"Dorian—" Vespera starts.
"Please." I touch her hand. "This is between me and her. Mother-son. I need to be the one to end it."
Vespera studies my face, then nods. "We'll be right inside. You yell, we're out here."
"I know."
They get out of the car. Corvus and Oakley flank Vespera protectively as they walk past Eleanor toward the front door. Mother's eyes track Vespera with open hostility, but she doesn't say anything. Not yet.
The door closes behind them, and it's just me and Eleanor Ashworth on the steps of the house my family owns.
"Dorian Ashworth," Mother says, her voice cutting through the night air like a blade. "Inside. Now. We need to discuss what just happened."
"No."
The word surprises both of us. I've never told her no before. Never defied a direct order from Eleanor Ashworth, matriarch of the family, controller of the fortune, arbiter of our futures.
But that was before Vespera Levine bit my throat in front of hundreds of people and made me hers.
"Excuse me?" Mother's ice-blue eyes—my eyes—narrow dangerously. "You will come inside and explain how you allowed that scholarship Omega to publicly humiliate our entire family."
"She didn't humiliate anyone," I say. "She reclaimed her agency. There's a difference."
"Agency?" Mother's laugh is cruel. "She's an Omega. You claimed her months ago. She belongs to you."
"She never belonged to us," I say quietly. "That was the problem."
Mother looks at me—her son, marked by an Omega, standing in defiance of everything she planned. Her expression shifts through rage to calculation to something almost like understanding.
Then it hardens into pure, cold fury.
"You're infatuated," she says. "It's the fated bond scrambling your judgment. Give it time. The chemistry will fade and you'll realize what you've lost."
"What have I lost?" I ask. "Your approval? Your money? This house?"
"Your future." She steps closer. "Do you understand what you've done? The board will have questions. The donors will have concerns. And that video—" Her voice sharpens. "That video is already everywhere. Twitter. Instagram. TikTok. Everyone has seen you three on your knees for a scholarship Omega."
"Good," I say. "Let them see."
"Dorian—"
"Let them see what it looks like when Omegas claim their power." I touch the mark on my throat, feel the sting and warmth of it. "Let them see what happens when Alphas choose partnership over possession."
"You sound like her," Mother spits. "Like that girl has poisoned you against your own family."
"She didn't poison me," I say. "She woke me up."
"To what? Poverty? Struggle? A life without the Ashworth name protecting you?"
"The Ashworth name never protected me," I say quietly. "It trapped me. Made me think I had to be perfect, had to follow your plans, had to claim Omegas like property because that's what families like ours do."
Mother goes very still. "Are you saying you're leaving Northwood?"
"I'm saying we're going to New York," I correct. "Vespera was offered an Off-Broadway role. We're leaving tonight."
"Tonight." Mother's voice goes flat. "You're throwing away your education, your future, everything—for an Omega you've known for six months?"
"Yes," I say simply. "I am."
