Chapter 28
“If you consume anything too greasy it’ll hurt your stomach.” The alpha had set out a few modest dishes—white rice, boiled dumplings, and steamed bok choy—noting when Elm had pursed his lips. “You haven’t had a proper meal in weeks, remember?”
“That’s rich, coming from the guy who wanted me to swallow his spunk an hour ago.” Elm reached for the chopsticks, frowning when Levi stopped him. “What now?”
They were in the kitchen at the long island instead of the dining room, Elm seated in his usual spot facing the stove and the area where the alpha fixed their meals.
He had half his ass hanging off the back of the stool so as not to sit on the plug, and with the massive wall made of glass to his left, he was feeling incredible exposed despite knowing no one would be outside the lodge.
Levi wouldn’t order him to remain naked if he’d set guards about. He was way too possessive for that.
Elm braced himself when the alpha came around the island, scowling when the older man picked up the chopsticks himself and Elm realized what he was getting at. “I’m not a child.”
“You’re my omega.” He selected a piece of bok choy and brought it to Elm’s closed mouth. “Eat. I’ll tell you all about the punishment you endured.”
Considering Elm hadn’t been conscious for it, he wasn’t sure one could say he’d endured anything at all, but he wasn’t about to argue with the alpha over semantics.
Figuring the guy just wanted to feel a bit more in control, would feed him a few bites and then leave him to it, Elm made himself part his lips.
The vegetable was crunchy with a hint of salt, and the more he chewed, the more hunger hit him.
He was starving.
Levi danced his fingers through the short hairs at Elm’s nape and selected a dumpling at the same time, feeding it to him slowly.
“Can I take the headband off at least?” Elm dared to ask after he’d eaten everything offered to him, even though he didn’t expect him to agree. “This thing itches.”
“All right.” Levi set the chopsticks down and gently removed the bunny ears. Setting them aside, the alpha rounded the island once more, finally taking his spot across from Elm. He picked up his own utensils and ate a bit of rice from the bowl in front of him.
Carefully, not wanting to make any sudden movements and potentially set Levi off again, Elm picked up his chopsticks.
When he wasn’t stopped, he went back to filling his stomach.
The food had already been ready when they’d come down, which must have meant the alpha had spent all morning in the kitchen preparing.
He’d somehow known Elm would wake today.
“How long was I out this time?” he questioned.
“A few days,” Levi responded.
“Oh.” Elm pressed a palm against the fading bullet wound. “And I healed this much already?”
“Advanced nano-tech. I had the best surgeons flown in.”
He’d also apparently killed one of them.
But Elm didn’t have the energy to worry about anyone else at the moment.
Levi unstrapped his multi-slate from around his wrist, clicked a few buttons, and then slid it over so Elm could view the screen. There were a bunch of numbers and a heartrate indicator, the line constantly moving.
“What’s this?” He didn’t understand why it was being shown to him.
“Your vitals.”
“From during the surgery?” That didn’t seem right. They appeared far too stable. Not that he knew much about this sort of thing.
“No,” Levi corrected. “They’re your current vitals.”
Elm frowned and touched the collar around his neck.
“Not there.” The Alpha left the multi-slate on the table and ate a piece of bok choy.
“Then…where?” Elm had the sinking suspicion he was going to hate the answer. He’d already put together that his earlier recollections after the shooting must have been him on the medical table, and later, the buzzing he’d heard was the tattoo gun. But there was still a gap between the two events.
“I had you fitted with a tracking device and vitals monitor,” Levi stated, in a tone far too casual for a reveal that extreme. “Two, actually. It’s always wise to have a backup.”
Elm stared at him, momentarily at a loss for words before he managed to find his voice again. “You…what?”
“Don’t ask me where they’re located on your person, I won’t tell you. Just know they’re imbedded deep enough it would require a skilled hand to cut them out.” Levi met his gaze. “You won’t be removing them.”
“That’s psychotic.” He dropped his chopsticks with a clatter and got to his feet. “You had me tagged like an actual pet?”
“I had you tagged like an unruly mate,” Levi corrected, then shrugged a single shoulder. “Since you can’t be trusted to stay put on your own, you left me no choice.”
“That’s bullshit! You can’t just fit people with tracking devices on a whim, Leviathan!”
