CHAPTER FOURTEEN
832 Words
The dungeon beneath the packhouse was old stone and colder than the mountain wind outside. It smelled of damp earth and iron, with only a single torch flickering in the narrow corridor.
Lucien sat on the cot inside his cell like a man resting in a lodge after a long hunt.
When Kael approached, he expected to find Lucien angry, pacing, and maybe demanding to be freed. Instead, the man lounged with one leg crossed, hands folded loosely in his lap, wearing that infuriating smirk.
“You’ve given me a vacation, Kael,” Lucien said lightly. “I’ve been running myself ragged lately. It’s nice to have a bed and some quiet.”
Kael didn’t rise to the bait. He just stood there, silent and steady, watching. A true predator didn’t pounce without purpose.
Lucien leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “You think you’ve won. You think you’ve proven I’m a thief, a traitor, a danger to your precious pack. But you’ve made a mistake.”
Kael’s voice was low and dangerous. “You’re here because you tried to steal from me. There’s no mistake.”
Lucien chuckled softly. “You set a trap. I walked into it. That’s not theft. That’s you playing games to get rid of me.” He tilted his head. “Selene knows it. I know it. And soon… more of your pack will know it too.”
Kael’s wolf growled inside his chest. “You think you can still sway them from in here?”
Lucien’s smile widened. “I don’t have to. You’ll do it for me. The more you keep me locked up without a real trial, the more they’ll start to wonder what you’re hiding. And the more she will start to wonder if I’ve been telling the truth all along.”
The next morning, Selene went to see him.
Kael had told himself he wouldn’t stop her — to forbid her would only feed Lucien’s lies — but the thought of her alone with him in that cell made Kael’s gut tighten. Ronan shadowed her as far as the dungeon entrance, then stood back.
Lucien rose when she appeared, his expression softening instantly.
“Selene,” he said warmly, as though greeting a dear friend rather than the mate of the man who had just shackled him.
She stopped a few feet from the bars. “I had to hear your side.”
“My side,” Lucien said with a wry smile. “Ah, yes. The part where Kael tells you I’m working with rogues to overthrow him. That I was ‘caught in the act.’” He shook his head. “Do you know what I was really doing that night?”
Her brows drew together. “What?”
“Following a lead,” Lucien said smoothly. “I had word of a rogue supply run and went to intercept it. The crates were a surprise… and then, before I knew it, Kael was there, acting like I’d been planning this for weeks. Do you think I’d risk everything over a few rusty crossbows?”
Selene’s lips pressed into a thin line. “I don’t know what to think anymore.”
Lucien stepped closer to the bars, lowering his voice. “Then think about this: Kael doesn’t trust me, but more importantly, he doesn’t trust you. Why else would he keep you in the dark about his plans? Why else would he set traps and hope you stumble into them so he can say, ‘See? I was right all along’?”
Selene’s throat tightened. The words struck uncomfortably close to the doubts she had been trying to ignore.
“I’m telling you the truth,” Lucien said, his voice rich and coaxing. “He’s a good Alpha in some ways… but he doesn’t see people, Selene. He only sees roles. You’re his Luna, yes — but you’re also his possession. That’s not love. That’s control.”
When Selene emerged from the dungeon, Kael was waiting in the corridor.
“How was it?” he asked, trying to keep his tone neutral.
She hesitated. “He says you’re lying. That you set him up.”
Kael’s jaw tightened. “And you believe him?”
Her gaze flickered away. “I don’t know. I just… I feel like I’m standing between two storms. And I don’t know which one is going to tear me apart first.”
She brushed past him, leaving Kael standing alone with the echo of her words.
That night, Kael stood on the balcony outside his chambers, the cold wind biting at his skin. Ronan joined him, his expression grim.
“She’s leaning toward him,” Ronan said quietly.
Kael didn’t answer. He just stared out over the moonlit forest, the truth pressing down on him like the weight of the mountains.
Lucien wasn’t just caged in the dungeon. He was caged in Kael’s life. And every day that passed, those bars were bending.
- Writer
