Arion had not intended to learn about Dean Fitzgeralt this way.
He had wanted to know the man behind the title and the genetic classification, not the polished heir the Empire paraded through formal halls, but the real omega - what he liked, what unsettled him, and who he trusted when no one was watching. He had planned to let Dean tell him in his own time and words.
Instead, Dean had put distance between them.
And that distance… irritated him far more than open defiance would have.
It wasn't the act of leaving that bothered Arion. It was the method. Dean had not confronted him, had not drawn a line and held it. He had withdrawn behind the shelter of family, law, and polite protocol, letting others speak where he himself remained silent. To Arion, that felt less like a retreat and more like a calculated maneuver, one that denied him the transparency he preferred.
So he had stopped waiting.
He had allowed Otto to step in, fully aware that his father would not treat Palatine's revised proposal with indulgence. The old doctrine did not value hesitation where dominant bonds were concerned, and history was very clear on one point: Palatine did not relinquish its dominants easily, but neither did Alamina. For generations, Alaminian forces had bled to contain pheromone-amplified threats along borders most nations pretended did not exist. Saha had stood beside them, yes, but it was Alamina that paid the heaviest price.
Arion did not resent Dean for seeking space.
He resented that Dean had not claimed it to his face.
And so, instead of patience, he had chosen information.
He sat in his office, the walls lined with screens and soft light, the city of Palatine stretching beyond the windows in clean, ordered lines. The report rested open in his hands, its pages dense with data, profiles, and social mapping.
Dean would be his mate. Whether Dean liked how that truth had been spoken or not.
Arion didn't have the luxury of romanticizing any of it. Being Crown Prince had taught him early that personal preference rarely outweighed obligation. He hadn't chosen to awaken as a dominant alpha whose biology came with national-security-level consequences. He hadn't chosen to be trained from his teens to function under protocols, surveillance, and contingency planning. He hadn't chosen to spend years moving between military zones, summits, and classified facilities like a strategic asset that had to be positioned correctly.
But he had done it anyway.
Every expectation attached to his genes, his pheromones, his title - he had met them without complaint. Want had never been a factor; adaptation had.
So if biology, politics, and doctrine had aligned to place Dean Fitzgeralt at the center of that future, Arion wasn't under the illusion that the universe had asked his opinion either.
He scrolled.
The first name at the top of the report was not a duke, not a minister, and not a negotiator whose family tree doubled as a geopolitical map.
Sylvia Croft.
No title. No noble blood. Civilian.
The report was practical in the way security files always were. Upper-middle-class background. Parents work in private industry. She studied in the capital. Financially independent. There are no political ties, known ideological affiliations, or history that would cause even mild concern. Long brown hair, brown eyes, currently enrolled in the same university as Dean. Nothing dramatic. Nothing that would make her stand out in a room full of ordinary people.
Her connection to Dean was summarized in clean, neutral lines: childhood acquaintance, long-term social contact, frequent presence at Fitzgeralt residences, and regular communication. The classification used was "close personal associate."
Arion huffed quietly, the corner of his mouth lifting with dry amusement.
"Close personal associate," he repeated. "So… best friend."
Arion let his head rest back against the chair, fingers drumming slowly on the armrest in a rhythm that he used every time he plunged into deep thoughts. The room was quiet and sealed, the same controlled silence he'd learned to exist in since childhood.
The rest of the file was what he had expected. Previous relationships, a clean record of social connections, academic standing, family background, and positions on public policies. Carefully compiled, neatly categorized, and mostly unremarkable. Dean had dated, of course. Had lived, chosen, and loved in whatever way possible before destiny and politics narrowed the options. Arion was not naïve enough to expect otherwise. He had taken lovers after his awakening, both omegas and alphas, before duty and biology began closing doors one by one.
None of it unsettled him.
What lingered in his mind was not the list of names or past attachments, but the quiet consistency of one presence.
Sylvia Croft.
She was a painfully innocent variable among the large crowd that surrounded Dean. Dean has no reason to know someone like her, and Sylvia should not have met with someone like Dean without gaining anything. But they did.
Arion's fingers stilled.
People did not remain in a dominant omega's life by accident. Not without meaning, and not without a strength of their own. He didn't know yet what role Sylvia truly played in Dean's emotional landscape, but the fact that she was listed before titles, alliances, or former lovers told him enough to be interested.
Not threatened. Interested.
He straightened slightly, eyes returning to the screen, already scrolling further down the file with the intent focus of a man who had decided that if Dean would not introduce himself on his own terms, then Arion would learn him piece by piece, quietly, thoroughly, and with the patience of someone who never stopped once he began.
The soft chime at the door cut through the quiet.
Arion lifted his gaze, eyes still sharp from reading. "Enter."
Zyon Vesga stepped inside, expression carefully neutral in the way of someone who had learned to deliver information to dangerous men without flinching. The door closed behind him with a muted click, sealing the room again into privacy.
"Your Highness," Zyon said, inclining his head. "We have received a formal request from the Palatine side."
Arion's attention shifted fully now, the tablet dimming in his hand. "From whom?"
Zyon hesitated for the briefest fraction of a second, then allowed himself a controlled, almost imperceptible breath.
"From Lord Dean Fitzgeralt himself."
Arion tilted his head… utterly focused.
Zyon continued, carefully. "He has requested a private meeting. No diplomatic observers. The wording is clean. And it is very clear that the request comes from him personally, not from his parents or from Emperor Sirius."
For a moment, the only sound in the room was the faint hum of the city beyond the glass.
Arion's fingers curled once around the edge of the tablet before relaxing.
"So," he said quietly, a dangerous note of satisfaction threading through the calm, "he has decided to stop running."