Chapter 7: Defiance?

Levi’s back was still pressed to the wall when the words finally forced their way out of him.

"I never asked for this." His voice came out hoarse and shaking, but it was steady enough to be heard. He kept his eyes on the floor between Kai’s boots because looking any of them in the face felt impossible. "I didn’t ask to be brought here. I didn’t ask for the heat. I didn’t ask for... whatever this pull is. I don’t want to be claimed by three princes. I don’t want any of it."

The silence that followed was sharp enough to cut.

Kai moved first.

He closed the small distance between them in one step, caught Levi’s chin in a firm grip, and forced his face upward until their eyes met. The eldest prince’s fingers were cool and unyielding. His gaze was colder.

"What makes you think you have a say in the matter?" Kai asked, voice quiet and precise. The question was not rhetorical. He waited a beat, as if genuinely curious whether Levi would try to answer. When the omega only stared at him with wide, frightened eyes, Kai continued, "You were given to this house as payment. You belong to us already. The Goddess simply made the terms clearer. If I decide to claim you tonight, I will claim you tonight. If I decide to wait, you will wait. You do not get to refuse what has already been decided."

Levi’s throat worked under Kai’s hand. The suppressants still dulled the worst of the heat, but the mate pull throbbed harder with every second the eldest prince stood this close. He could smell all three of them, and each scent tugged at something deep and unwilling inside him.

He still found a thin thread of defiance anyway.

"I don’t want any of this," he repeated, the words rougher now. He tried to turn his face away, but Kai’s grip only tightened. "I’m not— I’m not a prize. I’m not something you can just decide to keep because the moon said so. I was supposed to be collateral. Nothing more."

Kai’s thumb shifted slightly against his jaw, a small, almost thoughtful movement. "Collateral that the Goddess marked for three heirs. How inconvenient for you."

From the side of the room, Dexter’s soft voice cut in.

"What about Flora?"

Kai did not release Levi’s chin, but his eyes flicked toward his youngest brother. Dexter stood near the foot of the bed, silver hair falling into his eyes, expression calm and faintly curious. He looked like he was asking about the weather rather than a political engagement.

"Flora has been promised to you for two years," Dexter continued. "The northern packs are expecting a mating alliance. She’s a proper Luna. Dominant bloodline. Trained. Everyone already calls her your future mate."

Aaron, who had been leaning against the wall with his arms crossed and a dark look on his face, finally spoke. "He’s right. You can’t just throw over a formal arrangement because an omega in heat smelled good under the full moon."

Kai’s mouth curved in something that was not quite a smile. He still held Levi’s face tilted up, as if the conversation about another woman was happening while he examined a piece of property.

"Flora is a convenient arrangement," he said evenly. "A means to pass time and keep the northern packs quiet. She was never my true mate. I never felt a pull toward her. Not once. The Goddess never spoke her name in my blood." His eyes returned to Levi’s. "This one, however... this one she marked. For all of us."

Levi’s stomach twisted. The casual dismissal of a woman who had apparently been promised to Kai for years landed like another weight on his chest. He was not only being claimed against his will. He was being used to discard someone else in the process.

Aaron pushed off the wall. The second prince’s expression had shifted from residual anger into something more complicated, jealousy, reluctance, and the same stubborn pull none of them could deny.

"Even if that’s true," Aaron said, voice low, "why do you get to be the one who claims him? You just decided it. ’I’m claiming him tonight.’ Like the rest of us don’t feel the same fucking bond."

Kai finally released Levi’s chin. The omega’s head dropped forward for a second before he forced himself to stay upright against the wall. Kai turned fully toward his brothers, the cold authority settling back over him like a cloak.

"Isn’t it obvious?" he said. A faint, humorless chuckle escaped him. "I’m the eldest. The first heir. If anyone is going to formalize a bond this... irregular, it should be me."

Aaron’s eyes flashed. "That’s shit and you know it. The pull doesn’t care about birth order. I felt it just as hard as you did. Maybe harder. I was the one who carried him out of that hall while you stayed behind to play politics with Father."

"And I was the one who stopped the visiting Alphas from tearing him apart," Kai answered, still calm. "Do not confuse timing with ownership."

"Ownership." Aaron laughed once, a humorless and ugly laugh. "Listen to yourself. You’re already talking like he’s a thing we can divide. He’s an omega with a mate bond pointed at three different Alphas. You don’t get to just declare yourself first and expect the rest of us to fall in line."

The air in the room tightened. Dominant scents flared, Kai’s controlled and cold, Aaron’s heavier and more aggressive. Levi pressed himself harder against the wall, every instinct screaming at him to make himself smaller. The argument was about him, but neither of them was looking at him anymore. He had become the territory they were already circling.

Dexter’s voice slid between them to calm the swiftly growing tension.

"That’s enough."

Both older brothers turned. Dexter had not raised his voice. He did not need to. The third prince stood with his hands loosely at his sides, silver hair falling across one eye, and for a moment the pretty, almost delicate face looked older than his years.

"You’re both arguing over who gets to bite him first while Father is probably already deciding how to remove him from the house entirely," Dexter said. "Claiming him tonight, in this state, with the entire pack and half the kingdom still whispering about what happened in the hall, is reckless. We don’t even understand how a three-way bond is supposed to work. Forcing it under the full moon because our instincts are still singing is how we make a worse mess than the one we already have."

He glanced at Levi, just once, then back to his brothers.

"Leave the claiming for another night. Think it through. All of us. Together. Or we risk losing him and each other’s trust in the same breath."

The silence that followed was thick. Aaron’s jaw worked. Kai’s expression did not change, but something in the set of his shoulders shifted.

"Fine," Kai said at last. The word was clipped. "We wait. But not long."

Aaron exhaled hard through his nose and dragged a hand through his hair. "Agreed. For now."

Dexter gave a small nod, as if the matter had been settled by a vote only the three of them could cast.

Only then did they look at Levi again.

Kai’s gaze swept over him from head to toe, cool and assessing. "Return to your room in the east wing. Merrick will be informed that your status has changed. You are no longer a common servant. You will remain available, and you will keep yourself prepared." His eyes lingered on Levi’s face. "The bond is real. We will decide how to handle it. Until then, you will not attempt to run, hide, or pretend this did not happen. Do you understand?"

Levi’s mouth was dry, so he managed a single nod.

Aaron’s voice came next, rougher. "If the heat comes back before the suppressants finish settling, you send for one of us. Not a servant. One of us. Clear?"

"Yes," Levi whispered.

Dexter said nothing. He only watched Levi with that same quiet, unsettling focus, as if he were already turning over possibilities the other two had not yet considered.

Kai stepped back, finally giving Levi space to move. "Go."

Levi pushed away from the wall on unsteady legs. His shoulder still ached faintly from where Aaron had slammed him earlier. He crossed the floor under three sets of eyes, felt the weight of their attention like hands on his spine, and reached for the door.

He stood alone in the torch lit hallway for a long moment, forehead nearly touching the opposite wall, and tried to remember how to breathe around the knowledge that he was no longer just collateral.