stopped at the sight of him, the lifeguards rolling in pain on the tiled floor. "Why are you both here?" He demanded, tossing the broom away.
He hadn’t wanted to cause a scene and that was why he had let them take him out of the public eye.
Alphas were pea-brained.
The men he had expected to follow him were his bodyguards, but none of them were in sight, instead Asher and Jael stood in front of him, wearing unfamiliar clothes.
"To take you home," Asher said, striding forward.
"Wha- ack!" Caspian made a sound as Asher threw him over a shoulder.
Jael watched Caspian protest as Asher took him away, checking over the lifeguards to make sure they wouldn’t die on the bathroom floor.
Fortunately, Caspian had gotten them before Asher could, because the painful bumps they were sporting would have been the least of their problems.
He also hoped that this outcome would show Asher that Caspian was perfectly capable of taking care of himself.
He always had been, even against two Mafia Kings.
Jael silently slipped out of the bathroom, and headed back to work, keeping his fingers crossed that Asher and Caspian would try to come to an understanding before things got any more complicated.