Approving The Protection
601 Words
chapter 8
Rowan pov
Kael is waiting for me at the edge of the pack grounds.
He doesn’t ask questions when he sees my face.
He never does. He just turns and walks beside me, matching my pace as the forest opens into stone and shadow. The pack bows as we pass.
They feel it too—the tension crawling through the air, the wrongness of a future that has already begun.
We stop beneath the old oak.
I don’t speak at first.
My wolf is restless, pacing, blood-hot.
She is exposed.
Kael finally breaks the silence. “The elder found her.”
It’s not a question.
“Yes.”
He exhales slowly, jaw tightening. “Then it’s started.”
I nod once. “They want her alive long enough to bear an heir.”
Kael’s head snaps toward me. For the first time, emotion cracks through his usual control—not fear for the kingdom, but something sharper.
Protective.
“She’s human,” he says. “She didn’t choose this.”
“No,” I reply. “But the bond did.”
Silence stretches. The forest listens.
Kael runs a hand down his face, thinking—not as a warrior, but as something older. Steadier.
“Then she needs guarding,” he says. “Not watchers. Not spies. Protection.”
“I won’t cage her.”
“I didn’t say cage,” he answers calmly. “I said protect.”
My wolf growls.
Ours.
Kael meets my eyes, unflinching. “You can’t be near her all the time. You’re the problem as much as the threat.”
The words sting because they’re true.
“If the elders move,” he continues, “they won’t come with claws. They’ll come with influence. Pressure. Fear. She won’t even know she’s being herded.”
I clench my fists. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying,” Kael says carefully, “that until she understands what she is, she needs someone who can stand between her and the world without pulling her closer to the bond.”
My chest tightens.
“And you think that’s you.”
“I know it is.”
There’s no arrogance in his voice. Just certainty.
“She doesn’t need a king,” he adds. “She needs someone who will say no for her. Someone who will choose her safety over the pack if it comes to that.”
My wolf snarls violently.
He would take her from us.
I silence it with effort.
Kael steps closer, lowering his voice. “You trust me with your life. Trust me with hers.”
The words land heavy.
“You would defy me,” I say.
“I would protect her,” he corrects. “Even from you, if I have to.”
For a moment, I consider tearing the ground apart.
Instead, I nod.
“Fine,” I say. “You’re her shield.”
Kael straightens, the weight of the role settling on him—not as beta, but as something more final.
“I’ll watch the elders,” he says. “I’ll handle the pack. I’ll make sure no one gets close enough to scare her.”
“And if the bond pulls her to me?”
Kael’s expression softens—just slightly. “Then I’ll make sure she survives it.”
The moon rises higher, pale and watchful.
Somewhere far away, I feel it—a faint ache in my chest, sharp and unfamiliar.
Zainab.
Unaware that her life has just been claimed by forces arguing over how best to keep her alive.
- Writer
