Page 45 of His Stolen Omega

“Oh? So it’s my fault?”

“Yes!”

“All right.”

Elm stared at him, but when he didn’t follow that up with anything else, heaved a sound of frustration. “Don’t do that! You don’t get to pretend to agree with me—”

“Did it sound pretend?” Levi quirked a thin brow. “I hardly ever say what I don’t mean.”

He frowned, then realized, “You just don’t care. Like how you didn’t care when I was in a coma.”

“Explain.”

“The second I stopped being useful, you left me down there to rot!”

“Is that what you think?” Levi began rolling up his sleeves, careful to smooth out any wrinkles as he did. “Is that what Fiora told you?”

“She didn’t have to tell me anything, the fact I haven’t seen you for a week was telling enough.”

“Did you miss me, omega?”

“Don’t flatter yourself.”

“That would probably hold more weight if I hadn’t found you rolling around in a nest made of my clothing.”

“A chemical response,” Elm snapped. “Nothing more. The second I’m around an alpha more powerful than you—”

“Well, that won’t be happening. Should I tell you why?” He finished adjusting his outfit and then eased his hands into the front pockets of his pressed slacks. His silver eyes were intense when he rested them back on Elm, his expression inscrutable.

Elm had honestly expected more anger. He’d expected to be beaten and immediately dragged back down to the basement by his hair. This, this calm, unhurried conversation, was discombobulating. But it did the trick. It conveyed exactly what he imagined the alpha wanted it to.

That Levi was in charge, that he’d never stopped being in control, even when Elm had been running amok losing his marbles and collecting the man’s clothes.

“You won’t be leaving my side for the foreseeable future,” the alpha said. “But more importantly, there are no alphas stronger than I.” He clicked his tongue when Elm opened his mouth to speak. “No, Kian isn’t. He can hold his own, but in a fair fight between just the two of us? I would come out victorious.”

“Cocky motherfucker,” he grumbled, only realizing too late that he probably shouldn’t be insulting the guy.

“Do you need another taste of what you put my people through?”

Elm shifted on his feet. “No.”

“Since you caused this mess, you’ll be the one to clean it up,” Levi announced.

“What?”

“Every inch of this place has to be returned to its perfect state. Spotless.”

“Or what?” he snorted. “Going to threaten to lock me up again? Kind of redundant. Or,” Elm admittedly sobered some, “are you going to make me go through my heat alone the next time?”

“Is that the last thing you remember?”

“Yes. You watched me like a pervert.”

“But touching you wouldn’t have been considered perverted?” The left corner of his mouth tipped upwards ever so slightly. “Interesting.”

“It’s just sex.” Elm had partaken in his fair share of it over the years.

“Oh?”