CHAPTER 185: CHAPTER 185: PENDING TRAINING

The morning light was softer than the day before, washed out and silvery against the frost on the window. Elias blinked into it, slow and bleary, the smell of clean sheets and the heavier scent of Victor still wrapped around him like a second blanket. His muscles ached in a low, pleasant way; every shift of his hips made a memory rise, heat blooming faintly under his skin.

He rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling for a moment, one arm thrown over his eyes. Gods, he was actually flushed at his own thoughts.

When he tried to move again, something heavier stopped him. Victor’s arm was draped across his waist, big hand splayed over his stomach, thumb rubbing an absent circle against his skin. The alpha’s breath was warm at his shoulder, slow and steady, but his crimson eyes were open and watching. There was no shame, no pretense of sleep.

"You’re awake," Elias muttered, voice scratchy.

"I didn’t sleep," Victor said, completely unbothered. His fingers gave a small squeeze at Elias’s waist, drawing him a little closer until his back brushed Victor’s chest. "You’re flushed."

Elias made a face into the pillow. "Maybe because of you. You’re like a furnace."

"Mm." Victor pressed a lazy kiss to the side of his neck. "We’ve still got at least one more free day," he murmured. "Two, if I push the schedule. You can stay right here. Eat. Sleep. Let me hold you."

Elias huffed, part laugh, part sigh. "I like you, Victor. And I appreciate all of this. But this is... pampered beyond reason. You’re going to start spoon-feeding me soon."

Victor’s teeth flashed briefly against his skin, a smile hidden in the kiss. "You are being pampered beyond reason," he admitted without a shred of shame. "You’re mine, and you’ve changed. You deserved care while your body catches up."

Elias tilted his head back a little to look at him, brow furrowed. "And after this ’care’ phase passes?"

Victor’s thumb swept another slow circle at his stomach. "Then you’ll pay," he said softly, amused but absolutely serious. "Training, work, whatever I decide you’re ready for. Right now you get held. After this, you’ll get built."

Elias rolled his eyes but didn’t move out of his hold. "You make it sound like a threat."

Victor’s mouth curved against his skin. "A promise," he said. "Now stop thinking about it. You’ve got another day to enjoy being spoiled before I turn you into my apprentice properly."

Elias exhaled, letting his head fall back against Victor’s shoulder. "Fine. But if you start spoon-feeding me, I’m biting your hand."

The low chuckle that rumbled against his back felt more like a purr than a laugh. "Noted," Victor murmured, his lips brushing the shell of Elias’s ear. "But until then, you’re mine to spoil."

Elias tried for a scowl, but it came out more like a half-smile. "You really don’t know when to quit."

"I do," Victor said, voice dropping into that velvet register that always made Elias’s stomach tighten. "I just don’t want to."

He shifted behind him, fitting his body more snugly to Elias’s until their legs tangled under the covers. The thumb at Elias’s stomach kept its slow circles, steady as a heartbeat, an unspoken promise that he wasn’t going anywhere.

—

Two days later the frost outside had thickened, but inside the Numen research complex it felt like midsummer. Elias stood in the middle of a cavernous lab, the scent of ozone, sterilized metal, and faint machine oil stinging his nose. Banks of equipment hummed in neat rows. Glass partitions divided work areas into transparent cells, each one humming with blue-white light. This wasn’t the clean, silent boardroom world Victor usually dragged him into; this was the field.

And he was dressed for it.

Utility boots. Cargo trousers. A dark shirt under a padded vest with more pockets than he’d ever used in his life. He looked like an extra from some expedition documentary, not a researcher.

He tugged at the collar of the vest, glaring at the ceiling. "This is not my usual dress code," he muttered. "If this is about hiking, I’m going back to bed."

Across the lab, Ruo practically vibrated behind her tablet. Her dark suit jacket had been replaced by a fitted lab coat; goggles were pushed up onto her head like a crown. "You look perfect," she said brightly. "You’re going to love this."

"No," Elias said flatly. "I’m not."

"Stop pouting," Ruo shot back, undeterred. "You’ve been sitting in Victor’s office like a paperweight for over a month. You need to see what you’re capable of."

Connor was leaning against a console, arms crossed, mouth curved in a smirk that promised nothing good. "This is better than the cafeteria," he drawled. "I’m getting popcorn."

Ashwin, for once not in his suit jacket, stood just behind Elias with the patient air of a man about to grab someone by the back of their vest. "If you try to run," he murmured, "I’m faster than you."

"I believe you," Elias said, taking a step back anyway.

Robert said nothing. He was by the door, expression carved from stone as usual, eyes scanning the lab as though expecting an ambush at any moment. Only the faint flicker of amusement at the corner of his mouth betrayed him.

Victor chose that moment to step through the side door. No suit today either; he wore dark tactical trousers and a fitted black shirt rolled to the elbows, every line of him built for movement instead of meetings. The scent of him cut through the chemical air immediately: smoke and spice and something colder beneath.

Elias pointed at his own outfit, then at Victor’s, then back at himself. "What exactly are we doing?"

Victor’s crimson eyes glinted, but he didn’t answer right away. He walked toward Elias with the slow, easy stride of someone who already owned the room, stopped just close enough to brush a thumb over the edge of Elias’s vest, and said, "Training."

"Training," Elias repeated. "With machines that hum like a spaceship."

"With your ether," Victor corrected softly. "So you don’t burn yourself the next time you reach for something that isn’t yours." His smile curved, warm but edged. "You’re not going to bolt, Elias. Not today."

Ruo clapped her hands once, delighted. "Finally. This is going to be so much fun."

Elias looked from her sparkling eyes to Connor’s smirk to Ashwin’s resigned expression and Robert’s stone face, then back to Victor. "...I’m going to regret this, aren’t I?"

Victor’s smile deepened, shameless as ever. "Almost certainly."