Chapter Three
1398 Words
The room went dead silent.
The words “She is mine” still rang in my ears, heavy, final, wrong. Every wolf in the great hall had gone still, their eyes flicking between the Alpha King and Kael like they’d just heard something forbidden.
For a moment, I couldn’t breathe.
I was still standing where I’d frozen, the tray in my hands trembling so badly I thought the cups might rattle off. The firelight danced across Kael’s face, catching on the sharp angles of his jaw. His eyes… gods, his eyes. Cold and gold, but burning from the inside, like a storm that had waited years to break.
And he was looking at me.
At me.
A human slave.
A mistake.
A second of skin, a heartbeat of contact, and then the world went mad.
Now, the Alpha King’s chair scraped against the marble floor. The sound made me flinch. His presence filled the hall like smoke, thick, suffocating. When he spoke, his voice was iron.
“Kael,” the King said slowly, “do you know what you just claimed?”
Kael didn’t answer at first. He just stood there, his shoulders squared, his gaze still locked on me like he was trying to make sense of something he didn't even understand.
“I know,” he finally said.
The King’s eyes narrowed. “She’s human.”
“I can see that.”
“Then you know that’s impossible,” the King snapped. “The bond cannot cross bloodlines. The Moon chooses among our kind, not theirs.”
Whispers rippled through the hall. I heard pieces of them — ‘a mistake… cursed Alpha… human scent… impossible.’ My hands started to sweat, the tray slipping. I clutched it tighter.
Kael’s jaw tightened, but he said nothing.
The King rose to his full height, his voice echoing off the stone. “This ceremony is sacred, Kael. You dishonor it, you dishonor me, with this farce. Reject her. Now.”
My heart thudded painfully. I didn’t even understand half of what they were talking about; bond, Moon, reject, but I knew danger when I heard it. The wolves were tense, their gazes sharp and waiting. Whatever had happened, it wasn’t supposed to.
And I was at the center of it.
I swallowed hard, stepping back a little. “I—” My voice cracked. “I made a mistake, Alpha Kael.” My words rushed out before I could think. “I didn’t mean to sit there, I swear. I didn’t mean to touch you either. Please....I’ll leave.”
The silence that followed was so heavy it felt alive.
Kael’s head turned toward me, slow, deliberate. “Don’t,” he said, voice low and quiet, but it cut through the air like a blade. “Don’t move an inch.”
I froze.
Something inside me obeyed before my mind even caught up. His tone carried that kind of weight, the kind that made your body forget choice existed. My fingers went stiff around the tray.
“Miss Venn,” Kael said, still not looking away from me.
Mistress Venn jumped like she’d been struck. “Y.... Yes, Alpha.”
“Come take this from her.”
She approached, each step hesitant but simmering with barely contained anger. Her eyes flicked between us, him calm and unreadable, me shaking like a leaf. When she reached for the tray, her nails brushed my hand, sharp enough to sting.
Her voice was low, venom behind the politeness. “What did you do, girl?”
“I—I don’t know,” I whispered.
She snatched the tray from me and stepped back, bowing stiffly toward Kael. “Forgive her, my lord. Humans don’t understand the sanctity of—”
“She stays,” Kael interrupted.
Mistress Venn blinked. “My lord?”
Kael finally looked away from me, turning toward the King. “The bond chose. I felt it.”
The King’s growl rolled across the hall. “You felt it? You, of all wolves, dare speak of the Moon’s will?”
His words carried a strange kind of fury, not loud, but deep and dangerous. Kael didn’t flinch. He stood tall, unbothered, as though he’d faced worse.
“The bond doesn’t lie,” Kael said.
“It does when it’s cursed,” the King hissed. “Do you think I’ve forgotten what you are? What has your blood done? You were never meant to have a mate, Kael.”
The hall went still again. Even the torches seemed to dim.
My stomach twisted. I didn’t understand most of it, but the way they said curse made something in me ache. I wanted to vanish, to sink through the floor, disappear before anyone else could look at me like that.
Kael’s voice was lower now. “Then explain why she feels it too.”
The King’s eyes cut at me. My breath caught. “Girl,” he said sharply. “Do you feel it?”
I shook my head fast. “I—I don’t feel anything. I don’t even know what’s happening.”
My honesty seemed to offend someone, because a wolf in armor laughed, cold and cruel. “Of course she didn’t. She’s human. It’s just Kael’s curse acting up again.”
Laughter rippled through the hall. My face burned. I stared at the floor, wishing I could dig into it.
Kael didn’t move, but his presence shifted, the air thickened, his scent turning darker, like rain before a storm. The laughing stopped almost instantly.
The King exhaled sharply and sat back down. “Enough of this nonsense. The girl will be examined by the priestess. If she’s merely a mistake, we’ll send her back where she belongs.”
My throat tightened. Send her back where she belongs.
That could mean anything; a cell, the mines, the fire pits. Places humans didn’t return from.
Kael spoke again, voice steady. “And if she’s not a mistake?”
“Then she dies,” the King said simply.
The words hit like a slap.
I didn’t even realize I’d taken a step back until my heel hit the edge of the dais. My body felt light, my pulse hammering in my ears. The guards near the walls didn’t move, but their eyes did, tracking me like prey.
“I—Please,” I managed. “I didn’t mean any of this. I swear I didn’t.”
The King ignored me completely. His attention stayed on Kael. “You’ve always been trouble, boy. The curse runs deep in you. Don’t drag the rest of us into your fate.”
Kael’s expression didn’t change, but his jaw ticked once. “With all due respect, my King,” he said slowly, “you don’t command the bond.”
“You think you do?”
“No,” Kael said quietly. “But I feel it.”
His gaze found mine again, sharp, searching. And for the first time, I noticed something beneath the cold: confusion. As if he didn’t understand this any more than I did.
I should have looked away, but I couldn’t. His eyes caught me like a snare, pulling me closer without touch. My chest tightened, my breath faltering. The noise of the hall faded, all I could hear was the steady, unnatural rhythm of our hearts.
Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
The same. Perfectly the same.
My vision blurred at the edges.
“Kael,” the King said again, voice darkening, “This ends now. Release her before I—”
He didn’t finish.
Kael took one step forward. Just one. The bond, whatever it was, flared between us, invisible but fierce. My knees went weak. Something warm surged through my veins, too strong, too foreign. I gasped, my hand flying to my chest.
Kael’s expression hardened like he’d just confirmed something he didn’t want to believe.
“She’s mine,” he said again — softer this time, but truer. The words trembled in the air.
I wanted to say no. I wanted to scream that it wasn’t possible, that I wasn’t his anything. But before I could, the world tilted. The firelight spun. My body gave way to the weight pressing down on me.
The last thing I saw was Kael moving toward me, his golden eyes burning through the blur, half fury, half something I couldn’t name.
Then everything went dark.
- Writer
