Anomaly
2077 Words
Adalyn followed Kai into the bedroom, her steps light but deliberate. She wrapped the sheet tighter around her like a blanket. Like armour. Her thoughts were still tangled with mistrust.
Kai gestured to the plate of food on the table like he was offering peace. “I asked Tsuna to bring up something in case you were hungry.”
She looked at the plate briefly but chose to ignore it. Much to her growling stomach's protest.
“Tsuna?” she asked instead.
“She's the head housekeeper,” Kai added.
“Right,” she said coolly, walking past the platter. Of course he had staff. And of course he knew how to use food and soft sheets and polite manners to keep her just off balance. Her instincts weren’t buying it.
Kai sat down on the edge of a velvet chaise. He rested his elbows on his knees, as if settling in for something casual.
Adalyn didn’t sit. It felt like she'd get sucked in to his orbit if she got too close to him.
“I want to talk,” she said. “And I don’t want charm. I want the truth.”
Charm?
Kai asked himself. He still couldn't understand why she was so deeply suspicious of him.His jaw ticked but he just gave a tight nod. “Alright.”
"Am I being kept prisoner here?" Her voice was calm. Too calm. Kai could feel the challenging tone behind it.
Kai froze, clearly blindsided by her first line of questioning.
“No.” The word came out low and firm. “You’re not.”
She tilted her head accusingly. “Then what exactly am I doing here?”
He exhaled slowly. “Like I said… I brought you somewhere safe. Somewhere we could talk.”
Adalyn paced a little on the spot. Her eyes narrowing like she was measuring the width of a trap he might be setting.
“Good. Then let’s talk.”
That landed. His response to her first question clearly gave him some early bonus points.
Kai leaned forward. “Alright. What do you want to know?”
It was an offering. A subtle way of him telling her that she was safe and that she was in control of how this conversation would play out.
“What happened last night,” she said. “Who were those people that took me?”
Kai looked away for the first time, eyes drifting to the window where light cut sharp through the shutters. “ I don't know. I’m still figuring that out.”
“That’s not good enough.”
His attention snapped back to her. “I know.”
Another pause stretched between them. He'd clearly lost a point for that answer.
“Someone wanted to confirm something,” he said eventually. “About you. About...us.”
Adalyn crossed her arms. “Can you be more specific?”
Kai exhaled through his nose. “I have a feeling they suspected you were my mate.”
Her stomach twisted a little but she didn’t let it show. “Why would that matter?”
“Because I’m not supposed to have one,” he said, almost bitterly. “Not that anyone is aware of anyway. Not publicly. Not someone… unexpected.”
A knot tightened in her chest. Unexpected? What did he mean by that? Did he mean by their difference in class or nobility. She brushed that thought aside.
“So someone thought they’d test a theory by what? Kidnapping me? Seeing if you’d come running?”
Kai didn’t answer right away, which was answer enough.
“That’s sick.”
“Yeah,” he said quietly. “It is.”
She took a step closer, hesitating. “Who Kaiden? I mean...Kai... you're highness?”
The words stumbled out before she could catch them. She winced, then quickly added, “I… I don’t actually know what I’m supposed to call you.”
He didn’t answer right away. But his smile said enough.
Kaiden.
Hearing his name in her voice knocked the breath out of him. It wasn’t triumph or ego, it was something deeper. Like he’d waited years to hear it, and now that it was real, it rooted him in place.
A laugh almost escaped his lips, really because she was so damn cute when she fumbled. This image of her, all fierce and wary, that she was trying to maintain suddenly unraveling over a name? It did things to him.
He cleared his throat, trying to compose himself before he said, “Kai. Just Kai, Adalyn.”
Her name lingered in the air between them for a beat. It felt like he was offering her something more than just a name, but she couldn't let herself sink in to that thought just yet.
"So..." she said, trying to get herself back on track. "Who exactly are you trying to protect me from?"
“I don’t know yet," he admitted. "But I have guesses.”
“And they are?”
He hesitated. “Some members of the council. My father’s advisors.”
“You think your father's council is trying to trap you?”
He gave her a dry look. “You don’t need to trap someone if you’re not afraid of what they’ll do.”
Adalyn’s gaze sharpened. “And what do they think you’ll do?”
His gaze flicked toward the old chessboard on the low table beside him. One hand reached out, fingers brushing lightly over a silver knight. Then with a careless motion, he knocked the piece onto its side.
“They think I’ll take the throne. That I’ll burn the rot out from under them. That I’ll stop pretending I’m harmless.”
She was silent for a beat. Then added carefully: “Would you?”
His answer came without hesitation. “Only if I had to.”
The quiet in the room thickened.
Kai turned back to her. “I don’t want power, Adalyn. Not like that. But I was born with blood they fear. That’s reason enough for them.”
Adalyn blinked. “What do you mean blood they fear?”
