Ronan was the first to say it aloud.

“I love him.”

The four other generals looked up from the war-room table. Outside, snow drifted against the windows. Inside, a map of the northern border lay forgotten beneath their hands.

Cassian stared. “You could have led with a warning.”

“Would that make it less true?” Ronan asked.

“No,” Silas said.

Adrian closed the folder in front of him. “We need to discuss what that means.”

Lucien's expression was cautious. “It means nothing unless Eli wants it to mean something.”

“I know,” Ronan said. “I'm not asking him for anything. I'm telling you because pretending otherwise is making me a fool.”

Cassian looked toward the door. “I thought I was the only fool.”

“Impossible,” Ronan said. “There are at least five.”

Nobody laughed immediately. Their feelings were too new and too tangled with fear.

Silas broke the silence. “We should be honest about the risks. Five powerful Alphas surrounding one Omega could feel like another cage, even if every one of us believes we're being kind.”

Adrian nodded. “Then we don't surround him. We give him exits. Friends. Money in his own name. A place to go that isn't ours.”

Cassian frowned. “You want him to leave?”

“I want him to know he can.”

The answer unsettled them all.

They had fought wars together. They had buried soldiers and watched cities burn. Yet the idea of Eli choosing a life without them made the room feel suddenly airless.

Lucien spoke carefully. “His recovery cannot be our courtship strategy. We need someone outside this house to help him make decisions.”

“I've contacted a trauma specialist in Northhaven,” Adrian said. “A neutral advocate, too. Eli can meet them if he wants.”

“Good,” Silas said.

Ronan stared at the map. “And if he chooses one of us?”

“We accept it,” Adrian replied.

“If he chooses none?”

“We accept that too.”

Cassian exhaled. “You make it sound easy.”

“It won't be.”

Their conversation ended when Eli appeared in the doorway carrying a basket of clean towels. He paused, seeing five men turn toward him at once.

Ronan immediately looked at the floor. Cassian stepped aside. Adrian asked whether Eli wanted help.

Eli held up the basket and shook his head.

They let him pass.

He had almost reached the stairs when he heard Cassian say, “We're not deciding anything for him.”

Eli stopped. The words felt unfamiliar in a house full of generals.

That afternoon, a woman named Mara arrived from Northhaven. She was an older Beta with silver-streaked hair and a calm voice. She introduced herself as an independent advocate, not an employee of the generals.

Eli met her in the library with Silas waiting outside.

The following morning the five generals met Mara without Eli. She made them describe how they would behave if Eli chose a relationship with only one of them. Ronan said he would be disappointed but would remain his friend.

Cassian admitted he would need distance before he could be gracious. Silas said he would never ask Eli to make himself smaller to soothe another man's pride. Lucien emphasized that Eli's treatment must remain independent of romance.

Adrian listened, then asked Mara to document their promises so they could hold one another accountable. Mara refused to become their referee. “You're adults,” she said. “Do the work yourselves.” They left the meeting chastened.

That afternoon, instead of competing for Eli's company, they arranged their schedules so he could have the library to himself. He spent two uninterrupted hours reading about migratory birds. It was the most useful gift they had given him all week.

“I can help you understand your legal rights,” Mara said. “I can also help you find another home if you ever want one. Nobody here gets to veto that.”

Eli watched her hands. She kept them visible on the table.

“Would you like me to explain what private property means?” she asked.

Eli nodded.

For an hour they talked through writing, drawings, and pauses. Mara explained bank accounts, tenancy, consent, and how to report mistreatment. Eli wrote questions he had been afraid to ask the generals.

CAN THEY SEND ME BACK?

“No,” Mara answered. “Not legally. And if anyone tries, I will help you challenge them.”

CAN I SAY NO TO A GENERAL?

“Yes.”

CAN I LOVE MORE THAN ONE PERSON?

Mara considered. “You can love whomever you love. The law about formal bonds is more complicated. But the law doesn't decide your feelings.”

Eli touched the page, then wrote: I WANT TIME.

“Then time is what you take.”

In the evening the manor held a small winter dinner. Eli had asked to help cook, so Ronan let him shape the rolls. Cassian arranged candles without making the table look like a royal banquet. Silas brought pine branches. Lucien made sure the kitchen remained quiet.

Adrian arrived late, carrying a stack of sealed documents.

“Not at dinner,” Ronan warned.

“These are for Eli,” Adrian said. “But they can wait.”

Eli pointed at them.

After the call, Eli asked Mara to explain the word custody. She drew two columns, one labeled SUPPORT and the other CONTROL. In the first she wrote shelter, medical care, information, and choice. In the second she wrote confinement, forced testing, and decisions made without consent.

Eli stared at the columns until he could breathe normally. He had mistaken the two for most of his life. Mara gave him a copy to keep. That night he taped it beside his cottage key and practiced saying no with his hands in the mirror.

The gesture was small. It belonged entirely to him.

“Only if you want.”

Eli nodded.

Adrian placed the papers on the table. They confirmed an independent account in Eli's name, funded through a restitution claim against the laboratory. The house also offered him a separate cottage on the estate with no obligation to stay.

Eli read slowly. His fingers trembled at the word OWNER.

“It's yours,” Adrian said. “Not a reward for being good. Not a payment for staying.”

Eli looked around the table. Five faces watched him, but none demanded a smile.

He wrote: CAN I STILL EAT HERE?

Ronan made a strangled noise. “Of course.”

Eli wrote another question: EVEN IF I LIVE IN THE COTTAGE?

“Especially then,” Cassian said. “You'll need somewhere to complain about the plumbing.”

Eli laughed.

The laughter was interrupted by the telephone. Adrian answered in the hall. His expression hardened as he listened.

“What authority?” he asked.

The room fell silent.

Adrian returned with the receiver still in his hand. “The Imperial Court has issued an order. They want Eli brought to the capital for a bloodline examination.”

Ronan stood so fast his chair scraped the floor.

Eli flinched. Ronan immediately stopped moving.

“They call it a welfare assessment,” Adrian said. “But the petition comes from the families who financed the laboratory.”

Eli's pencil rolled from his fingers.

Cassian picked it up and set it within reach. “Nobody is taking you tonight.”

Lucien turned the paper over so Eli could write without seeing the court seal.

Eli stared at the blank page for a long time.

Then he wrote four words in shaky capitals.

DO I BELONG TO THEM?

Adrian knelt beside the table, careful not to crowd him.

“No,” he said. “And we will prove it.”