Verveville's Curse

Chapter38

Kaida’s POV

I don’t know what I felt. It still sits in my chest like something I can’t swallow down. When I touched her hand earlier, just to tease her about blushing so much, it jolted through me like fire. Not the kind of spark you get from nerves. This was… alive. Like a pulse. For a moment it felt like I wasn’t touching Willow’s skin at all, but something deeper, brighter, like there was a storm locked under her flesh and it wanted out.

And then it was gone.

I let go so fast, like the touch burned me, but she didn’t seem to notice. She just laughed nervously, cheeks still pink from coming out with Kael. Gods. Everybody smelled it. There was no hiding. My brother’s scent wrapped around her, hers tied to him like a knot. Even the soldiers couldn’t look her in the eye without smirking. It’s not shameful, not here, but still… she’s new, she doesn’t understand how obvious it is.

And Kael. He didn’t even bother to hide the way he looked at her. His eyes softer, his chest looser, like the weight on him shifted. For once he didn’t care if everyone saw. My brother, the one who could hide behind a wall of stone and silence just stood there beside her, like he’d finally claimed something he’d been starving for.

I should be happy for him. I am. At least, part of me is. He’s my brother, my Alpha, and he has suffered more than most men could endure. If anyone deserves a mate, it’s him. But still…

That surge I felt when I touched her hand, it won’t leave me alone.

I’ve felt power before. The kind that presses against your chest and makes it hard to breathe. I’ve felt the deep hum of Kael’s beast inside him, the one that sometimes leaks into the air when he loses his hold. I know what witches feel like too, their craft leaves traces in the air, sharp and strange. But Willow… this wasn’t that.

This was something else.

Maybe I’m overthinking. Maybe I just want to find trouble where there is none.

I keep looking at her when she isn’t paying attention. The way she glows now, softer in her movements, lighter in her eyes. She’s still the same Willow, stubborn and fiery and too brave for her own good, but there’s something settled in her now. Like she found a place she didn’t know she was searching for. I see Kael watching her the same way, as if he can’t believe she’s real.

And then I wonder if he knows what I felt. If he’s felt it himself.

For a man who has spent his whole life chained to restraint, Kael is finally unchained. It should make me glad. Instead, it makes me worry.

I try to laugh at myself. Maybe I’m just jealous. Not in the way those soldiers are, not because she’s with Kael, but because she’s changing and I don’t understand how. I don’t like not understanding.

I tell myself again it’s only the bond. It has to be. Her scent is mixed with Kael’s now, her skin glows with it, her eyes hold it.

But in the quiet of my mind, I know better.

Something woke in Willow, Something none of us are ready for. And I’m not sure if even Kael knows it yet.