Ayla didn’t speak the rest of the night.
She sat where Kael had left her, shaking with anger, flushed, and naked. Her eyes remained focused on the stone floor despite her stiff shoulders and heaving chest. Not out of shame.
Out of recalculation.
She wasn’t used to being denied.
Certainly not in front of me.
And especially not when she was the one offering her body so easily.
Kael didn’t look at her again. Not once. He pulled me into his arms after he finished with me, still breathing hard, knot fading inside me. His nose was buried in my hair as he whispered incoherently. His hands spread out over my abdomen as if I were holding something valuable.
Something he didn’t want Ayla to touch.
I didn’t speak.
I didn’t fight.
Because part of me was afraid of how it felt to be chosen.
