Kael's Proposal

Kael's POV

The boy was too easy to read.

Edrian.

He was at the doorway of the hall, bowed down a little, and with clasped hands behind him, as if he had been trained to disappear. Yet his eyes betrayed him. They were trailing Xander like a rope. Each movement, each stride, and each thoughtless jerk of the wrist of the son of the Alpha King, Edrian's eyes lingered, hungry and pained simultaneously.

I drank my wine and allowed the scene to pass, half-hearing the courtiers who muttered beside me. 

“Look at him,” one scoffed. “Still smells of the dirt he crawled out from. How long until the Alpha tires of his little pet project?”

“Not long,” another replied, her painted mouth curling. “Men like Xander don’t keep strays. They break them.”

Their laughter was soft, and cruel. I said nothing. I had no need to defend him...not yet. We are all in the hall for the celebration of the new warriors who made it out of the Royal hunting game with honor.

I watched, noting every twitch in Edrian’s jaw, and every subtle stiffening of his shoulders. He heard them. He always heard.

And Xander...ah, my perfect, prideful brother pretended not to notice. 

Feigned, and never quite able to conceal how his wolf bristled when the barbs drew too near.

Intriguing.

As the hall at last started to clear I stood up and slipped through the crowd, my smile as smooth as the jewels on my fingers.It didn’t take much to steer my path to Edrian. He stood up and looked at me in surprise, the keen amber eyes stretched open, and it seemed as if he had not imagined any one coming to find him... let alone me.

“Leaving so soon?” I asked lightly. My voice was velvet, it always was. “You fade from rooms far too quickly, Edrian. It makes the whispers sharper, you know.”

“I… prefer silence.” His throat bobbed.

“Do you?”

I waited before letting the question fall and then I tilted my head towards the dark archway which led out of the banquet hall. 

“Walk with me.”

He hesitated. The faithful slave fought with the suspicious wolf in his mind, but at last, he moved. Always so polite. Always so careful.

The gardens at the palace were shrouded in the moonlight, silver streaming across marble statues and clinging vines. I took him away along a lonely road, the night chilly on our bodies, the silence between us dense.

At last I stood under an ivy archway and turned towards him.

"You are no use here," I muttered.

“Excuse me?” He blinked.

“Don’t pretend you don’t know." I smiled and the words ran slow and deliberate."The sneers, the small cruelties, the unending humiliations. They want you broken and my brother…” My eyes narrowed just slightly. “He allows it.”

His lips parted, then closed again. He looked away, jaw tightening.

There it was, the crack. The wound.

“Tell me, Edrian,” I continued, stepping closer, “how long will you endure being his shadow? His whipping post? His… toy?”

“I am no toy.” His wolf flared in his gaze, bright and defensive.

I laughed, low and warm. 

“Good. Hold on to that fire. It’s rare here, in this pit of vipers.”

For a moment, silence stretched. I could feel the battle inside him, the need to defend Xander, colliding with the hurt of being discarded.

Then I offered the first hook. 

“I could give you more. Freedom. Power. A place not beneath someone’s heel, but beside.”

“Why would you do that?” His head snapped toward me.

I stepped closer, until the night seemed to breathe only around us. 

“Because I see you, because I know what it’s like to live in someone else’s shadow.” My smile thinned. “And because you deserve more than scraps from a man too proud to claim what is his.”

He stiffened at that. His wolf flickered again, uncertain. I pressed, slowly and deliberately.

“You think no one notices the way he looks at you? The way he aches to tear apart anyone who touches you? Even Amber.” I let the name linger, tasting his reaction. His jaw clenched, his chest rising quick. “The bond burns between you, doesn’t it?”

His silence was answer enough.

I reached out, brushing my fingers along his wrist. A light touch, but intimate. Too intimate. His breath hitched.

“You don’t have to suffer for his pride, Edrian. You could choose differently. You could choose me.”

“I would never betray him.” He jerked back as if burned, eyes flashing.

Ah. Loyalty. Beautiful, foolish loyalty.

“Not yet, perhaps, but loyalty cracks, Edrian. It always does, when weighed against survival.” I chuckled, low and genuine. 

His wolf snarled low in his throat, a warning, but he didn’t step away. He didn’t leave. That told me more than words ever could.

I leaned in just enough for my breath to ghost against his ear. 

“Think about it. Freedom. Power. A place where no one dares call you slave again. All it costs is a choice.”

Then I stepped back, smiling as if nothing dangerous had passed between us. 

“Goodnight, Edrian.”

And as I walked away, I didn’t need to turn to know his eyes followed me—conflicted, furious, and, most importantly, tempted.