Her voice had sharpened, slicing through the haze of withheld truths. “What makes you so different from your brothers that someone would rather kidnap me to get to you than face you directly?”
Kai exhaled through his nose, slow and deliberate.
“It’s not just the bloodline,” he said. “It’s who it belongs to. My mother was descended from an ancient royal house. She was also my father’s fated mate. Bonds like theirs are rare. When they happen, they sometimes create… anomalies. There are stories about the children born from such unions, wolves born with power that defied Luna’s order itself.”
He hesitated a little with this huge revelation. “Once, a king slaughtered an entire bloodline over those rumours alone. He believed the children in their family carried that same mark of power. Power that he wanted to exploit. No proof. Just fear and opportunity.”
The air between them tightened.
Kai’s voice dropped lower. “I don’t know if the stories are true, but fear has a way of writing its own history. And for some, the idea of what I could become is enough. Enough to see me as a threat before I ever have a chance to prove otherwise.”
He paused, quieter now.
“They see me as the product of a bond they can’t control, and history’s taught them what happens when power like that grows unchecked.”
She studied him, eyes narrowing. “And me? What do they think I am?”
“A weakness, my weakness” he said. “A vulnerability.”
She scoffed. He couldn't be serious. Could he?
“But they’re wrong.” he added quickly. Making sure she heard that his view of her was nothing of the sort. “You’re not my weakness,” he said.
A glint of amber flashed in his cool blue eyes. His wolf, agreeing in full.
“You’re the line no one gets to cross,” he added, tone dropping like a stone in the water.
His gaze held hers for a moment “I suspect they wanted to test what I’d do for you?”
His voice dropped to a near growl as he tried to picture whoever could be behind this. “Well they’re about to f*****g regret ever asking that question"
Adalyn seem thrown. Taken aback by the thrum of energy coming off Kai and his wolf. They were feeling things in sync. The kind of partnership she could only dream about with her wolf.
Kai seemed to realise he’d gone too far. He looked away, quickly reigning back in his wolf before he looked back up at her again. His eyes back to their crystal blue.
“That’s why I brought you here. I wanted to protect you while I figured out who was behind it.”
She said nothing.
“I know it feels like a gilded cage. And I know you don’t trust me and that’s fine. I wouldn’t either.” He stood up abruptly. Needing to see her response up close.
“But you deserve to know that none of this, none of what’s happening is your fault. You didn’t ask for this bond. You didn’t choose to be dragged into this. But I’ll be damned if I let them use you against me.”
Adalyn held his gaze. “I see," she said skeptically.
Kai sighed at her tone. "It's the truth"
She let it hang there. She wanted to be believe him, but this whole story seemed too big and elaborate to be real. Maybe what he was saying was the truth, but only part of it. Her gut told her there were other pieces he wasn’t saying. Other names he hadn’t dared speak aloud yet.
Still, she let it go. For now. “Thanks,” she relented. Seeming satisfied with what he had told her. “I appreciate the honesty.”
But she didn’t. Not really. Because she knew how powerful people worked. They told their half-truths and called it transparency.
She couldn't be kept in this cage of his till he figured out what was going on. Nor was it her nature to rely on anyone to find out all the answers for her.
She had already made up her mind. She was leaving tonight.
-----
Later that afternoon.
Kai had introduced her to some of the staff who still worked the estate. While he stepped away to take a call, Tsuna, the head housekeeper took over the tour.
Adalyn followed her through polished corridors and warm sunlit paths, doing her best to feign interest.
“Outside of the main house we have several guest houses dotted across the estate,” Tsuna said, gesturing with a gentle wave of her hand.
“I see,” Adalyn replied smoothly. Nodding along in agreement
She filed the information away quickly. The guest houses on the far side, Tsuna had said, were unoccupied. That side of the estate also had a steep drop toward the coastline, but if she was careful, she could probably make the descent. It was risky, but it also felt like the least guarded path. The perfect escape route.
She didn’t know how far the estate stretched. She didn’t know how far from the city they were. But she knew she couldn’t stay here long. The longer she stayed, the easier it would be to forget who she was and who she wasn’t.
“I must admit,” Tsuna added warmly, “it was a pleasant surprise to see his Royal Highness here. And in the company of such a beautiful young lady.”
Adalyn blinked as Tsuna's words started to register.
“He hasn’t been here in a while,” Tsuna went on, smiling to herself. “He’s grown into a fine young man. When he was little, he used to sneak extra pastries out of the kitchen and hide them under the floorboards in the library. I’d pretend not to notice.”
Adalyn didn’t say anything, but her chest tightened at the image.
It was nothing. Just a memory from someone who clearly adored him. But still… it was something. Something real about a man she barely knew.
She shook it off. Endearing or not, it didn’t change anything. She was still leaving tonight. She’d wait until sunset. Then she’d run.
- Writer
