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To be fair, he had been guilty of the same. He had been hesitant about pursuing Lucien because he had convinced himself that Lucien should be protected from the scandal. He had stayed away from Lucien in public because he hadn’t wanted to give the gossipmongers something else to blame Lucien for. And it had been the same mistake Lucien and Royce were making: doing what they perceived as the honorable thing instead of going after what they both clearly wanted.

“Haydn has a good head on his shoulders,” Aksel said, getting to his feet. “He isn’t a weak-willed idiot who’d do it just to please you, Royce. If he wants to do it, that means he really wants to do it. Trust him to know what he wants. Don’t make the mistake of thinking you know better. It’s his body, his life, and his decision. It’s not like he’s rushing into that decision. He had more than a year to think about it. No offense, but it’s hugely offensive that you think you know better. You don’t.”

And leaving his brother frowning pensively, Aksel walked out of the room.

He had a few things to set right.

***

He found Dylan outside the house. He was seated on a large rock, his knees drawn up to his chest as he stared out at the sea.

Aksel stopped beside him and cleared his throat.

The omega flinched, his sad expression quickly morphing into a neutral, polite mask. “Yes?” he said, all business. “Did you want to discuss our engagement party? My mother wants to invite all her friends, so there will likely be hundreds of guests if you don’t put your foot down—”

“I can’t marry you.”

Dylan blinked. “Oh,” he said, studying him. “Didhe change his mind?”

“No,” Aksel said curtly. “I’m not sure that he’ll ever accept me, but I can’t marry you. It would hurt him. And I don’t want to hurt him even if he’ll never be mine.”

Dylan’s expression softened. “You’re a good man. My brother is very lucky.”

Aksel almost laughed. “I’ll have to convince your brother of that.” He heaved a sigh, putting his hands in the pockets of his trousers. “I’m sorry,” he said gruffly. “Although we didn’t announce the engagement officially, people are already aware of it. I’ll take all the blame. You can say you’re the one who changed your mind.” He smiled crookedly. “Tell people you saw me in a half-shifted form and it disgusted you. They’ll eat it up.”

Dylan gave a faint smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “It doesn’t matter. My father’s financial troubles mean that I can never marry the person I actually want to marry. If it’s not you, it’ll likely be...” His expression darkened, his lips thinning. His scent turned bitter with hatred.

“Who?” Aksel said.

Dylan wrapped his arms tighter around his knees. “A certain psychopathic creep obsessed with me,” he said tonelessly. “I barely talked Father out of selling me to him—I convinced him I could find someone else to pay his debts—but with you out of the picture, the pickings are slim. Father will have no choice but to accept his help.”

“Who are you talking about?” Aksel said, his brows furrowing. No one should be forced to marry someone they hated.

“Regis Everhart,” Dylan whispered.

Everhart. The name was definitely familiar. It took Aksel a moment to remember why.

He might have spent most of his adult life on the front lines, but even he had heard of Everhart. The man was obscenely rich, possibly even richer than the Cleghorns. Unlike the Cleghorns’ generational wealth, his was self-made, his enormous fortune rumored to have been made through illegal means. He was rumored to be a ruthless bastard without a shred of decency in him. What he wanted, he took.

“Your father can’t force you to marry someone you don’t want to marry,” Aksel said.

Dylan laughed humorlessly. “Spoken like a true alpha. You knotheads could never understand what it’s like to be an omega.”

“It’s not the Dark Ages. Omegas have rights in this country.”

“Rights,” Dylan said flatly, his lips twisting into a mirthless smile. “Maybe on paper. My family is as traditional as it gets. And as my brother found out, you don’t want to make my father angry. If my father hadn’t disowned him, everyone would have moved on from that old scandal, Aksel. But our society places too much weight on the opinion of the family alpha. My brother is shunned because my father still shuns him.”

Aksel’s eyebrows drew together. He’d never thought of it that way, but there was truth in Dylan’s words. If Lucien’s dickhead of a father publicly accepted him as his son, people would consider the scandal old news.

Maybe that was the solution.

His heart suddenly beating faster, Aksel said, “How large is your father’s debt, exactly?”

Chapter Twenty

Just one more evening, Lucien told himself as he left his room that evening.

Just one more evening to get through, and then the house party would be over. Vagrippa was hosting a large party tonight, with all their neighbors invited. Aksel’s engagement to Dylan would likely be officially announced tonight.

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