"I know." I squeeze his hand. "But that's not how people will see it. They'll see me, claimed by the pack that tormented me. They'll think I was weak. That I gave in."
"Fuck what they think."
"Easy for you to say. You're Dorian Ashworth. Golden boy Alpha. You can claim whoever you want and everyone just accepts it as your right." I pull my feet from the water, tucking them under me. "I'm the scholarship Omega who was supposed to be driven out. Instead I'm wearing your claiming mark and living in your lake house. People are going to talk."
"Let them talk." He turns to face me fully. "I don't care what anyone says. You're mine. We're yours. That's all that matters."
"Is it though?" I meet his eyes. "What about your parents? Your inheritance? The Ashworth legacy?"
Something flickers across his face. Pain. Old wounds.
"My brother," he says quietly. "I told you he was disowned."
"You mentioned it. For choosing an Omega your parents didn't approve of."
"For choosing love over duty." Dorian's gaze drifts to the lake, but I can tell he's seeing something else. Someone else. "His name is Julian. He was supposed to be the perfect heir—graduated top of his class, Alpha genetics, the whole package. Then he met Marcus."
"Marcus?"
"An Omega. Not wealthy. Not connected. Just... someone Julian loved." His throat works. "My parents gave him an ultimatum. Drop Marcus and claim an appropriate Omega from an approved family, or lose everything. The money. The name. Access to the family."
"And he chose Marcus."
"He chose Marcus." Dorian's hand tightens on mine. "I was sixteen. I watched my parents erase him like he never existed. Portraits removed from the walls. His name forbidden. They didn't just disown him—they tried to unmake him."
The pain in his voice is raw, real. This isn't the calculating Alpha who tormented me. This is just Dorian, still hurt by his family's cruelty.
"Do you talk to him?" I ask gently.
"Not for years. They made it clear—contact with Julian meant choosing his path. Losing everything." He finally looks at me. "I was too much of a coward. Too afraid of ending up like him. So I became exactly what they wanted. The perfect heir. The golden boy. And I convinced myself that their way was right, that Omegas like you were beneath me, that I could never..."
"Never what?"
"Never be weak enough to fall in love." The words are barely a whisper. "Because that's what they called it. Weakness. Julian's great weakness that destroyed the family's plans."
I shift closer, cupping his face with my free hand. "It's not weakness."
"I know that now." His eyes are suspiciously bright. "But for years, I believed them. I bullied scholarship students to prove I was nothing like Julian. To prove I'd never be stupid enough to choose someone inappropriate. Someone like..." He trails off.
"Someone like me," I finish.
"Someone perfect like you." He leans into my touch. "And the whole time, I was just digging the hole deeper. Making myself into exactly the kind of person who didn't deserve you."
"You're trying to be better now."
"Am I?" His laugh is bitter. "Or am I just repeating Julian's mistake? Falling for someone my family will never accept, someone who'll cost me everything?"
The question hangs between us, heavy with implications.
"Is that what I am?" I ask quietly. "A mistake?"
"No." The word is fierce, immediate. "You're the first right thing I've done in years. But that doesn't change the reality we're facing. When we go back to school, when my parents find out about the claiming..." He shakes his head. "They'll do to me what they did to Julian. I'll lose the inheritance, the family name, probably any chance at the career I planned."
"And you're okay with that?"
"I'm terrified of it," he admits. "Not because I care about the money. Because I watched what it did to Julian. How hard it was for him and Marcus. They struggled. They're still struggling. And I don't want that for us. I don't want you to suffer because I chose you."
I'm quiet for a moment, processing. This is the real fear underneath all his arrogance and control. Not losing his status. Losing me because he can't provide, can't protect, can't be what I need without his family's resources.
