“You’re giving him up?” he asked, stunned. “You once said you meant to claim him as your mate.”
“I don’t anymore.” I didn’t look back.
He didn’t stop me—not when my heels echoed down the marble hall, not when the heavy door closed behind me. But I knew he’d comply. He always did when it came to Elowen.
Let him. For once, I wanted something too.
My mother had died of madness the night she learned he’d taken another woman. The betrayal had shredded her mind, and she’d gone feral—howling, foaming, breaking until her heart simply stopped. I was there. I saw everything.
Since then, I had despised him. And Elowen most of all—the living proof of everything he’d stolen from us.
Maybe that’s why I’d clung to Kael. Because he’d been the one thing that still felt mine. Until tonight.
It was well past midnight when I reached my home on the edge of the Solari lands, the moon spilling silver light across the trees. Most wolves lived near the Pack Heart, close to the training fields and patrol stations. I preferred the outskirts. Distance was honest.
But as I neared the side hall, a sound stopped me—low, breathless, rhythmic.
Panting.
Then came the scent—raw desire, thick and undeniable.
Kael.
The door to the guest quarters was ajar. I should’ve walked past. I should’ve kept my dignity. But I didn’t.
I leaned closer. And my world broke.
He sat on the edge of the bed, bare-chested, skin slick with sweat, hand moving furiously. In his other hand—my breath hitched—was a photo.
Her photo. Elowen’s.
He whispered her name with a reverence that made my stomach twist.
For a heartbeat, I forgot how to breathe. My wolf whimpered, trembling beneath my skin.
Kael. My loyal knight. My chosen guardian. The man I’d hand-picked three years ago from a line of elite warriors.
I remembered that day. The others had stood proud and eager, eyes bright with hunger for glory. Kael, though—he was still as stone, silence wrapped around him like armor. Power radiated from him quietly, gravitational.
I’d tried everything to crack that composure—silks, perfume, staged “accidents,” even near-fatal ones. He never touched me. I thought it was restraint. It was disinterest.
Then his phone buzzed. He answered immediately, voice shifting—cold, commanding, unmistakably Alpha.
“I’ve been pretending to serve Lyra for years,” he said. “You think I’d quit now? I need to keep Elowen safe. Lyra’s just my access point.”
My blood froze.