Chapter 11
True to his word, the Leviathan followed him around like a puppy.
Or a hungry wolf.
One or the other.
Elm would have found it hilarious if not for the way Levi tensed each time they entered a new room and were presented with another mess. The Dominus of the White Frost was clearly a neat freak.
And Elm had caused a lot of destruction.
In some areas there were broken items, like a busted vase or glass, as though someone had stumbled into them or dropped them.
Knowing that he was the cause made him melancholy, and his mood grew bleak as he worked.
Since the crew had been in the process of cleaning, he didn’t have to go searching for supplies, carrying some of them with him throughout the house.
He worked in relative silence, only speaking to acknowledge when Levi said he’d missed a spot, which didn’t happen too often.
When they’d been younger, Elm had always been the one getting into rowdy trouble, and picking up after himself and dealing with the consequences had been his parents’ way of teaching him.
Elm missed them.
What would they think when they discovered their son was no longer a beta?
His omega mother had always been so relieved by his presentation, happy that his proclivity wouldn’t force him into any unwanted sexual situations.
It was another reason he’d kept his true feelings on the matter to himself.
Why he’d never told anyone, not even Sky, how he felt like a third-class citizen, unable to connect with his peers’ experiences or relate to the things they were going through.
Kind of funny now, considering. Here he was, finally something other than beta, and yet he was arguably more miserable than he’d ever been.
At least when he’d been nothing special, he hadn’t hurt people.
It took him over an hour to make it to the bedroom, but once he did, he couldn’t help but pause just within the doorway, eyes landing on the bed.
The nest was a pile of clothing in no particular order. Pants and shirts were twisted and heaped on top of one another, some spilling over the sides of the mattress. It was a huge mattress too, king sized for sure, so to have successfully covered the entire surface area…
His head tipped in the direction of the walk-in closet, but he didn’t dare look directly.
This was arguably the most embarrassing part of all of this, and he felt the tips of his ears heat and his cheeks stain red as he got to work sorting through the items of clothing, opting to make piles out of them first and then bring them to the other room to put away.
Nesting was another ancient practice no longer considered common.
It happened now and again, usually when an omega or alpha went into heat or rut and already had a bonded partner.
In the old days, it would have been created out of any soft materials that could be found, and then scented by their mate to smell like them.
With the creation of beds, the need for such things had dwindled.
There was a long leather couch positioned across from the end of the bed, and that’s where the alpha settled.
He flipped through digital pages on his holopad, barely sparing Elm a glance as he cleaned.
At some point, Elm returned from the closet to find him wearing a pair of glasses, the new look almost causing him to stumble.
Dressed in crisp black pants, and a white shirt with the top four buttons undone, on the couch with one leg resting over the other, Levi looked every part the CEO.
There was a cold edge to him still, a set to his shoulders that never seemed to ease, but while he oozed class and arrogance, he didn’t give off “terrifying mafia king” vibes.
Kian was usually dressed in all black, and only wore suits when there was a business meeting. He preferred black jeans to dress pants, and acted like he could attack at any given moment from seemingly very little provocation.
Even so, Elm had only feared him once, briefly, when they’d been kids and their parents had caught Kian playing with dead animals. He hadn’t killed them, but it’d still been a lot for a young Elm to process, and he’d been awkward around his brother for a week or so after.
Until Kian had bought him cotton candy. Then it was like the whole thing hadn’t happened and his eight-year-old mind forgot all about it.
That’s how easy Elm was.
How simple he’d always been.
He didn’t hold grudges, didn’t hang on to anger.
It was rare for him to sit with any sort of negative emotion for very long, even when he felt self-pity.
He’d wallow over being unexceptional, wish he’d been born something other than beta, and then promptly go bowling with friends like the thoughts had never weighted on him.
Maybe that was why he was able to navigate through this whole nightmare the way he had been. Since there was nothing he could do aside from bide his time, there was no point in freaking out or raging.
Except, now Elm had botched his first chance at escape, and the likelihood of him getting another opportunity to flee…
Should he try and get on the alpha’s good side? He wasn’t convinced there was a caring bone in Levi’s body, but it couldn’t hurt to try. Elm could feel things like embarrassment, but pride? He’d never particularly had much of that.
