Adrian’s POVI didn’t like the way Hector was looking at Kayla.And I hated the way she didn’t immediately pull away.It made something sharp twist in my chest, something dark and possessive.And then Hector had the audacity to grin at her and say, “We should continue this conversation later, Kayla. Maybe over dinner?”Absolutely not.Before she could respond, I stepped forward, putting myself directly between them. “She’s busy.”Hector’s smirk widened. “Oh? I don’t recall you being her schedule manager, brother.”I clenched my jaw. “She’s busy,” I repeated, my voice leaving no room for argument.Kayla blinked, clearly startled by my tone.Hector, on the other hand, looked amused. He glanced at Kayla. “Well, if you ever find yourself not busy, you know where to find me.”I exhaled sharply, my patience thinning. “Don’t you have somewhere else to be?”Hector chuckled. “Fine, fine. I’ll back off… for now.”I didn’t respond. I just turned to Kayla. “Come with me.”She hesitated for a seco
Adrian’s POV The knock at the door was like a slap to the face.I almost kissed her.I almost had her in my arms.And then—this.I clenched my jaw, my hands tightening at my sides as I forced myself to take a deep breath. Stay calm. Don’t snap.But I wanted to snap.Because for the first time in a long time, I had felt something—something real, something undeniable. And now it was gone.Kayla took a small step back, her face flushing as she turned toward the door.I didn’t move.Didn’t even breathe for a second.The knock came again.I exhaled sharply, forcing myself to step away before I did something reckless like rip the damn door off its hinges.Then the door opened, and Connor stepped inside, his expression tense.“Alpha sir, Sorry to interrupt but I have urgent news.” His voice was all business, his usual easygoing demeanor replaced with concern. “The council is holding an emergency meeting. They’ve requested your presence immediately.”I sighed, already knowing exactly who was
Author's note: Hii, If you are enjoying this story so far, please leave a comment so I can keep it up. Thanks in advance.Kayla’s POVThe second Adrian left, I slumped against the nearest surface and covered my face with my hands.My heart was still pounding.I could still feel his touch.His fingers had barely grazed my skin, but it was enough to send shivers down my spine. And it wasn’t just his hands.It was the way he looked at me—like I was something precious, something worth protecting. No one had ever looked at me like that before, not even Xavier who had pretended to love me.My face burned as I slowly lowered my hands.I almost couldn't believe that just happened.I had almost kissed Adrian. Or he had almost kissed me. Either way, Connor had ruined it.I let out a frustrated breath, my mind replaying the moment over and over. If Connor hadn’t knocked on that door, would Adrian have actually done it?Would I have let him? I swallowed hard when I realized the answer.Yes.The
Alpha Adrian’s POVThe moment I stepped into the council hall, I knew something was wrong.The air was thick with tension.The entire council was present, plus some noblemen were seated in their usual spots, their faces grim and unreadable. But the person who made my stomach tighten in unease was the man positioned in the entrance of the room—Alpha Brandon, my father-in-law to be that showed up without notice.He smiled at me and said it was time we spoke but I brushed him off. I had bigger issues waiting inside the council hall.Because this obviously wasn’t a normal council meeting.This was an ambush.“Alpha Adrian,” one of the elder councilmen, Augustine, spoke first. “We’ve called you here because a concerning matter has come to our attention.”I stiffened. “What matter?”Augustine folded his hands on the table. “We’ve been informed that you intentionally do not wish to marry and continue the succession, thereby forfeiting your rights as Alpha. Is that true?I blinked, momentaril
Kayla's POV I could barely keep up with the guards as they led me down a long, dimly lit corridor. My hands were clammy, my stomach a tangled mess of knots, and my heart pounded so hard I could feel it in my throat.I had no idea why I was being brought to the council hall, but the way the guards flanked me on either side, their expressions blank and unreadable, made my nerves skyrocket.Something was wrong.Terribly wrong.When the large double doors at the end of the hall finally loomed ahead, my steps faltered. The guards didn’t stop, and before I knew it, they pushed open the doors, revealing the council hall in all its intimidating glory.I froze.The room was huge—far bigger than I could have ever imagined a pack would have. Grand marble pillars stretched high up to the domed ceiling, the intricate golden chandeliers casting a regal glow over the long, crescent-shaped table where more than a few dozen councilmen were seated.And every single one of them was staring directly at
