CHAPTER 4: Part 02

The sound of their conversation was a low rumble, punctuated by the clink of goblets and the scrape of knives against plates. They ate with the casual violence of men who took what they wanted and never questioned their right to do so.

Some I recognized from the attack on my home, some that had watched as my life was destroyed, then sat down to dinner as if nothing had happened. Others were strangers, but they wore the same expression of casual cruelty that seemed to be required uniform here.

Kael sat at the head of the table.

Not a crown on his head. He didn't need one.

He commanded the space without effort, his presence a gravitational force that pulled every eye, every word, every breath in the room toward him. Even when he wasn't speaking, the others oriented themselves around him like planets around a dark star.

He didn't look at me.

Not when I entered. Not when I stood there waiting. Not when the silence stretched long enough that my skin began to crawl with awareness of being watched by everyone except the one person whose attention I feared.

A servant pulled out a small stool — not a chair — at a second, lower table across the room. It sat alone, unadorned. No place setting. No utensils. No wine.

The message was clear. I was not a guest at this table. I was entertainment.

I was to eat like a pet. Or not eat at all.

I sat, the wood rough against my legs, splinters catching at the thin fabric of my robe.

The silver collar pinched slightly as I leaned forward.

I kept my eyes on my hands, clenched tightly in my lap.

From this angle, I could see everything — the casual way the men tore meat from bone, the wine that stained their lips red, the way they gestured with knives still dripping fat. The conversation flowed around me like water around a stone, as if I were just another piece of furniture.

Kael was speaking to a someone on his left, voice low, tone cool. Something about supply lines. Territory. Patrol strategy. His voice was perfectly calm. Perfectly disinterested. It was as if I didn't exist.

"The eastern border needs reinforcement," the Beta was saying, stabbing a piece of meat with unnecessary force. "The Ashwood pack has been testing our boundaries."

"Let them," Kael replied, his voice carrying the weight of absolute certainty. "When they push too far, we'll remind them why they should have stayed behind their own borders."

The casual threat sent a shiver through the room. These men spoke of violence like other people discussed the weather.

He never once looked at me.

Not even when a plate of plain bread was dropped in front of me.

Not even when the silence broke.

The bread was stale, hard enough to hurt my teeth, but it was the first food I'd been offered since arriving. I tore off a small piece, chewed it slowly, tasting nothing but dust and defeat.

A man across the table — younger, maybe only a few years older than me, with a sharp smile and eyes that never stopped moving — leaned toward Kael and spoke just loud enough to carry.

"She's smaller than I imagined, Alpha."

His voice cut through the conversation like a blade, and suddenly every eye in the room was on me. I felt their attention like heat on my skin, burning and invasive.

Kael didn't respond.

He continued eating, cutting his meat with precise strokes, chewing thoughtfully. The silence stretched until it became painful.

"I was expecting… more."

A few chuckles from the others. Goblets clinked in appreciation of the cruel joke.

Someone muttered the word "delicate."

Someone else said "breakable."

"Fragile little thing, isn't she?" another voice added, and the laughter grew louder.

Heat climbed my neck, spreading across my cheeks like a brand. I didn't move. I didn't speak.

Kael lifted his goblet, the silver catching the torchlight.

Still silent.

Still smiling that cold, predatory smile that never reached his eyes.

And then—

"She screams beautifully," he said.

The room went still.

My heart stopped.

The casual conversation died instantly, every man frozen with goblets halfway to lips, knives suspended over plates. The only sound was the crackle of torches and my own ragged breathing.

Kael took a slow sip from his cup and added, almost conversationally, "Not during pain. During pleasure."

The chuckles stopped.

The temperature in the room seemed to drop ten degrees. I could feel the weight of their stares, the way they leaned forward slightly, hungry for more details of my degradation.

He set the goblet down with deliberate care.

"I've heard rumors," he continued, "that she's here for peace. That she's a sacrifice."

The word 'sacrifice' hung in the air like smoke, thick and choking. I wanted to disappear, to dissolve into the stone floor and never have to face another moment of this.

He finally turned his head toward me — not to meet my eyes, but to study my throat, my collar, the line of my exposed shoulder where the robe had slipped again.

His gaze was clinical, appraising, like I was livestock being evaluated for market.

"But let me make this clear for everyone seated here," Kael said, voice calm as ice. "She's not here to make peace."

A pause that stretched into eternity.

"She's here to be used."

My stomach twisted, bile rising in my throat.

The words hit me like physical blows, each syllable designed to strip away another piece of my humanity. I felt myself shrinking, becoming smaller and smaller until I was nothing but a collection of bruises and shame.

A few of the men shifted uncomfortably. Others nodded with approval.

One of them — a captain with scars across his knuckles — leaned back in his chair and smiled. "And how is she adjusting to her new purpose, Alpha?"

"Beautifully," Kael replied without hesitation. "She learns quickly. She's already beginning to understand what she was made for."

The bread turned to ash in my mouth.

And Kael turned back to his meal as if the conversation had ended.

As if I hadn't been gutted.

As if I hadn't died right there on that stool with my legs clenched, my face flushed, and the fire of humiliation crawling across my skin like it had teeth.