Chapter 14 #2
“No.” The omega immediately rolled over and faced the other direction whenever Levi climbed into bed. If Levi attempted to get closer, he’d move away. It was the only act of defiance he showed now, and since mentioning it would only make Levi look the fool, he hadn’t bothered.
“When his next heat hits, see if he’ll nest again,” Baal suggested.
“What will that show me?”
“Whether or not his instincts still tell him you’re his alpha, even once he’s regulated.
My advice? Fuck him and get it out of your system.
You know this type of curiosity can lead to obsession, and that never goes well for you.
He is Kian’s younger brother, Levi, remember that.
Remember what’s at stake here if you cross too many lines. ”
He scoffed, finding that ridiculous. “Haven’t I already?”
“If you fall for him—”
“Fall for him?” Levi couldn’t help but laugh. “It’s a physical response, nothing more.”
Baal was quiet for a second and then said, “You’ve never done well with feelings.”
“You see something I don’t?”
“As a mated alpha? Yeah. But are you ready to hear that? I don’t think so. You’re the Leviathan. I’ve seen you scoop out men’s eyeballs and force feed them to their mothers, yet here you are, sharing a bed with a stranger? Tell me, did it even occur to you to make him sleep on the floor?”
“Keeping him calm—”
“Do you really think anyone can be calm under his circumstances? He’s the Leviathan’s captive, and he’s got you breathing down his neck on a daily basis.”
Levi glared. “Believe it or not, most of us aren’t going to fall head over heels for someone over something as insignificant as a sandwich, Baal.”
It was a low blow, bringing the underboss’ mate, and his once obsession, into the conversation, but Levi had passed irritation and landed somewhere around exasperation.
“Watching you stumble over something as simple as this, while entertaining, is a waste of time.” Baal waved at him.
“Fuck him. See if it’s really all physical.
If it is, getting inside him once will be enough to satisfy your alpha nature.
As your second, I have to be prepared for the worst if you can’t let this thing go, and I already have my hands full distracting the Eumia and keeping them off our tail.
Rut him, appease your morbid curiosity, then once you’re sure he’s stable give him to Koah.
They can work on undoing the pheromone addiction and break the connection he has with you. ”
“The General is busy.” Levi had placed Pike in Koah’s…care.
“Then I’ll take him.”
“Excuse me?” Levi straightened in his seat, but his friend didn’t back down.
“He can’t affect me the same way as others since I’m mated,” Baal reminded. “If you want to continue to keep an eye on him, I’ll lock him up somewhere he won’t pose a threat. Somewhere Kian will never find him.”
“Until?”
“Until you come to your senses and order him destroyed. Or,” it was clear he wasn’t a fan of this next option, “you release him. The second Kian discovers what was done, he’ll declare war, but we’ve got the numbers to stand against him if it comes to that.
Holding onto Pike isn’t a solution either.
Right now, using him as leverage against Elm is one thing, but Kian is also now searching for his Runner.
Either one of them could lead him straight to our doorstep. ”
Admittedly, Levi wasn’t in the mood for a war. With the Eumia newly relocated, it’d seemed like any chance of that extreme had gone with them. But Baal was right. When Levi had decided not to shoot the omega in the head, he should have ordered him returned to his brother.
“What’s the purpose of waiting for him to stabilize? The second you realized you were starting to be influenced by him you should have called the whole thing off and killed him. He’s become a liability in more ways than one,” Baal said firmly.
“Your displeasure in the way I’ve been handling things has been noted.” Should Levi dispose of the omega? Yes. Absolutely yes. He knew it as well as the underboss did. Could see that his friend wasn’t wrong.
But that changed nothing.
“Fuck him?” Things couldn’t continue this way. Baal was right. Levi could already feel those familiar urges stirring within him, the ones that took over his mind and made him latch onto something with a suffocating grip.
“Remember what happened with your first pet?” Baal’s voice dropped.
How could he forget?
Levi’s mother had gifted him a rabbit for his thirteenth birthday. She’d joked they had the same hair color, and had explained how dependent on Levi the creature was going to become. How the rabbit’s survival relied solely on Levi and his level of care.
For six months, he’d dedicated every waking moment to it. He fed it, watched over it, allowed it into his bed. It wasn’t long before he’d developed an extreme attachment, one that resulted in his moods shifting depending on how much attention he deemed the rabbit returned.
As if the rabbit had the same cognitive thought processes as he did.
As if the fluffy little creature could actively snub him.
It’d all come to a head six months in. His father was saying something unimportant at the dinner table, Levi wasn’t paying attention because the rabbit had bitten his finger and made him bleed, and he felt like this was its way of telling him he hated him.
In a rage, his father had shot from his chair, snatched the rabbit and twisted its neck.
The death had been quick, if nothing else. Most likely painless.
The one Levi delivered in retaliation was anything but.
His father had only just dropped the body to the floor, discarding it like trash instead of the treasure that it was, when Levi reacted.
He’d grabbed the holstered blaster at his father’s hip and fired three bullets in rapid succession.
One in the man’s groin.
One in his stomach.
And one in his throat.
Everyone else in the room had screamed, but Levi had stood over his father’s body, watching as the man choked on his own blood, and all he could remember thinking was how annoyed he was that he’d gotten crimson all over his white rabbit’s fur.
He’d lost control that day.
It’d been a reaction. An accident, of sorts.
Most of his emotional responses had died that day along with his beloved pet, and he’d developed an anxiety disorder around control and the need to always be the one with it, even over himself.
Maybe especially over himself.
Baal was right. Levi had seen it. Had subconsciously been aware of the risk. But…
“I haven’t felt this way in a long time,” he confessed. “I’d forgotten what it was like.”
“It’s easy to ignore the signs, but—” Baal didn’t get a chance to finish his sentence, the sound of screeching cutting him off a second before a massive freight truck zoomed into their lane.
The impact was unavoidable; their car vaulted into the air and was sent spiraling.