He was twiddling his thumbs, having just come out of the closet after hanging the last shirt on the rack, when the alpha finally glanced up at him after almost an hour of acting like he didn’t exist.
“Finished?” Levi asked, holding his gaze steadily.
Elm nodded.
The alpha shifted and unfolded his legs, planting both feet on the carpet, and then motioned with his chin. “Come here.”
He hesitated, not understanding.
“Do you want to slip back into a feral state?”
“No.” He really didn’t.
“Then come here while I’m still feeling nice.”
Elm moved to the couch, but hovered. “I don’t…?”
“Lay down,” he instructed. “Put your head in my lap.”
“What?” He managed a full step back before the alpha lashed out, grabbing onto his wrist and giving him a strong tug that had him stumbling onto the piece of furniture. Elm found himself rolled over, until he was lying on his back, his head propped up by the alpha’s right thigh.
Soothing pheromones danced across his skin a second before the fingers of Levi’s left hand combed through his hair, massaging his scalp in gentle circular motions that instantly had Elm moaning.
He froze as soon as the sound left his lips, but when he risked looking up, the alpha seemed pleased by his reaction. His palm settled over Levi’s right one when the alpha rested it over his chest, nerves getting the best of him.
“Relax,” Levi ordered. “I’m not going to do anything sexual to you. Even though according to you, it wouldn’t be a big deal.”
“I didn’t…mean it like that.” The sensation of the alpha’s hand roaming across his chest, up to massage the spaces between his neck and shoulders, then down his arms to work on his biceps was odd.
Odd in the sense that Elm didn’t hate it. Not even a little.
“You’re the one who told me you didn’t want to be touched,” Levi reminded after a few minutes of the massage. “Have you learned your lesson?”
Elm closed his eyes but didn’t answer. They both already knew he had.
“It must be scary,” the alpha continued, tone calm and somewhat soothing. “Betas aren’t slave to their desires the same way omegas are. You could probably go years without having to give into the need for sexual release.”
“Probably.”
“Ah,” he read between the lines, “but you haven’t.”
“I just graduated from university. I wasn’t as popular as most alphas, but I did all right. Believe it or not, people find me attractive, even though I’m just a beta. Plus, there are tons of betas on Glyph. Most of us find it easier to date amongst each other.”
“Have you ever been with an alpha before?”
“One.” An image of Pike flashed in his mind and he dashed it away.
The two of them had hooked up a few times, but that’s all it’d been.
There’d never been any feelings attached to the act, though the sex had been incredible.
Enough to make Elm even more disappointed in his proclivity.
It’d been unhealthy, and he’d called it off.
“I’ve hooked up with a few omegas though. ”
“You’re used to topping.”
“I didn’t hate being the bottom.” He knew he was being too forthcoming, but he felt so relaxed, his entire body loose, the pheromones making his skin feel like he was being lavished in a warm breeze on a chilly evening.
What did it really matter anyway? The Leviathan didn’t need anything more to use against him.
He already had Elm in the palm of his hand.
“I think I was wrong about pheromones,” Elm boldly said. “Maybe I was better off without them after all.”
“Maybe?” Levi chuckled.
“Have we…” Elm swallowed, collecting his thoughts for a moment before continuing, “Have we done this before?”
“You remember now?”
“I…” He frowned and opened his eyes, finding the alpha already staring back at him. “No, but it feels familiar somehow.”
Like his body recognized what was happening between them, and had been waiting for it all week.
“Yes, we’ve done this before, omega.”
“When?”
Levi merely lifted a brow.
Probably because it was obvious.
“When I was in a coma?” Elm pursed his lips. “I thought…”
“I abandoned you?” He hummed. “So you’ve said.”
“You didn’t?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Putting you in a coma was never my intention,” Levi stated. “If I’d known that was even a remote possibility, I never would have allowed you to endure your heat alone. You would have taken the toy, whether you liked it or not.”
“That’s…awful, but also kind of…sweet?” He shook his head the second the word left his lips. “No, I don’t mean that. I get that you only care about protecting your asset. That that’s all I am to you. A thing.”