CHAPTER 4 — The King’s Claim
859 Words
Ember’s POV
The tension in the dining hall could shatter glass.
Every bite I take, every breath I pull, every time Magnus’s fingers brush mine as he passes something… Kieran stiffens like he’s being skinned alive.
And I should feel guilty.
But I don’t.
Not after what he did.
Not after he threw me away like nothing.
Magnus leans closer, voice dipping into a private, intimate murmur.
“Is the food alright?”
I nod, even though my throat is tight. “Yes. Thank you.”
Kieran drops his fork. It hits the table with a loud metallic clatter.
Conversation around us stops instantly.
Magnus doesn’t look up.
He just continues cutting a piece of fruit for me, sliding it onto my plate.
With his fork.
A gesture so gentle it feels dangerous.
“Dad.”
The word hisses out of Kieran like a curse.
Magnus lifts his head—slow, deliberate, and deadly calm.
“Something to say?” he asks.
Kieran’s eyes cut to me, then back to Magnus. His fists tremble on the table.
“You brought her home,” he says, voice cracking. “You brought my—”
“Your what?” Magnus interrupts, tone deceptively soft. “Your mate? Your fiancée?”
He leans back. “Or the woman you cheated on?”
Kieran pales.
The entire hall freezes.
My breath catches. Magnus wasn’t supposed to say it aloud—
But a dark part of me is relieved he did.
Kieran swallows hard. “It wasn’t— I didn’t— she wasn’t supposed to be with you.”
Magnus laughs once—quiet, humorless, sharp.
And the sound chills the room.
“You rejected her the moment you betrayed her.”
His eyes narrow. “You don’t get to complain now.”
Heat rushes through me.
Magnus didn’t just defend me—
He put Kieran in his place.
In front of everyone.
Kieran rises so abruptly his chair screeches.
“Dad, we need to talk,” he snaps. “Now.”
Magnus wipes his mouth, stands slowly, deliberately, towering over his son.
“Very well.”
Then he glances at me.
“Ember. Stay here.”
My heart stutters.
Because it isn’t a request.
It’s a command.
And a promise.
Kieran storms out first, fists tight.
Magnus follows—but before he steps out, he pauses beside me… and brushes his thumb lightly across my knuckles.
A touch so subtle no one else notices.
A touch that says:
You’re mine now.
And I feel it.
Everywhere.
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Kieran’s POV
I shove the door to my father’s study open and whirl around the moment he enters.
“What the hell are you doing?!”
Magnus shuts the door behind him with the gentlest click.
That terrifies me more than if he’d slammed it.
“Explain,” he says.
“I— I told you what happened,” I snap. “I told you Ember meant nothing anymore. She— she wasn’t supposed to—”
“Be with me?” Magnus finishes.
His expression doesn’t shift. “You lost that privilege when you decided your best friend was more interesting than your mate.”
I flinch.
He doesn’t stop.
“You dishonored her,” Magnus says, voice cold enough to frost stone. “You humiliated her. You broke a sacred bond.”
“It was a mistake!” I shout.
He raises a brow. “Did you regret it?”
I freeze.
Because the truth sticks like a thorn in my throat.
I didn’t regret it then.
Not until I saw her in his bed.
Magnus takes one step toward me.
Then another.
“You lost Ember,” he says quietly. “But I will not.”
My breath stutters.
“Dad… don’t do this.”
His eyes harden.
“She proposed to me, Kieran. I accepted.”
My heart stops.
“You can’t be serious,” I whisper.
He steps closer, the Alpha aura rolling off him like a crashing wave.
“I haven’t been more serious in decades.”
My voice cracks.
“You’re taking her from me.”
“No,” Magnus says.
“I’m giving her what you never could.”
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Ember’s POV
I wait at the table, pretending to eat, pretending I don’t hear the faint rumble of raised voices down the hall.
Pretending my heart isn’t racing at the memory of Magnus’s touch.
A servant passes behind me and whispers to another:
“She spent the night in his bed—”
“I heard the king carried her in—”
“Poor first prince—”
Magnus’s shadow fills the doorway before they can finish.
He ignores the whispers.
He walks straight to me.
His eyes soften just for me.
“Come,” he says gently. “There’s something I need to ask you.”
Everyone stares.
Everyone listens.
Everyone waits.
But Magnus only looks at me.
Like I’m the only one who matters.
And when he offers his hand…
I take it.
Because maybe—for the first time in my life—
I want to belong to someone who doesn’t break me.
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- Writer
