Elias's steps faltered for a heartbeat. Part of him wanted to turn back, to tell her, flat and cold, that she had no claim on him now, no right to summon him like she used to. That she had left him with nothing and he owed her less. The words were already forming behind his teeth.
But before he could pivot, Victor's palm pressed more firmly at the small of his back, steering him forward. The quiet pressure was as unyielding as iron.
"Are you going to give her the attention promised to me?" Victor asked, the words a velvet thread against Elias's ear. When he smiled, it was a slow, dazzling curve, the kind of smile that could sell a lie or close a merger, but there was a flash beneath it, a flicker of heat in his crimson eyes that made nearby omegas actually pause in mid-breath.
Elias tilted his head just enough to look at him out of the corner of his eye, a dry curl tugging at his mouth. "I was about to give her a piece of my mind," he muttered. "But yours is scarier."
