Chapter 37: Laundry Boy

Kai shut the door harder than necessary.

The sound cracked through the quiet of his rooms like a snapped branch. He did not release Levi’s arm immediately. He kept the omega just inside the threshold, far enough from the corridor that no passing servant would see, and stared down at him with an expression that had shed most of its careful neutrality. The first heir’s composure was still present, but it sat wrong, strained thin by the day that had already asked too much of it.

"What," Kai said, each word measured and cold, "are you doing at my door?"

Levi did not pull free. He stood very still, the way he had learned to stand when larger, angrier forces occupied the same space.

He had spent the better part of an hour after leaving Dexter’s study walking without direction, replaying the third prince’s calm certainty. I want to get you pregnant. The words had not faded with distance. If anything they had grown clearer, more inevitable. Dexter did not make idle plans. A refusal spoken in a study would not be enough to stop him. Levi had felt the shape of that truth settle into his bones while he stood at the recessed window trying to steady his hands.

He had considered Aaron first.

The second prince had kissed him like a man starving. The bond between them, however muted, still carried heat and a rough, reluctant care. But Aaron was already a problem in their father’s eyes. Another mark from him would be treated as further chaos, not leverage. It might even accelerate the suppressants or the threats.

Kai was different.

Kai was the first heir. The one their father listened to. The one the allied packs already watched as the future of the territory. A claim from him—even a reluctant one, would be harder to dismiss. It would complicate Dexter’s plan. It would force the Alpha to recalculate. And if the alternative was carrying Dexter’s child as political proof, then ridiculous was still better than inevitable.

Flora would kill him if she found out.

The thought arrived with perfect clarity. He had seen the northern Luna’s smile, heard the soft threat in her warning, felt the precision of a woman who did not make empty promises. Being discovered in Kai’s private rooms asking for a mark would not end with a conversation. It might end with something far cleaner and more permanent.

He had come anyway.

Levi lifted his eyes and met the first prince’s stare. His voice, when it came, was steadier than the rest of him.

"I want you to mark me."

The silence that followed was absolute.

Kai did not move. For a long moment he did not even appear to breathe. The words seemed to strike him with physical force; something in his expression fractured, reformed, and fractured again. The controlled exterior he wore like a second skin slipped, and underneath it flashed raw disbelief, anger, and a deeper, more complicated disturbance that had no clean name.

"Have you lost your mind?" The question came out low, almost rough. "Or have the suppressants finally damaged whatever judgment you had left?"

Levi did not look away. He could see the shock written clearly across the first heir’s face. He could feel the muted bond between them pull tight, confused and sharp. None of it changed the arithmetic that had brought him to this door.

"If you mark me," he said, "Dexter will have to think twice. He’s already claimed me. Another claim, especially yours, might make him want to consider taking another mate. You’re the first son, he can’t possibly compete with you. And your father might be forced to stop treating me like a problem he can simply drug into silence. I know how it sounds. I know what you’re going to say, but this might just solve a lot of all our problems."

Levi understood how ridiculous he sounded, but it was the best he could do. He didn’t want to tell Kai that Dexter had threatened to get him pregnant, that might genuinely make things worse. So this was the best he could do with the limited resources he had.

Kai’s mouth opened but no sound came out.

For the second time, the first son of the house found himself without language. The request was absurd and yet he could tell this omega was dead serious. He was already dealing with a lot of things, and now this omega, this blood debt, was here playing games with him.

Kai’s hand flexed at his side. He drew a breath to answer, but the door opened before he could get a word out.

It swung inward without a knock, and without warning, Flora stepped across the threshold as if the rooms already belonged to her. She had entered the room with a smile, but it steadily disappeared the moment she took in the scene before her. Her gaze moved from Kai to Levi in one smooth, assessing pass, and the temperature in the chamber dropped.

For a single suspended second no one spoke.

Levi felt the blood leave his face. Every calculation that had brought him here rearranged itself around the new, catastrophic fact of her presence. Flora’s eyes lingered on the small distance between him and Kai, then on the tension still visible in the first heir’s posture. And something dark took root inside of her.

Kai recovered first—or appeared to. The fractured expression vanished under a fresh layer of control so complete it looked almost natural. He released Levi’s arm and stepped half a pace sideways, creating a cleaner geometry in the room.

"Flora," he said. His voice had returned to its usual measured register, though a careful ear might have heard the strain underneath. "I wasn’t expecting you."

"Clearly." Flora closed the door behind her with deliberate softness. She did not look away from Levi. "Neither was I expecting to find the Hill omega in your private rooms after the arrangements we discussed. How fortunate I decided to stop by."

Levi’s pulse slammed against his throat. He wanted to say something, to explain himself and say that this was a misunderstanding, but figured it was best he didn’t say anything, he might just end up making the situation worse. Kai was probably in the best position to defend him from whatever insinuation the Luna was making.

Kai’s jaw tightened almost imperceptibly. When he spoke again, his voice was calm.

"There has been a misunderstanding," he began.

Flora rolled her eyes.

"Has there," she said softly. "Then by all means. Explain it."

Kai turned to Levi, then to Flora who was still waiting for an answer. He knew telling the truth would simply make matters worse, so he told the only lie he could think of.

"Levi here is still a servant, he had simply come here to attend to my laundry."