CHAPTER 265: CHAPTER 265: A BREAKTHROUGH

Alan’s lips trembled, bloodied spit glistening on his chin. He swallowed hard, eyes darting to the side where a man in a tailored black suit had slipped into the room, clipboard in hand, pen poised. The agent didn’t look at Alan, his gaze fixed on Trevor, waiting for the nod. When Trevor gave the smallest tilt of his chin, the man began writing. Every word mattered.

"I... I first met with His Eminence six months ago," Alan rasped, his voice hoarse. "He came to me after service, in the chapel vestry. Said he’d heard of my debts. Said he could save me if I cooperated. I thought... I thought it was just small things, observations, notes about schedules, guests..."

Trevor’s expression didn’t flicker. He leaned back further in the chair, folding his arms, letting the silence eat at Alan until the man’s chest stuttered. The agent’s pen scratched against paper, crisp in the sterile air.

"Lies," Trevor said finally. "Really, how stupid do you think I am?"

Alan’s head jerked up, eyes wide, sweat plastering strands of hair to his forehead. "N-no! I swear—"

Trevor’s pheromones slammed down, subtle at first, then crushing like the air itself had thickened into stone. Alan gagged, his throat seizing as his lungs fought against the invisible weight.

"Ten years," Trevor said softly, violet eyes glinting under the harsh fluorescent light. "Ten years you’ve carried the stink of another man’s leash into my house. You expect me to believe this began with a debt collector’s whisper six months ago?"

The agent’s pen didn’t pause, the steady scratching filling the silence as Alan’s breath broke into wheezing gasps.

"I—" Alan’s voice cracked, his chest heaving, spit flecking his lips. "I was afraid! I thought... if I told the truth... you’d..."

Trevor leaned forward at last, arms braced on the table, his presence a shadow that swallowed the room. "You thought correctly."

Alan broke, his words spilling in frantic, broken bursts. "It was before... before you became Duke. I was already in his service. He promised protection, influence... if I kept him informed. Schedules, papers, guests, allies... it started small, but he always wanted more. Always."

Windstone’s pale green eyes flicked to Trevor’s, sharp with recognition. The agent’s pen scratched faster, boxing in the confession with merciless precision.

Trevor’s voice was a blade dragged slowly across glass. "Ten years. While you smiled at my table. While you bowed at my feet. Every secret you touched went straight to the priest."

Alan was too panicked to say anything else, gasping for an air his damaged lungs won’t feel anymore.

"What ability does Benedict have?" He asked evenly. "Every dominant alpha has an ability; mine is to burst blood and tissue to my will... Dax is even more violent...

Alan’s whole body trembled, cuffs rattling as if he could shake himself free of the pressure strangling him. His words came in stutters, dragged out of his lungs like splinters.

"He... His Eminence... Benedict... he doesn’t fight with strength. Not like you. Not like... the King." Alan’s eyes flickered with terror at the comparison, as though even naming Dax invited ruin. "He... he gets inside people. Their heads. Their instincts. You don’t notice it at first, it feels like faith... like trust. But by the time you realize, it’s obedience. He bends people without them even knowing they’ve been bent."

The agent’s pen scratched faster, crisp lines capturing every syllable. Windstone didn’t blink, his hands folded neatly behind his back, though the faintest narrowing of his eyes betrayed how useful this detail was.

Trevor tilted his head, studying Alan like a scientist dissecting something beneath glass. "Compulsion," he murmured. "A snake in the mind rather than teeth in the flesh."

Alan nodded frantically, swallowing down blood and spit. "Yes... yes, exactly. He doesn’t need to kill. He makes others do it. He can make you doubt your own will. He said if I gave him your House, he’d wash mine clean."

Trevor’s lips curved in a sardonic smile that promised a bloodbath. "And for ten years, you let him drip poison into my walls."

Alan sobbed, his voice cracking. "I didn’t want to! Then the boy appeared! He... he told me he wanted the omega most of all. That Lucas... Lucas carried something dangerous, something that would break the church if it ever came out. He said the only way to protect everything holy was to keep him close, to own him before anyone else could!"

The words tumbled out in a panic, and even Alan seemed to realize he had gone too far, his gaze snapping up to Trevor with wide, horrified eyes.

The room chilled. Trevor’s silence was a blade drawn halfway, violet eyes fixed on Alan with an intensity that made the air hum.

The agent’s pen didn’t pause. Scratch, scratch, scratch.

Windstone’s gaze flicked sideways, almost imperceptibly, as if waiting for Trevor’s decision on whether this confession would end in ink or in blood.

Trevor leaned back again, slowly taking his time with each movement, letting Alan feel the tension stretch taut as wire.

"Now we are getting somewhere." He said, tapping his fingers to the armrests. "Benedict is an undisclosed dominant alpha using his power to manipulate believers of the church." He chuckled darkly. "The Emperor and media would be really interested to hear more about this."

Alan’s head shook violently, droplets of sweat flinging from his temples. "No... please, don’t... if you expose him, the Church will... he’ll..."

Trevor’s pheromones spiked again, silencing him mid-plea. The air thickened, suffocating, pressing Alan down until his nails scraped against the steel table as though he could claw air into his lungs.

"The Church will burn," Trevor finished for him, voice calm, unhurried. "And if it doesn’t, I’ll see to it personally."

Windstone’s eyes narrowed, his pen still moving across the page without a tremor, but the faint twitch of his jaw said even he understood the weight of what had just been uncovered.

Trevor rose from his chair, unhurried, every line of his body carrying the certainty of a man who didn’t fear consequences, only delays. He circled the table, the soles of his polished shoes tapping a measured rhythm on the clean tile floor.

Alan shuddered as Trevor’s shadow loomed over him.

"You’re going to tell me," Trevor murmured, his voice pitched low and intimate, "exactly how Benedict intends to use Lucas. Every word, every plan, every order you carried. You’ll give me details he doesn’t even know you noticed. Because if you don’t..." He crouched, violet eyes locking on Alan’s wild ones, his scent flaring sharp and metallic like blood on iron. "I’ll do to you what I did to Jason. Only slower."

Alan whimpered, his body jerking under the invisible weight of Trevor’s pheromones. "He... he said the boy carries the Emperor’s blood... He said there was a past life where you destroyed everything for him. You ruined the church only to cater to a him... He said he disposed of him twice and he still had the power to come back."