Chapter 48: Who Was It?

Dexter did not knock.

The door to the omega’s room opened hard enough that the latch struck the wall. Morning light had just begun to filter through the windows, and the house was yet to fully wake. Levi was already sitting up in the bed, the sheet pooled around his waist, when the third prince crossed the threshold and shut the door behind him with a controlled click that somehow sounded louder than the initial impact.

Dexter’s silver hair was slightly disordered, as if he had not bothered with the usual precision. His pale eyes fixed on Levi with an intensity that made the completed claim on Levi’s throat throb in recognition. The second mark sat opposite it, still raw at the edges, the scent of a new full claim unmistakable to anyone who knew how to look.

"What did you do?"

Dexter’s voice was soft, but it was not gentle.

Levi met his gaze and did not flinch. The old instinct to shrink, to fold, to make himself smaller in the presence of an angry Alpha, rose and was set aside. He had spent the night with two completed claims under his skin and the knowledge that the arithmetic of the house had shifted whether anyone wanted to admit it or not. Panic would not improve what came next.

"With what?" he asked.

The calm in his own voice surprised him slightly. It seemed to surprise Dexter more.

The third prince closed the remaining distance in three long strides. One hand braced against the headboard; the other closed around Levi’s jaw and turned his head with precise, unyielding pressure, exposing the line of his throat to the morning light. Dexter’s thumb dragged over the older mark, then stopped hard on the new one. The skin there was still tender, and the sight of it made him recoil in rage.

For a moment Dexter went perfectly still.

Levi felt the heat of the anger when it arrived, it was hotter than ever, and far less controlled than the third prince usually allowed himself. The hand at his jaw tightened a fraction. Dexter’s scent flooded the small space between them, dominant and cold with fury.

"Which one." The question was not loud. It did not need to be. "Aaron or Kai?"

Levi reached up and wrapped his fingers around Dexter’s wrist. He did not try to tear the hand away by force; he simply applied steady pressure until Dexter’s grip loosened enough for him to turn his face forward again. Their eyes met at close range.

"Wouldn’t it be better," Levi said, "if you asked your brothers instead?"

There was a pause, followed by a short, sharp breath that turned into something almost like a laugh. He released Levi’s jaw entirely and took a single step back, studying him with a new and unsettling attention. The fury had not left. It had simply been joined by a thin, reluctant edge of assessment, as if Levi had just moved a piece on a board Dexter had believed he was the only one playing on.

"You’re serious," Dexter said. "You sat there and let me walk in, and you’re playing."

"I’m answering."

"You’re deflecting." Dexter’s mouth curved, not kindly. "I know exactly what game this is. You walked out of my study after I told you what I required. You decided a refusal would not be enough. So you went and collected another claim hoping it would change my calculations. Looking at the evidence, you succeeded in at least one respect. You have more nerve than I gave you credit for."

Levi held the sheet in place with one hand and the third prince’s gaze with the other. The two marks on his throat pulsed out of sync, Dexter’s claim pulling hard against the newer presence of Kai’s.

"Is this about the pregnancy?" Dexter asked. The softness had returned to his voice, and it made the question sound more dangerous. "Did you run to one of my brothers and put his teeth in your throat because you thought a second claim would make me reconsider putting a child in you?"

Levi didn’t answer the question immediately. The short answer was yes, but he knew saying that wouldn’t get him the reply he wanted. So he opted for a more dangerous option.

"Did it work? Are you reconsidering?"

Dexter stared at him.

The laugh that left him this time was shorter, sharper, and entirely without warmth. He dragged a hand through his silver hair and looked, for a moment, like someone recalculating a route after the map had been set on fire.

"You smart, cheeky bastard," he said. "You have no idea what kind of game you’ve stepped into. You think a second mark will save you? You think complicating the board keeps you from being played. All you have done is put yourself in the center of a fight between people who do not lose quietly. You will get consumed by it. And you should not be so certain of your position. I still have ways of getting what I want. A second claim makes the game more interesting, It does not make them impossible."

He turned toward the door.

The movement was abrupt, the decision already made. At the threshold he paused, back still to Levi, and spoke once more without looking around.

"I will find out which of them it was. And when I do, that conversation will not be as polite as this one."

The door opened and closed, and Dexter found himself marching towards his room, more angry than he had ever been in his life. He had definitely underestimated that omega. He hadn’t expected him to go this far just to thwart his plans. But to his greatest surprise he had done so.

Of course this new improvement meant that he just couldn’t go and put his baby in the omega, at least not without finding out who the owner of the second claim was. It couldn’t be Kai, he doubted Kai wouldn’t even think of touching the omega. Which meant it had to be Aaron, of course it was. He had noticed how close he and the omega had gotten lately, and he had been a fool to ignore it.

"That bastard!" Dexter cursed out loud. He didn’t know how, but he was going to teach Aaron to mess with his property.