Chapter 74: Chapter 74: Guide review (1)

Gregoris hummed, a smile forming slowly on his lips. It was a smile that said he had read something interesting in a battlefield report and immediately started planning how to make it worse for someone.

“You know…” he murmured, tone thoughtful, “there was something in here about resolving things with food.” His thumb brushed over Rafael’s shoulder again, lazy, deliberate, and far too gentle for the man he usually was. “And I’m… hungry for you.”

Rafael’s brain short-circuited.

Heat shot through him in a painfully predictable rush, pheromones responding like they’d been waiting for that exact combination of voice and closeness His breath stuttered. Every rational thought fled with military efficiency.

“That,” Rafael managed weakly, “is not what they meant.”

Gregoris pretended to consider that.

“Lesson interpretation can vary by field application,” he replied gravely. “Tactical flexibility is important.”

He didn’t drag Rafael in, he simply stepped closer until there was nowhere for Rafael to escape that wasn’t into him. His presence wrapped around him, scent deepening, a slow tightening of invisible threads. The room felt smaller. The bond hummed, warm and quiet and dangerously intimate.

Rafael tried to glare.

Failed.

Gregoris leaned down, mouth just brushing the space near Rafael’s ear without touching it.

“Lesson Two,” he recited softly, like he was quoting sacred scripture, “if it can be solved with food, solve it with food. I am very confident,” his breath ghosted warm against Rafael’s skin, “that it applies.”

Rafael made a sound that was not dignified and absolutely not meant for public political environments.

Gregoris smiled like he’d just won a war without casualties.

“Lesson Three,” he went on, completely unhelpful, “weaponize disappointment, they crumble.” His tone dipped warmer. “That won’t work on me. I am very committed to misbehaving.”

“Stop,” Rafael whispered, because this was illegal and unreasonable and extremely effective.

Gregoris did not, in fact, stop.

His fingers shifted from Rafael’s shoulder to the back of his neck, settling there like a claim the world already recognized. His thumb stroked once, soothing and infuriating.

“You’re blushing,” he observed gently, like it was his favorite discovery.

“I am not,” Rafael lied desperately.

Gregoris chuckled, low in his chest.

“Lesson Four,” he murmured, lips just barely brushing Rafael’s cheek without actually kissing, drawing the line just to watch Rafael tremble at it, “if he growls, you’re winning.” He paused. “Congratulations.”

Rafael swallowed. “You’re impossible.”

“And you,” Gregoris replied, completely and devastatingly content with the situation, “are adorable when you try to pretend you’re not enjoying this.”

He loved it. Every flicker of color in Rafael’s face, every breath that hitched, every instinct that betrayed him sweetly through pheromones and pulse and trembling resolve. He wasn’t mocking him. He was… delighted.

Gregoris rested his forehead lightly against Rafael’s.

“No guide,” he said softly, “covers this part.”

Rafael blinked up at him, still a little breathless, still trying to decide if this was emotional sabotage or heaven. “…What part?”

Gregoris’s voice gentled, softer than steel had any right to be.

“How much I like seeing you like this.” The alpha’s eyes were measuring Rafael from head to toe. The rustled hair from the shower, white skin under the cotton of his bathrobe…long legs. Gregoris had them wrapped around him and knew how satisfying it was to lose himself in his omega heat and body.

Then, because he never allowed softness to stand alone too long, mischief edged into his tone.

“So, let’s test the guide out,” he murmured, his breath brushing Rafael’s lips without touching. “The first Chapter is about not being impressed when your alpha growls…”

His voice dropped, threaded with dark humor… and something far more dangerous than humor.

Rafael’s heart stuttered.

Gregoris didn’t roar. Didn’t snarl. Didn’t flash teeth.

Rafael didn’t think he could survive if this man would do it. It was already hard enough to keep himself from dragging the alpha to the bedroom.

He could do it. He knew Gregoris liked him just as much as Rafael, but damn it, he wanted to see where Gregoris was going with this.

Gregoris let a sound rumble out of his chest instead, low, controlled, and resonant. It wasn’t loud. It didn’t have to be; that damn bariton sent shivers down Rafael’s spine. The ether in the room shifted when it happened, responding to dominance like instinctive gravity, the lights along the wall dimming and pulsing with it.

Rafael felt it.

In bone. In blood. In the bond tethered somewhere behind his ribs.

His knees honestly threatened betrayal.

“Unimpressed,” Gregoris reminded him quietly, his voice still wrapped around that growl’s echo. “You’re meant to be unimpressed.”

Rafael tried.

He did.

He opened his mouth, probably to say something clever, something dismissive, something that would restore dignity…

Nothing came out.

His pheromones answered first instead, warm and surrender-soft, sweet in the air without his permission.

Gregoris’s silver eyes darkened with satisfaction.

“Hmm,” he murmured. “That doesn’t look unimpressed.”

His hand slid from Rafael’s neck to cradle his jaw, gentle, possessive without tightening, thumb brushing faintly across flushed skin like he was memorizing the heat.

“This,” Gregoris continued lazily, the grin on his face widening with each word, “may be a failed experiment.”

Rafael managed a breath. “You are…” His voice cracked. “Cheating. That wasn’t a growl. That was… whatever that was.”

“A practical demonstration,” Gregoris countered, utterly pleased with himself. “Very educational.”

He leaned closer again, their mouths still not touching, every movement controlled, deliberate, and slow enough to let Rafael feel every second of it.

“Lesson reviewed,” he whispered. “Conclusion: you react beautifully.”

Rafael swallowed, pulse racing, dignity long gone, warmth blooming everywhere.

Gregoris looked at him like he’d found something worth guarding with teeth and patience both.

Rafael hated how much that look undid him.

He hated even more how much he wanted to stay right there and drown in it.

“…That’s not a fair conclusion,” Rafael muttered, though it didn’t sound convincing in the slightest. “You controlled the experiment.”

“I always do,” Gregoris replied lightly, utterly shameless about it. His thumb stroked one last slow, grounding line along Rafael’s jaw before he let his hand settle more comfortably, as if he had no intention of going anywhere. “But that doesn’t change the data.”

“Next Chapter,” he said lightly, as if he weren’t dismantling Rafael’s composure cell by cell. “Let’s see how long you last before you admit you like this.”

Rafael honestly wasn’t sure he’d last long at all.

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