CHAPTER 464: CHAPTER 464: THEY ARE COMING FOR DEAN

Serathine noticed the shift into the two young men. Her smile dipped into something gentler, almost apologetic... which was exactly the moment Caelan decided subtlety was overrated and tossed a political grenade straight into the middle of the living room.

"Well," he said, settling back like a man preparing to enjoy reactions, "that brings us to the actual reason we came."

Lucas and Trevor exchanged one of those long-suffering parental looks. Sebastian and Dean both straightened, instinctively mirroring each other, shoulders squared, jaws tight.

Serathine placed her cup down with the elegance of someone preparing to deliver unpleasant news wrapped in expensive silk. "A diplomatic delegation is arriving in three days," she said, her voice soft but carrying the weight of a bell toll. "From the Empire of Alamina."

Trevor blinked. "Alamina sent a delegation? Here?"

Lucas narrowed his eyes. "They’ve been quiet for years. Why now?"

"Oh, you’re going to love this," Caelan murmured into his tea.

Serathine shot him a warning look and continued. "They’re coming for a marriage alliance."

Dean felt Sebastian go absolutely still beside him, the way animals sense the moment before a storm hits.

Trevor rubbed his face. "For which family?"

Serathine’s gaze slid to Dean first, then Sebastian, then back to Lucas and Trevor, almost apologetic, definitely bracing.

"One of Palatine’s dominant heirs," she said. "Preferably one with a clean bloodline, strong presentation, and... considerable potential... preferable dominant omega as their crown prince is dominant alpha."

Dean’s lungs stopped working for a whole, stupid second. A dominant omega. They wanted a dominant omega. They wanted him.

Sebastian’s hand tightened on the back of the couch, fingers curling like he was physically restraining himself from throwing something, or someone, out a window.

Caelan, of course, looked delighted by the tension. "Their Crown Prince, Arion of Alamina, is twenty-four," he said with the casual tone of a man dropping irrelevant trivia, "and apparently his advisors believe his pheromonal baseline is nearing the threshold."

Dean blinked. "Threshold?"

Trevor grimaced. "The point where a dominant alpha either finds a bonded match... or begins to crack under his own intensity."

Lucas exhaled slowly. "Without a dominant partner, he’ll eventually destabilize. They’re desperate."

Sebastian muttered, "And they think the solution is to come poach one of ours."

Serathine shot him a look equal parts approving and concerned. "They think the solution is to secure a bond that would stabilize their heir and produce a future generation of dominants strong enough to keep Alamina from collapsing into internal power struggles."

Caelan lifted a brow. "Alamina has been... twitchy. For years."

Trevor leaned forward, elbows on his knees, shoulders tight enough to crack. "And they want Dean."

Serathine’s tone softened. "They specifically asked for a dominant omega with a balanced profile and extraordinary pheromonal projection." Her eyes drifted toward Dean. "Your manifestation made waves across more than one border, my dear."

Dean flushed so instantly it hurt. "I didn’t mean to make waves."

Sebastian snorted. "You breathed too loudly and half the continent felt it."

Dean’s elbow shot out and hit Sebastian’s ribs. Sebastian didn’t flinch, but the corner of his mouth twitched.

Caelan watched the brothers with a nostalgic little sigh. "Ah. The days when my own children elbowed each other before negotiations."

Lucas shot him a look. "We’re trying to lower Dean’s blood pressure, not raise it."

"His blood pressure will survive," Caelan said. "Mine did."

Trevor gave him a flat stare. "Yours tried to assassinate you twice."

"That’s unrelated," Caelan said.

Dean ran a trembling hand through his hair. He wasn’t weak, he wasn’t fragile, but the thought of being matched to some far-off prince because his gene profile aligned with an empire’s panic, yeah, that did something unpleasant in his stomach.

Sebastian noticed and he wasn’t happy about it.

"Hey," he murmured, leaning closer, voice low so only Dean could hear. "You’re not being handed off. Anyone tries, I’ll bite them."

Dean huffed, not exactly laughing but not drowning either. "You’d bite a crown prince?"

"Yes," Sebastian said without hesitation. "Especially."

Trevor rubbed a hand over his face. "The issue isn’t whether we’ll say yes, we’re not, but that they think they have the right to negotiate our children like... like pheromonal stabilizers you can sign out of a vault."

Caelan let out a long, pointed sigh, the kind that meant everyone should buckle in.

"Trevor, I understand the resistance, I do. But let’s not pretend you didn’t acquire Lucas through Serathine’s particularly creative diplomacy. Yes, yes, he chose you, don’t glare, but you also conveniently lied to him about Dax’s personality."

Lucas’s head snapped up. "Caelan...!"

Caelan talked right over him. "And Dax kidnapped Chris. He literally whisked that poor boy out of Palatine within days of meeting him. You cannot tell me a dominant alpha confronted with his only possible match is going to behave reasonably. Biology does not care about etiquette manuals."

Trevor’s eye twitched dangerously. "That does not justify..."

Caelan held up a finger like he was lecturing a first-year officer.

"Furthermore, Dax has three children: one dominant alpha heir and two dominant omega little ones, one fifteen and the other eight. So if Alamina is looking for someone of compatible age and strength... well."

His gaze flicked to Dean with almost sympathetic precision.

"There aren’t many options."

Serathine tried to soothe the tension. "The only other viable option for Dean is Dax’s son, but you two aren’t compatible at all."

Serathine softened her voice, trying to ease the blow without sugarcoating the truth.

"The only other viable match on paper would have been Dax’s heir... but the pheromone compatibility test ruled that out."

Dean’s head snapped up. "What test?"

Lucas winced slightly. "Dax... may have run a compatibility screening months ago."

Dean blinked, stunned. "On me?"

Trevor lifted both hands, defensive. "He did it quietly. He just wanted to be sure you and his son weren’t reacting to each other because of proximity or the palace environment."

Sebastian’s eyes narrowed. "And?"

Serathine folded her hands neatly in her lap. "And the results were clear. You and Dax’s dominant alpha heir are fundamentally incompatible. Your pheromonal signatures repel rather than stabilize."

Caelan nodded, entirely unapologetic. "Which, frankly, is fortunate. Two dominants of opposite classifications can work beautifully, but only if the body chemistry aligns. Yours and his? Oil and fire. You’d burn each other out within weeks."

Dean stared at the carpet. "...So even that option was off the table."

Sebastian muttered, "Good," in a tone that suggested he didn’t trust Dax’s heir with a houseplant, much less his brother.

Serathine gave Dean a sympathetic look. "It means Alamina will look at you and see a single, unique option. The only dominant omega in your age bracket who manifested."