Chapter 15: Friend

Levi woke with a headache, his entire body felt heavy, as if someone had poured molten lead into his veins and left it to harden. Then his eyelids fluttered. The ceiling above him was unfamiliar for a moment before memory slotted back into place. It wasn’t the cell, and he wasn’t in his servant’s quarters anymore. This room was different, larger, and fancier than anything he’d slept in before.

He had no idea how he had gotten there, but he wasn’t exactly complaining. He was comfortable, and above all, he was alone.

Or so he thought. Before he could completely get a grasp of the new room, the door opened with a soft click.

Levi turned his head too quickly. Pain flared behind his eyes just as he recognized a woman stepping inside the room. She closed the door behind her with deliberate care, and then slowly walked towards him. She was tall, elegantly dressed in deep green that set off the sharp lines of her face. Dark hair swept back from high cheekbones. Everything about her posture spoke of someone accustomed to being obeyed. She carried no tray, no medicine, no visible weapon, just a small purse and a smile he wasn’t sure he could trust.

Levi’s still-fogged mind struggled to place her. He had never seen her in the halls. She was not a servant, nor did she look like someone who was here to attend to his needs. She was odd, and something about the way she looked at him made him feel very uncomfortable.

She stopped a few paces from the bed and regarded him in silence for a long moment.

"You’re awake. Good." Her voice was smooth, cultured, and perfectly polite. "I was told the first dose would keep you under longer. They must have been conservative."

Levi tried to push himself higher against the pillows. His arms trembled with the effort. The suppressants still dragged at his limbs like invisible weights. "Who...?"

"Flora." She offered the name as if it should mean something. When his expression remained blank, a small smile curved her mouth. "Flora of the Bloodmoon pack. Promised bride to Kai, first heir of this territory. I thought it best we meet properly, given the circumstances."

Levi’s stomach dropped. He had known, abstractly, that the eldest prince had a political arrangement. And from the way she introduced herself, he already knew where this conversation was headed, still he played pretend.

Flora’s gaze drifted over him, over the borrowed sleep clothes, the visible edge of Dexter’s claiming mark, the residual flush of heat and drugs that still clung to his skin. She did not look jealous in the loud, obvious way some Lunas might have. She looked like someone confirming details she had already decided were inconvenient but manageable.

"I heard an interesting story," she continued, still standing rather than taking the chair near the bed. "That the Moon Goddess, in her infinite wisdom, decided to tie a common omega to all three heirs of this house. And that one of them, was impatient enough to complete a claim before the rest could decide what to do with you." Her eyes returned to his face. "I also heard that Kai felt the pull. That he considers you... relevant."

Levi’s throat felt dry, and he suddenly felt hot. What did this woman want with him? Regardless, he should probably make sure she didn’t see him as competition or as a threat. "I’m not— I’m not his mate. The suppressants... the Alpha ordered—"

Flora laughed. It was a soft, genuine-sounding sound, almost friendly. But Levi already knew better than to consider this woman a friend.

"You don’t need to lie to me, Levi Hill. I already know. I knew before I traveled here. I knew when I spent last night in Kai’s bed reminding him of his obligations. And I knew this morning when he left my side to run to his father to save you." She tilted her head. "Denying it wastes both our time."

Levi’s fingers curled into the sheet. The suppressants made everything feel distant and slow, but the threat under her polite tone came through clearly enough. He had spent years reading the moods of stronger wolves, it was the way most omegas avoided danger. Flora did not raise her voice or point a gun at him for him to understand her, he could tell right away the moment she walked in.

She stepped closer to the foot of the bed, resting one hand lightly on the wooden frame.

"I consider myself a kind person," she said. "Peaceful, even. I dislike unnecessary ugliness. We are going to be living under the same roof for the foreseeable future, and I would prefer we not make that time unpleasant for either of us. I would like us to be friends."

’Friends? Yeah, that’s right.’ Levi thought to himself. Of course he wouldn’t dare to say it out, this woman could kill him if she so wished.

"What do you want?"

"Something very simple." Flora’s smile remained in place. "Stay away from Kai. Completely. If you pass him in a corridor, you look at the floor. If he speaks to you because household function requires it, you answer in the fewest words possible and leave. You do not seek him out. You do not allow him to seek you out. You pretend, for all practical purposes, that he does not exist."

She paused, letting the request settle.

"I know you’re on suppressants. Heavy ones. They will dull the bond, yes—but they will not erase it overnight. From what the physicians told the Alpha, it will take at least half a year of continuous dosing before the connection is starved into nothing. Possibly longer, given that the original pull was strong enough to affect all three of them." Her expression cooled by a fraction. "I do not have the patience to wait half a year while my promised husband continues to feel another omega under his skin. Nor do I intend to compete for attention with a claimed servant who already carries his brother’s mark."

Levi’s head was still swimming, but the shape of the threat had become unmistakable. Flora was not here to negotiate. She was here to set terms.

"And if I... if I stay away?" he asked carefully.

"Then we will be the best of friends." Flora’s voice brightened again, as if the unpleasant part of the conversation had been a minor administrative detail. "I will make certain you are treated well within the boundaries your new status allows. No extra difficulties from the staff. No rumors that make your position more precarious than it already is. In exchange, you simply... disappear from Kai’s notice. Permanently."

She leaned forward slightly, still smiling.

"If you cannot manage that—if I hear that he has gone looking for you, or that you have allowed yourself to be found, then friendship will become much more difficult. And I can become much less kind."

’What a bitch!’ He thought while slowly recoiling from her. He didn’t exactly like the fact that this woman was threatening him, but she was doing him more favors than she thought. He didn’t want any of this, being bound to the brothers. So if she could conveniently take one brother off his table of troubles for him, then all the better.

He nodded once, small and jerky. "I’ll stay away."

"Good." Flora straightened, smoothing an invisible wrinkle from her sleeve. "I knew you would be reasonable. You strike me as someone who understands how the world works."

She walked to the door, then paused with her hand on the latch and looked back over her shoulder.

"Recover well, Levi. The suppressants are hard on the body at first. Drink water, rest, and remember what we discussed." Her smile was perfect, serene, and utterly without warmth. "I’ll be watching."

Levi breathed a sigh of relief the moment Flora stepped out of the door. He really couldn’t catch a break here. He had thought to deal with the brothers, Elvis, and now this witch of a Luna. At this juncture, he felt that life as a slave would have been much better.