MARKED BY REJECTION

CHAPTER 5

Kael's POV

I have been an Alpha's son my whole life, trained since birth to keep my face still no matter what unfolds in front of me. My father always said a leader who shows fear hands his enemies a map to his weakness, that composure was the one armor that never rusted.

When the guard says Selene's son is missing, I feel my control c***k for the first time in longer than I can remember, the training of twenty-two years splintering in a single breath.

My son. Not just Selene's. Mine. A boy I have known for less than a single day, and already the thought of him in danger makes something claw and snarl behind my ribs, wanting out of my skin right now, consequences be damned, every rule I was raised on suddenly meaningless against the simple animal fact of a missing child who shares my blood.

Selene is already running before the guard finishes his sentence, faster than I've ever seen her move, faster than I remember from when we were both teenagers chasing each other through these same halls before everything broke between us. I run after her, and for once in my life I'm not thinking about strategy, or my father's rules, or what the council will say by morning. I'm thinking about a small, quiet boy with my exact eyes, a boy I only met a few hours ago and am already terrified of losing before I ever got the chance to know him.

We reach the east hall and it chaos guards shouting over each other, a nursemaid sobbing against the wall, and my cousin Elena standing calmly in the middle of it all, wearing an expression of perfect, practiced concern that doesn't quite reach her eyes.

"I came as soon as I heard," Elena says, gliding toward Selene with her hands out like she means to comfort her. "This is terrible. Truly terrible. I don't know how something like this could happen inside our own walls."

Selene doesn't even look at her. Her eyes are scanning the room, wild and searching, and I recognize that look because I feel it building behind my own ribs too. It's the look of a parent who would burn the entire world down without blinking for their child, who would tear apart every stone in this hall with bare hands if it meant finding him one second sooner.

"Where is my son," Selene says to the nursemaid, voice shaking with the effort of holding itself together, each word bitten off sharp.

"I only stepped out for a moment," the woman sobs, hands twisting in her apron until the fabric strains. "I swear, Alpha, only a moment, to fetch his water, and when I came back the window was standing open and he was simply gone, and I don't understand how, I was only gone a moment"

A window. Someone came in from outside, which means this was planned in advance, which means whoever did it knew exactly which room Ronan was sleeping in tonight which means it was someone with direct access to the guest wing schedule, someone who could move through this pack without raising suspicion.

I look at Elena.

She's the one who assigned the guest rooms tonight. I remember her insisting on it personally, smiling, saying she wanted to make certain our honored guests were comfortable during their stay, that she wanted to handle it herself as a gesture of goodwill toward the alliance.

My cousin meets my eyes across the room and doesn't flinch, doesn't look away, doesn't show a single c***k in that carefully arranged expression of concern, and that more than anything else in this entire nightmare of a night, tells me everything I need to know.

She isn't surprised. She isn't scared. She already knows exactly where my son is, and she is standing here performing sympathy like it costs her nothing.

I think of every warning my father gave me about Elena over the years, warnings I always waved off because she was family, because we grew up together throwing knives at the same practice targets, because I never wanted to believe blood could run that cold. I think about the fire at the storehouse tonight, about Deja's terrified confession still ringing in my ears, about how remarkably convenient it is that my son vanished on the exact same night an arson attack threw the entire pack into chaos and confusion, leaving no one free to watch the halls too closely.

Elena has been planning this. Maybe not tonight specifically, but this all of it, patiently waiting for a c***k wide enough to slide through and take what she's always wanted: my place as heir, finally uncontested, finally hers.

A missing heir's son is the perfect crisis to destabilize a fragile new alliance. It's the perfect excuse to blame Ashgrove Pack entirely, to claim Selene brought danger straight into our territory, to turn the council against the treaty and against her before the ink even dries on the parchment.

I should stay calm. I should gather my guards, question my cousin through the proper channels, follow every procedure my father drilled into me since childhood, the way a good Alpha is supposed to.

Instead I cross the room in three furious strides, grab Elena by the arm, and say the words low enough that only she and Selene can hear them, my voice a low growl I barely recognize as my own.

"Where is my son, Elena?. Tell me right now, or I swear on our bloodline, I will forget that you're family."

For just one second, one single unguarded second the mask slips completely, and I see something flicker behind her eyes that isn't concern at all.

It's satisfying.

And that's when I understand, with a cold certainty settling into my bones like ice water, colder than anything the fire tonight could have burned away: this is only the beginning of what she has planned for all of us.