Chapter 403: Chapter 403

Trevor’s grip tightened slightly, grounding him. "Lucas... breathe." Newest update provıded by novel✦fire.net

"I am breathing," Lucas snapped, his voice cutting through the air like a blade. His tone wasn’t panicked as Trevor expected it; he was furious. He turned toward the balcony again, jaw tight, every inch of him too still. "He thinks he can crawl into my head like that and I’ll just... freeze?"

Trevor didn’t answer immediately. He studied Lucas’s face instead, the subtle tremor beneath his composure, the way his pulse beat hard against his throat. "Tell me what you saw."

Lucas’s eyes flicked to him, sharp, bright with disbelief. "I didn’t see anything; I’ve felt his scent and I’ve remembered him."

That word seemed to pull the air thinner.

"It was something that came to mind," Lucas continued, pacing now, his steps soundless against the marble. "It was the villa with the amber walls and that damned firelight. I could smell him before I could think. And the moment I did, I was there again." His voice dipped, low and bitter. "He told me you were dead."

Trevor’s jaw tightened, but his tone stayed level. "And you believed him?"

Lucas froze mid-step. "No," he said, quieter now but no less fierce. "I believed that I wanted to kill him."

That earned a pause...even from Trevor.

Windstone, standing by the sealed doors with a scanner in hand, lifted his gaze briefly. "We didn’t find anything, or anyone that might be suspicious. He could let his scent on someone just to make Lucas suffer."

"Suffer..." Trevor said, remembering Yerofey’s journal. "Lucas... What is your pheromone trait capable of? I’ve never seen you use it."

Lucas stopped pacing. The question landed like a pin dropped in still water, quietly but with weight that spread quickly.

He turned his head toward Trevor, eyes narrowing slightly. "That’s a strange question to ask now... After two years of marriage."

"Well, I wanted to see it, rather than asking for it."

Lucas blinked, thrown off balance. "See it? Trevor, that’s not something you test like a new serum."

"I didn’t mean it like that," Trevor replied, though his voice carried its usual edge of curiosity. "But you’ve never once let it flare. Not once. Not when you are angry or scared. You’re too... restrained."

"That’s called self-control," Lucas shot back.

"It’s called suppression," Trevor countered quietly. "You do not just manage your pheromones; you bury them. Even dominant omegas show trace responses under stress. You don’t."

Windstone, still scanning, tilted his head slightly. "He’s correct, my lord. I have never recorded a pheromonal spike from His Grace. Not during confrontations, not during medical checks... It’s true that you scented the entire wing with mating pheromones, but otherwise, you are oddly calm."

Lucas turned on him. "Are you saying I’m broken?"

"Restrained maybe," Windstone corrected smoothly. "But perhaps... unaware of the full capacity of your physiology."

Trevor leaned back against the desk, watching Lucas with a steadiness that was more analysis than accusation. "Every profile we have on dominant omegas says the same thing, that they can awaken recessive alphas, bind them chemically, and make them dependent. You’ve done that, but only once, and even that didn’t act like the data suggests. Your control runs deeper."

Lucas frowned, his voice low. "I never used it like Trevor does when... he disposes of enemies. Not in my past life and not in this."

Trevor’s expression softened as he realized it was not mockery this time, but rather concern hidden behind calculation. "That’s exactly the point, Lucas," he said quietly. "You’ve never used it. Not once. Which means you don’t know what it actually does."

Lucas crossed his arms, defensive. "I know enough. I know what happens when dominant omegas push too far. "They break things they can’t fix and people they can’t fix."

"And you think not knowing makes you safer?" Trevor asked, his tone steady, almost gentle. "Because it doesn’t. It makes you vulnerable. Benedict already knows something we don’t."

Windstone, still nearby, didn’t look up from his device. "It would not be the first time an omega’s range was underestimated."

Lucas shot him a sharp glare, but Trevor’s voice cut through before it turned into another argument. "Lucas. Look at me."

He did reluctantly, but he did.

Trevor stepped closer, his shadow sliding across the marble floor until it met Lucas’s. His voice dropped to that low tone that made Lucas feel safe. "We need to find out what it is; something tells me Benedict is afraid of what you are hiding."

Lucas’s eyes flicked up to him, searching for irony and finding none. "Afraid?" he echoed. "You think he’s the one afraid?"

Trevor’s gaze didn’t waver. "Yes. Because if he weren’t, he wouldn’t be trying so hard to control the one thing he can’t replicate."

Lucas frowned, the words lodging somewhere between his throat and his chest. "You’re assuming there’s anything to control. Maybe I’m just..."

"Different," Trevor finished for him. "Yes. You are. And that’s precisely what makes him desperate."

Windstone finally looked up from his scanner, one eyebrow raised in quiet agreement. "If I may, my lord, predators rarely stalk what they don’t fear. They test boundaries they don’t yet understand."

Lucas gave a short, humorless laugh. "So now I’m prey in my own house?"

Trevor’s tone softened. "You’re not prey. You never were. But we can’t defend against something we can’t name, Lucas. And if Benedict can reach into your memory through scent alone, he’s already halfway inside your defenses."

Lucas’s breath came out unevenly sharp with frustration. "And what do you want me to do? Just, what?, try to feel dangerous?"

"I want you to stop pretending you’re not," Trevor said simply.

That pulled Lucas up short.

He stared at Trevor for a long time, the space between them heavy and charged, the silence filled with the hum of the sealed filters overhead. There was no accusation in Trevor’s tone, only an unflinching truth, and that made it worse.

"I don’t even know where to start," Lucas admitted finally, voice low. "You think I’ve been hiding something out of pride, but the truth is... I don’t know what’s in there. I’ve spent so long trying to not become what people expected me to be that I never once stopped to ask what I already am."

Trevor’s expression gentled, but his voice stayed steady. "Then we find out together. Now."