Page 112 of His Stolen Omega

“You promised you wouldn’t try to escape,” he reminded.

“If you were going to be like this, you should have just let me bleed out.”

Levi straightened, a growl slipping past his lips. “Do you know how dangerous that was? You put yourself at risk, first by braving the storm, then again by confronting that soldier.”

“I didn’t,” Elm said. “He snuck up on me.”

“More of a reason you should have used your brain and stayed put. You aren’t trained. You have no idea how to navigate this world. You—”

“Are you going to say I need your protection?” he cut him off, a glimmer of that defiance finally entering his eyes, though it didn’t last for long.

“I did protect you,” Levi reminded sternly. “I murdered my own people to do it, if you recall.”

Elm dropped his gaze to the floor, cowed.

He heaved a sigh of frustration. “The first doctor I brought in said there was no saving you. The bullet came too close to a major artery and hadn’t exited the other side. He refused to conduct surgery, saying it was impossible and anyone who tried removing it would nick the artery, causing you to bleed out within minutes. He told me, in no uncertain terms, that it was best to let you go quietly.”

The doctor had instructed Levi to pull the plug, so to speak. Had offered a concoction that would effectively stop Elm’s heart and allow the omega to die while still unconscious.

That man had been a coward, too frightened of killing the Possessio to even try, so had wrongly assumed Levi would rather hear he should just let him go himself.

“I slit his throat with his own scalpel, then shot him in the head for good measure.” And Levi would do it again. “The rest of his team seemed to be of a different opinion after that.”

The omega touched the scar on his side. “It was that bad?”

“I almost lost you.” His hands clenched into fists at his sides. “That won’t happen again.”

They’d spent enough time in each other’s company for Elm to pick up on the underlying message, his head snapping back up, eyes going wide with suspicion. In any other instance, how attuned to Levi he was would have pleased him, but right now, Levi was too caught up in the anger.

“What are you planning to do?” Elm asked.

Levi gave a slight shake of his head. “It’s already done.”

“What—”

“No,” he stopped him. “You want answers? Clothing? Those things have to be earned. I treated you well, and look what it got me.”

“I’ve been your prisoner for months!” the omega snapped, catching himself at the last second. He took a deep breath, smart enough not to completely explode, and said in a quieter voice, “You stole me from my friends and my family—”

“I’ll be that for you from now on.”

“That’s…” The spot between Elm’s brow creased. “You can’t just spring something as permanent as a claiming bite on someone.”

“Are you going to pretend you had no idea how I felt?” Levi grunted. “You aren’t that naïve. Even if I never confirmed as much out loud, a part of you had to have guessed where this was leading. Why I would bring you all the way here, where you could safely move about and wouldn’t have to be trapped in a tiny cell. I’ve been treating you like my omega for months now, Elm. It isn’t my fault you’ve chosen to ignore all of the signs. It’s not my fault you have that habit.”

“You can’t mean that.”

“Which part?”

Elm gripped his nape, clearly struggling with all of this. “Have you forgotten who I am?”

Levi tilted his head. “Ah. Is that why you were so scared of me at the cabin? You thought I was going to kill you because you’re Kian’s brother? You still don’t trust I was telling the truth when I told you I wouldn’t. I won’t. Especially not now. Not when you’re mine.”

“I’m not.” His arms dropped and his eyes caught on the insides of his wrists and he scowled. “This isn’t how it’s supposed to be.”

“Explain.”

“I’m supposed to be given a chance!” Elm hissed. “Maybe not a choice, but at least the opportunity to wrap my head around things. To try and see them from your perspective and…and, I don’t know, consider how things might work between us.”