“Firstly, I have no interest in any others. I’m monitoring my dominant omega. Secondly, this was not an impulsive decision.”
Elm took a moment to sort through that and came to yet another uncomfortable conclusion. “You made it sound like it was a punishment for escaping, but you were already planning on doing it, weren’t you?”
“For a while now,” Levi didn’t even try to deny it, “yes.”
“Do you have any idea how invasive this is?” He motioned to the multi-slate. “You’re just going to what? Stare at my vitals whenever we’re apart to be sure I’m not running, or—”
“It’ll show temperature fluctuations so I can predict when your heat might arrive,” the alpha said. He dabbed at the corners of his mouth with a napkin and held Elm’s gaze unflinchingly.
Like he truly believed everything he was saying, everything he’d done, was normal.
“You’re obsessed with me,” Elm surmised, “aren’t you.”
“Very much so.”
“The same way you were with your rabbit?” The story had made him sad when he’d heard it, but now he was forced to acknowledge the other dark aspect of the tale.
How Levi had been so clearly consumed with “caring” for his pet that he’d overlooked everything else, to the point it’d enraged his father.
“Wishing you could run again?”
“Alpha.” He licked his lips. “You’re scaring me.”
Levi sighed. “It was either this or I really do resort to locking you up for safe keeping for the rest of our lives. My anxiety won’t settle for less. At least here, at the lodge, I can handle being on separate floors, but anywhere else, if I couldn’t keep you in my line of sight…”
Elm frowned. “That isn’t healthy.”
“Some will say the same about the trauma bond you’ve developed with me.”
“I…” Hadn’t expected the alpha to admit it. “You sound way too comfortable about that.”
“I’m not ashamed of it. I’ve done worse.”
“Worse than make a man dependent on you through pheromones and false kindness?”
“Where was it false?” He clicked his tongue.
“Nothing has been fake between us, omega. Even if I manipulated you into loving me, how is that any different than any other relationship? People fib and pretend to like things they don’t all the time to come off more relatable.
They play up their strengths and hide their weaknesses.
They show their intended mate what they want them to see.
That’s all I’ve done here. I’ve been the man you wanted me to be.
And I’ve done so without lies, unlike most. Yet I’m the one at fault? ”
“I don’t love you.” Logically, Elm understood everything the alpha was saying was incredibly fucked up.
That he was talking about both emotional and physical manipulation to the extreme, and that wasn’t entirely wrong in his assessment of Elm’s draw to him.
But for some reason, he got hung up on the L-word.
“I wouldn’t have run away if I loved you. ”
Levi tilted his head. “You woke up bound to your brother’s greatest enemy, still partially open from taking my knot for weeks on end.
You felt the connection between us, the permanency, and you panicked.
You’re right. I’ve known we were inevitable for some time now.
I was given the space to come to terms with it.
I was trying to afford you the same, but my rut came early for the first time since I was seventeen, and well… You know the rest.”
“I have six claiming bites,” Elm reminded. “That’s five more than was necessary to form a bond. You can’t blame this entirely on your rut. Especially not when you were always going to have to force me to accept you. I never would have agreed, no matter how much time you took to wear me down.”
“I don’t believe you,” Levi stated. “More importantly, I don’t think you even believe yourself.”
“If I don’t,” and he wasn’t saying he didn’t, “that’s only because you’ve made me this way!”
“I love you,” the alpha said, pausing when Elm froze, as though to give him a second to process that revelation.
“Are you also planning on taking responsibility? I can count on one finger the number of times this has ever happened. Even the rabbit from my childhood was a mere obsession. You? You’re something else. Something more.”
Elm shook his head dumbly. “You don’t. You can’t.”
“I don’t blame you for thinking that. Before meeting you, I believed the same.”
“Everyone knows you aren’t capable of love, Leviathan.”
“Everyone is wrong.”
“No.” Elm vehemently shook his head. “No, they aren’t.”
“You would prefer an alpha who doesn’t love you then?”
“Stop,” he threw up a hand and closed his eyes, trying to center himself while his mind continued to spiral, “saying that word.”
Elm had yet to wrap his head around the claiming bites, and now he was being told he had to accept the alpha’s supposed affections on top of it? He couldn’t. He could handle a lot, but this was apparently where his limits reached.
A wave of seductive pheromones hit him square in the chest then and his eyes popped open as his body swayed.
