Page 16 of The Sterling Acquisition

The taste of blood filled his mouth, metallic and warm.Good,Orion thought savagely.Let him see what claiming me costs.

“Stop fighting!” Leo’s voice was cracking with desperate fury. “Just fucking stop! I own you! Your contract belongs to me!”

“Contract doesn’t mean—” Orion’s words were cut off as Leo’s hands went for his throat, but this time Orion was ready. He sank his teeth into Leo’s forearm, tasting more blood as he bit down with everything he had.

Leo’s fist connected with his temple, making stars explode across his vision, but Orion held on. “You fucking animal!” Leo slammed his other fist into Orion’s ribs, and pain lanced through his chest. He released the mangled arm, gasping.

Leo stumbled backward, clutching his injured forearm, crimson seeping between his fingers. “Look what you did! Look at—”

Not done yet.Orion rolled off the bed and lunged for the door, but Leo caught him around the waist. They crashed into the wall together, and the impact drove the air from Orion’s lungs. Stars exploded behind his eyes again as Leo slammed him face-first against the concrete.

The rough wall scraped against his cheek, adding fresh pain to the growing collection.Focus. Find a way out. He’s hurt too.

“You think you can keep doing this?” Leo panted against his ear, pressing his weight against Orion’s back. “You think you can keep hurting me, embarrassing me, making me look weak?”

Yes, until one of us dies.Orion threw his head back hard, connecting with Leo’s nose. The wet crunch was satisfying, and Leo’s hold loosened as blood streamed down his face. Orion spun around, raking his fingernails across Leo’s cheek, feeling skin part under his nails. “Fuck your contract and fuckyour—”

Leo’s return blow caught him across the mouth, snapping his head to the side. But the Alpha was swaying on his feet, his shirt soaked through with alcohol sweats and blood.

He’s as hurt as I am. Maybe more.

“You’re going to submit,” Leo gasped, advancing on him again.

Like hell.When Leo grabbed for him this time, Orion ducked low and drove his shoulder into Leo’s stomach, sending the Alpha staggering backward. But Leo recovered faster than expected, catching Orion by the hair and using his grip to slam the Omega’s head against the wall.

The impact sent lightning bolts of pain through Orion’s skull. Warm blood trickled down from his scalp, and his vision blurred.Can’t pass out. Can’t let him win.

Leo’s hand wrapped around his throat again, squeezing relentlessly.

“You’re mine,” Leo whispered, his breath hot against Orion’s ear. “You’ve always been mine. And when you’re in heat, when your body is begging for an Alpha, you’ll understand—”

No.Orion’s vision was graying out, but he managed to get his hands up, clawing at Leo’s face, his fingers finding the Alpha’s eyes. Leo howled and jerked back, but his grip on Orion’s throat tightened.

Getting dizzy. Can’t breathe. This is bad.

“I’ll kill you before I let anyone else have you,” Leo snarled, blood streaming from the scratches around his eyes. “If I can’t claim you, no one can.”

Orion couldn’t respond. His lungs burned, his chest heaved uselessly, and black spots were closing in on his vision. This was it. After a year of fighting, this was how Leo was going to—

Through the fog of pain, Orion heard rapid footsteps in the outer apartment. Then a pause.Then—

The bedroom door exploded inward, cracking off the wall as the handle struck the concrete.

What the fuck?

Dante stood in the doorway, and even through the haze of oxygen deprivation, Orion could see that the corporate mask had been stripped away. The Alpha’s face was carved from granite, his eyes cold as winter steel, and when he spoke, his voice carried the kind of quiet menace that made smart people run for cover.

“Get your hands off him. Now.”

Leo spun around, his grip on Orion’s throat loosening just enough for him to gasp in a desperate breath. Blood streamed from the scratches around Leo’s eyes, and his broken nose had turned his face into a mask of gore.

“This is none of your business, Ashford. He’s mine.”

“Actually,” Dante said, stepping fully into the room with predatory calm, “this is precisely my business. I came to discuss our vaccine optimization schedule, and instead I find you destroying a 2.7 million isc investment in what appears to be a drunken rage.”

Corporate bullshit,Orion thought dimly through the pain.But keep talking. Keep Leo distracted.

Leo blinked, trying to process the corporate speak through his alcohol-soaked fury. “What does that have to do with—”