CHAPTER 125: CHAPTER 125: HOME TONIGHT

The line went dead a moment later, a flat click swallowed by the hum of his laptop. Elias stood there longer than he meant to, thumb still brushing the mark at his neck as if Ruo’s words had branded deeper than Victor’s teeth ever had.

Compatible with all of them.

Seven gods.

Perfect socket.

He pushed himself away from the glass, crossing back to the desk with swift steps. The chair squeaked under his weight as he sat, the screen’s glow throwing cold light across his face.

The inbox waiting on his laptop was a mess of updates:Ashwin’s mirrored reports, corporate summaries stamped with Numen’s insignia, and drafts of research proposals he’d half abandoned when his life had been consumed by a man who didn’t believe in asking. He stared at them, his hands idle on the keyboard.

Ruo’s voice wouldn’t leave his head. ’Tell me I’m wrong.’

He wasn’t sure she was.

His reflection stared back at him in the dark glass of the screen, glasses crooked, jaw set, a man who looked like he hadn’t slept properly in weeks. He let out a sharp breath, tugging them off and setting them on the desk.

The laptop pinged, a notification flashing in the corner, but Elias didn’t move. His phone vibrated against the desk, the screen lighting up with a name he didn’t need to read.

Victor.

Elias exhaled slowly, pressing the answer button and sinking back into his chair. "Done scaring your board?"

"They scare themselves," Victor’s voice came through the line, deep, velvet-dark, and threaded with the faint edge of amusement. Even over a call, it carried weight, like something that pressed against Elias’s ribs from the inside. "All I did was stand."

Elias huffed, tilting his head back until it rested against the chair’s edge, eyes closing. The leather smelled faintly of Victor, sharp, with something dark threaded underneath, a scent that had worked itself into everything he touched. Even here, alone in his room, the bond tugged with quiet insistence, filling the space as if Victor were only a step away.

"Arrogant as always," Elias muttered.

"Accurate," Victor corrected, blunt and unapologetic. His tone curved warmer at the end, though, as if the arrogance was meant to reassure.

For a moment, the line was only breathing, Victor’s steady, Elias’s shallower, paced as he rolled the phone between his fingers. Then Victor said, "You spoke with her."

Elias cracked one eye open, gaze flicking to his reflection in the black screen of the laptop. "I called Ruo, yes."

A low hum answered him, inviting and unbothered. Elias could almost picture the faint curve of Victor’s mouth as he listened. "And?"

"And she thinks you don’t understand patience," Elias said, shifting in his chair, one hand tugging absently at the collar of his shirt where the bond still thrummed under his skin. "That you plastered your mark on me because you couldn’t wait."

Silence, the kind of pause Victor used when he already knew the answer and was waiting for Elias to admit it to himself. Then a quiet laugh, deep and sharp, rolled through the speaker. "She’s right. I didn’t wait. You gave me permission, and I took it. Why would I pretend otherwise?"

Elias let out a dry sound, somewhere between annoyance and reluctant amusement, and dragged a hand over his face. Victor’s scent clung to his wrist, as if reminding him who had marked him. "I knew you’d say that."

"You knew because you trust me," Victor replied, his voice smoothing into something quieter, heavier, until Elias felt it down his spine. "And you also know that if you ask me a question, Elias, I’ll answer it. Even if you don’t like what you hear."

Elias leaned forward, elbows braced on the desk, staring at the laptop’s glow but seeing nothing. Ruo’s words pressed at the back of his skull, seven gods, perfect socket. His fingers ghosted once over the mark on his neck, heat thrumming under the skin.

"Did you listen to our call?" Elias asked.

Victor chuckled, low and certain. "No. But I know Ruo. She’s more protective of you than your own family ever managed. She sharpens her tongue on anyone she thinks might hurt you, and I sit highest on that list. It’s natural she’d press you with uncomfortable questions."

Elias leaned back again, thumb tracing the edge of the desk. "She thinks you don’t see me as a person. Just a solution. A socket."

Victor took a measured breath before answering. "She calls you her brother. She sees it as her role to guard you from everything, including me. I don’t fault her for it." His tone dropped, firm but not unkind. "But she’s wrong if she believes I only see utility. Elias, I’ve lived long enough to know the difference between an anchor and a soulmate. You’re both."

Elias’s jaw tightened. "You have an answer for everything?"

Victor hummed, the sound low and self-assured. "Most likely."

Elias snorted, rubbing the corner of his eye with one knuckle. "That’s insufferable."

Victor didn’t miss a beat. "That’s honesty."

The bond pulsed faintly at Elias’s neck, a quiet thrum like a second heartbeat. He shifted in his chair, letting his head fall back again, eyes half-lidded. "You know, Ruo would have a field day hearing you talk like this. She thinks I’m already letting you crawl under my skin too far."

"You let me," Victor said bluntly, and there was no edge in it, only reassurance. "And I worked for it."

Elias tipped his head to the side, studying the faint reflection of himself in the laptop screen. "When are you coming back?"

There was the sound of a chair shifting on Victor’s end, muted voices in the background before the line cleared again. "Impatient?" he asked, his tone dropping into that velvet-dark warmth that always carried more weight than the words themselves. "Do you miss me?"

Elias smiled faintly, sharp and fleeting, then said, "Yes."

Elias pictured Victor in that moment, stilled, crimson eyes narrowing as if to measure whether he was being mocked.

When Victor finally spoke, his voice had lost none of its steadiness, but it was quieter, like it had cut past arrogance into something rarer. "Say it again."

Elias’s lips twitched. "I said it once. Don’t get greedy."

Victor chuckled low, the sound vibrating through the line until Elias felt it in his chest. "Greedy is in my nature. But I’ll accept it, for now."

The bond pulsed warm at Elias’s throat, insistent, as if it agreed with Victor’s demand. He pressed his thumb against the mark, steadying his own heartbeat.

"Good," Victor murmured, softer now, "because I’ll be home tonight."