Chapter 81: Chapter 81: Three days

Rafael woke to the sound of water.

Not the distant, mechanical hum of an ether-car this time, but the slow, rhythmic breath of waves meeting stone. The air smelled different too – cleaner, heavy with salt, threaded with sunlight, and something warm that had nothing to do with power grids or palace wards.

His body still ached, but it was no longer screaming. More like a dull, manageable soreness. The analgesics had done their job, much to his irritation. He had argued, of course. Gregoris had looked at him like he looked at poorly planned operations and informed him, flatly, that unnecessary suffering was stupidity, not virtue, and his mate wasn’t a stupid man.

Rafael had taken the medication after that.

Now he sat up on crisp white sheets, sunlight cutting across the room in sharp lines. Through the open doors, he could see the sea.

Rafael was in a villa built of pale stone and clean angles, positioned like it had been placed here by someone who valued lines of sight and controlled isolation. But expensive enough that even his mother would have a mild heart attack at the quality of materials and over-the-top design.

Gregoris’s villa, then.

Gregoris appeared in the doorway, already dressed, sleeves rolled, and hair still damp from what was probably a shower, because Rafael would have felt personally betrayed if the alpha had gone to the sea without him.

“You’re awake,” Gregoris said, tilting his head, blonde hair catching the light in its strands.

Rafael huffed softly and leaned back against the pillows. “Unfortunately. The sun staged an ambush.”

“You slept,” Gregoris replied. “Properly.”

Rafael couldn’t deny it. He had a sleep that didn’t come in guarded fragments but in deep, unbroken stretches. No dreams of corridors, no echoes of his mother’s voice, no tension coiled in his shoulders waiting for the next move on the board.

The south did its job and they barely got there.

Rafael swung his legs over the side of the bed, testing his body. The soreness was there, yes, but it was the kind that came from exertion. From using muscles he normally delegated to chairs and paperwork. He rolled his shoulders once, then stood.

“I still maintain that dominant alphas should come with warning labels,” he muttered.

Gregoris’s mouth curved faintly. “You were warned.”

“Not about the… aftermath.”

“You were,” Gregoris said calmly. “You simply chose to ignore it.”

Rafael snorted and padded toward the open doors. The terrace stretched wide, the sea a brilliant sheet of blue below, sunlight glinting off the water in a way that made the Capital feel like a distant, gray rumor.

He inhaled slowly.

No wards pressing against his senses. No political weight in the air. No mother.

Just salt, warmth, and distance.

“This is yours,” he said, softer now, not as an observation but as an understanding.

“One of them,” Gregoris answered. “I use it when I need to think without interruption.”

Rafael glanced back at him. “And now you’re using it to hide me.”

Gregoris didn’t correct the phrasing.

“Yes. If wording it like that helps you.”

Rafael shot him a look, sharp and instinctive, but the tension didn’t follow. Today, of all days, he chose to let it go.

“How long do we stay?” he asked instead.

“Three days,” Gregoris replied. “That is the maximum time I can take without anything intruding. After that, there will be reports, briefings, and people who believe their presence is urgent.”

“And if I want longer?”

“We can,” Gregoris said. “But then the world comes with us. Shadows, schedules, and the usual inconveniences.”

Rafael turned back toward the sea, considering. Three days of quiet, warmth, and distance from Delphine’s reach. Three days where the air didn’t taste like strategy and expectation.

“…Three days is good,” he said finally. “Any more and I’d start to feel like I’m running instead of resting.”

Gregoris leaned against the terrace doorframe, arms folding loosely, the posture relaxed in a way that still somehow looked like a controlled weapon at rest. A low hum left him, thoughtful at first, then it shifted, the corner of his mouth curving with obvious intent.

“I know a way of keeping you busy,” he said mildly.

The look that followed was the problem. The quiet, predatory amusement of a man who remembered exactly how the night had gone and clearly considered it a valid scheduling tool.

Rafael felt warmth crawl up his neck despite himself. “We are not turning ’recovery time’ into… whatever you’re implying.”

Gregoris’s grin deepened. “I said busy, not incapacitated.”

“That is a technical distinction, and you know it.”

“I do,” Gregoris agreed. “That’s why it’s accurate.”

Rafael rolled his eyes and turned back to the sea, but his lips twitched despite the attempt at dignity. “You’re incorrigible.”

“Efficient,” Gregoris corrected. “Idle minds spiral. Structured distraction is healthier.”

“Your definition of ’structured’ is highly suspicious.”

Gregoris stepped closer, stopping just within Rafael’s peripheral vision, close enough to be felt without crowding him. “You wanted rest,” he said. “I intend to make sure you don’t spend it thinking about her, the court, or what comes next.”

Rafael glanced at him sideways. “And your solution is…?”

“Sun,” Gregoris said. “Water. Food. Silence. And,” a brief, dangerous pause, “company.”

Rafael considered that, then sighed. “When you talk like that, you sound almost normal. Nothing about you would suggest you enjoy making me squirm.”

Gregoris’s eyes flicked to him, silver and intent, and for a second the humor drained away, leaving something sharper underneath.

“I don’t enjoy the squirming,” he said. “I enjoy when you stop performing.”

Rafael’s brow furrowed slightly.

“You’ve always been precise,” Gregoris went on. “Controlled. Polite. Strategic. Even when you hated me. Even when you were planning how to get rid of me.” A faint curve touched his mouth. “Especially then.”

Rafael snorted softly. “You mean when I poisoned you.”

“Yes,” Gregoris said calmly. “That was… refreshingly honest.”

Rafael stared at him. “That is not the word most people would use.”

“I’m not most people.” Gregoris’s gaze was measuring him in a way Rafael couldn’t get used to. “You didn’t flatter. You didn’t submit. You didn’t pretend. You fought, calculated, resisted, and still looked me in the eye while doing it.”

He stepped closer to the railing, close enough that their shoulders nearly aligned, both facing the sea.

“That,” he said quietly, “is the Rafael I like seeing. The one who isn’t arranged for court, or softened for politics, or shaped by his mother’s expectations. The one who reacts. Who argues and pushes back.”

Rafael’s voice was softer when he answered. “You courted me like a siege.”

“I did,” Gregoris admitted without apology. “And you answered like a strategist.”

A beat of silence passed, filled with waves and sun and the strange calm of not being hunted by obligations.

“I don’t want you quiet and obedient,” Gregoris added. “I want you real. Sharp. Annoyed. Warm. Awake. The man who would rather poison an alpha than smile for him.”

Rafael let out a slow breath, something in his chest easing.

“…I should poison you more often,” he said.

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