Page 10

TEN

KAEL

“ W here the hell were you?”

Kael didn’t mean to sound like he was snarling, but the second the words left his mouth, they cut through the quiet like a blade across stone.

Selene stood just inside the doorway, her cloak dripping water onto the polished stone floor, her cheeks flushed from the cold—or fury. He couldn’t tell which.

“Out,” she said, voice like flint.

He moved toward her, slow, deliberate. Not looming. Not quite. But enough to remind her what she’d walked into.

“You had no guard. No escort. You left the citadel.”

“I’m not your prisoner.”

“You sure as hell aren’t free to wander the Veil like some starry-eyed tourist. That’s not a city, Selene—it’s a powder keg.”

“I walked,” she snapped. “Not far. Not stupid.”

“ You could’ve been killed! ” The words ripped out before he could temper them, raw and hoarse.

She flinched. Just a fraction.

Then her chin lifted.

“I saw one of your justice rituals,” she said, biting off each word. “A man on his knees. Blood down his face. You branded him like an animal and forced him into a half-shift that nearly killed him. What was his crime, Kael? Did he look at someone wrong?”

Kael’s jaw tightened until it ached. “He broke a blood oath.”

“And that’s how you handle it? With torture in front of an audience?”

“This is the Dominion,” he said, quieter now, voice cold. “Not the council halls your kind simper in.”

Her eyes flared. “You think that makes it right?”

He didn’t answer.

Because no, he didn’t think it was right. But he’d lived it. Been shaped by it. He knew the rules weren’t made to be questioned. Not here. Not with the old blood watching.

Selene stepped forward, fire rolling off her in waves.

“You think I’m weak.”

“No.”

“You think I need protecting. Locking up. Leashing.”

Kael exhaled sharply. “You’re not weak, Selene. You’re unfamiliar . You don’t know how this world works, and until you do, you’re a liability.”

She laughed. No humor. Just disbelief and something darker underneath.

“I’m not your liability,” she hissed. “And I’m not your responsibility.”

He stepped closer.

“I know that,” he said, low. “You think I asked for this bond? You think I wanted you in my blood, in my skin, every time I breathe?”

Selene blinked, and for a beat, her breath caught.

“Then why do you care if I’m safe?” she asked.

Kael opened his mouth.

Nothing came out.

She stared at him, her chest rising and falling. Her face flushed, eyes bright, the line of her jaw stubborn and proud even when she was standing ankle-deep in a world ready to swallow her whole.

And gods help him, she was beautiful .

Not in the polished, jeweled way of court-born princesses.

She was sharp angles and defiance. Fire wrapped in silk. Chaos that made his wolf want to kneel and bite all at once.

“I care,” he said finally, “because if something happens to you, the bond will backlash through me. Through my House. Through the Veil itself.”

Her expression faltered. For a heartbeat.

Then returned, harder.

“So that’s it,” she said. “You care because it would inconvenience you.”

Kael stepped in.

Too close.

“I care,” he said, voice low, “because the second I knew you weren’t here, my wolf went feral.”

Selene stilled.

“I didn’t know where you were,” he said. “And it drove me mad . That’s the truth. I can’t think straight when you’re not where you’re supposed to be. And I hate that.”

Selene’s lips parted, breath shallow.

The space between them crackled.

Tension spiraled in the air like static before a storm. She tilted her chin up, defiantly. Her mouth was so close to his now, Kael could see the faint shimmer of anger still clinging to it.

He leaned forward, just an inch—just enough for her to feel the pull.

Her breath faltered.

“Kael—”

His name on her lips wasn’t a warning. It was an invocation.

And it nearly undid him.

But he didn’t move. Not the final inch.

He couldn’t.

If he kissed her now, he wouldn’t stop.

He’d take.

And she might let him, because the bond hummed with something hungry and deep—but he wouldn’t know if it was really her choice.

So instead, Kael stepped back.

A slow, careful retreat.

Selene swallowed hard, her face unreadable.

“You really are a coward,” she whispered.

He flinched. Just enough to notice.

“You’re right,” he said, voice rough. “But if I lose control, I’m not the one who pays.”

Her eyes darkened.

Then she turned and walked past him, toward the fire. Her cloak hit his arm as she passed, a soft sweep that felt like a punch to the chest.

She didn’t look back.

Kael stared at the flames long after she disappeared behind the curtain that divided the room.

And his wolf?

His wolf was still pacing.