Claimed by the Alpha Who Raised Me

Chapter 5: I Don't Accept Conditions

Elowen's POV

The only answer I got was, "Focus on cooperating with your healers."

My eyes lifted before I could stop them. "If I do, will you move back in?"

"Cooperating with treatment is for your own well-being. I don't accept conditions." His voice dropped into that low, steady register that made everything he said sound like a command that could only be answered with a nod. "Understood, Elowen?"

"Understood," I muttered, lowering my head because there was no point arguing with a man who could make heartlessness sound reasonable.

He had no idea what was going on inside me, and I doubted he'd care even if he did. He glanced at the crown of my head and then held out his hand. "Give me your wrist."

I blinked at him in confusion but offered my arm. His fingers were rough and calloused from years of handling weapons, and they closed around my wrist firmly enough for me to feel the warmth of his skin against my pulse.

He reached into his coat and pulled out a small, smooth stone about the size of a walnut, dark grey with a faint vein of copper running through it. He pressed it into my palm and then took out a second one that matched it exactly.

"Signal stones," he said. "They're paired. If you press yours and hold it, mine will warm. I'll know you need me."

He closed his fist around his own stone until a faint pulse of heat bloomed through the one in my hand, proving it worked. "I have work to do. I'll stop by the cabin tonight. If you need anything before then, use the stone."

With that he stood and walked out of the room without looking back, and I sat there holding the small warm stone against my chest like it was the most precious thing anyone had ever given me.

He barely made it down the corridor before I pressed it.

The connection hummed to life between us and I heard him exhale on the other end. "What is it?"

"When you come tonight, could you bring me a set of pajamas? They're in the wardrobe at the cabin."

"Mm."

"Can I ask one more favor?"

"Go on."

"Sable is alone at the cabin. Could you feed her?" He didn't answer right away, and I pictured him trying to remember the fluffy grey cat that had traveled with me from Moonhollow.

"Oh, and the bedding in her basket probably needs changing too." My voice got quieter with each word because even through the signal stone I could feel the temperature dropping on his end. I thanked him quickly and let the connection fade.

I was still holding the stone when I heard footsteps in the hallway and looked up to find a tall man with easy charm walking in beside Stellan. He had broad shoulders and a quick smile and carried himself with the loose confidence of someone who'd never had to worry about being liked because people just did.

"Sere, who were you talking to?" he asked, his eyes landing on the signal stone in my hand.

Stellan introduced him. "This is Ronan, Kael's cousin. He's been in and out of the ward all week asking when you'd be awake."

Ronan pulled up a chair and sat down, and the warmth that came off him was so different from Kael's cold distance that I almost didn't know what to do with it. This was the first time I'd met anyone from the Thornveil side other than Kael himself, and it was hard to believe they were even related.

"Don't be nervous," Ronan said, and his smile faded into a quieter kind of warmth. "Your mother was deeply respected among us."

The sting hit my nose before I could brace for it. "You all knew my mother?"

"Of course. Back when we were pups running wild through the pack compound, your mother was always the one covering for us when we got caught." He leaned back in his chair with his arms crossed, his eyes warm with memory.

"She had this way about her, you know. Everyone else would scatter when the elders came looking, but your mother would stand right there with her chin up and talk her way out of it for all of us."

He shook his head and smiled. "Later she married your father and moved to Moonhollow, and we all went our separate ways. Some left the territory, others joined the border patrols. We lost touch over the years, but none of us ever forgot her."

He paused and studied my face with a gentleness that made my chest ache, and I could tell he was seeing her in me. "Don't worry, Sere. We'll look after you now."

I lowered my gaze and felt my lashes trembling with the effort of holding it together. Nobody had said anything that kind to me since Aldwin, and hearing it from a stranger who spoke about my mother like she still mattered to him was almost worse than hearing nothing at all because it reminded me of how much I'd lost.

It took me a moment to find my voice, and when I did it came out barely louder than a whisper.

"Then was my mother close with him?"

"Him meaning Kael?" Ronan asked.

I nodded.

Ronan's expression shifted, and for a second the easy charm dropped away and left a rawness that told me he meant every word. "Of all the Thornveil siblings, Kael and your mother were the closest. That's probably why she chose to entrust you to him."

He said it like it was supposed to be comforting, like that piece of information should make me feel safe and chosen and grateful. But all I could think, sitting there in that healer's bed with the signal stone cooling in my palm and the rash still burning beneath my gown, was that Kael was the one my mother had trusted most in the world, and he still couldn't be bothered to stay.