Kayla’s POV I sat stiffly in the grand council hall, my hands gripping the edges of my chair so tightly that my knuckles turned white. My head was still spinning, my heart racing so fast that I could barely think straight.This couldn’t be real.It had to be some twisted form of a joke.But the murmurs around the room, the weight of the councilmen’s gazes, and the thick tension in the air told me otherwise.I was truly trapped.Marry Alpha Adrian. Share him with Candice. Bear his child or get sent back to the abusive husband and his mistress who killed your child, rejected you, turned you into a maid and sold you off after trying to rape you.The choice was easy but not at all fair or humane.It sounded like something out of a cruel joke, except no one was laughing. Least of all me.I wasn’t afraid of the part about being forced to have children for a man I had just recently met. Because I knew something none of them did and that was that I couldn’t have them.The real problem? If I
Kayla’s POV I must have misheard him. There was no way Adrian just said what I thought he did. I blinked at him, trying to process the words that had just left his mouth. “I’m sorry—what?” Adrian stood in front of me, his face annoyingly unreadable as he repeated himself. “You’ll be staying in my room tonight.” I choked. “Are you serious?”Adrian let out a low chuckle. “Oh, I'm very serious.”"Is this really necessary?” I pulled away and crossed my arms, feeling a little too exposed under his sharp gaze. “I mean, come on, do they really expect us to actually start so soon—” “Yes,” Adrian interrupted, his voice calm but firm. “They do.” I frowned, my heart pounding. “But why? It’s not like the council is going to stand outside the door and—” “They don’t need to but-" He stepped closer, his eyes never leaving mine. “They already suspect that our marriage isn’t real. If they think I’m just using you to avoid a political match or avoid your banishment, they’ll find a way to force
Kayla’s POV Candice’s eyes narrowed the moment she saw me. She stood in the doorway, her expression twisting from shock to rage in a matter of seconds. “What the hell is this?” she spat, her voice sharp and accusing. I blinked at her, still standing on the edge of Adrian’s bed—a fact I suddenly became very aware of. I refused to back down but the towel wrapped around me felt dangerously flimsy under Candice's burning gaze. I lifted my chin. “I could ask you the same thing. What are you doing here?” Candice scoffed, storming further into the room. “I don’t need an invitation to enter my husband’s room!” I arched a brow. “Only Your husband?” “Yes!” she snapped. “And you—” she pointed a perfectly manicured finger at me, her eyes blazing with fury—“have no business being here!” I exhaled slowly, forcing myself to remain calm. “Actually, Adrian invited me.” Candice froze. “What?” I shrugged. “I didn’t break in, Candice. I was invited ofcourse.” Her face turned an
Kayla's POV The door creaked as I pushed it open with a little dust puffing into the air. It was obvious that not a lot of people used this room.The space was small and cluttered.It was more of a glorified storage room than a real Library or archive of history. Shelves sagged under the weight of worn-out books, and loose papers were scattered across tables and floors like autumn leaves.Nothing was arranged or labeled, but I was supposed to somehow be able to magically find the books I was looking for. Great. I rubbed my temples, trying to decide where to even start. Then I heard a rustle. My head snapped to the corner, where a stack of books shifted ever so slightly. I took a cautious step forward. Someone was hiding there.My heart began to race. Was it those shadowed rogues? Had they tracked me here?Had I put the orphans in danger with my presence? “Hello? Who's there?” I called while reaching for my necklace in preparation for a fight. "I know you're there so you bett
Kayla's POV I literally couldn’t stop staring at the photograph. The picture had frayed edges and timeworn colors, but the woman in it, standing close to Adrian's fatger… she looked like me. No.. she looked a little Too much like me to just be normal.And It wasn’t the kind of resemblance you could shrug off as coincidence. It was the same eyes. The same shape of the mouth. Even the same stubborn, haunted expression. And to make matters even more confusing was the fact that Standing beside her with one hand gently resting on hers, was the man Elara had just told me was Alpha Dominic. Adrian’s father. How was this possible? What did this mean?My legs suddenly felt too heavy to carry me so I sat in the corner of the common room with the photo clutched in my hands, trying to make sense of it. “Elara,” I called quietly. The tall, broad-shouldered woman glanced over from where she was searching through the drawers for other things. She came over and lowered herself beside me. “La
Kayla's POV After breakfast, I insisted on helping the staff with chores—cleaning the tables, washing dishes, folding laundry. I needed to do something with my hands that would keep my thoughts from spiralling intodark thoughts.Plus I was eager to start helping the children as fast as possible. The funny thing was that the kids followed me around, asking questions about where I came from, if I had a wolf, if I’d ever seen the Alpha in real life. I smiled and answered as vaguely as I could, not ready to explain the chaos I’d run from. But for the first time in days, I felt a strange sense of peace.Like I was right where I should be. I was hanging laundry out back when one of the staff—Elara, a tall woman with sharp gray eyes and a strong build—approached me. “You’re quite the helper Miss Kayla,” she said, nodding with a basket on her hip. “I needed something to keep me busy,” I replied. She glanced around before adding, “You know, Lady Anna swears you’ve been here before.”
