Chapter Three: The Alpha’s Eyes
937 Words
Kael’s gaze didn’t leave mine. Not even for a breath.
His body had moved before I could even blink, sitting up, looming forward, and now… he was on top of me.
One hand braced beside my head on the bed, the other cupping my cheek like I was the only real thing in a world that had changed too fast. His strength radiated through the mattress, through my bones.
And his eyes… goddess, those eyes.
Deep storm-gray, lined with confusion, hunger, and something raw need.
“You’re real,” he murmured. His voice was thick, low, and slightly raspy. “I can smell you. I can feel you.”
I swallowed hard, trying not to panic beneath him. My back pressed into the pillows as I stared up at the Alpha they said would never wake.
But he was wide awake now. And staring at me like I was the only star left in the night sky.
“I—” My voice broke. “You’ve been asleep for ten years, Kael.”
He blinked slowly, trying to piece it together. “Ten years?”
I nodded.
A pause. His gaze drifted across my features, my trembling lips, my wide eyes, and my wedding dress crumpled beneath him. He stared like he’d seen me in a dream long before this moment.
“I remember the woods,” he said quietly. “There were flowers… glowing violet… their scent was wrong. Sweet. But poisonous.”
“The Forbidden Bloom,” I whispered. “They say it cursed you.”
He didn’t respond. His thumb brushed the curve of my jaw, slow and deliberate. My body tensed beneath his weight, but not in fear, something deeper. Something wicked.
He leaned down, lips hovering above mine.
I could feel the heat of him now. His breath. His wolf.
“You kissed me,” he murmured. “Didn’t you?”
I froze.
“I… I fell,” I stammered. “It was an accident.”
He tilted his head. “Then why does my soul feel like it just touched its mate?”
My heart slammed into my ribs.
Kael stared at me with such intensity that it made the air vibrate.
“You smell like honey and fire,” he rasped. “Like something mine.”
My lips parted to speak, but nothing came out. I was drowning in him—in his scent, his presence, and the deep timbre of his voice.
He leaned closer, lips brushing the curve of my throat. “Say something. Tell me your name.”
I panicked. I lied again.
“Celine,” I whispered.
His body stilled.
I hated myself in that moment.
But before he could react before I could take it back, the door burst open.
“KAEL?”
Liora’s voice cracked through the room like lightning.
Kael turned his head slowly, blinking at the interruption. His body still hovered above mine, one knee between my thighs, one hand gripping the sheets beside my waist.
And Liora… Liora stood frozen in the doorway, eyes wide with disbelief.
“Holy goddess,” she breathed. “You’re… you’re awake.”
Kael’s expression flickered between confusion and recognition. “Liora?”
Tears sprang to her eyes. “You, Kael, it’s been ten years. I thought you were gone forever.”
He slowly sat back, his weight lifting from me as he turned toward his sister. “I don’t understand. How did I wake up? Why does everything feel different?”
Liora’s gaze darted between him and m,e her brother, shirtless and tangled in silk sheets, and me, his supposed bride, breathless and flushed.
“Did… did she wake you?” she asked quietly.
Kael looked at me again. “She kissed me. Just once.”
My face burned.
Liora blinked, then exhaled a shaky laugh. “The elders said it couldn’t be undone. The curse was too strong. That you’d never wake unless” Her eyes went wide. “Unless your fated mate touched you.”
My blood froze.
Kael’s expression darkened slightly. “She told me her name was Celine.”
Liora stiffened.
The silence turned heavy.
I sat up slowly, heart pounding in my throat. “I.......”
Liora stepped forward, placing a hand on Kael’s shoulder. “There’s a lot you don’t know yet. But for now, you need to rest. You’ve been asleep for a decade.”
He looked down at his hands, flexing his fingers like he didn’t trust they were real. “I don’t feel weak. I feel… like something inside me’s been lit on fire.”
His gaze cut back to me. “Because of her.”
Liora glanced at me, her eyes narrowing slightly, but not unkindly. “We’ll talk soon, Arya. I think we both know this is only the beginning.”
My breath caught.
He knew.
She knew.
The name Celine hung between us like a blade waiting to fall.
Kael touched my hand before I could move. “Stay. Please.”
I wanted to run. I wanted to scream the truth, that I wasn’t the girl he’d once been promised, that I was the shadow his real bride abandoned.
But I stayed.
Because even if the truth would shatter us both… For the first time in my life, someone had looked at me like I mattered.
And that someone was the Sleeping Alpha, the world thought was lost.
The curse had broken.
But the lie had just begun.
And Kael Blackthorn was falling for a girl who didn’t belong to him—
Not yet.
Not truly.
Not when he learned who I was.
- Writer
