Claimed By A Midnight King

Chapter 28

Dominic’s PoV

I left her room and didn't stop walking until I reached the training grounds.

The night air was cold. The kind of cold that cuts through skin and reminds you that you're still alive.

I wasn't sure I wanted to be.

What had I almost done? What was I becoming?

I'd held her face in my hands. I'd been seconds away from kissing her. From claiming her in a way that would announce to the entire mountain that I didn't care my father's murderer had fathered her.

My father.

I forced myself to remember his face. Forced myself to remember the day they'd brought back his body. Forced myself to remember the rage I'd felt standing over his grave.

That rage was supposed to be sacred. That rage was supposed to keep me from ever being weak enough to fall for someone like her.

And it was crumbling.

I spent the rest of the night in the training courtyard, fighting against the practice dummies like they were actual enemies.

By dawn, my knuckles were bleeding. My shoulders were screaming. But at least the physical pain was straightforward. At least I could understand it.

The other pain. the bond screaming at me to go back to her, to finish what I'd almost started, that was something else entirely.

Silas found me as the sun was rising.

He didn't comment on my state. Just stood there, watching me beat a wooden dummy to splinters.

"You're going to destroy that," he said finally.

"I don't care."

"Yes, you do." Silas moved closer. "You care very much about a lot of things right now, and that's the problem."

I stopped. Turned to face him. "The investigation. Where are we?"

"Close," Silas said. "We're going to send trackers after Talia today. We're going to find her and break whatever spell she's under. We're going to get proof."

"How long?" I asked.

"A few days. Maybe a week."

"Then until we have proof, I'm staying away from her," I said.

"Dominic..”

"No," I cut him off. “I can't think clearly when I'm near her. The bond is too strong. The pull is too much. So I stay away. I focus on the investigation. And once we have proof that she's innocent, once there's no more guilt between us, then I deal with whatever this is."

Silas studied me for a long moment.

"And if the investigation proves she's guilty?" he asked quietly.

I didn't answer. Couldn't answer. Because the thought of her being guilty, of her being involved in the poisoning, was something my wolf wouldn't even entertain.

And that was the most terrifying thing of all.

I avoided her for three days.

I felt it through the bond. her confusion. Her hurt. Her attempts to understand why I'd come to her, held her, told her I didn't care about her father, and then disappeared completely.

The bond pulled at me constantly. A living thing inside my chest, demanding that I go to her. That I explain. That I at least let her understand what was happening.

I couldn't.

Every time I got close to her door, every time the urge to see her almost overwhelmed my control, I forced myself into the training grounds instead. Forced myself to remember my father. Forced myself to remember that this was madness.

On the fourth day, Kade confronted me.

"Whatever you're doing, stop," he said flatly. "The girl is in her room crying. The bond is so loud everyone in the tower can feel it. You're making this worse."

"It's better this way," I said.

"It's not," Kade said. "It's torture. For both of you."

"It's necessary," I replied.

But even as I said it, I knew I was lying. Knew that the distance wasn't helping. Knew that the bond was only getting stronger because I was fighting it.

On the fifth day, I broke.

I told myself I was just going to explain. Just going to make her understand that this was about the investigation. About needing proof. About not letting guilt destroy us both.

I opened her door and found her sitting at the window, staring out at the Citadel below.

She didn't turn around when I came in.

"You have to stop," she said quietly. "Whatever this is, you have to stop fighting it like this. It's hurting both of us."

"I know," I said.

"Then why?" She finally turned to look at me, and her eyes were red from crying. "Why would you do that? Why would you hold me like that and then disappear?"

"Because," I said, "I'm terrified."

The words came out before I could stop them. Raw. Honest. Everything I'd been trying to hide for five days.

"Terrified of what?" she asked.

"Of the fact that I would choose you over my father's memory," I said. "Of the fact that the bond is stronger than my oath. Of the fact that I don't even care anymore that your father murdered mine. And that makes me a traitor. It makes me weak. It makes me someone I don't recognize."

I moved toward the window but didn't touch her.

"I need the investigation to prove you innocent," I continued. "I need proof that you weren't part of this. Because if you were if there's even a chance you had something to do with poisoning those soldiers then maybe I could use that. Maybe I could convince myself that my feelings are wrong. That the bond is wrong. That I made a mistake."

"And if I wasn't part of it?" she asked. "If the investigation proves I'm innocent?"

"Then I have no excuse," I said. "Then I have to accept that I love you anyway. That I love the daughter of the man who murdered my father. And I'm not ready for that yet."

Through the bond, I felt her pain at my honesty. Felt the way my words had hurt her even though they were true.

"How long?" she asked.

"Until the investigation is done," I said. "Until we have proof. Then we deal with what comes next."

"And until then?"

"Until then," I said, "I stay away. Because I can't be near you without wanting to break every promise I've made to my father's memory."

I left before she could respond. Left before I could see the tears that I could feel starting through the bond.

That night, Silas reported progress.

"We found Talia," he said. "She's three days south. We're sending a team to retrieve her."

"How long until we bring her back?" I asked.

"If everything goes well? Four days. Maybe five."

Four or five days of staying away from Vivian. Four or five days of fighting the bond. Four or five days of pretending I wasn't slowly losing my mind because she was in the same tower and I couldn't go to her.

"Do it," I said.