Sai
I stand in front of Mavi’s mirror, adjusting the silk shirt against my chest. The mating bond is fresh, my scent shifting to mix with my new mate. Sandalwood now threads with honey and citrus in a way that anyone with a working nose will clock immediately.
I look the same in the reflection, but I smell different and I feel different. There’s a steadiness in my chest that wasn’t therebefore the bite I placed on Mavi’s ear. A fixed point. Mavi’s mark on me feels like the tether even if the visible evidence has already faded.
I slide the suit jacket on next. The fabric settles perfectly over my shoulders, but my hands pause on the lapels. Mavi steps up behind me, his fingers reaching around and taking the tie I’ve been trying to knot.
He straightens it with careful movements, making sure it sits exactly right against the collar. The domesticity of it hits me hard. The Omega dressing the Alpha for a family event that’s designed to replace the Omega with someone else. Mavi doesn’t show bitterness. He simply finishes the knot and then kisses me senseless, reminding me that I’m his... not Elias’. Not the Moreau’s. Not even my family’s.
“You have to go or they’ll get mad,” he says quietly.
“I don’t want to go.” My voice comes out honest in a way it never used to be. “I already know what they’re going to do. They want me and Elias to sign something, to agree formally. To make it real.”
Mavi’s hand slides down my chest, down my stomach, and cups me through my dress pants. The cage is there, the metal pressing against his palm as my cock strains inside the device he put on me. My head drops forward as a groan pulls from me. Mavi just grins. “Still mine, aren’t you, Alpha? Now, go get them. And then come back to me.”
I drag him into another kiss before forcing myself to leave the apartment, just barely arriving at the venue minutes before I have to face Elias. No doubt there’s a private room saved for us and paperwork resting on the edge of the table, begging to be signed.
However, just outside the dining room, Alistair and Lyric are waiting. The gatekeeper and the heir, doing their jobs.
They both look tired. Not the composed, dangerous versions I’m used to. Genuinely strung out. Alistair’s tie is slightly loose, which is unprecedented. Lyric’s composure is intact but thinner than usual, like varnish worn down by too many coats. They’ve been managing this arrangement for weeks and my resistance must have been grinding on them.
Though, since they take control of most of our family, I can only imagine how much effort it takes to keep all those points aligned.
Lyric speaks first, his voice clipped. “Just go in there. Sit down. Be pleasant. Get this done. We’re all tired of—” He stops as his nostrils flare and his gaze narrows. “Why do you smell like that?”
I tense.
Alistair leans in and sniffs as well. His face changes with surprise, then a flash of something that might be dark humor. “You’re already mated. You absolute—you’re mated. Your mother is going to have a field day.”
Lyric’s composure cracks. “Why would you do this? The only thing you had to do was obey. The one thing—”
I cut him off. My voice is steady, though I don’t know where the confidence is coming from. “I’m tired of obeying. I’m tired of following everyone else’s rules instead of the ones I choose to follow.”
Alistair asks, “Who is it?”
“It doesn’t matter. He’s mine.”
Alistair says, “Your parents are going to try to ruin this. You know that.”
“Let them try. My Omega is mine. You can’t take him away from me.”
Lyric throws up his hands. He laughs, a real laugh, not the controlled lawyer version I’m used to. Something bitter and amused and tired lies underneath the humor. “Damn. They never told you, did they?”
I’m confused. “Told me what?”
Lyric leans against the wall. The composure is fully gone now and what’s underneath is a man who has been running the machine for years and is exhausted by it. “There’s so much shit around this family because the Alphas aren’t just scattered across every facet of life by accident. The original family, a few generations back, genuinely believed they were elite. That the bloodline was sacred. That it had to be preserved through strategic mating. And that belief traveled down. Your parents, our parents, the whole system—it’s built on the idea that your blood is tarnished if you don’t further it under their rules.”
My brows furrow. “That’s bullshit and you know it.”
Lyric answers. “I’m just the bulldog, cousin. I enforce what they built.”
“I know. And I hate you for it.” Alistair snorts. I turn to him. “And you’re just as awful as he is. You could change it. You’re the heir to this whole thing. You choose to keep the machine running.”
Alistair’s face does something complicated—offense, recognition, the faintest edge of shame quickly buried. I bite my tongue, realizing that as hard as it was for me to finally make a stand, it took someone outside the system to help drag me out. Even though, I know it’ll be nowhere as easy for Alistair and Lyric to break free.
I might have been one of the golden Alphas, but they’re literally one of the bricks set to keep the Hollis family alive. Removing them would bring the whole thing down.
I straighten my tie, catching a whiff of Mavi’s scent from the fabric. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go break up with my pre-fiancé. Because I already have a mate.”
