Page 139 of His Stolen Omega

“I know what I am,” he proceeded against his wishes, knowing if he dropped this now, it could be months more before the alpha was finally ready, if he ever really was. “I’m your omega. I’m the Possessio to the White Frost and Leviathan Morningstar’s mate. You’re controlling and obsessive, and that makes you volatile and irrational at times. But I’ve accepted those parts of you. Now I need you to accept this part of me. The part that doesn’t want to wither away and die in the middle of the wilderness without my friends or family.”

Levi growled. “Why can’t you just be satisfied with me? You’re my only one. Why can’t I be yours?”

“Alpha, what I feel for you is different than anything I’ve ever felt for anyone else. It always will be. That won’t change just because I’m reunited with my brother.”

“He’ll try to take you from me.”

“I won’t let that happen.”

“You can’t—”

Elm sent a wave of aggressive pheromones straight at Levi’s chest, pulling back only when the alpha visibly faltered. Stabilizing hadn’t weakened him, if anything, it’d made him stronger. Levi claimed to be more powerful than Kian. If he could feel pain from Elm’s pheromones, it was safe to say his brother wouldn’t be immune to it.

He cupped Levi’s face and held him steady, then repeated more firmly, “I won’t let that happen.” He eased in closer, making sure he was taking up most of the alpha’s vision, needing him to focus only on him. “No one is separating us. I’m not running, not again. Never again. I want this, Levi. I want you. But I want a life with you. Not this. Isolating me from the world won’t make either of us happy. It’ll just make me resent you. Work with me here. Do this for me. For us.”

The alpha wasn’t convinced, but Elm had already anticipated this being an uphill battle.

“Promise me you’ll think about it?” he urged.

Levi hesitated, clearly didn’t like it, but eventually he gave a single curt nod.

* * *

Elm woke to the alpha finger combing his hair. The first rays of sunrise poured in from the window and he stretched lazily, then turned onto his back, blinking up at Levi. “It’s still early. What are you doing?”

He brushed Elm’s bangs off his forehead. “What would you say to him?”

Any lingering sleep vanished and Elm became alert. “I’d tell him you rescued me from my kidnappers and we ended up falling for each other.”

“Kian is no fool. He wouldn’t believe that.”

“He doesn’t have to believe it,” Elm said. “He just has to look me in the eyes when I say it, and see for himself that it’s what I want him to hear. That you aren’t making me do it.” Besides, it wasn’t entirely a lie. If Levi hadn’t come, Elm would have died in that warehouse. Or worse, been passed around and sold to the highest bidder for experimentation that didn’t start off impersonal, and wasn’t conducted in relative opulence.

“If he still has a problem,” Elm added, “then I’ll remind him how he claimed my best friend. Their mating was arguably worse than what took place between you and me. You were gentle with me. Tender.”

Levi grunted. “He definitely won’t believe that either.”

“Kian only needs to believe this is what I want.”

“And he’ll just…walk away? Leave you with his greatest enemy?”

“About that,” Elm cleared his throat, “any chance of a truce?”

The alpha’s eyes narrowed, so Elm rushed on.

“The White Frost and the Eumia have been at odds for decades, for reasons that have nothing to do with either of you. Before, there was no cause to change that, to trust them and try to negotiate peace. But now?” he shrugged. “Isn’t peace through matrimony the oldest trick in the book?”

“You want to get married?”

Elm frowned. “Isn’t that sort of where this was headed?”

“I didn’t think you were ready for me to bring it up.”

“Marriage is just a big party,” he reminded. “This is Synastry. Here and on Glyph, the claiming bite is more binding and sacred than rings and big white and red ceremonies.”

“Yet you’re suggesting this seemingly unimportant event?” the alpha drawled.

“You’re already my person,” Elm confirmed, “but nothing brings people together better than a wedding.”