CHAPTER 110: CHAPTER 110: BARGAIN

Morning crept in quietly, the pale wash of light slipping through the curtains and catching on the edges of the room. Elias stirred first, his lashes parting against the weight of sleep, and found himself exactly where he had fallen asleep, Victor’s arms wrapped firmly around him, his chest rising in steady rhythm against Elias’s back.

It was warmer than it should’ve been, more comfortable than Elias had any intention of admitting. The kind of comfort that had nothing to do with silk sheets or the absurdly expensive mattress and everything to do with the heavy, grounding press of another body refusing to let him drift alone.

’God damn it. Why do I like this so much?’

He shifted slightly, testing the strength of the hold. Predictably, Victor’s arm only tightened, a silent command even in sleep. Elias stilled, jaw tightening, then exhaled through his nose. ’Of course.’ Even unconscious, the man behaved like possession was a reflex.

He could fight it, peel Victor’s arm off and slide out of bed, and maybe he should. But he didn’t. Not yet. Because for all the arrogance, all the certainty that the mark bound them beyond question, Victor didn’t realize he hadn’t won yet. Not really.

The bond was there, yes, humming low and steady beneath Elias’s skin, a tether that even he couldn’t deny. ’But surrender’ That was another matter. He wanted to be known as his alpha’s, but not without a price. Victor would have to work for it, bleed for it, and learn humility in the one place gods weren’t supposed to bend.

Elias closed his eyes again, letting himself sink for just a moment longer into the press of Victor’s hold. ’You think you’ve won because you can keep me in your arms all night?’ he thought, lips twitching faintly at the absurdity of it. ’You have no idea how much work is still ahead of you.’

"I can hear your gears turning." Victor’s morning voice, lower, darker, and far too sensual for an hour Elias hadn’t even decided to face yet, cut through his thoughts.

Elias’s eyes opened again, slow and thoughtful, his expression kept carefully blank despite the warmth blooming uninvited at the base of his throat. ’Of course he’d wake up now. God forbid I have one private thought before dawn.’

"You should be asleep," Elias said, his tone flat as he angled his face away, as if the ceiling were infinitely more interesting than crimson eyes hovering too close.

Victor’s arm flexed against him, dragging him an inch closer like he’d caught the whisper of retreat. "I would be," he murmured, voice still rough with sleep, "if my omega weren’t plotting my downfall in silence."

’Your omega.’ The words hummed across Elias’s skin, familiar and irritating in equal measure. He almost laughed, almost, but caught it before it could give Victor any satisfaction. Instead, he shifted his weight just enough to test the hold again. Predictably, it tightened.

"You overestimate my dedication," Elias muttered, voice dry. "If I were plotting, you’d already be awake for a very different reason."

Victor’s mouth curved against his temple, the warmth of it far too steady for the threat it carried. "Then it’s only a matter of time," he said softly. "I can wait."

Elias shut his eyes again, jaw tightening against the way the words brushed too close to the truth of what he’d been thinking. ’You can wait all you want,’ he thought, pulse steady, controlled. ’I’ll make you work for every damn inch.’

Victor didn’t move right away, just breathed slow and steady against the side of Elias’s throat, letting the silence stretch until it frayed at the edges. Then his lips brushed over damp strands of hair that hadn’t fully dried overnight, a fleeting kiss to nothing in particular, infuriatingly casual.

"You know," he murmured, voice low enough to blur with the warmth of his breath, "you’d look less dangerous if you admitted you liked this."

Elias’s lashes lifted, but his expression stayed maddeningly calm. Of course. Coaxing confessions before breakfast, because gods apparently have no shame.

"I don’t," Elias said flatly, though the stillness of his body betrayed him, the fact that he hadn’t made any real effort to move.

Victor chuckled, the sound rumbling through his chest, deliberate enough to make Elias feel it where their bodies pressed. "Liar." His hand shifted, sliding from Elias’s ribs to his hip, fingers curving there like an anchor. "Your pulse disagrees with you."

Elias exhaled slowly, unbothered on the surface, though his lips twitched with the ghost of something that could almost be amusement. "Maybe it’s annoyance. Maybe I’m considering whether smothering you with your own pillow would count as self-defense."

Victor’s mouth curved against his skin, unshaken. "That’s not annoyance I feel," he said softly, and there was weight behind the words this time. "The bond tells me enough. Not everything, if you were my soulmate, it would sing, but even like this... I know when you want to run, and I know when you want to stay."

Elias finally turned his head enough to glance back at him, brown eyes cool, sharp. "You mistake patience for belonging," he said softly.

Victor only smiled, slow and certain, crimson gaze unwavering. "Patience," he whispered, pressing his hand firmer to Elias’s hip, "is how I win."

Elias’s mouth curved faintly, though it wasn’t quite a smile. ’Patience is how you win? You think I’ll just fold because your arm’s heavy and the bond hums when you breathe against my skin?’

And yet, there it was, the steady thrum under his ribs, the quiet ache of something that wasn’t annoyance, wasn’t anger, and which he didn’t have the discipline to dismiss as easily as he wanted. The bond didn’t lie. Maybe it didn’t sing like soulmates, but it pulsed, clear enough that even he couldn’t pretend Victor was imagining it.

’Damn it,’ he thought, jaw tightening. Maybe I do like this more than I should.’

Victor watched him with that infuriating patience, crimson eyes sharpened but smugly calm, as if he could feel every shade of Elias’s hesitation through the tether. He didn’t press further, his silence was worse than words, daring Elias to break it first.

The tension broke with a soft knock, followed by the familiar creak of the door. Adam slipped inside, immaculate in the dark suit with the NumenCorp insignia on the lapel of his coat. His eyes flicked briefly over the scene on the bed before fixing dutifully on Victor. "Master," he said smoothly, voice even despite the faint twitch at the corner of his mouth. "We’ve just received the data package from Master Samael. It concerns Matteo."

Victor’s arm tightened once, possessive, before he finally shifted, gaze cutting from Elias to Adam, the entire room tilting back toward the gravity of business.

Elias blinked slowly, letting the silence settle just long enough to remind Victor that he wasn’t the only one who could hold ground. Then, without moving from the circle of his arm, he said evenly, "If this is about Matteo, then I want to see the video you mentioned the other night. The one Samael sent you."

Victor’s gaze flicked back down at him, crimson sharpening, amusement curving at the edges of his mouth like a man caught between irritation and approval.

"You ask as if it were a request," Victor murmured.

Elias’s expression didn’t shift. "Take it however you like. But I’m not being left blind while you sort through half-truths and hidden files."

The bond hummed faintly, echoing the steel under his words, and for once Victor didn’t answer right away. Adam, wisely, kept his eyes fixed on the far wall, though Elias didn’t miss the subtle pause in his stance, like even he understood the weight of what had just been said.

Victor’s gaze lingered, crimson cutting through him, until his mouth curved in that maddeningly slow way that meant he’d already decided something Elias wouldn’t like.

"You’ll see it," he said finally, voice smooth as glass. "But only if you come with me shopping today."