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1297 Words
The words followed me long after he said them.
You smell like a woman being forgotten.
I felt them like a bruise beneath my skin as the meeting continued around me.
Voices rose and fell.
Advisors argued.
Kael’s tone remained cold and controlled while Alpha Darius answered with that same dangerous calm that somehow felt more threatening than shouting ever could.
I heard none of it.
Because every nerve in my body was still trapped in the moment his eyes locked onto mine.
Like he had looked straight through me.
Straight into the loneliness I had tried so desperately to hide.
I should have been angry.
Offended.
Humiliated.
Instead…
I felt exposed.
And somehow, that was worse.
“Elara.”
Kael’s sharp voice snapped through my thoughts.
I blinked, realizing the room had gone quiet.
Everyone was looking at me.
Heat rushed to my face instantly.
“Yes?”
Kael’s expression tightened slightly.
“I asked if you agreed with the eastern border proposal.”
I stared at him blankly.
I hadn’t heard a single word.
A subtle shift moved through the room.
Embarrassment curled painfully in my stomach.
Once, Kael would have noticed immediately when my thoughts drifted.
Once, he would have known something was wrong before I even spoke.
Now I looked at him and saw only impatience.
“I…” My throat tightened. “I apologize. I didn’t hear the question.”
One of the older advisors sighed quietly beneath his breath.
Kael’s jaw flexed.
But before he could speak—
A deep voice cut smoothly through the tension.
“Perhaps the Luna is exhausted.”
Every muscle in my body tightened instantly.
Darius.
The room stilled again.
Dangerously.
Kael’s eyes darkened as he turned toward him.
“My mate does not require your observations.”
Darius leaned back slightly in his chair, utterly relaxed beneath the hostility aimed at him.
“No?”
His gray eyes drifted lazily back to me.
“She looks exhausted.”
The way he said it made warmth crawl unexpectedly beneath my skin.
Not because the words themselves were kind.
But because someone had noticed.
Kael’s voice sharpened.
“Elara is perfectly fine.”
Darius’s gaze never left mine.
“That isn’t what her eyes say.”
The silence that followed could have cut flesh.
I looked down immediately, pulse stumbling unevenly in my chest.
This was dangerous.
Everything about this was dangerous.
No one challenged Kael.
No one openly contradicted him.
Yet Darius did it effortlessly.
Like he simply didn’t care about consequences.
A low growl vibrated in Kael’s chest.
Quiet.
Controlled.
But unmistakable.
The sound sent tension rippling through the entire room.
Darius only smiled faintly.
It wasn’t a friendly smile.
It looked like provocation.
And suddenly I realized something horrifying.
He was doing this on purpose.
Not the political tension.
Not the negotiations.
This.
Looking at me.
Speaking to me.
Watching Kael react.
The realization should have frightened me more than it did.
Instead, a strange pulse of awareness moved through me.
Because Kael had barely looked at me all morning…
Until another man did.
I hated that thought instantly.
Kael stood abruptly.
The sharp scrape of his chair against stone echoed through the hall.
“We’ll continue this discussion after tonight’s gathering.”
The dismissal in his tone was clear.
Final.
The advisors rose immediately.
Warriors shifted into motion.
Conversations started quietly again.
But beneath all of it, tension still coiled thickly in the air.
I moved toward the exit quickly, desperate to escape before anyone noticed how uneven my breathing had become.
Before anyone noticed the way Darius’s presence affected the room.
Affected me.
“Luna.”
I froze.
The voice came from behind me.
Low.
Smooth.
Dangerous.
Slowly, I turned.
Darius stood only a few feet away now.
Too close.
Far too close.
Up close, he was even more unsettling.
The scar along his jaw became more visible. His gray eyes darker somehow, sharp enough to strip through every layer of composure I had left.
He smelled like winter storms and cedar smoke.
Wild.
Untamed.
Nothing like Kael.
“My Alpha requested rest for you,” I said carefully. “You should return to the council room.”
One corner of his mouth lifted faintly.
“Was that concern?”
“No.”
The answer came too quickly.
His smile deepened slightly.
Interesting.
Gods.
He looked at me like he found me interesting.
Most people have looked at me with sympathy lately.
Or politeness.
Or indifference.
But Darius looked at me like he was trying to unravel something.
“You’re unhappy here.”
The bluntness of the statement stole my breath.
I glanced toward the warriors nearby instinctively.
No one seemed close enough to hear.
Still, panic flickered through me.
“You shouldn’t say things like that.”
“Why?” he asked calmly. “Because they’re true?”
My chest tightened painfully.
“I don’t know you.”
“No,” he murmured. “But I think I know loneliness when I see it.”
The words landed too close to the truth.
I stepped back instinctively.
His gaze dropped briefly to the movement.
Then returned to my face.
Still calm.
Still watching.
“You’re crossing a line,” I whispered.
Darius tilted his head slightly.
“And your mate?”
My breath caught.
“What?”
His expression hardened almost imperceptibly.
“Has he crossed none?”
The question sliced straight through me.
Because the worst part was…
I didn’t know anymore.
Darius stepped closer.
Not enough to touch.
Enough to overwhelm.
Enough that I could feel the heat radiating from him despite the coldness in his eyes.
“You look at him like you’re waiting for him to remember you,” he said quietly.
The ache in my chest became unbearable.
“You’re wrong.”
“Am I?”
His voice dropped lower.
“Tell me, Luna… when was the last time your mate looked at you first when you entered a room?”
I opened my mouth.
Nothing came out.
Because I couldn’t remember.
Something dark flickered through Darius’s expression then.
Not satisfaction.
Not amusement.
Something far more dangerous.
Anger.
Not at me.
For me.
The realization shook me more than anything else had.
Why would a rival Alpha care?
Why would he look at my pain like it offended him personally?
“Darius.”
Kael’s voice cracked through the hallway like thunder.
Every muscle in my body tensed instantly.
Darius’s eyes lifted slowly over my shoulder.
Unhurried.
Like he knew exactly what he was doing.
I turned.
Kael stood at the far end of the corridor, broad shoulders rigid with restrained fury.
The air around him felt sharp now.
Territorial.
His gaze moved from Darius…
To me.
Then back again.
And for the first time in weeks—
I saw something raw flicker in my mate’s eyes.
Possessiveness.
Too late.
“Is there a problem?” Darius asked calmly.
Kael’s jaw clenched hard enough to pulse.
“You seem very interested in my mate.”
The silence that followed felt lethal.
Darius looked at me once more.
Slowly.
Intentionally.
Then back at Kael.
“Yes,” he said.
No hesitation.
No apology.
Nothing but brutal honesty.
My pulse stopped.
Kael went perfectly still.
The entire corridor seemed to freeze with him.
Even the warriors nearby looked tense enough to draw blood at the slightest movement.
But Darius only held Kael’s gaze calmly.
Like challenging an Alpha in his own territory meant absolutely nothing to him.
Then his eyes slid back to mine one final time.
And his voice dropped low enough that only I heard him say:
“You deserve to be seen, Luna.”
Before turning and walking away.
Leaving silence…
And chaos…
In his wake.
- Writer
