The Almighty Dominance (by Sunshine) novel Chapter 726

"Actually." Alex hadn't moved, but something in his voice made both of them stop. "Change the terms."

Jerome raised an eyebrow, delighted already. "Oh? Are you afraid?"

"No, I will make it better for you." Alex's face gave away nothing. "If I lose, I never meet Jennifer again. That's the stake."

Silence. Then Jerome's grin split wide open — this was better than what he'd offered, and he knew it.

"Done," he said, before Jennifer could get a word out. "Gladly. Let’s fight now!"

"Then I surrender." Alex said it flat, no ceremony to it at all. "It is a good fight. I lose."

For a moment nobody moved. Grim's ears had come up, waiting for a fight that had just stopped existing before it started.

"You—" Jerome blinked, caught somewhere between confusion and the beginning of triumph. Then triumph won. "You're conceding. Without even trying."

He laughed, loud enough to turn heads across the yard. "I knew it. One look at Ashgard and you knew exactly what you were facing. Finally."

“Yeah,” Alex nodded earnestly.

Jerome straightened his coat like the win had already been engraved somewhere. "You finally understand how far above you I am."

"Alex." Jennifer's voice came out low, and for once there wasn't a trace of her usual dry amusement in it. She looked genuinely thrown, which on her was rare enough to be its own kind of alarming. "What are you doing."

“Exactly what it looks like. A fight between men. He won, so I’m keeping my word. See ya.” Alex said, already turning to leave.

Something in her face closed off, fast, the way doors do when they've decided not to open again.

"Seems like you'll do anything to get away from me." Her voice had gone hard, flat, dangerous in a way that had nothing to do with the duel anymore. "Fine. But I promise you this — I'm not going to make the rest of your life easy just because you found a clever way out of one bet."

"I don't care." He met her eyes now, steady, nothing behind it she could work with. "Make it as hard as you want. I don't care anymore."

He turned to Jerome before she could answer that.

“There’s something else. Since we’re settling this properly, I intend to collect on the bet completely. That means no more archive duty, and no more mysterious paperwork linking my name to hers. I want the Wardens off my back permanently.”

Jerome's face lit up like Alex had just handed him the best part of the evening.

She didn't let go of his hand once they started walking, either — laced her fingers through his somewhere between the door and the gate, easy and unhesitant, like it was the most natural thing in the world, and didn't seem to care who noticed.

They hadn't made it through the gates of the banquet hall before David found them.

He'd been waiting near the entrance, by the look of it — too well-positioned to be coincidence — and the moment his eyes landed on Wren's hand in Alex's, something in his expression went tight and ugly before he smoothed it back into something more presentable.

"Wren." He fell into step beside her like he'd been rehearsing the approach. "A word, if you'd allow it."

His eyes flicked to Alex and didn't warm at all. "You should know exactly what you're walking in with tonight. I've heard many ugly things about this man."

"You've heard things," Wren repeated, unimpressed, and didn't let go.

"I'm only saying it because I'd hate to see you embarrassed. You could have anyone, Wren. I don't understand why you'd choose—" his eyes flicked to Alex, like the sentence finished itself "—this."

"Careful, David." Wren didn't slow down. "I watched him no-sell fifteen armed men without breaking a sweat. I don't need your concern for my judgment, and I definitely don't need it for my hand." She swept past him without waiting for a response, fingers still laced through Alex's, and Alex followed, not bothering to look back at whatever expression that left on David's face.

“Wait!”