Sebastian scans the room the way he always does, his gaze sliding past the dance floor, past the booths, past the bar, and settles on me, the corner of his mouth curving upward. He crosses the floor only stopping when he’s at the edge of the bar.
“Wilson.” His voice is exactly the same, too, carrying the precise modulation that used to make my body go pliant before I understood what it was being trained to do. “You look well.”
I clench my jaw so tight my teeth ache. My hand digs under the counter, gripping the edge so hard the wood bites into my fingers.
“You need to leave,” I say, voice low.
“I just arrived.” Sebastian’s smile spreads wider. He surveys the club like a man inspecting property. “Charming place. I can see why you settled here. Small, manageable, nothing too ambitious.”
“Get out.”
He steps closer. “I wanted to talk. I’ve been thinking about you, Wilson. I heard about the article. Unfortunate business, having your name attached to something like Hearthstone. It must have hurt to see that in print.” His eyes flick to my collar, lingering on the fabric pulled high against my neck. “You’re still hiding it. After all this time, I thought you’d found some peace with what happened.”
A metallic taste floods the back of my throat. My vision narrows as the edges of the room go soft while Sebastian’s face sharpens in the center. Every instinct screams to run, to submit, to slink into the posture that used to make the words stop.
He leans in, smoke drifting from him like a warning. “Nicholas only wants you because I had you first.” His words slap the air, sweetly cruel. “My brother has always wanted what belongs to me. You know this. You’ve always known it. Whatever fantasy he’s selling you about love and patience and the life you could have had rests on the fact that taking you from me is the only thing Nicholas has ever wanted more than my approval.”
None of my men’s words help at this point, even running their confessions in my head or reminding myself that I’m theirs helps. All I can see is a man I’ve tried so hard to forget.
I whisper, “Sebastian, leave this club.”
His smile doesn’t falter as he leans in, breath hot with smoke and metal so thick it seizes my lungs. “You couldn’t even takemy knot,” he murmurs, his voice dripping with venom. “In three years, Wilson, you never fully submitted to the one Alpha who claimed you. I had to watch my brother do what you refused.” His gaze drifts down my body and back up. “You used to beg me for permission to come. You knelt and thanked me for a touch. That’s who you are, a Beta on your knees. What makes you think you can hold a pack together when you couldn’t even hold our bond?”
Every word lands exactly where he built the hurt. Each syllable turns a key in the architecture of pain he constructed inside me and he’s strolling through it as if he owns it.
My gaze walks around the club, trying to figure out how this man just walked in here. If Nicholas had been at the doors, Sebastian wouldn’t have gotten past the sidewalk but he’s nowhere to be found. Oliver headed upstairs and Lorenzo… I twist around trying to find him, fumbling for my phone and failing as my breathing kicks up.
I whisper, “I didn’t take your knot because I didn’t want it.” My voice shakes. Each word costs me something, drawn from the place Sebastian’s presence has been trying to seal shut since he walked in. “I never wanted your knot, Sebastian. In three years you never once made me feel safe enough to take it.”
His smile flickers.
“And the man I gave it to?” I release the bar and straighten my spine. Trembling moves through me, but my feet stay planted and my voice stays low as my words keep coming. “He didn’t take it from me. I gave it to him,willinglybecause he touched me like I mattered, because he went slow so I could feel every second, and he held me after, because that’s who Nicholas is.”
Sebastian’s expression goes flat; the charming veneer thins.
“Leave my club.” My tone is steady. “If you come back, you’ll be dealing with Nicholas’ attorney and a restraining order. Get the fuck out.” I secretly hope Nicholas or Lorenzo have thepower to keep Sebastian away because I can not physically handle this man in my space.
I fight for something else to tell this man just as a familiar hand slides around the back of my neck and Sebastian is ripped away from me, Nicholas heralding him toward the door. A heavy sigh falls from me as I collapse against the counter, Lorenzo massaging the back of my neck.
His voice is loud but distant, my ears ringing with Sebastian’s words.
“Who the fuck let that guy in here? He’s literally on thedo not let inlist. What’s the point of a list if no one follows it?” There’s a beat of silence and then more murmuring, a low growl coming from Nicholas.
He must be back. “What the fuck do you mean no one was at the door?”
I sag further, unable to stand as Lorenzo braces my body against his. “Woah, gorgeous. Let’s get you somewhere.” I try to push out that I’m fine but I can’t even manage that, my voice slurred as Nicholas rounds the bar and hoists me up into his arms.
Instead of fighting, I just curl into him, my Alpha carting me up the stairs. Lorenzo stays behind, shouting orders, some of the club chaos quieting as everything falls apart.
“Stay with me, Will. Hey Oliver!”
A sleepy ‘yes’ meets my ears and then a louder one. “Yes! Fuck! Why does he… ew—why does he smell like that? Give him here, I need to fix him.”
You can’t fix me,I try to say and fail as I’m sat on the bathroom counter, steam curling into the bathroom as the water starts. My vision starts to tunnel as Oliver moves to stand in front of me, my Omega dragging his nose along the unscarred part of my neck and across my chest.
“Did he touch you? Or hurt you?”
I just stare at Oliver, unable to find my words but how could he know that?
