Chapter 16 Sai
Sai
Morning arrives and I have to leave Mavi’s apartment for work but standing at the door with the collar still around my throat, I don’t want to take it off.
My hand keeps returning to it. I touch the leather, run my fingers along the buckle, and press it against my pulse point.
The collar is safety. The collar is quiet.
The collar is the physical proof of everything Mavi’s voice does to my brain.
It silences the noise, removes the choices, and says that I’m safe.
Taking it off means stepping back into the world where no one holds me. Where too many questions wait and too many decisions loom and a spiral sits one wrong input away.
I stand at the door for a long time. Long enough that Mavi, who was still in bed, gets up and comes to see what is wrong.
Mavi leans against the bedroom doorframe, watching me at the front door. One hand rests on the doorknob and the other stays on the collar.
Mavi crosses the apartment and reaches up and unbuckles the collar himself. He does it slowly with the same deliberate care he used when he put it on. The leather slides off my neck, a pained exhale ripping from my throat, like something essential is being removed.
Mavi runs his fingers across the leather a few times before hanging it over the doorknob. “Wait here.” He goes to the toy drawer from yesterday and returns holding an anklet. It’s a thin chain, simple and elegant, the kind of thing that could pass as ordinary jewelry to anyone who doesn’t know.
He drops to his knees, the sight making my cock twitch. This Omega who commands and dominates and makes me kneel and beg is on his knees, fastening a chain around my ankle. The act feels both the most submissive and the most possessive thing he has ever done.
He fastens the anklet, adjusting it so it sits flat, so the clasp stays hidden, and so it will not catch on a sock or a shoe.
“This is me. Every step you take today. Every meeting, every shoot, every time some family member tells you who you are supposed to be. I’m right here around your ankle. And nobody knows but you and me.”
I stare down at Mavi on his knees putting a chain on me and something rearranges inside my chest so completely that the person who walks out of this apartment will not be the same person who walked in.
Mavi stands, softly patting my chest before he reaches up to kiss the edge of his jaw. “Collar when you’re home. Anklet always. You’re held either way. How’s that, Alpha?”
God, I love when he calls me that.
I nod, not trusting myself to speak but feeling the courage that world’s chaos is dimmed by the metal now against my skin.
The rest of the day unfolds with the anklet pressing gently against my ankle bone beneath my dress pants, a constant and secret presence that I feel with every single step I take.
I notice it when I walk from the parking lot to the studio, when I unpack my camera bag and again when I adjust the lighting stands for the afternoon shoot.
The thin chain moves with me through every motion, warm from my skin and invisible to everyone else, yet it anchors me in a way nothing else ever has.
I direct the models with my usual authority, guiding their chins and shoulders while my voice stays calm, but underneath the professional rhythm the anklet reminds me constantly that the most commanding presence behind the camera actually belongs to an Omega waiting in an apartment across town.
Everyone seems to catch on that something is different but no one mentions it, not even Priya. But my sanity is questioned the moment I step into the café across the street after work, Koda already at our usual table.
He watches me as I approach with that half-amused, half-concerned expression he has perfected over the years, the one that says he sees more than I want him to. “You’re still different. It’s been days now. Who are they?”
I deflect as smoothly as I can manage, turning the conversation toward the new racing circuit he mentioned last time. Koda leans in anyway, his nostrils flaring in a way that is barely perceptible and almost unconscious.
There is something on me that was not there two weeks ago, the faintest trace of honey and citrus woven through my sandalwood like a signature I cannot wash away.
Koda’s eyebrow lifts before he sits back against the booth cushions. “I’m not going to ask but I’m not stupid, Sai. Neither is the rest of the family or Priya or literally anyone who gets a whiff of you. Seriously?”
My cheeks heat a little but I refuse to indulge what Koda truly wants. No one can know about Mavi. Not yet. Not until I figure out what I’m doing about Elias and Lyric and everyone else who’s in my way from getting the happiness I’ve learned to believe I can’t have.
“I’ll get better soap.”
Koda bursts out laughing before clearing his throat.
“Jesus, you’re a mess but I kind of like this version of you.
Still so rigid and yet, I wonder who the Omega is.
Have I met them? Do I know them?” He clicks his tongue, obviously running through a mental list. “I don’t recognize the scent so it has to be someone new. ..”
I just shake my head, pushing to my feet even as I try to hide my smile. It’s dangerous but I love the fact that everyone can still smell Mavi on me. That I’m his, that his claim follows me even outside of our apartments.
“There! That smile! Who is it? God, I’m dying to know.”
My brows furrow as I straighten my face. “I... wasn’t smiling.” My breathing kicks up a little as I turn and head out to my car, raising a finger to my lips. Smiling? Like a genuine smile?