Chapter 14
“You have a visitor.”
Ehlian didn’t look up from the letter he was writing to Willian, only distantly registering that Hayce’s secret visitor was here again. His curiosity about what business they had with Hayce had grown stronger recently, but Ehlian brushed it aside, refusing to ask again.
Ehlian snapped his head up, frowning. “For me?”
“Yes,” the guard said curtly. “Follow me.”
Ehlian glanced at Hayce, who appeared uninterested in the mysterious visitor.
Within ten minutes, they were in the visitors’ room, and a guard led him to one of the private cubicles. Ehlian froze in his tracks when he recognised the figure behind the glass.
Daribon, his attorney, offered him a small smile.
Unease pressed down on Ehlian’s chest. He hadn’t scheduled a visit, and he couldn’t think of a single reason for it, unless Daribon was here to deliver bad news.
“There’s nothing to worry about, Ehlian,” Daribon reassured him. “Please, take a seat.”
Ehlian sank into the chair, the unease still lingering. “I didn’t schedule a visit with you.”
“My assistant might have forgotten to inform the prison,” Daribon said. “We parted ways not long ago. I’m currently looking for a replacement.”
“So… am I safe?” Ehlian asked uncertainly. “There’s no chance I’ll be transferred to another prison so soon, is there?”
“No, and that’s not the reason for my visit,” Daribon said. “Your alpha contacted me.”
“My alpha?” Ehlian frowned.
“That’s what he said,” Daribon replied, a faintly mocking glint in his eyes. “Geald Terlon… is that correct?”
Ehlian drew in a sharp breath, his jaw tightening. “What did he want?”
“He’s worried about you.”
Ehlian scoffed. “I’m sure he is.”
“He said it never sat well with him that your uncle gambled away your inheritance.”
“Curious,” Ehlian said drily. “He forgot to show any concern for me when I was charged.”
“Unfortunately, I do not think that has changed much.” Daribon seemed to be enjoying Ehlian’s dry remark, despite attempting to keep a professional mask in place.
“He was particularly interested in whether you’re part of Hayce Cartivair’s pack, because apparently you’d be a fool not to use his connections once you’re out. ”
That slimy bastard. Ehlian ought to have known Geald had an ulterior motive. He felt sick with himself for ever falling for that prick’s sweet words.
“Now,” Daribon added, “my former secretary helping him access your files might or might not have contributed to our parting ways.”
Ehlian gave him a rueful, apologetic look. “I’m usually not this bad at reading people, but he got me. For any inconvenience he’s caused you—”
“Not at all. I just wanted to warn you he might try to approach you once you’re out.
And while I’m sure you’ve already made up your mind about him, don’t fall for whatever he tries next.
” Daribon said, then tapped his holowatch.
A curling ‘C’ was engraved into the silver frame, marking it as Cartivair.
Half the planet wore their holowatches. There was maybe only one empire that could rival the company’s reach.
Hayce had effectively limitless resources.
“Although…” Daribon added. One more tap, and the watch projected Ehlian’s case files into the air between them. “His little stunt reminded me to review your case. I do it periodically for all my clients, and I think you have a fair chance of early release for good behaviour.”
Ehlian’s frustration tipped into hope. “You think it’s possible?”
“Yes.” Daribon nodded. “While we didn’t have much success arguing your emotional vulnerability when your uncle pressured you into signing, we could revisit that angle. But even without it, we have a case here.”
Ehlian pictured it vividly: walking out of here, leaving behind the stench of criminality, the bland food, the stale air. Leaving behind that lavish cell, leaving behind—
“Is something wrong?” Daribon asked, eyes searching his face.
Ehlian forced a smile. “No, nothing’s wrong. It sounds great.”
“So… do you want me to start the process?”
“Yes,” he said quickly, before something else could leave his stupid mouth. “Yes, please.”
“Good. I’ll contact you again once I’ve finished drafting our strategy, and we can go through it together.” Daribon closed the files and stood, but added before he left, “If we succeed, ironically, you might have Geald to thank for your early freedom.”
“I’ll pass,” Ehlian said, his anger renewed.
By the time Ehlian returned to the cell, he was still fuming. He couldn’t believe he had ever missed that asshole.
“I take it the visit didn’t go well.” Hayce’s words cut through the fog of his thoughts. He was already in bed in his usual dark tank top, a new book in his hand.
