Page 149 of Promised to the Alpha Prince

I fought it. It hurt like fuck not to do what he said, but there was one thing that would never change. I would do anything for this woman. I’d die for her. I staggered against the desire to follow his directive, and then I seized her by the hand and yanked her up. “Let’s go, sweetheart.”

“You two aren’t going anywhere,” said Dmitri.

I put my body between hers and his. I spoke to him in a soft and urgent voice. “Hey, look at me, Dmitri. I am yours. Got it? But we just need a little space here to deal with… with whatever is fucking going on. You need… you’re out of control, man.”

“You are,” said Johannes quietly. “You really fucking are.”

Dmitri threw up his hands. “Sit down,” he told me.

“Not happening,” I said. “I’m taking her with me now. I’ll be in touch about where we are.”

“Like fuck you’re taking my omega—”

“Hey,” interrupted Johannes. “You need to talk to the King about this shit with this Bannino family anyway.”

“Right, and who brought that down on our heads?” said Dmitri.

I laughed. “So much for it not mattering.”

“That was when you were obeying me,” he said.

“Got it,” I said. “So, either I’m your puppet and you pull my strings or you withhold all affection. That’s entirely not abusive or anything. Super healthy, Dmitri.” I pushed Aurelie toward the door. “Let’s go, my love.”

She was still crying. “But where?” she sobbed.

“Let me worry about that,” I said, as I put my arm around her and we left the room. “And he’s… he’s… well, we’re not giving him up, not entirely. So, don’t worry about that.”

She looked up at me, surprised. “You love him, too.”

“I fucking hate him, Aurelie. But, uh, I hate him a lot.”

27

dmitri

I LET THEM go.

I knew that Aurelie and I had a bond, and that she could go anywhere at all, and I could always find her. I knew there was no separating us.

For that matter, even when Corentin managed to summon some kind of rebellion against me, he was mine, too.

They were all mine.

So, they could leave, but they weren’t really leaving.

At any rate, we did need to get back to the capital, and I did need to speak with the King about this problem we had.

I brought Johannes with me, in case he could explain it better than I could. I had listened to what Corentin and Nikolai had explained, but it all sounded insane to me.

The King agreed. “Here’s what’s happening,” he said. “There obviously are some commoners out there with latent designations, and they do present when the right combination of alpha scents hits them, I suppose. But it’s not everyone.”

“That’s what I’m saying,” said Johannes.

“I think so as well,” I said. “If everyone could present, more people would.”

“On the other hand,” said Johannes, “what if more people do and they hide it?”

“Why would they do that?” said the King.

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