Chapter 14: Suppressants

Kai had not slept beside an empty bed. Flora had arrived unannounced the previous evening, traveling with only a small escort and the kind of quiet determination that made servants step out of her way. She was a dominant Luna of the Bloodmoon pack—tall, sharp-featured, with the kind of beauty that looked carved rather than soft.

Their engagement had been arranged two years earlier for political stability. Kai had never felt a mate pull toward her, and had never pretended otherwise. But she had still been given a suite near his, and last night she had simply walked into his rooms as if the conversation about the omega had already been decided in her favor.

She had heard the rumors. An interrupted claiming ceremony, an omega in sudden heat, a mate pull that pointed at all three heirs. And then the quieter, more dangerous whisper that the youngest prince had completed a claim in the dark. Flora had listened to every word, smiled, and decided the situation required her presence.

She had spent the night in his bed.

Not out of passion, Kai had not touched her beyond what politeness required, but out of strategy. She had talked until the early hours, reminding him of alliances, of their packs’ expectations, of the future they were supposed to build. She had been almost gentle when she mentioned the omega. Almost.

"Dexter marked him," she had said, fingers tracing the edge of the sheet. "That’s convenient. One less brother to compete with. And an omega who already belongs to someone else is hardly a threat to a proper Luna."

Kai had not answered. He had stared at the ceiling and felt the distant, restless pull of the bond that still tied him to Levi, even across the mansion and the locked cell doors.

Now morning light cut across the floor in pale lines. Kai stood fully dressed near the door, boots laced, expression already set for the confrontation he intended to have with his father. Flora sat up in the bed, sheet held to her chest, watching him with the focused attention of someone who had not yet finished negotiating.

"Where are you going?" She had asked almost immediately.

"I have something to attend to."

"Something." She tilted her head. "Or someone."

Kai’s hand stilled on the door latch. "Flora."

"I know about the execution order." Her voice remained calm, almost conversational. "I know your father planned to collect the rest of the blood debt at dawn. And I know you planned to stop him." She rose from the bed, wrapping the sheet around herself with practiced elegance, and crossed the room until she stood between him and the door. "You will not."

Kai looked down at her. "Move."

"No." Flora’s chin lifted. "I have been promised to you for two years. I have waited while you delayed the formal mating. I have smiled through every political dinner and every whispered question about when the alliance would finally be sealed. And now you intend to walk out of this room to save an omega who was given to this house as a slave? An omega your own brother has already claimed?" Her eyes flashed. "It is an insult to me."

"You are not my true mate."

The words came out flat and final. Flora’s expression did not crumble; it hardened.

"And he is?" She laughed once, soft and sharp. "Dexter already put his teeth in him. The claim is done. Do you truly wish to share one omega with both of your brothers? To stand in line behind Dexter’s mark and Aaron’s temper and call it destiny?" She stepped closer. "I am a dominant Luna. I was raised for this seat. That creature in the dungeon was raised to scrub floors. Whatever the moon did the night of the ceremony does not change what he is or what I am."

Flora’s hand settled on his arm, nails lightly pressing through the fabric of his sleeve. "You are the first heir. You do not get to throw away an alliance for a shared omega and a romantic notion of the Goddess’s will. I will not allow it."

"You do not allow or disallow anything in this house."

"I am your promised bride." Her voice dropped. "If you walk out that door to protect him, I will make certain every northern pack hears that the future Alpha of this territory chose a claimed servant over the Luna who was offered to him. I will make it political. I will make it public. And your father, who already wants the omega gone, will thank me for it."

Silence stretched between them. Kai could feel the minutes slipping. Dawn had already broken. Somewhere in the mansion the original death order might already be in motion. He needed to be there. He needed to stand with his brothers before the window their father had given them closed completely.

Flora did not move from the door.

"Stay," she said, softer now. "Let Dexter’s claim stand. Let the omega become his problem. You and I will formalize our bond, the packs will be satisfied, and this entire mess will fade. It is the cleanest solution."

Kai looked at her for a long moment. He saw the strategy, the pride, the genuine belief that she was the correct choice for the future of the pack. He also saw the absence of any mate pull, any spark of the thing that had hit him like a second heartbeat the moment Levi’s heat flooded the great hall.

"I am going," he said.

Flora’s nails dug in. "Kai—"

He removed her hand with careful, inexorable strength and set it aside. "We will discuss the engagement later. Right now there is a debt and a bond that will not wait for politics." ℴ

He opened the door and stepped into the corridor before she could block him again. Behind him he heard the sharp sound of her breath and the start of another protest, but he did not look back.

****

He reached the main hall at a near-run and stopped dead at the threshold.

Levi knelt on the stone floor in the center of the open space.

Two servants flanked him. One held his jaw steady while the other tilted a small glass vial against his lips. The liquid that poured into his mouth was thick and cloudy, the scent of it sharp with chemicals strong enough to burn the nose from several paces away. Levi’s throat worked as he was forced to swallow. His eyes were glassy, his body already slackening under the first wave of the drug.

Dexter stood several feet away, held back by two enforcers, silver hair disordered and face white with fury. Aaron was similarly restrained on the opposite side, every muscle straining against the men who kept him from reaching the omega. Their father watched from the head of the black-stone table, expression coldly satisfied. Elvis stood near the windows with the calm of a man whose petition had already been granted.

Kai felt it the moment the suppressant fully entered Levi’s system. The mate pull that hadn’t let him rest since the ceremony suddenly wavered. It did not vanish. It simply dimmed, as if a heavy cloth had been thrown over a flame.

The bond was still there, but it was already beginning to weaken.