He toppled against the counter, gasping for air as more of that scent cloyed at his senses and his body was forced to react accordingly.
His muscles tightened around the plug, causing him to whine when his prostate was rubbed against, and his dick lengthened and brushed against the cool edge of the granite tabletop.
Levi stood and walked around to him, taking his time with it, the way a predator who was confident it’d already cornered its prey would.
His hand reached him first, sliding across Elm’s narrow back to grab onto his left hip, before he stepped directly behind him.
He took hold of his side and then yanked him back, grinding his sheathed cock forward in the process.
Elm cried out when the plug was pushed in deeper. The alpha’s other hand traveled up his spine, then wrapped around his nape and shoved him forward, so he was splayed out over the table with his ass high and pressed against the alpha’s center.
“Stop.” Elm fisted his hands as he felt the alpha’s hot breath ghost down his back. “This isn’t love, Leviathan! This is control!”
“This is possession,” he corrected, not even remotely sorry for it. “This is me showing my mate that his body already knows who its master is. You’ll get used to it. My love? You’ll adjust and eventually feel for me as strongly as I feel for you. It’s unavoidable, Elm Erskine. It’s destiny.”
“Fated mates are a crock of shit,” Elm snarled, “and you’re insane!”
“Don’t you see that’s what makes this so real between us? So special?” He sealed himself over Elm’s back and held his head down, cheek against the granite, so he could move his face next to his and meet his gaze. “I chose you. Out of everyone on my planet and yours, you’re the one I want, omega.”
Elm winced. “It’s because of that. Because of what I am now.”
Levi searched his expression. “You doubt I would have kept you if you were still beta?”
“You would have shot me in that warehouse the day we first met.”
“You were omega then, and I still almost did,” he reminded. “I appreciate your body,” his attention swept down Elm then back to his face, “and your pheromones. But it’s your mind that I like the most. It’s…refreshing.”
“Drink some lemonade. It’ll have the same effect.”
“Should I make you come again?” Levi suggested, petting his head. “You’re calmer once you’ve orgasmed.”
“Get the hell off of me.”
The alpha brought his lips to the curve of Elm’s ear. “I can make you want it, remember?”
“That isn’t real want,” he argued. “That’s a chemical response. The six fucking claiming bites work to your advantage, but that doesn’t mean I legitimately want any of this. I want—”
“To return to your docile little life where you stand in the shadows of your boring little friends and your idolized big brother?”
“Let me up, Levi.”
“Does the truth hurt, treasure?”
“You’re being mean.”
“I was playing nice, but you weren’t very receptive to it. I’m trying a new angle.”
“I’m not some puzzle you need to solve.”
“I can’t help you come to terms with your new reality if I don’t understand you,” Levi disagreed.
“Please just back off. I can’t think straight with my dick this hard and you rubbing up against me like some bitch in heat.”
“Did you just swear at me, omega?”
“Yeah, so what?”
Before the alpha could respond, the multi-slate went off, and he tapped to accept the call, still keeping Elm pinned beneath him.
“I have news, Dominus,” Koah’s terse voice came through the speakers, and Elm held his breath, trying not to be heard.
The last thing he wanted was the General picturing them in this compromising position.
“Speak.” Levi continued to comb his fingers through Elm’s hair as though fascinated with the strands.
“I found the missing Runner, but I also learned something new. You aren’t going to like it.” The General didn’t sound very pleased about whatever information he’d called to pass on either. “His relationship with your Possessio was more intricate than we believed.”
The Runner? Was he talking about Pike?
“Oh?” Levi pulled back slightly, but Elm didn’t meet his gaze.
“They’ve had…” Koah growled, the sound filled with a barely restrained anger that momentarily confused Elm, “relations.”
“We already knew—”
“They’ve fucked, Leviathan,” he interrupted. “I’m telling you Pike has put his dick inside—”
Levi ended the call, abruptly cutting the General off.
The air around them shifted into something heavier, the sudden danger palpable. Elm went still beneath the alpha, instincts causing him to release soothing pheromones in an attempt to calm the older man before something happened.
“Is that true, omega?” the alpha’s voice was low, dark. “Does the Runner of the Eumia know you intimately?”
Elm swallowed the lump in his throat and attempted to sound flippant when he responded. “It was just sex.”
Levi’s anger exploded.