Chapter 32
Elm escaped into his art. Not to hide, but to adjust. His mind needed to process and he’d always emotionally regulated the best when he was creating.
A week passed by like that, most of his time spent in the studio. Breakfast and dinner were with the alpha in the kitchen, but Elm absolutely refused to break and relocate for lunch, so Levi brought him easy to eat meals and let him pick at it as he worked.
They had sex every night before bed. Sometimes in the studio, sometimes the bath, or on the mattress itself. The physical intimacy was helping, and they both initiated. With his pheromones regulated, there was no longer any risk of him losing control and he felt steadier than he had in months.
Present and…maybe happy wasn’t the right the word. Maybe using it would be the same as admitting he’d allowed himself to be molded by the Leviathan with the same skill Elm was currently molding clay, but…
Pretending he wasn’t happy would be a lie.
He’d never felt so loved and cared for, not even by his parents growing up. There was an attentiveness the alpha showed, an understanding, like he could see directly into Elm’s soul and knew what he needed at a glance.
Levi was a calming presence, the type of person who could sit in the same position for hours without complaint, so different from Elm, but in the best ways possible.
The alpha had taken to working in the studio with him, seated on the other side with his holo-pad. He’d take calls when necessary, speaking quietly yet firmly to whoever was on the other end of the multi-slate. He didn’t leave the room or try to hide anything, comfortable going about his business.
And Elm liked that.
Liked having someone with him who was comfortable doing his own thing.
In the past, the few relationships he’d tried had failed because the amount of time he’d had to dedicate to art during university.
Elm hadn’t blamed any of those people for wanting someone who could spend more energy on them, go on more dates, but that didn’t mean it hadn’t still sucked being dumped.
With Levi there wasn’t any pressure. He could be satisfied with easy silences and the occasional longing glance.
Maybe that was why Elm made a point of calling it quits for dinner, giving them the evenings together. It felt fair. Right.
The piece he was working on was large, meant to pair with the Rabbit God.
Technically, it was a redo, since the original design was at Kian’s, but Elm had a vision and was going with it.
Things had changed since he’d first created the set years ago, and he wanted an updated version.
A visual representation of the person he was now and who he was becoming.
Who he was allowing himself to be.
“That’s coming along quickly,” Levi said one morning after they’d entered the studio after breakfast.
“I work fast.” Elm was busy readying for the day. Removing the protective layer and setting out clean tools on the small table.
“I don’t want to interfere,” Levi tentatively began, “but you will be giving yourself pants, won’t you?”
“The Rabbit God isn’t wearing any.” He gave him a smirk. “And since this is made in my image and I haven’t worn pants in forever…”
The alpha had walked out without a word, only to return with white jeans and a t-shirt for him.
And that was how Elm “earned” his clothing back.
The next two weeks passed much the same way, but Elm made a point to set more time aside for the two of them to do other things.
He managed to convince the alpha to explore some of the more interesting rooms with him, asking questions about particular items. Learning about Levi’s past and his family dynamic helped Elm understand why they’d been unable to discuss Kian.
“Why do you enjoy sculpting?” Levi asked on a random afternoon. He’d just brought Elm a smoothie and was watching as he paused long enough to chug half of it down.
“I like working with my hands.” They’d talked about this to some degree a few times before, but the alpha kept bringing it up anyway. “Knowing I can take something in my head and make it reality.”
“It’s dependent on you,” he surmised. “Without you, it wouldn’t exist. You like power, omega.”
“I guess you could say that.” Elm had never thought of it like that, but… “I do get off on riding your face.”
He didn’t get very much work done that day.
It took a little over a month to finish, but Elm did it.
The moment he made the final adjustment and took a step back, a sigh of relief and pride slipped past his lips.
Little by little, the aches in his muscles from the intense concentration he’d experienced began to become noticeable, but he ignored it, turning to the alpha.
Levi set down his tablet and stood, coming over to inspect his work. There was a glimmer of appreciation in his silver eyes, and a soft smile formed on his lips.
“Do you like it?” Elm was suddenly nervous.
“Is this how you see yourself?”
The sculpture was relatively the same size as the original, but this time he’d taken the time to give himself features and details.
