Chapter 72: Chapter 72: Last warning

Delphine had never been good at swallowing humiliation.

It lodged in the back of her throat like something sharp, something that refused to dissolve no matter how many days had passed or how carefully she tried to compose herself. Rage didn’t suit noblewomen, they said. Rage wrinkled the face, shattered poise, and stripped dignity bare. Noblewomen were supposed to ache beautifully, suffer gracefully, and accept loss in silence, preferably with lowered eyelashes and a faint, saintly smile.

Delphine had never been good at that either.

Her hand tightened over the armrest of her chair until polished wood dug painfully into her palm. Papers lay abandoned on the desk in front of her, neat edges threatening to crumple under the tremor of her temper.

’Rafael.’

Her son. The culmination of everything she had invested, shaped, calculated, and sacrificed.

’Ungrateful boy.’

He had dared to move without her. Dared to make decisions with consequences she hadn’t coordinated, hadn’t approved, and hadn’t woven into the grand narrative she’d built around him since the day he’d taken his first breath.

Worst of all, he had dared to choose someone else over her.

’Someone like him.’

Her mouth twisted. The palace had been kind enough to provide whispers. Court ladies had never been able to keep their delight quiet when scandal brushed noble blood, and the name they whispered still felt like poison.

’Gregoris Frasner.’

The monster in the Emperor’s shadow.

The blade Damian kept close because letting it loose unsupervised meant corpses in streets. The commander even warriors spoke of carefully, like saying his name too casually would invite him into the room.

’And Rafael had chosen him.’

No. That phrasing was wrong.

’He had been taken.’

Delphine stood abruptly. The chair shifted back an inch, legs scraping quietly across marble. She paced because stillness felt suffocating, because if she sat long enough, grief would creep in behind her anger, and she refused to allow that.

She remembered her first glimpse of Gregoris years ago. Not in a ballroom, not at a dinner, not in any polite place noble society pretended defined reality. No, she had seen him in a corridor lined with soldiers returning from a classified deployment. He walked like a man utterly unconcerned with the opinions of lesser beings. Covered in the scent of blood and winter steel. Eyes too calm for someone carrying that much violence.

He hadn’t bowed low to anyone unless protocol demanded it. He had never flinched.

Not even for the Emperor.

That sort of man didn’t court omegas.

He claimed.

And Rafael… her brilliant boy, her golden hope, always so responsible, always so eager to prove himself worthy… He had walked straight into that kind of fire.

’Mated.’

The word scraped down her nerves.

Bound by nature and biology and pheromones to a man who saw the world in terms of threats and assets. A man who killed without hesitation. A man who did not break. A man who would never yield to her.

That last truth burned worst.

Delphine stopped pacing. Her hands rested on the edge of the desk now, head bowed slightly as she stared at empty space like she could will everything back into her control.

“Easy, Lady Rosenroth…” A voice burst into the room.

Delphine’s spine snapped straight.

For a heartbeat, her mind refused to accept the voice belonged to reality. It was too close, too effortlessly present, slipping into the room like a shadow that had always been there, patiently waiting for her to forget her fear of darkness.

She turned.

He stood just inside the threshold, broad shoulders framed by the doorway. He hadn’t bothered to announce himself properly. No servant’s warning. No polite knock.

Gregoris Frasner.

Up close, he was worse than his reputation.

Not because he looked like a monster. Monsters were easy. Monsters snarled and bared teeth and wore violence on their skin. Gregoris was quiet. His expression was neutral.

Gregoris was a handsome man, with swept-back blonde hair and steel gray eyes that seemed eerily calm.

“Commander,” Delphine said, managing not to grit her teeth. “How… intrusive of you.”

He smiled faintly, but it didn’t reach his eyes.

“Forgive the intrusion,” he said. “I’m pressed for time.” His eyes drifted briefly, thoughtfully, to the desk she had been gripping. “You seemed in danger of thinking yourself into something unfortunate.”

Her jaw tightened. “You dare-”

“Yes,” Gregoris cut in, calm as winter. “I do. Let’s not pretend otherwise. It wastes both our time.”

He walked further into the room without waiting to be invited. Every step was deliberate. Unhurried. Certain. He stopped close enough that she had no choice but to look him directly in the eye.

“So,” he continued mildly. “You’re upset. Furious, actually. Hurt. Humiliated. And now you’re deciding how to respond. Whether to cling harder or cut deeper.”

Delphine’s chin lifted. “That is none of your concern.”

“It is entirely my concern,” he replied. “Because your son is.”

The room went colder, and it wasn’t imagination.

For a fleeting, hateful moment, Delphine saw the truth she’d been refusing: Rafael was already under this man’s protection.

And Gregoris would kill for him.

She gathered her composure like armor, chin lifting, shoulders straightening, and rage polished into dignity. “I will not apologize for loving my child.”

“Good,” Gregoris said. “Because I’m not here for apologies.”

He leaned back against the doorframe with unsettling ease, like they were acquaintances sharing casual conversation instead of opponents circling the edge of something dangerous.

“You won’t do anything stupid, will you, Delphine?” he asked lightly. “You’re a smart woman. Stay away from him.”

Her nostrils flared. “He is my so-”

“And he is my mate,” Gregoris cut in, his voice still deceptively calm. “Which makes this simple. The moment you move to do anything… unwise… My Shadows already have their orders. They’re very good at turning consequences into inevitabilities. Things catch fire. Ether can be volatile. Stairs become unforgiving. Or,” his gaze sharpened, just a fraction, “someone from Rosaline’s past comes to settle a score. Stranger things have happened in this charming Empire.”

Delphine went perfectly still.

“You dare threaten me in my own house?” she hissed.

“Yes,” Gregoris replied, with the same casual honesty that had made men twice her size break eye contact. “Because this is the only time you’ll hear it directly from me. After this, you’ll simply experience outcomes.”

Her temper surged hot and sharp. “I am not your enemy.”

“Then don’t behave like one,” he answered.

They stared at each other across the short distance, two different kinds of power colliding. Hers-refined, cultivated, sharpened through etiquette, influence, and political finesse.

His-simple, brutal, absolute.

“I will not be intimidated,” she forced out.

“You already are,” Gregoris said, not unkindly. “But that isn’t what matters.”

He straightened from the doorframe. For a moment, silence pressed in, thick as pressure before a storm breaks. When he spoke again, his tone lost even the veneer of conversational warmth.

“You raised a brilliant son,” he said. “You also taught him to measure his worth against your approval until it broke something inside him. I am not here to judge you for that. I don’t care enough about you to judge you. But understand this-he is done paying the price of your ambition.”

Her lips parted, breath catching.

Gregoris didn’t stop.

“He is mine now, and nothing touches him aside from me.” He finished without giving Delphine the chance to retaliate. Ether swallowed him and vanished.

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