Chapter 82: Three Options

Levi sat on the edge of the wider bed in his new room and stared at the opposite wall until the light through the window changed.

Three days. The Alpha’s order sat in the center of his every thought: choose Aaron or Dexter on the night of the wedding, then disappear to a secondary mansion far enough from the main castle that Kai and Flora could live without the complication of him.

He turned the two names over until they lost their shape. Aaron had been the kindest, the most honest in his temper, the one who had made him feel a little bit of worth in a place where everybody considered him an instrument in some game. Choosing him should have been simple.

But it was not simple. Merrick existed. Choosing Aaron meant inheriting that mess. It meant sharing a life with a servant who had already proven he would wear another omega’s scent and take what was never offered.

But outside Aaron, his only other choice was Dexter, and choosing Dexter was not a future, it was a surrender. He wasn’t even sure the third prince liked him, he simply liked the idea of him, and living with that psycho felt worse than cohabitation with Merrick.

Levi pressed the heels of his hands against his eyes. He was at a dead end, and had no idea what to do. Perhaps he should speak with Merrick, the servant was the only factor keeping Levi from reaching a conclusion.

He had told himself he never wanted to see Merrick, but this wasn’t the time to battle with pride, this was serious, and he needed answers. So he swallowed what was left of that pride and went to find Merrick.

***

The servants’ quarters sat lower and narrower than the family wing. The air smelled of soap, starch, and too many bodies living too close together. Levi had not walked these corridors since the earliest days of the blood debt. He found the correct door by asking a kitchen runner who looked at the three marks on his throat and answered too quickly.

He knocked once.

When the door opened, Merrick stood in the gap looking like someone who had not fully rejoined the household since the night of Aaron’s birthday. The swelling around his mouth had gone down, but the gap where the tooth had been was still visible when he spoke, even though it looked like the tooth was regrowing slowly. He wore plain servant black again, and the claim mark on his throat was healing under the high collar he had not bothered to fasten completely.

Levi stopped on the threshold.

Something was off.

It was not only the claim. Claims had a particular weight; Levi carried three of them so he knew the signature. It was not only the absence of suppressants, this was different. Under the ordinary notes sat something more distinct, more layered, a uniqueness Levi had not perceived on him before. It tugged at the edge of recognition and then slipped away before he could name it.

Merrick’s eyes widened for a fraction of a second. Then the expression flattened into careful neutrality.

"What do you want?"

"To talk," Levi said. "About Aaron."

He stepped inside when Merrick did not close the door. The room was small: cot, washstand, a single chair, the same kind of space Levi had once occupied before the Alpha’s orders moved him upward. Merrick stayed on his feet, Levi did not sit either.

"Aaron has claimed me as well," Levi said. "Fully. You already knew about the others. You should know about this one too."

Merrick went still.

The unhappiness arrived in two clear pieces. First, the leverage Merrick had used on the floor of Aaron’s rooms was no longer unique or decisive if Aaron himself had put a third claim on Levi in the open. Second, Merrick did not want to share. The idea of Aaron’s attention, Aaron’s bond, Aaron’s future being split with anyone else sat on his face like a physical pain.

"Did you come here to rub it in?" Merrick asked. His voice had gone tight.

"No."

"Then why are you here?"

Levi held his gaze. "Do you love him? Aaron."

Merrick’s answer came without hesitation.

"Yes. More than you could ever imagine."

The certainty in it was absolute, and to a certain degree it kind of scared Levi. But he wasn’t done with his questions.

"What would happen if the two of us were expected to take him and cohabitate? Share a house. Share a life. Share him." 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ

Merrick’s mood shifted at once. The careful neutrality cracked into something sharper and more defensive.

"Where are you getting with these questions?"

Levi already had his answer.

He had seen the same look on Dexter’s face when the third prince spoke about not wanting to share. Obsession wore different clothes on different people, but the shape underneath was the same. Merrick loved Aaron with a focus that left no clean room for a second omega. Levi loved Aaron, but he was not sure he was ready to spend the rest of his life competing for that love against someone who had already proven how far he would go to take it.

He could not see himself doing it, and he also could not see himself choosing Dexter.

The walls of the small room felt closer than they had when he entered. The unique edge in Merrick’s scent still tugged at him, unnamed and unsettling.

He had three options now, accept Aaron and learn to live with Merrick’s claim and obsession sitting in the same house for the rest of whatever life the Alpha allowed them. Second, choose Dexter and the cold, predictable madness that came with him. And third, the option the Alpha had put on the table once before, leave the territory, become free in the limited way an omega without a pack could be free. Forget the brothers, the marks, and everything that had anything to do with them.

Right now, standing in a servant’s doorway with Merrick’s unhappiness still thick in the air, the third option looked like the safest one.