He’d left himself shirtless, but had given himself pants as per the alpha’s request—though, he’d been planning to all along.
His mouth held a perpetual smile, a soft hint, but clear all the same, and he’d included four of the six claiming bites.
They’d taken him a long time to get right, since he’d been adamant that every mark was exactly as it was in real life. Some might find them ugly, but when Elm looked at them, there was a feeling of security and beauty there that he wouldn’t have guessed he’d feel two months ago.
His spine was straight, shoulders pulled back, chin lifted ever so slightly.
“This is how you see me,” Elm revealed, somewhat embarrassed, but choosing honesty anyway. “Not average, or without flaw, but strong and capable. Someone worthy of standing by your side.”
He didn’t have to look at the alpha to feel the shift in the air. Purposefully didn’t turn to him once he had.
“If you need a part of me to lock away, let it be this.” Even after gearing up for this confrontation all month, Elm found it difficult, forcing himself to continue before the alpha could shut the conversation down.
“Think of this statue as an extension of myself and keep it safe here, where you’ll know it can’t leave.
And as for me,” he blindly reached out and took Levi’s hand, “let me out.”
Elm finally shifted on his feet and met his gaze. “I’m not asking you to remove the collar. Keep the leash if it makes you feel secure in us, but loosen the reins. We can start small. I’ll go where you go. Wear what you want me to wear. Do what you want me to do.”
A couple of weeks ago, Elm had made the mistake of trying to select a different shirt from the one Levi had set out for him.
The alpha had reacted poorly, fucking him right there in the middle of the walk-in closet until Elm didn’t have the energy to move on his own.
Then he’d cleaned him up and dressed him in the outfit Levi had intended from the start.
A normal or average person would be offended, maybe even scared of that level of control.
Elm had found it kind of hot.
He’d realized Levi’s obsession and his possessiveness wasn’t the issue, at least, not for him.
But for Levi…and for their continued relationship…
“If you need me to sit at your feet in your office, I’ll do that,” Elm continued. “I won’t ever ask where the tracking chips inside my body are located. I don’t want to know. I have no interest in removing them. If you want to assign me guards—”
“You can subdue all of my guards with your pheromones,” he reminded, clearly struggling with all of this, struggling to maintain composure.
For Elm’s sake.
“What else can I offer?” Elm asked. “What else would you need from me? I’ll reassure you to the best of my ability, but I won’t stay trapped here forever.”
Levi searched his face. “And what of the Eumia?”
“I’ll call Kian and—”
“No.” Levi dropped his hand and retreated a step.
Sighing, Elm followed, ignoring the warning glare the alpha set on him. He linked his finger through the loop of Levi’s black pants. “Listen to me.”
“I said no, omega.”
“I know what I am,” he proceeded against his wishes, knowing if he dropped this now, it could be months more before the alpha was finally ready, if he ever really was.
“I’m your omega. I’m the Possessio to the White Frost and Leviathan Morningstar’s mate.
You’re controlling and obsessive, and that makes you volatile and irrational at times.
But I’ve accepted those parts of you. Now I need you to accept this part of me.
The part that doesn’t want to wither away and die in the middle of the wilderness without my friends or family. ”
Levi growled. “Why can’t you just be satisfied with me? You’re my only one. Why can’t I be yours?”
“Alpha, what I feel for you is different than anything I’ve ever felt for anyone else. It always will be. That won’t change just because I’m reunited with my brother.”
“He’ll try to take you from me.”
“I won’t let that happen.”
“You can’t—”
Elm sent a wave of aggressive pheromones straight at Levi’s chest, pulling back only when the alpha visibly faltered.
Stabilizing hadn’t weakened him, if anything, it’d made him stronger.
Levi claimed to be more powerful than Kian.
If he could feel pain from Elm’s pheromones, it was safe to say his brother wouldn’t be immune to it.
He cupped Levi’s face and held him steady, then repeated more firmly, “I won’t let that happen.
” He eased in closer, making sure he was taking up most of the alpha’s vision, needing him to focus only on him.
“No one is separating us. I’m not running, not again.
Never again. I want this, Levi. I want you.
But I want a life with you. Not this. Isolating me from the world won’t make either of us happy.
It’ll just make me resent you. Work with me here. Do this for me. For us.”
