Master (MxB) novel Chapter 9

Hayden's POV

I bolt upright as an ear piercing scream rips down the hall, coming from Corey's bedroom. Not even fully awake yet, I quickly grab some shorts, pull them on, and run out of my room to his. As I shove the door open, I immediately scan it to see if there was any immediate danger, but nothing seems to be out of place apart from the open window. I'm gonna have to talk to Corey about closing his windows at night.

I shove that all aside and make my way to the bed where the poor boy was sitting upright, sobbing and shaking quite badly. Pulling him into my arms, I stroke his hair and cuddle him till the intensity of his sobbing starts calming down. "What happened, sweetheart, did you have a nightmare?" I asked him softly. I feel him shake his head no and frown. If he didn't scream from a nightmare, then what the hell happened?

I felt his breathing pick up again and pull away from him slightly, now getting worried. "Corey, look at me." I demand, still keeping my voice soft, but putting enough force behind it to make sure he obeys me. He looks up at me almost immediate and my heart stills at the absolute fear in his beautiful eyes. "Take a deep breath and tell me what happened." I tell him and I see him take a steadying breath, before letting it out again. He does it a few more times, before he is finally able to get the words past his constricted throat.

"I w-woke up, f-f-feeling a b-bit off and at f-f-first I couldn't f-f-figure out what w-wa-was wrong, b-but then I n-noticed the wi-window was open..." My breathing stops at those words. He wasn't the one that opened his window? I focused back on what he was saying and it just worse by the second. "I kn-know I closed the w-windows when I w-went to b-bed, I p-p-promise. B-but it was opened wh-when I woke up. S-so I quickly l-looked around th-the room and I s-saw s-someone standing at the f-foot of my b-bed. It l-looked like h-he had s-something in his h-hand, be-because the m-moonlight reflected off of s-something m-m-metallic. I g-got such a f-fright that I s-screamed, which c-caused him to s-s-swear and q-quickly jump o-out the w-window." he managed to stutter out his story, his breathing choppy and on the verge of panic.

I quickly leaned over to his bedside drawer and pushed the panic button located just next to it, against the wall. The panic button was connected to the security room located in the basement of this house. I quickly pulled Corey back into my arms and tried my best to calm him down, stroking his hair and back and gently rocking him.

It didn't take long for three armed men to come running through the door, guns out, completely freaking Corey out all over again. His body started trembling and his breathing sped up and I had to bite my tongue, to not shout at them for being idiots. I know they were only doing their job, and I was impressed with how quickly they responded, but I had just gotten Corey to calm down and here he was, a fearful mess all over again.

I pushed my annoyance down and explained to them what happened, then gave them instructions to search the entire property from one end to the other, as well as to search through the camera footage. The men nodded and made their way out the room to go do as I had told them.

I stood up, still keeping a quietly crying Corey in my arms and made my way down to the kitchen. He needed a warm cup of tea to help sooth his nerves. Just as I was walking down the stairs, I heard my phone ringing from the dining room, where I had left it the night before, so I made my way there before going to the kitchen. By the time I reached my phone, the call had cut off, but I looked at it anyway, to see who would call me at this time of the night.

Turns out it was Dean, which means Leo was probably at the club and had told him about Corey. I knew Leo wasn't going to be able to shut his big fucking mouth about this, but Dean could have waited till a decent hour to grill me about the boy.

Fuck it, I'll call him back later. Right now I had a boy in my arms who was in some serious need of care, so I shoved my phone in my pocket and made my way to the kitchen to make Corey his tea.

I had just put him down on the counter next to me, when I heard my phone go off again. For fuck sake, I really didn't have time for this right now. I grabbed my phone and practically growled out "What!?"

"What the fuck bit you on the ass?" I heard Dean ask.

I sighed, realizing that he wasn't going to let it go easily. We've been friends for way too long and I've never been rude to him, so he would know something was wrong.

"I've got a bit of a situation at my place Dean. Can I call you back a bit later?" I asked, hoping he would leave it at that. I obviously should have known better and his next words proved that.

"Spill, now!" He demanded, his tone now deadly serious. I wiped my hand over my face and looked at Corey where he sat on the counter in front of me. He seemed to have calmed down a bit and was looking at me in confusion, even though I could still see the shadows of fear in the depths of his eyes.

"Fine. Leo probably told you that I have a house guest and that I have reasons for not coming to see you guys at the club, right?" At his hum of agreement, I continued. "Well, he woke up a little while ago, he was woken up by someone who was in his room and seemed to have some kind of weapon or metal object in his hand. When Corey screamed, the guy ran, so I have my security checking the video feeds as well as checking the entire property to see if they can find him."

The line was silent for a while, then I heard Leo's voice in the background. "Tell Hayden we're on our way." I sighed as Dean came back on the phone, confirming what Leo had said and the line went dead.

I looked at Corey in concern, hoping he won't be too overwhelmed. I knew he had gotten nervous when he met Leo the other day and now he was going to have to meet Dean as well, God help the poor guy. Dean wasn't as cold and standoffish as Leo, but he could be a bit of a blunt idiot at times and you just never knew what would come out of his mouth.

"Um...nothing man. So tell us exactly what happened tonight." Leo said and I proceeded to tell them everything that happened as well as explaining to Dean about how I had met Corey and all of that. They sat in silence for a few minutes after I was done, watching me as I carried on stroking Corey's hair, waiting for him to wake up.

I heard a soft chuckle and looked up at Dean, who was sitting on the couch opposite mine, looking like a cat that stole the last of the cream. I raised an eyebrow at him, and he grinned at me. "I never thought I would see the day that the big, tough Hayden Lawson would be brought to his knees by an eighteen year old boy." He laughed as he said it, and I couldn't help but laugh as well, shaking my head at him.

Before I could respond I felt Corey stir next to me and looked down at him. His eyelids were fluttering and after a few moments, he managed to blink them open. He looked up at me, still slightly unfocused, till I saw his eyes widen and he tried sitting up.

I gently pushed him back down, "It's okay Corey, you're okay, you're safe, I promise." I whispered and I felt him slightly relaxing. I kept on with it, till he was almost fully relaxed, telling him to go back to sleep and that we will talk about everything after a good night of sleep. My tone and presence seemed to help him a lot, and without so much as a look in the direction of my two friends, he fell into a deep sleep and I felt his muscles completely relax under my hand.

When I knew he was sleeping deeply and wasn't very likely to wake up any time soon, I sat back again and looked up at my friends, who wore identical grins on their faces. Fuck, they weren't going to let me live this down any time soon.

"You're completely gone for him, aren't you?" Dean asked, not mockingly, but sounding genuinely happy for me. I looked at him for a minute, not saying a word as I thought it all through. Was I completely gone for this boy? I mean, I knew I wanted to help him and I definitely felt drawn to him, but could I actually be falling in love with him?

As I thought about it, I realized that, yeah, I could actually fall in love with Corey and I couldn't bring myself to regret it. If anyone deserved all the love he could get, then it was the sweet boy lying next to me.

Still looking at his sleeping figure, I just nodded at my friends. They were very happy for me and we sat for a while after that, trying to figure out a way to win my little beauty's heart. This wasn't going to be easy, but I was up for the challenge and I couldn't wait to start wooing him.

His heart will belong to me one day, but first I had to get him to fully trust me and then explain my lifestyle to him. I just hoped that he wouldn't get completely freaked out about me being a Dominant.