He made another coffee that tasted like burnt rope, he sat while he inhaled it. The hotel's complimentary instant coffee was an insult to coffee beans everywhere, but it served its purpose.
He replayed the video, practicing the lines the original host had left in the drafts. A verse that sounded like a farewell and a chorus that sounded like an argument with fate.
He listened once, twice and until the melody dug in and rearranged the angles of his thinking.
He hummed along without intending to, matching the pitch in a way that surprised him. It matched the underlying tone even when his own was rustier.
About halfway through the second time, a soft knock came at the door.
Levi's body froze. A single knock that belonged to someone that believed the person inside would know what that was.
Levi paused the video playing, the phone screen still glowing. 'Why did Noah come personally?' .
For a moment he entertained every plausible scenario. Noah realises that his supposedly traumatized omega was functioning far too well for someone who'd barely survived a type B rut, each thought worse than the last. He could be surprised.
He stood up swiftly and slid a hand to the narrow drawer where he'd placed a small knife he palmed from the hotel's fruit basket. 'Old habits'.
The metal felt ridiculously inadequate in his hand, it was more of a letter opener than a weapon, but it was better than nothing.
He crossed the room in three steps and peered through the peephole.
A man stood in the hallway, wearing a dark suit that rumbled in a way that suggested he'd rushed here quickly. The two top buttons of his shirt were undone, his tie loosened. The peephole exaggerated the rest, but there was no mistaking him.
'Humph, I was right' Levi exhaled. He studied the alpha's posture for a while. It was rigid, hands clasped behind his back in a way that suggested he was exercising considerable self-control.
Levi made his decision. He slid the knife into the drawer and walked back to the door and twisted the doorknob.
A thought struck him.
This was the first time they'd met face-to-face while they were fully conscious and in control.
'Time to establish some ground rules'
He opened the door. Wide enough for Noah Sterling to fill the frame.
The alpha said nothing. His dark hair was slightly mussed. Not the furious storm Levi had expected, but something complex. A little uncertain maybe.
'Interesting'
Levi leaned against the doorframe and noticed two things. One, Noah Sterling was huge and even more imposing face-to-face. Two, the alpha's eyes widened slightly at the sight of him.
Noah's gaze traveled from his face down to his bare feet and back up again, lingering just long enough to make the survey feel deliberate. When their eyes met, there was something almost vulnerable in Noah's expression, quickly masked but unmistakably there.
The silence stretched between them, thick with unspoken implications. Noah seemed to be cataloging every detail. The way Levi's borrowed clothes hung loose on his smaller frame, the faint shadows under his eyes, the fact that he was standing upright and alert instead of cowering.
Levi found himself oddly amused by the intensity of that stare. There was something almost...hungry in it. Not sexual hunger, though that was certainly there, but something deeper.
'Hey, chat. Is this feeling of possessiveness omegas get from alphas?'
"Well," Levi said finally, his voice carrying a trace of amusement.
"Noah, are you going to brood in my hallway all night, or would you come in?"
Noah blinked, as if the sound of his voice had broken some kind of spell. The use of his first name seemed to surprise the alpha. Noah stepped into the small hotel room without a word, his presence immediately making the space feel cramped.
Levi closed the door behind him and turned to find Noah staring at him again with that same intense focus. It was unsettling in a way that had nothing to do with fear and everything to do with the way it made his borrowed body respond. Heat pooled low in his stomach, and he could feel his scent shifting slightly in response to the alpha's proximity.
Annoying. The omega biology was going to take some getting used to.
"You can sit," Levi said, gesturing to the room's single chair. "Though I suppose you're more comfortable standing. Easier to loom that way."
Noah didn't sit. Instead, he continued to study Levi with an expression that was equal parts confusion and fascination.
Levi shifted, deliberately careless. His body language screamed indifference.
This was the first time Noah would see Levi in person, face to face. He had a different temperament than the omega he had seen years ago.
Finally, Noah broke the silence, low and just almost uncertain.
"You're alive"
Levi raised a brow, smirking faintly "Hmm, disappointed?"
"The reports said you had gone missing. That you'd..." He paused, seeming to choose his words carefully. "That you were... unstable"
Levi felt a familiar coldness settle over him, the same detached calculation that had served him well in his previous life. 'Ah. So the Quinn family had been busy spinning their narrative, huh?'
"And you believed them?" Levi moved to the bed and sat cross-legged on the rumpled sheets, deliberately casual. The implication of such words was clear "That I'd wake up, only to throw myself at random alphas like some kind of desperate omega in heat?"
Something flickered across Noah's face. Anger, maybe, or disappointment. "You look... stable"
Levi's mouth twitched 'okay?'
"You also disappeared. My people couldn't find you." And now he finally stated his intent for being here.
"Your people," Levi repeated, tasting the words. "How very...proprietary of you."
The comment hit its mark. Noah's jaw tightened, and his scent shifted toward something more aggressive.
Levi interrupted, "Yes, we fucked. But it doesn't make me your property." Interpreting what Noah was implying.
"You could have died." The words came out rougher than Noah had probably intended. "Other Type B alphas…"
"Might kill me, yes. But they also might not." Levi tilted his head, studying Noah's reaction. "After all, if I survived you, what does that say about my...resilience?"
Noah went very still. "You don't understand what you're saying."
"Don't I?" Levi leaned back on his hands, the position deliberately relaxed despite the tension crackling between them.