Chapter 42: Agency

Chapter 42: Chapter 42: Agency

"Nero should be supervised," Lucas repeated.

Dax looked back at him. "By whom?"

"Anyone who is not obsessed with my son," Lucas shot back.

Dax laughed again, this time leaning farther into the sofa while his hand moved from Chris’s thigh to the small of his back, fingers settling there with the casual familiarity of decades.

"Lucas, how old do you think our children are?" he asked. "Should I remind you that both are well past childhood, both have been deployed, and both have made decisions with consequences far larger than anything most people their age will ever touch?"

"Sebastian is still my son."

"And my son is Nero." Dax’s amusement thinned. "What you keep forgetting is that I at least give them the agency to make their own decisions, however stupid those decisions might be."

Lucas’s green eyes narrowed.

Trevor, seated beside him now, did not intervene. Yet.

Chris remained equally still, although his hand settled over Dax’s wrist where it rested behind him.

Lucas noticed the gesture.

"So allowing Nero to manipulate Sebastian into an engagement is your definition of respecting agency?"

"No." Dax tipped his head. "Allowing Sebastian to decide whether he tolerates Nero manipulating him is."

Lucas stared at him.

Dax continued before the argument could circle back on itself.

"You keep speaking as though Sebastian woke up this morning at eighteen, helpless and incapable of understanding what Nero wants from him. He is thirty-one years old, Lucas. He commands soldiers. He has spent years making decisions that could get people killed if he gets them wrong, and by all accounts he is very good at it."

"That does not mean he is thinking clearly after nearly dying."

"I agree."

That answer stopped Lucas for half a second.

Dax smiled faintly.

"I did not say every decision he makes today should become legally irreversible. I said it is still his decision."

Lucas unfolded his arms only to place both hands on his hips.

"He agreed to start a biological transition while barely conscious."

"He asked Nero to do it."

"He was dying."

"Yes."

Dax’s voice lost the last traces of humor.

"That is exactly why the distinction matters. Nero asked, Sebastian answered, and neither of us gets to rewrite that afterward because we dislike the circumstances surrounding the answer."

Lucas’s pheromones stirred again, not enough to become threatening, but enough that the air in the receiving room acquired a faint pressure.

Dax felt it.

His own nature answered almost automatically.

Chris’s fingers tightened around his wrist.

Dax exhaled and deliberately let the response disappear.

Lucas gave him a pointed look.

Dax’s mouth twitched. "Don’t start."

"I didn’t say anything."

"You were going to."

Trevor reached for the coffee pot and refilled his cup with the calm of a man who had witnessed this exact dynamic too many times to waste energy on it.

Lucas looked at him. "You are remarkably quiet."

"I am waiting for one of you to say something useful."

Chris glanced across the room. "That may take a while."

Dax looked offended.

Lucas almost smiled.

Trevor took a sip before continuing.

"Dax is right about one thing."

Lucas turned toward him slowly.

Dax leaned back, visibly pleased.

Trevor immediately added, "Do not enjoy this."

Chris covered his mouth with one hand, concealing what might have been a smile.

Trevor looked at Lucas.

"Sebastian is still capable of deciding what happens to him. He may need medical safeguards while he is unstable, but that is not the same as stripping him of authority over his own life."

"I know that."

"Then stop talking about Nero as though someone needs to remove Sebastian from his reach by force."

Lucas’s jaw tightened.

"I said Nero needs supervision."

"And I think we need to end the discussion here," Trevor said with a resigned sigh, setting his cup down before turning fully toward his mate. "Dax is right that our children are adults, and I feel the same way you do, Lucas. I want Sebastian home, where I can see him and know exactly what is happening to him, but that does not make it the safest option."

Lucas opened his mouth.

Trevor continued before he could interrupt.

"Nero has never done anything to physically hurt Sebastian."

Lucas’s expression changed immediately.

Trevor raised a hand. "Nothing provable."

Dax’s mouth twitched.

Chris turned his head and gave him a sharp look.

Whatever comment Dax had been preparing disappeared behind a surprisingly innocent expression.

Trevor ignored them.

"Sebastian, on the other hand, did hurt Nero. Seven years ago, deliberately or not, he rejected him in a way we both told him was unnecessarily cruel. That is not an accusation, and I am not suggesting he owed Nero anything then or owes him anything now. I am saying there is history between them, and pretending Nero is the only dangerous person in that relationship is dishonest."

Lucas looked away toward the tall windows, his arms folding again.

Trevor’s voice softened.

"This is no longer an argument about whether we approve of them together. Sebastian’s body is failing as a dominant alpha. Either Nero stabilizes him long enough to change him into something compatible, assuming Sebastian continues consenting to that process, or our son dies from berserk."

Lucas’s face tightened.

"The cruelest death a dominant alpha can have," Trevor added quietly.

That landed.

Chris, still seated beside Dax, nodded once. "He is right."

Lucas looked at him.

Chris set the tablet aside. "I would be furious too if it were Nero being taken somewhere immediately after nearly dying, but I would still choose the person capable of keeping him alive over my own comfort."

Dax glanced at his husband, clearly tempted to add something.

Chris looked at him again.

Dax remained silent.

Trevor noticed and almost smiled.

Lucas exhaled through his nose. "I am not being dramatic."

Three people looked at him.

His eyes narrowed.

Trevor reached over and squeezed his knee.

"Of course not."

Lucas glared at him.

Across the room, Dax wisely said nothing.