Arion went utterly still. His every instinct locked into place, and the world narrowed to the person in his arms. For a heartbeat, even the pressure of his pheromones seemed to freeze in the air.
Then his hands, already at Dean's waist, tightened. Arion drew him closer until the height difference forced Dean's spine to arch and his chin to tilt up, until there was no mistaking how completely the alpha filled his space.
The room felt smaller. The air heavier. As if the walls themselves had leaned in to listen.
One of Arion's hands shifted. Two fingers came up beneath Dean's jaw, pinching just enough to claim his attention before tilting his chin higher, forcing the line of his throat into the open. It was a deliberate, controlled, intimate gesture that was all about dominance rather than tenderness.
Their eyes met.
Up close, the difference was impossible to ignore with Dean held in the span of Arion's reach, his pulse visible at the hollow of his neck, the alpha's presence towering over him like a wall of restrained force.
Arion did not move for a long moment.
He simply held him there, studying him, breathing slow and deep, as if memorizing the way Dean refused to look away even now. As if measuring how far he could push and how carefully he was choosing not to.
"That," Arion repeated softly, "was a mistake."
His thumb shifted tenderly against Dean's jaw, reminding him that every inch of this closeness was allowed only because Arion permitted it.
"I am not going to answer it," he went on, thumb pressing into the lines of Dean's lips. "Not because I couldn't. But because I am not blind to the fact that I crossed lines first."
He took a slow, controlled breath.
"We both did."
Golden eyes held Dean's, unblinking, the predator's focus softened only by the fact that it was him. Anyone else would have already been on the floor fighting for their life, begging for it. Anyone else would have learned what that stillness truly meant.
"So listen carefully," Arion said, and the room seemed to lean toward the sound of his voice. "Because I am not going to repeat this."
His grip tightened a little, emphasizing his words.
"You have a choice."
Another pause. Another deep breath.
"We can start over from this moment. Strip this down to truth instead of provocation. No threats. No leverage. No more using the people you love or the power I carry as weapons against each other. We acknowledge that we both misstepped, and we rebuild this without pretending that dominance means cruelty or that pride means running."
His eyes darkened, as if he was absorbing light and Dean along with it.
"Or you walk out that door," he continued softly, "and we stop pretending this is only between two men who lost their tempers. You turn your back after striking me, and I will not answer as Arion the man. I will answer as the Crown Prince of an Empire."
The words were quiet. Their implications were not.
"Then this becomes political. Strategic. Public. It becomes pressure applied through treaties and trade and alliances, through an influence that never leaves fingerprints but leaves nations limping. And whatever fragile thing was forming here will be ground into something that looks very much like war.
His thumb stilled, holding Dean exactly where he was, not letting him forget for a second how easily he could be overpowered and how clearly he was not doing so.
"I have toned myself down for you," Arion said, and for the first time there was a hint of something personal in it. "You have seen the restrained version. The one who chooses words instead of force, patience instead of command."
Dean didn't look away.
Even with his chin held, even with his throat bared and Arion's presence pressing in on every side, he met that golden gaze head-on. His pulse was loud in his ears, fury and pride and something dangerously close to hurt were tangled together.
"Is that what this is?" he asked quietly.
The question cut sharper than shouting would have.
"An understanding so you don't have to say the word?" Dean continued, voice steady despite the way his body was coiled under Arion's hands. "A reset so you can fold what you did under the rug and call it balance?"
The problem was that Dean was close to accepting Arion; his decision to proceed with the engagement was not a bluff, but rather genuine interest.
It appeared that Dean's joke about taming a beast to Sylvia the other day was becoming a reality. If Arion wanted Dean in his life, he had to learn to bow his head.
His lips curved into a brittle smile, Arion's thumb pressing into the corner of his mouth.
"Tell me something, Your Highness. Is an apology really so unbearable to you that you'd rather talk about borders and treaties and the mechanics of war than say, 'I crossed a line'?"
His eyes burned, violet and unyielding.
"You threaten someone I love. You corner me. You use fear as a tool. And now you offer me a choice between starting over and watching two nations bleed."
A slow breath.
"So which is it?" Dean asked softly. "Do you actually want to make this right… or would you rather turn the world into a battlefield than admit you were wrong?"