The arbitration filing went through on Monday. Nicholas’ attorney sent a letter to Voss that Lorenzo read aloud in the office while Oliver sat cross-legged on the desk. The letter was almost surgical. Voss’ new rates are now frozen pending review. The fabricated code violations are being challenged through a separate channel.
Nicholas sat in the corner during the reading, ankle crossed over one knee. When Oliver launched himself at Lorenzo for a hug, Nicholas caught my eye and the smile he gave me was so small it barely qualified. Private. Meant for just us.
And now, a whole twenty-fours after everything seems to be going well, I’m fraying at the edges again. Lorenzo and Oliver went to bed an hour ago after that late meeting with the county clerk. I stayed long enough to see Nicholas finish reviewing the property filings, before heading upstairs.
Everything else that follows is routine, right down to sliding beneath the covers and trying to pass out but sleep evades me. No matter how many flops and turns and different positions I try, I just… can’t.
My feet hit the floor before I even finish the thought. I descend the dark stairs into the club’s main room, aimlessly about to search for some kind of work to pick up to ease the unrest in my head. And then I clock the Alpha who shouldn’t still be here.
Nicholas is sitting at the far end of the bar, laptop closed and reading glasses folded on top. His sleeves are rolled, hands wrapped around a glass of water. He tilts his head back, staring at the ceiling, the line of his throat outlined by the exit sign’s red glow.
When he hears me, his head drops. His gaze finds me in the dark, and his face shifts in a way I can no longer ignore. “Hey,” he says softly. “Can’t sleep?”
I pull out the stool two seats away from him. "No." The metal feels cold beneath me. "You?"
Nicholas swirls the water in his glass before taking a sip. "Finished the filings. Was going to head out but the quiet is nice." He looks up at the ceiling. "It's a good building when it's empty. You can hear it breathe."
"That's the plumbing."
His laugh fills the empty room, rich and warm as it bounces off the dark walls. “Very romantic, Will."
"I'm not a romantic." My fingers trace an invisible pattern on the bar top.
"I know." His smile catches the dim light, softening the angles of his face. "You're a realist who eats cinnamon rolls when nobody's looking."
Heat creeps up my neck. "Oliver told you."
"Oliver tells me everything." Nicholas leans forward slightly. "It's one of his more alarming qualities."
My mouth twitches. I press my lips together, but Nicholas sees it anyway. His gaze lingers on my mouth, and his smile deepens in response.
Silence settles between us until my big mouth gets the better of me, using the nickname I used to have for him. "Nico." His hand goes still on the glass. "I don't understand how you can be here. After everything."
"After everything what?" His voice drops lower.
"After I chose your brother."
Nicholas sets down the glass carefully as he fully turns toward me, his knees angling in my direction. "Will, you didn't choose Sebastian."
"I let him claim me." The words taste bitter on my tongue.
"He told you what you wanted to hear." Nicholas speaks quietly, but intensity radiates from him. "You were twenty-one and you wanted a pack and he made himself look like the answer." His voice remains level while his hands unfold in his lap, his fingers pressing hard against his knees. "I watched it happen. I watched him say the exact right things in the exact right order and I watched you light up because you thought someone was finally offering you what you'd been looking for."
My jaw aches from clenching so hard. "I could have said no."
He leans forward on his stool, elbows braced against his thighs. “To a claiming bite from an Alpha who’d spent weeks dismantling every reservation you had?” he asks. “Sebastian doesn’t give people choices. He gives them the illusion of choosing what he’s already decided.”
A sob catches in my throat as I start replaying some of the scenes with Sebastian. Nicholas isn’t wrong and I hate that. I hate that I thought I was making decisions and it was really just Sebastian being…
“When I found out about the bite removal, I—” He stops; I watch his Adam’s apple bob. “Sebastian called me drunk that night. Fuck, he was so mad about how you went behind his back.”
I breathe out, “I didn’t have any other options.”
He presses his lips into a thin line. “He called you property.” His voice flattens on the word. “That’s what he said. That his property had damaged itself.”
A cold metal taste floods my throat. I swallow against it, one hand drifting toward my collar as his expression shifts, something raw cracking through.
“I wanted to call you that night. I wanted to find you and make sure you were safe. And I didn’t, because I thought showing up would make me the same thing he was. Another Alpha pursuing someone who’d just gotten free.” His hands press harder against his knees. “So I waited.”
