His hand stayed where it was. Warm against my skin. Not squeezing. Not moving. Just there.
“You think you have me figured out.” It wasn’t a question.
“Maybe I don’t.” I kept my eyes on his. “But today, I do. So what is it going to be, Alpha Cian? More games that will take us nowhere?”
The silence stretched. I counted five heartbeats. Six. Seven.
Then his hand fell away.
He took a step back. Put space between us. The cold rushed in where his heat had been.
“What do you want?”
The question caught me off guard. Not because he asked it, but because he sounded tired. Like something in him had finally given up fighting.
I swallowed. Tasted blood where I’d bitten my cheek without realizing.
“I don’t want a contract.” The words came out clear. Firm. “I will not have you humiliate me.”
He tilted his head. “But I will. Contract or no contract.”
“Be vile to me.” I shrugged like it didn’t matter. Like his cruelty was just weather I had to endure. “I don’t care. But not because I’m signing shit. But because you’re a horrible person.”
He scoffed. Actually scoffed. “Me? Horrible?”
“Yeah.” I nodded. “You are the worst.”
His jaw clenched. I saw the muscle jump there. Saw his hands curl into fists at his sides.
“I will not be having sex with you either.” Each word was clipped. Precise. “If you want a child, it will be through in vitro.”
“I don’t want your child.”
He blinked. I’d surprised him again.
“You wanted a clause change that involved my penis and now you says different?”
Heat crawled up my neck. I kept my face blank. “Whatever makes you sleep at night.”
“You will simply be a figurehead.”
“Aren’t most Lunas?”
The question hung there. I watched something flicker across his face. Surprise maybe. Or anger. Or both.
He straightened his back. Squared his shoulders. The Alpha mask slid back into place.
“And you will make my mother happy. Best of your omega abilities.”
My stomach twisted. His mother. The dying woman infected with the rot. The one person in this entire godforsaken pack who might actually be kind to me.
“I’ll try.”
He shot me a look. Sharp and cold.
“Okay.” I sighed. “I’ll make her happy. Are you happy now?”
“No.”
Of course not. Nothing would make this man happy. Nothing except maybe watching me crawl.
“Swear before the goddess.”
I hesitated. Swearing before the goddess meant something. It was binding in ways that went beyond words. Beyond contracts. It was sacred.
But what choice did I have?
“I swear before Selene.”
The words left my mouth and I felt them settle. Felt the weight of them sink into my bones.
He sighed. Long and heavy. Like I’d just agreed to something that exhausted him.
“You’re free.”
I stared at him. Waited for the catch. The other shoe that had to drop.
He turned. Walked to where he’d left the contract on the floor. Picked it up.
Then he tore it.
The sound was loud in the quiet cell. The paper ripping. The shredding. He didn’t stop until it was in pieces too small to read. Too small to matter.
He let the scraps fall from his hands. They drifted to the floor like snow.
“You must be so elated.”
Was I? I couldn’t tell anymore. My emotions were a tangled mess. Fear and relief and exhaustion all fighting for space in my chest.
“You have no idea.”
He turned to look at me one last time. His eyes swept over my face. My dirty clothes. The bruises on my wrists.
“Someone will come for you in an hour.” His voice was flat. Empty. “They’ll take you to your rooms. You’ll bathe. Change. Then you’ll have dinner with my mother tomorrow evening.”
“Okay.”
“Don’t make me regret this, omega.”
The warning was clear. One wrong move and I’d be back in this cell. Or worse.
“I won’t.”
He didn’t believe me. I could see it in his eyes. Could feel it through the bond. But he turned anyway. Walked out of the cell. His footsteps echoed as he crossed to the stairs.
I waited until I couldn’t hear him anymore. Until I was sure he was gone.
Then I sank down onto the cot. My legs gave out. My whole body shook.
I’d done it. I’d pushed him and he’d bent. Not much. Not nearly enough. But he’d bent.
The mate bond thrummed in my chest. I could still feel him. His anger. His frustration. His confusion about what I actually wanted.
Good. Let him be confused. Let him wonder. Let him lose sleep trying to figure me out.
I looked at the torn pieces of contract on the floor. At the food the omegas had spilled. At the cell that had been my home for over a day.
Freedom. He’d called it freedom.
I knew better. This was just a different kind of cage. Bigger maybe. With better furniture and prettier bars. But still a cage.
I thought about his mother. About the promise I’d just made. About having to smile and play pretend while she looked at me with kind eyes and believed I was someone her son cared about.
My throat tightened. I swallowed hard.
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