✦ Chapter 21 ✦
Elian's brows drew together slowly, as though the muscles themselves hesitated to obey him. The question had not struck him sharply—it settled, heavy and cold, sinking into his chest the way winter sinks into the earth, quiet and inevitable.
"I don't… understand what you mean," he said at last.
His voice was barely louder than breath. He kept his eyes lowered, watching his fingers twist the blanket over and over, the fabric bunching beneath his grip as if he were afraid that if he stopped moving, something inside him might shatter.
Philip's sigh drifted through the room, long and weighted.
A hand came to rest on Elian's shoulder—warm, grounding, impossibly gentle.
"For an omega to mark an Alpha," Philip said, carefully choosing each word, "especially a superior Alpha… it shouldn't be possible. Not without consent. Not without the Alpha opening himself to it."
Elian's breath faltered.
The room felt suddenly too small. Too close.
His fingers went still.