“Geald.” Ehlian flinched, his lip curling in distaste. “I can’t believe I ever fell for that dickhead’s sweet talk.”
Something dark and sharp flashed in Hayce’s eyes—there and gone so quickly Ehlian almost missed it. “What did he say?”
“Nothing.” Ehlian grabbed his nightwear and began to change. “He didn’t have the guts or the care to actually come. I should’ve known that he was a lazy ass when I sensed his weak core.”
Still fresh in his mind, Ehlian quickly recounted the meeting with Daribon. By the time he finished, he was under the blanket too, sitting beside Hayce.
There was one detail he left out. He wasn’t nervous about sharing it—that wasn’t quite the right emotion. Yet he still felt the cell narrowing, the space shrinking down until the focus was only on the two of them.
Ehlian glanced at Hayce, trying to catch his eyes. “Daribon also thinks I could get released early for good behaviour.”
Hayce didn’t lift his eyes from the book. And his reaction… it wasn’t what Ehlian expected, maybe even hoped for.
No disappointment.
No disapproval.
Something.
Anything.
“Good behaviour?” Hayce scoffed, the indifference in his voice was almost offensive. “This Daribon guy clearly knows nothing about you.”
Ehlian slapped his arm playfully. “Shut up.”
But he didn’t feel that playfulness inside. He was an idiot for expecting more.
Something had shifted between them in the last few weeks. It wasn’t the same anymore, not since they’d nearly bonded. Hayce was distant, curt, more controlled, and Ehlian felt unseen. Cruelly invisible.
Clapping his book shut, Hayce set it on the nightstand. “The month is up.”
“As if you didn’t break my rule nearly every day,” Ehlian said, sliding flat on the bed as Hayce rolled over him.
Ehlian’s head tipped back against the pillow, throat exposed, the skin at his neck stretching—sensitive and shamelessly tempting, the first place Hayce would always go for.
But Hayce held himself above him, with an unreadable, quiet air around him. He finally met Ehlian’s eyes. “If you have a chance to leave this shithole early, you’d be a fool not to take it, Ehlian.”
“I know,” he said. He did want to leave. He truly did. But Hayce telling him to go, so easily and so casually, stung a little. “What about you?”
Hayce broke eye contact, mouth descending on the stretched, sensitive skin of Ehlian’s neck. “Focus only on yourself.”
It was so fucking hard, especially when Hayce’s lips brushed the edge of his bond point, like he was trying to claim him, mark him with his power.
But he never really touched it anymore, just as he never held eye contact for too long.
It annoyed Ehlian to no end. Hayce didn’t have to behave like this…
like Ehlian were some weak, desperate idiot who was hopelessly, irrationally attached to him.
Like he blamed him for their nearly bonding, like he didn’t trust Ehlian to control his own instincts.
Ehlian had more than enough self-control.
That near-bonding accident had been… an innocent accident, nothing more.
Ehlian sank his fingers into Hayce’s hair, gripping, urging him to kiss him rougher. “You could always try to escape,” he whispered.
Pulling his shirt lower, Hayce’s teeth sank into the softness of Ehlian’s shoulder before licking over the faint mark. “Still think my power has no limits?”
Ehlian shook his head softly, voice throaty. “It doesn’t seem like it.”
“I can’t stop an army of guards.” Hayce finally found the bottom edges of Ehlian’s shirt and pulled it over his head. “A handful? Maybe. But not an army.”
Ehlian cupped Hayce’s jaw, forcing him to look at him again. “Will you ever be free?”
Hayce held him with dark, inscrutable eyes for a breathtaking moment.
The amber flecks in them flared like smouldering embers, and fuck, Ehlian felt that terrifyingly strong pull again.
Even with everything screaming inside him that he shouldn’t, he wanted to lose himself in those magnetic depths again, pulled under with their force.
One. Two. Three seconds.
Hayce looked away, sharply severing the connection between them, but the shadow never quite left his eyes.
“Will you…?” Ehlian whispered his question, but the words dissolved into a moan as Hayce pulled down his trousers, the slide of his hand delicious against Ehlian’s cock. The burning caress dipped lower into the shadows between Ehlian’s legs, seizing his every thought, his question forgotten.
Even hours later, lying wide awake in Hayce’s arms, he still didn’t have an answer.