Page 17 of The Sterling Acquisition
“Everything,” Dante interrupted, his tone conversational. “Gensyn is considering a significant financial commitment to SVI’s vaccine scaling capabilities in exchange for your biodiversity research. The ability to responsibly manage valuable assets is central to our confidence in your organization’s fiscal competence.”
Oh, that’s good. Hit him where it hurts—his career.
“He wasfighting—I was just—”
“You were strangling him. Which raises concerning questions about SVI’s risk management protocols.” Dante’s gaze swept over the blood-spattered room with clinical detachment. “If you can’t maintain a 2.7 million isc personal investment without resorting to attempted murder, how should I recommend that Gensyn trust you with millions more in vaccine infrastructure?”
“He was fighting—”
“Of course he was fighting. You’re drunk, you smell like failure, and you’re trying to force a claiming on someone in pre-heat.” Dante’s voice never rose, but something about how he said it made Leo take a step back. “Even by SVI standards, that’s impressively stupid.”
Leo’s face flushed purple. “You don’t know anything about—”
He never finished the sentence. Dante moved with the fluid precision Orion remembered from the courtyard, crossing the room in two steps and catching Leo’s extended arm. There was a cracking sound, and Leo screamed as suddenly the Alpha was on his knees with his arm twisted at an angle that made Orion’s stomach lurch.
“You’re going to leave,” Dante said pleasantly, maintaining his hold on Leo’s arm. “You’re going to go sleep off whatever you’ve been drinking. And you’re going to think very carefully about whether attempting to rape someone in pre-heat is really the hill you want to die on.”
“I wasn’t—he’s my—I have every right—”
Dante applied pressure, and Leo’s protests dissolved into a wordless keen of pain.
“Do you see the bruises on his throat?” Dante’s voice was still conversational. “Do you see the way he’s holding his ribs? Does that look like consensual claiming behavior to you?”
Leo was making small, desperate sounds now, his face gray with pain. “Please—”
“Please, what? Please don’t break your arm? Please don’t report this to SVI management? Please don’t explain to Dr. Voss how you nearly destroyed a 2.7 million isc investment in a drunken rage?” Dante paused, considering. “Those are all excellent ideas. I’m glad you thought of them.”
He released Leo’s arm, and the Alpha collapsed forward, cradling his injured limb against his chest.
“Out,” Dante said simply.
Leo struggled to his feet, swaying dangerously. “This isn’t over. He’s still mine. The contract—”
“The contract,” Dante interrupted, “specifies asset preservation, doesn’t it? Pretty sure attempted murder violates those terms.”
Leo opened his mouth to argue, looked at Dante’s expression, and apparently thought better of it. He stumbled out of the room, muttering threats and justifications under his breath.
The apartment door slammed, leaving Orion alone with the corporate Alpha who’d just dismantled his captor like it was a routine business meeting.
Dante turned to him, and the cold fury drained from his expression, replaced by something that might have been concern. “How badly are you hurt?”
Orion tried to speak and discovered his throat felt like it had been scraped raw. He managed a hoarse whisper: “I’ll live.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
The gentleness in Dante’s voice was somehow more devastating than Leo’s violence had been. Orion found himself struggling with an entirely different kind of response—one that had nothing to do with fighting and everything to do with the way this Alpha appeared when he needed help most.
His body, however, was sending conflicting signals. The pre-heat that made him vulnerable to Leo’s attack was now responding to Dante’s presence in a different way. Every place Leo touched him burned with pain, while every place Dante’s gaze fell seemed to tingle with anticipation. His biology didn’t care that he’d nearly been killed; it was already recalibrating to the stronger Alpha’s presence.
This was the kind of thinking that got Omegas claimed by predators who knew how to time their rescues perfectly.
“Why did you help me?” Orion asked.
Dante was quiet for a moment, studying Orion’s face with those calculating gray eyes.
“Because,” he said, “optimization requires the asset to remain functional.”
It should have been insulting. It should have reminded Orion that this was just another corporate Alpha who saw him as property.
