Divorcing My Alpha Husband For His Uncle

Strange Feelings

After yesterday's display, everywhere has been stiff. Everyone was on high alert.

I watched the guards move without being told twice.

And the intriguing part was that there was no yelling, no dramatics, either, or an overactive Alpha throwing his weight around and barking orders.

Everyone here knows exactly what to do and where to go, having just moved and reorganized, quiet and certain, like a body that already knew its next movement before the brain gave instructions.

On reflex. Yes, that's the right word.

I stood at the edge of the courtyard watching them. A feeling tugged strangely in my chest. Usually, I'd feel tense when I'm actively being threatened— not that I wasn't tensed at all— but it doesn't compare to when I was in Darkmoon, handling matters all by myself.

Now, someone was running the ship, and I feel safe for once.

I don't even know when I'd gotten so used to tension being the baseline and everything running on the fuel of someone's fear. Nolan's pack moved like people waiting to be blamed for something.

This wasn't that.

My eyes drifted to Alaric without my clear permission, and for the past 30 minutes I've been standing here, they kept doing that, and I kept pretending it was strategic observation and not whatever it actually was.

He was talking to someone I had learnt was the senior guard, and the guard was nodding. No groveling, or that visible relief that he hadn't been screamed at yet.

Just two people sorting something out.

Alaric said something low, and the guard nodded, moving immediately, and just like that, it was done.

I was still staring when he turned, our eyes meeting across the courtyard, and my stomach fluttered.

I've basically been caught in the act of staring.

The strange thing was that he didn't look away, and I was too scared to do so, so we just held each other's gaze, one second longer than it should have been, and then he smirked, looking away first.

I sucked in a breath too quickly, my heart thumping in my chest, and turned around so fast I nearly walked into the wall behind me.

Shit. My cheeks burned, and my heart was beating so fast as if I were on a treadmill. I pressed the back of my hand against my face, walking away quickly in whatever direction was away from there.

He just looked at you, Althea, that's it. No big deal.

People have eyes. Eyes look at things. That was not a moment. I scolded myself, but my heart disagreed loudly.

I kept on walking until Sera found me, or more accurately, Sera was simply there when I turned a corner, like she knew where I'd be and arrived there first.

"Luna. Come with me." She said tightly, not waiting for my response or waiting for me to follow her, and I was starting to understand it never would be with her.

I frowned before following her. She walked me through two council introductions and an alliance briefing that was honestly impressive. The amount of information she packed into twenty minutes without pausing to check if I was keeping up.

She just went straight for it, sharp and efficient, like a blade that had been sharpened too many times to bother with small talk.

What she didn't do was look at me like she was happy I was there.

Every time I answered correctly or pushed back on something with the right question, I'd catch it, this little flicker across her face.

I don't think it was annoyance or even surprise. It leaned somewhere uncomfortably between the two, like she'd been hoping I wouldn't know what I was talking about, and I kept refusing to cooperate with that hope.

It felt weird, not that I was expecting everyone to accept me here. So I said absolutely nothing about it.

By the time she was done with me, I had a solid read on three alliance fault lines, two council members who would smile to my face and snicker behind my back, and one Beta who was professional enough to do her job and cold enough to make sure I felt every degree of that coldness while she did it.

Good for me. But jokes on them, I've worked in conditions way worse than this.

That night, I was half asleep, splayed on my bed comfortably, when a knock disrupted that peace.

I looked down at my body to see if I was properly dressed— silk robe half off my shoulder exposing my side boob, my back flat on the bed with my hair loose, and my eyes heavy.

I kissed my teeth. It's just the maid or Sera with something she forgot to brief me on. No need to get into a proper position.

"Come in," I mumbled, exhausted.

The door opened, and I looked up to confirm I was right, but…

Shit.

I don't think I've ever moved so fast in my entire life. I was upright so fast the room spun. My hand grabbed my robe and yanked it back over my shoulder, which did almost nothing useful because the damage was already done, he'd already seen.

My face heated immediately in embarrassment, and I avoided eye contact.

When will you stop embarrassing yourself, Althea? I groaned internally but kept a straight face when I finally looked at him.

Alaric stood in the doorway, his sleeves pushed up to the forearm, his collar sitting open at the throat. He looked like he'd come straight here from wherever he was.

I blushed harder as his eyes swept over me, barely a second, before his jaw clenched and his eyes grew intense. That one second existed, and I felt it from the top of my head down to the soles of my feet in a way I had absolutely never felt before.

Nolan had never looked at me like that. Not once in five years or even at the beginning when things were still new, and I was still foolish enough to think I was wanted.

Alaric's eyes were nothing like that. It was too expressive, which made it harder for me to point out. I didn't have a name for it. I just knew my grip on my robe got tighter.

He stayed still in the doorway, hand resting tightly on the frame and eyes still staring intently at me. He seemed to be in deep thought before shaking his head slightly and resting fully on the door frame, crossing his arms.

I tilted my head curiously, wondering why he wasn't stepping in.

"Nolan is pulling allies together," he said eventually, his voice steady, which felt unfair given the current state of my heartbeat. "What's coming isn't going to stay political."

"I know," I answered, pulling myself together by wrapping my arms around myself. I thought of Sera, of everything she'd laid out for me this afternoon in that clipped, efficient way of hers. I slid off the bed without really thinking about it, my feet finding the floor.

"Sera briefed me." I moved, my mind already running through everything, the alliances, the fault lines, the timeline of how fast this could escalate. "I knew what I was signing up for before I said yes. Nolan isn't exactly an easy person."

The smell of his cologne hit my nose, and I paused. Wait…

My eyes widened. I was standing right in front of him.

I blinked rapidly, my throat going dry. When did I…

I hadn't decided to walk over here. My feet had just done it on their own while my brain was busy elsewhere.

And now I was close enough to see the exact moment his expression changed. It was this quiet, genuine thing, like I'd caught him off guard and he wasn't used to that.

The space between us was small. Too small, honestly.

His eyes had gone dark, and he gulped, looking down at me.

And me? I was totally not freaking out with the way he was watching me.

His usual controlled, carefulness was gone and replaced with something else that made my thoughts scatter completely.

I stepped back quickly, putting a much-needed space between us.

"Goodnight," I rushed out, pushing him out of the doorway in one swift move, surprising myself. I slammed the door shut, breathing hard.

That was… a lot.

I leaned on the door, clutching my still racing heart.

"Goodnight, Althea." I heard his voice come from the other side of the door, followed by a soft exhale.

Then his footsteps retreated, moving away down the corridor. I stood against the door until I couldn't hear them anymore, a small smile threatening to escape my lips.

What is happening to me?