Chapter 8: Shadows of Bloodridge
Kaelen’s POV
The scent of smoke and leather clung to the walls, thick and suffocating. Firelight danced in the hearth, its glow catching on blades mounted across the study—Bloodridge steel, forged to kill. Above the mantle, the family crest glared down at me, iron-wrought and merciless. A wolf crowned with blood. A reminder. A command.
Win at all costs.
I stood before the desk, stiff, arms crossed, gaze fixed on a faded parchment. The words blurred. My mind wasn’t on it.
It was on her.
Kaia.
She should have broken by now. The lashings. The wolfsbane. The endless nights spent silenced and alone. I’d stripped her of everything—status, freedom, dignity.
She was supposed to fade into nothing.
But she hadn’t.
Not really.
There was something in her eye
