Chapter 132: Chapter 132: The prince had arrived.

The heavy mahogany doors opened.

Arik Oberon Lyon stepped into the room with Mezos half a step behind him and enough control wrapped around him that, for a moment, even the Ravenwoods stopped pretending they were not impressed.

He did not storm in.

That was the worst part.

If he had stormed in, Liam could have been properly furious. He could have accused him of possessiveness, dramatic entrances, imperial arrogance, and at least three forms of alpha overreaction. It would have been simple. Clean. Satisfying.

Instead, Arik entered like a prince.

He was perfectly dressed in a black suit, faint gold embroidery at the collar of his white shirt and cuffs catching the shifting ether light with every controlled movement. Liam had grown too used to him over the last few weeks, too used to seeing him close, seated across from him at breakfast, standing beside him in secure rooms, leaning over maps and reports with sleeves pushed back and that insufferable calm wrapped around him like armor.

He had almost forgotten how tall Arik was.

How broad his shoulders were.

How big his hands were.

How easily the room made space for him.

His golden eyes looked faintly bored, as if leaving an imperial meeting to retrieve his newly bonded mate from a family ambush was simply another inconvenience in a day already crowded with unreasonable people.

The bond, traitorous thing that it was, warmed.

Liam stared very hard at the carpet.

Enia rose from her chair and bowed with the respect due to Arik’s position as Crown Prince, her modern long dress shimmering around her ankles in pale green folds. Henry inclined his head beside her. Mirelle rose more slowly, elegant and bright-eyed, looking as if she had been waiting her whole life for exactly this scene.

Several relatives followed their example with varying degrees of grace.

One of the Ravenstones almost knocked over a teacup.

Arik’s gaze flicked once toward the movement.

The teacup stopped wobbling as if it had developed survival instincts.

"Lady Ravenwood," Arik said, inclining his head.

His voice was smooth. Low. Perfectly courteous.

Completely unfair for Liam’s mind.

"Your Highness," Enia replied.

"Lord Ravenwood."

"Your Highness," Henry said, calm in the careful way of a man watching three loaded weapons and a family scandal occupy the same room.

"Lady Armstrong."

Mirelle’s smile bloomed. "Your Highness. I would say this is unexpected, but I was warned you had become mobile."

Liam closed his eyes.

Arik’s mouth curved by the smallest degree. "I was informed Lord Liam had relocated."

"Relocated," Mirelle repeated, delighted. "How diplomatic."

"I am being generous."

"That will not last," Liam muttered, while he moved his long hair to cover the mark under his collar.

Arik’s eyes moved to him.

Liam felt what Arik was not saying across the bond with brutal clarity. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

Relief first. Then anger. Then possession, heavy and warm and restrained so tightly that the restraint itself felt dangerous.

Arik had come to take him back because Liam had left the agreed-upon perimeter, leaving Arik’s mark in a city where Felix Canmore still breathed.

Liam lifted his chin before his body could make the humiliating mistake of folding.

"Your Highness," he said coolly.

Arik looked at him for one second too long.

Then he bowed his head, formal enough for witnesses and intimate enough to make Liam’s pulse stumble.

"Lord Liam."

Mirelle made a small sound.

Liam turned his head slowly. "Aunt."

"What?" she asked, serene. "I said nothing."

"You breathed romantically."

"I did not know that was a crime."

"It will be."

Henry pressed two fingers briefly to the bridge of his nose.

Mezos remained near the doors, expression unreadable, but Liam had the distinct impression the man had already calculated fourteen ways to remove Arik from the room if diplomacy collapsed.

Stanford, still stationed near the wall, looked like a man who had prayed for several gods to intervene and had been ignored by all of them.

Enia gestured to the empty seat nearest the center of the room. "Please, sit."

Arik glanced at the chair.

Then at Liam.

Liam felt the decision before Arik moved.

"No," he said immediately.

Several heads turned toward him.

Arik’s eyebrow lifted faintly.

Liam pointed at him. "Do not."

"I have not done anything."

"You are thinking of doing something."

"I am always thinking of doing something."

Mirelle whispered, "Oh, he is wonderful."

"He is not," Liam snapped.

Arik, entirely unbothered, crossed the room toward him.

A third cousin moved with remarkable speed, dragging a side chair from near the wall and placing it beside Liam with the solemn efficiency of a servant assisting fate.

"There," the cousin said with a suspiciously bright smile.

Liam stared at him. "Why?"

The cousin blinked innocently. "There was no chair."

"There were many chairs."

"None beside you." The cousin smiled, widening.

The cousin looked at Arik, then back at Liam. "Should I move it farther away?"

"No," Arik said.

Liam’s jaw tightened.

The bond warmed with satisfaction.

"Do not encourage them," Liam said.

"I accepted assistance," Arik replied.

Mirelle sighed happily, eyes bright with curiosity about the romance between Liam and the prince. "He understands the family already."

"He does not."

"I am beginning to," Arik said, and sat beside him.

He sat with perfect propriety, one hand resting on the arm of the chair, posture relaxed, golden eyes calm. Yet the distance between them was full of Arik. Full of the bond. Full of the mark hidden beneath Liam’s collar and the answering one near Arik’s inner wrist, covered by expensive black fabric and still somehow louder than every relative in the room.

Enia watched the two of them with unreadable eyes.

"You came quickly," she said, ready to dig for information that Liam would shield with his life.

Liam recognized that tone.

It was the tone his mother used when she had already found three answers and wanted to know which one the person in front of her would dare offer.

He straightened immediately. "Mother."

Enia did not look at him. "I am speaking to His Highness."

"That is exactly what concerns me."

Arik’s mouth moved faintly, the expression pleasant and handsome, but Liam knew better without the bond or faint pheromones surrounding him.

"Well," Arik started and tilted his head in thanks when a servant poured him a cup of tea. "Liam Sienna Canmore is my fiancée and mate. Timing must feel rushed, but unfortunately Grand Prince Felix is not one to be ignored after..." He tasted the tea. "Last time."

The room stilled with the memory of Liam’s medical report.

Liam’s fingers tightened around his cup.

He had not expected Arik to mention that and had no idea what to do about it.

Enia’s red eyes darkened.

Henry’s face became very still.

Mirelle’s delight vanished completely, replaced by something sharp and old enough to look almost like grief before it hardened into fury.

One of the Armstrong cousins looked down at their hands.

The elderly aunt who had pretended to come for tea stopped pretending entirely.

Liam set his cup down with deliberate care. "Arik."

Arik did not look at him.

He kept his attention on Enia, posture relaxed, voice low, controlled, and princely enough that anyone outside the room might have mistaken him for polite.

Liam knew better.

The bond had gone quiet.

"I understand family concern," Arik continued. "I understand why you summoned him. I understand why you want to see his face, hear him speak, and confirm with your own eyes that he was not pressured, not handled, and not hidden away inside an Agaronian residence while his position changed too quickly for comfort."

His thumb moved once along the porcelain rim of the teacup.

A small movement.

"And I respect it."

Enia’s gaze remained fixed on him. "But?"