The alpha wasn’t convinced, but Elm had already anticipated this being an uphill battle.
“Promise me you’ll think about it?” he urged.
Levi hesitated, clearly didn’t like it, but eventually he gave a single curt nod.
* * *
Elm woke to the alpha finger combing his hair. The first rays of sunrise poured in from the window and he stretched lazily, then turned onto his back, blinking up at Levi. “It’s still early. What are you doing?”
He brushed Elm’s bangs off his forehead. “What would you say to him?”
Any lingering sleep vanished and Elm became alert. “I’d tell him you rescued me from my kidnappers and we ended up falling for each other.”
“Kian is no fool. He wouldn’t believe that.”
“He doesn’t have to believe it,” Elm said.
“He just has to look me in the eyes when I say it, and see for himself that it’s what I want him to hear.
That you aren’t making me do it.” Besides, it wasn’t entirely a lie.
If Levi hadn’t come, Elm would have died in that warehouse.
Or worse, been passed around and sold to the highest bidder for experimentation that didn’t start off impersonal, and wasn’t conducted in relative opulence.
“If he still has a problem,” Elm added, “then I’ll remind him how he claimed my best friend. Their mating was arguably worse than what took place between you and me. You were gentle with me. Tender.”
Levi grunted. “He definitely won’t believe that either.”
“Kian only needs to believe this is what I want.”
“And he’ll just…walk away? Leave you with his greatest enemy?”
“About that,” Elm cleared his throat, “any chance of a truce?”
The alpha’s eyes narrowed, so Elm rushed on.
“The White Frost and the Eumia have been at odds for decades, for reasons that have nothing to do with either of you. Before, there was no cause to change that, to trust them and try to negotiate peace. But now?” he shrugged. “Isn’t peace through matrimony the oldest trick in the book?”
“You want to get married?”
Elm frowned. “Isn’t that sort of where this was headed?”
“I didn’t think you were ready for me to bring it up.”
“Marriage is just a big party,” he reminded. “This is Synastry. Here and on Glyph, the claiming bite is more binding and sacred than rings and big white and red ceremonies.”
“Yet you’re suggesting this seemingly unimportant event?” the alpha drawled.
“You’re already my person,” Elm confirmed, “but nothing brings people together better than a wedding.”
Levi considered it. “This is your plan?”
“You asked what I’m going to tell Kian. That’s it. We’re mated and getting married and if he wants to be at his brother’s wedding, he’ll make peace with the White Frost and let bygones be bygones.”
“You make it sound so…simple.”
“Not everything has to be complicated, Levi.”
“Not everyone is as easygoing as you are, omega.”
“Yeah, but Kian’s used to it. He’s my big brother.” His hand slid down Levi’s side, heading lower. “And you’re my big—”
“No.”
Elm sighed and pulled away. “Fine.”
“This is a serious discussion,” Levi stated.
“I agree.”
“I can smell your slick.”
“My mind agrees,” he reiterated. “But my body wants you to fuck me. Happy?”
“How can you be thinking about sex at a time like this?”
“A time like what?” Elm rolled onto his side to fully face him. “My alpha is willing to step out of his comfort zone and risk meeting with his enemy on my behalf. There’s nothing sexier than an alpha’s trust.”
“Is that so?” The corner of his mouth twitched.
“Okay, your cock is pretty hot too.”
“Focus, omega.”
“You’re the one who asked.”
Levi sobered and sat up. “You can call him, but the device stays on speaker, and I won’t agree to anything else until after.”
He needed to see how the talk went first to gauge whether or not Elm’s assumptions about Kian were true. That was understandable. Expected even.
“Your brother isn’t known for playing fair,” Levi reminded, but Elm merely chuckled.
“No one is more ruthless than you are, Leviathan.”
The alpha made to get off the bed. “Let’s go. You can call him in—”
Elm latched onto his wrist and pulled him back, laughing when Levi landed on top of him. He wrapped his legs around his waist and grabbed onto his neck, keeping him close. “I’ll call him later. Before that…” he rubbed his hard-on against Levi’s stomach, “you should take care of your omega, alpha.”
“You truly are incorrigible.”
“What can I say?” Elm grinned. “My mate is a god in the sheets and I long to worship at his altar.”