CHAPTER 79: CHAPTER 79: PROPER PLACEMENT.

Ashwin stepped in quietly.

There was no need for him to look around at first. The air told him everything, thick with pheromones and power, steeped in heat and the unmistakable imprint of possession. The kind that left a room changed, marked like stone after lightning.

Then he saw the bed.

Elias lay curled under the covers, hair damp, skin flushed, one arm thrown across the pillow as if too tired to pull it back. The faint shimmer of red ether clung to him like mist, clinging to his throat, to his chest, Victor’s ether. His bond. And yet... not a completed one.

Ashwin looked to Victor, expression unreadable. "You didn’t do it," he said finally.

Victor didn’t rise. He looked utterly at ease in the chair, one ankle resting on the opposite knee, eyes hooded but sharp.

"No," he replied. "Not yet."

"That’s surprising..." Ashwin muttered, raking a hand through his hair as he stepped closer, careful to keep his voice low. The glow of Victor’s ether still clung faintly to the air, enough to make the corners of the room hum, but Elias didn’t stir—draped in sleep like someone too wrung out to remember where his body ended.

Ashwin cast a brief glance at the bed, then back to Victor.

"You had him open," he said, flat but not judgmental. "You had his trust, his body, everything. So why not finish it?"

Victor raised one of his eyebrows and leaned back in his armchair, utterly relaxed. "Because I want him to ask for it."

"You are greedy." Ashwin said with a soft exhale.

"Of course I’m greedy; I’ve become a god, plus soulbonds tether only if both parties know what it means and want it. I could mark him right now, but it won’t be any different from an alpha mark on his chosen omega. "

Ashwin let out a quiet breath. "You’d rather wait and risk losing him?"

Victor’s gaze darkened. "There is no losing him," he said simply. "There’s only whether he stays by will... or manipulation. I want the first."

Ashwin glanced back at the bed. Elias hadn’t moved. His breathing was steady, lips parted slightly against the pillow’s edge, lashes casting faint shadows over cheeks still flushed with exhaustion.

"He’ll feel it soon," Ashwin murmured. "Your ether’s too deep in him to ignore."

"I know," Victor said, tone low. "It’s already threading through his own."

Ashwin studied him, not quite approving, but no longer critical either. "Elias is a good choice, if there is any to be made." He paused, leaning into the window frame, his arms crossed on his chest. "Earlier... I came to inform you that Elias’s father, Jonathan Clarke, is on his way to us."

Victor’s head tilted in amusement. "Oh, really? The traitor has the guts to come to me?"

Ashwin didn’t return the smile. His expression remained still and composed, though there was a flicker of something unreadable in his eyes.

"He’s not coming for you," he said. "He’s coming for his son."

Victor’s gaze sharpened, the humor bleeding from his features like ink in water. His body stilled, predatory calm settling over him like a second skin.

"Of course he is; he had tried to get Elias back the moment his son-in-law found out that I’m interested in him."

"Do you think Matteo is allied with them or Samael?"

Victor chuckled. "Samael, like Ruo, is a double agent of mine; Jonathan trusts him and thinks he’s an ally of Theobald. Matteo... seems to be just another alpha obsessed with an omega that is compatible with him."

Ashwin’s brow lifted slightly, but his arms remained crossed, his posture unreadable.

"Obsessed is putting it mildly," he said. "Matteo’s been circling Elias since high school."

"Oh, really? Do tell me more about it."

Ashwin exhaled through his nose, then tapped a few times on the thin tablet sleeping on the low table between them. He passed it to Victor without a word.

The moment Victor glanced at the screen, his expression turned coldly attentive.

"Matteo Weller," Ashwin began, voice clipped and even. "Local cop, investigative bureau. Barely passed the academy, but he’s efficient when it suits him. Refuses promotions, says he can’t stand the bureaucracy. Authority issues wrapped in a savior complex."

Victor’s lip curled faintly. "A cop who doesn’t want oversight. How noble."

Ashwin ignored the sarcasm. "He and Elias went to the same high school. Different tracks, Matteo stuck to vocational training and athletics; Elias was top of the academic tier. They didn’t mix, but Matteo noticed him early."

Victor’s gaze didn’t shift. "Why?"

"Elias was quiet, brilliant, and didn’t bow to anyone. Matteo saw that and got it in his head that Elias was some kind of project. Or prize." Ashwin’s tone sharpened slightly. "He asked him out when they were eighteen. Elias said yes, politely. Thought it was harmless."

Victor’s fingers tapped once against the side of the tablet. "It wasn’t."

Ashwin’s mouth flattened. "The date was at a small coffee shop near their school. Matteo showed up late, didn’t apologize, and spent ten minutes talking about himself. Called the barista ’sweetheart’ and told Elias he looked better when he didn’t talk so much."

Victor stilled.

"Elias stayed twenty minutes," Ashwin continued. "He finished his drink, paid for both of them, and left. Matteo didn’t follow, but he made a scene about it later, told mutuals Elias was ’rude,’ ’stuck up,’ that he ’could’ve had something real if he wasn’t so damaged.’"

Victor’s eyes darkened, slow and steady. "He said that about someone whose own family had just thrown him out?"

Ashwin nodded once. "That was the same month the Clarkes cut him off. No housing, no funds, no records. They stripped everything down to his school ID and vanished like he was never theirs. Elias didn’t even have a couch to sleep on."

Victor’s jaw flexed, but he said nothing. The air around him shifted, quieter, colder.

"Matteo showed up again two years later," Ashwin continued. "With an apology for his ’immature self.’ Said he’d grown up, figured things out. He didn’t push for another date, just... lingered."

Victor’s red eyes narrowed slightly. "Hovered."

"Exactly. He started showing up around Elias’s friend circle. Playing the supportive figure. Got buddy-buddy with Elias’s classmates, his old professors, and even a few of the local reporters who were interested in his academic work. Now he knows everyone."

"Positioning," Victor said flatly.

Ashwin tilted his head. "Carefully done, too. He’s made himself appear harmless. Background noise. A helpful face who was just ’always around’ when Elias needed something, notes, or coffee at the right time."

Victor’s voice dropped to something far quieter. "He won’t be around much longer."