Page 163 of His Stolen Omega

It had to be a blow to his pride. The Leviathan, one of the scariest alphas in existence, reduced to a breeding machine and filthy entertainment.

“You never considering reaching out to him?” Elm couldn’t help but ask. “Not once? The men who took me—”

“Apparently, Shiloh was attacked months prior to your disappearance. Rumor spread on both of our planets that I might have been responsible for it. The ones who took you bought into the story. They must have believed I wanted him, despite my never having said so to anyone. He wasn’t a person to me in that room, Elm. He wasn’t real. He was an object. And I wasn’t myself. I wasn’t me.”

Elm had experienced what it was like being on the end of Levi’s indifference. Knew how successfully he could compartmentalize people into various categories, including ones that reduced them to little more than a thing.

“I’m not good.” Levi ran his thumb over Elm’s bottom lip. “I would never accept anything I didn’t choose myself. I would never have chosen him. He was never going to be my omega. I didn’t tell you because, in my mind, that wasn’t sex. We were both reduced to puppets, and we’ll have to carry the shame of that for the rest of our lives.”

Elm cupped Levi’s face in both hands. “That wasn’t your fault. It wasn’t either of your faults. There’s no reason for you to feel ashamed.”

“You ran from me.”

“Because I thought you tricked me into loving you so you could stick it to my brother.”

Levi grimaced and Elm laughed.

“Poor choice of words,” he admitted. “You get what I’m saying.”

“And you?” the alpha asked. “Do you understand what I’m saying?”

He hummed. “I’m sorry I broke my promise.”

“I’ll punish you for that later. Once we’re stable.”

Once Levi was confident Elm wouldn’t get scared and leave him again, he meant.

“I love you,” Levi declared. “That’s real. No matter what anyone else tells you, I need to know that from now on, you’ll believe me over them.”

He blew out a breath. “It occurred to me that Kian was probably trying to throw a wrench into our relationship. I was going to come back to the restaurant and confront you both, but then…” He lifted a shoulder. The rest was obvious.

“Were you scared?”

“Not at all.”

“No?”

“I knew you were coming for me.” Elm brought his fingers to the edge of one of the second-skins, tracing it. “You took a bullet for me.”

“I’d take one again.”

“How about neither of us get shot at instead?”

Levi took Elm’s hand and pressed his palm over his heart. “I’m the Dominus of the White Frost, treasure.”

“If you’re going to follow that up by asking me if I can accept that,” Elm drawled, “don’t bother. I already did when I accepted the claiming bite.”

“We both know you had no idea what you were doing back then. I took advantage.”

“Regrets, alpha?”

“At the risk of scaring you away? Never. I would do the same thing all over again. Even if this isn’t a lifestyle you can accept, even if you hate the idea of being a part of the mafia, I won’t ever release you, Elm. You’re mine to keep. But I hope you can come to terms with it. I don’t want you to be sad.”

There’d been plenty of time to wrap his head around that when they’d been at the lodge. Being the Possessio was already something Elm had acknowledged within himself. The role he would take on now that they’d rejoined society would have to be discussed, but there was only so much he could handle all at once.

“Your knot has gone down alpha,” he pointed out.

“It went down a while ago.”