Verveville's Curse

Chapter49

Willow’s pov

I couldn’t look at him when the meeting ended. My legs felt weak, like they were carrying shame along with me as I left the courtroom. Nobody said anything, nobody looked twice, but I swore my skin burned under the weight of my own imagination.

I kept thinking, what if someone knew? What if Kaida had seen through me? What if the men who sat across the table caught the slight tremble in my voice, or the way I couldn’t breathe right?

And worse, what if they didn’t care, because they had already decided what I was?

I didn’t walk beside Kael when we left. He stayed behind, speaking with some of the older wolves, but my feet carried me fast, away from the courtroom, away from the heat still crawling up my neck.

I reached the long hall before the chambers and pressed my back to the wall. My chest was rising and falling too quick, my hands gripping at my own dress as though I could erase the feeling of him on me.

I hated how my body remembered it.

I hated how I still wanted more.

The heavy steps came after, slow, steady, unmistakable. He didn’t rush to me. He knew where I would be, like he always did.

“Lylah,” his voice was quiet, carrying too much calm for what had just happened.

I raised my head. My eyes met his, and something inside me snapped.

“What did you do to me?” I said, my words low, rough, shaking from the bottom of my chest.

His brow lifted, but his mouth twitched, almost like he was holding back a smile.

“You know what I did,” he said. His tone made it worse. Too easy. Too careless.

I shoved away from the wall, moving closer. “You touched me! in front of them all. In front of your pack. While I…while I sat there as Luna.” My voice cracked at the word.

His eyes darkened at that, though not with shame. With something else. Something that burned like fire.

“They didn’t know,” he said. “Not a soul noticed.”

“That’s not the point!” My voice rose and echoed in the stone hallway. I lowered it quick, panicked by my own sound. “The point is, you shamed me. You made me…” My throat tightened. I couldn’t even say it.

“Made you what?” His voice came low, close now. He had stepped in, his height shadowing me. “Made you feel me? Made you forget every single doubt in that room for a moment? Made you mine where everyone could see you sit beside me as Luna, but only I knew the truth of what you were?”

I froze, because the words cut. They cut because they were true.

His hand reached for me, slow, brushing my arm, and I flinched back. Not because I didn’t want it, but because I wanted it too much.

“I couldn’t even speak right,” I whispered. “Do you know how small you made me look? I stuttered, Kael. I tried to speak to your people, and I couldn’t even finish a sentence. You think they didn’t notice? You think they won’t talk?”

He tilted his head, watching me like I was something fragile he still intended to break. “They will talk anyway, Lylah. Because you’re not one of them. Because you came from nowhere, But none of them will say a word against you. Do you know why?”

My lips parted, but I couldn’t answer.

“Because you’re mine,” he said, his voice iron now. “And I will crush the tongue of anyone who dares try.”

The heat in me twisted between anger and something else, something I hated even more than anger.

“You don’t get to own me,” I spat, but the strength in my voice faltered.

His jaw tightened. For a second, he almost looked wounded. Then it hardened again. “I don’t own you, Lylah. But I claim you. There’s a difference.”

My fists clenched at my sides. I wanted to scream at him, strike him, tear down that wall of calm he carried. But my body betrayed me, my body still hummed from the way he touched me, still remembered the way his fingers had taken me apart under the table while I pretended to breathe normal.

“You humiliated me,” I said again, softer this time, my eyes stinging.

He stared at me a long moment, then lowered his voice. “I made you mine. There’s a difference in that too.”

My chest ached. I hated him. I wanted him. I hated myself more for wanting him.

I shoved past him, my shoulder hitting his chest. His hand caught my wrist fast, pulling me back, not rough but strong enough to root me where I stood.

“You scare me,” I whispered before I could stop myself.

Kael stilled. His jaw tightened, like my words had struck deeper than I meant them to.

“Not because of what you did,” I rushed out. “But because of how easy it is for you to control me. My own body betrays me around you. I can’t fight it. I hate that.”

His hand lifted slowly, brushing my cheek with his thumb. His touch was gentle, almost careful. “It’s not about control,” he said. “It’s about bond. You feel it because it’s real. I feel it too. You think I’m in control, Lylah? I’m not. Not when it comes to you. We’re mates Lylah.”

I swallowed hard, my anger twisting with something softer I didn’t want to name. I left him, wanting to leave or I wasn't promising myself I wouldn't surrender to him.

“Lylah,” his voice was quieter now, stripped of jest. “Don’t run from this. Don’t run from me.”

I turned my face, refusing to meet his eyes. “Let me go.”

He didn’t. His fingers stayed firm, burning against my skin.

“Tell me the truth,” he whispered. “You want me to let go, or you want me to pull you back?”

My breath hitched. I hated how the question shook me.

Silence stretched too long. Finally, his grip loosened. He let my wrist fall.

“You have to stop doing things like that,” I said again, weaker this time. “Not in front of them. Promise me.”

He looked at me with that unreadable expression that always made my chest ache.

“I can’t promise that,” he murmured. “Because when I want you, I take you. No matter where we are.”

I stumbled back a step, suddenly too light, too empty.

“I’ll never forgive you for today,” I said, but my voice wasn’t strong.

He only watched me, his eyes unreadable, before he finally said, “You will.”

And then he walked past me, leaving me alone in the hall with my chest tight, my skin burning, my whole body betraying the truth I couldn’t admit.