Kayla I ended up spending the night at the Orphanage and it was one of the most restful nights I've had in weeks.Sure, I might have had one or two night mares where I saw Adrian kissing Candice in her room while my body wrecked with painful sobs, but hey, it was better than the nightmares I usually had about the darkness that was trying to take control of me.I knew that I would finally be able to get rid of the problem when I finally get to the Oracle's sanctuary, but I just had to wait until the guards weren't searching for me so persistently.To be honest, I'm surprised that Adrian was putting that much effort into finding me now when he had been ignoring me for the last few days.Hadn't Candice satisfied him enough? Or was he so greedy that he wanted the two of us at the same time?Men! I should have known better than to let myself trust them again. Especially after how Xavier treated me.I had stupidly let myself become a fool for love again! How pathetic!I definitely won't le
Kayla's POV I really didn’t know where I was going at first. Not really. My feet just kept moving, dragging me farther away from the palace, from the pack... from Adrian. Every step felt more gut wrenching than the last, like my body wanted to turn back even though my heart refused to. Where do I go? I paused in the shadow of an old bakery, pressing my back to the cold brick wall as I hugged the jacket tighter around me. My breath was beginning to puff visibly in the cold evening air, and the wind cut through my clothes like icy knives.I would go to mountain, I finally decided. It was the only place I knew where I would be accepted by someone.I obviously couldn't go back to Xavier's pack but it was the only other place I knew, so the Oracle's sanctuary was my best vet.Plus If there was any place I could find answers—or strength—it was with her. Maybe I could even finish my training. Maybe I could finally understand why I was… this. Why I couldn’t control my power or trust my
Kayla's POVI sat on the cold marble floor, clutching one of Adrian’s shirts to my chest, tears streaming down my face like a damn faucet I couldn’t turn off.How could he do this to me? After everything. After all his promises to always fight for me. To never let me feel alone again.He spent the night with her.Candice.It took one fight, one misunderstanding, and he ran straight to her. I didn’t even need to ask anyone. The moment Connor hesitantly told me the truth, I saw it. Clear as day. The shattered pieces of my heart lay scattered around the room like the vases I’d broken last night.The bed smelled like him. The sheets, the pillows — all of it haunted me. His scent, his warmth... gone. Just like that.“He was never going to choose you,” the necklace whispered in that low, silky voice that made my skin crawl. “Men like him choose women like Candice. Pretty, obedient. The kind that don’t challenge them.”“Shut up,” I muttered, dragging myself up to the bed to unzip the duffe
Adrian's POV I tried hard to remember last night but my head soon began to hurt from the effort and I still came up blankPanic was quickly beginning to seize me until I suddenly heard Candice's voice. "Relax Alpha," she said from across the room, her legs tucked under her in a chair by the window with a mug in her hand. "You don't need to try hard to remember what happened last night.""Huh?" I asked in confusion.Candice smiled. "I can read your emotions on your face, and what I meant to say was Nothing interesting happened." I blinked blearily at her. "What...?" "You passed out last night after drinking that extra bottle I told you not to drink," she said simply. "I didn’t want the entire palace gossiping about how their great Alpha can’t hold his liquor so I brought you to the guest room in my quarters. I just brought coffee for you this morning." She gestured to the tray on the table. I let out a breath of relief. I didn't betray Kayla because nothing had happened between us
Adrian’s POVI'm an idiot, I know that. I'm an idiot who's hopelessly in love with a woman but still too scared of his feelings for her.These last few days have really wrecked my mental state and drinking with Candice made me forget my worries for just a few hours.But even that, didn't last long. Because once my eyes landed on Kayla, everything came flooding back.She had made lunch and brought it to me, which meant that she had been thinking of me and probably tried to reach me earlier but I had blocked her.I just wanted time to process thoughts without interruptions or guilt. But that turned out to be impossible because the second I saw the look on Kayla’s face when I refused the food she brought, a bitter knot formed in my stomach. Her smile faltered and was replaced by something smaller, tighter. Hurt. She held the tray down carefully, almost as if she were afraid it would shatter if she moved too quickly.Then she offered to make dinner but I turned it down too and I could
Kayla's POV "It's not any of your concern Kayla. I suggest you drop it... for your own good."What nonsense was he saying. Xavier was my ex husband and very obvious enemy of Adrian. What did he mean it was non of my concern?I was very confused now. Didn't Hector say he had nothing to do with Xavier? Didn't he say he was going to change his relationship with Adrian for the better? What was he hiding now? I pressed on. “You know meeting with him, especially after everything that happened, is only going to make things worse with Adrian. Do you really want to make things more complicated?” He turned his head toward me, his expression hardening slightly. “I don’t care anymore what Adrian thinks. He’s never cared about what I’ve done, and he never will. Besides, I don’t see the problem with talking to someone who actually listens to me.” I felt my heart twist in my chest. “I know you’re upset, Hector, but you promised me—even before I stopped Adrian from banishing you—that you’d stop w