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The brother who let me go
Tanggal publikasi:
2026-08-25 17:13:31Sleep was an impossibility.
By 2:00 AM, the estate was eerie, wrapped in smoke and heavy silence. The guards were patrolling the perimeter, but I couldn't breathe inside my quarters. Every wall felt like it was closing in on me.
I slipped out through the side terrace, wrapping a thick velvet cloak around my nightgown, and headed down the stone path toward the training grounds behind the estate. The night air was freezing, but it helped clear the fog in my mind.
I didn't expect to find anyone out there.
Through the faint moonlight, I saw a solitary figure bare-chested in the frost, pounding a heavy leather sandbag with brutal, terrifying force.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
The rhythmic impact echoed through the clearing. Sweat gleamed off Kael’s broad, scarred back. Every motion of his muscles was fluid, precise, and lethal.
I stopped at the edge of the tree line, but before I could step back, he spoke without turning around.
"You shouldn't be out here alone, Elara. The perimeter is still unstable."
I swallowed hard, stepping into the dim light. "You knew it was me?"
"I know your scent," Kael said softly. He stopped punching, grabbing a linen towel from a nearby wooden bench to wipe the sweat from his face and neck. He turned to look at me, his chest heaving, his silver eyes dark and reflective in the shadow. "You smell like white tea and fresh snow. I’d know it anywhere."
A shiver ran down my spine, entirely unrelated to the freezing temperature.
"Kael," I began, my voice quiet. "Why didn't you say anything to the elders earlier? When Vance called you an abandoner... when Rowan said you left us... why didn't you defend yourself?"
Kael tossed the towel aside and slowly walked over to the edge of the ring, leaning his bare forearms against the wooden fence post. Up close, I could see a jagged, wicked scar running from his right shoulder down to his ribs a blade mark.
"Because explaining the truth to people who want to believe a lie is a waste of breath," Kael answered quietly. "The council wanted a war seven years ago. They wanted to slaughter the neighboring Silverfang Pack over a disputed border line. My father was ready to order the strike."
My eyes widened. "The Silverfang War... father told me it was averted because of diplomacy."
"It was averted because I destroyed the council's weapons depot in secret and took the blame for the sabotage," Kael said, his voice cold and steady. "I let them think I was a traitor and walked away so forty innocent families wouldn't be butchered for a patch of dirt."
My jaw dropped. The legendary exile... the grand betrayal everyone whispered about in the pack... was a sacrifice to protect lives.
"You let them hate you," I breathed, taking a step closer to him. "You let your own family believe you were a monster."
"A title is nothing, Elara," Kael said, looking directly into my eyes. "People's lives are everything. I don't care what the council thinks of me. I never have."
"Then why come back now?" I asked, my voice barely a whisper. "If you knew they would brand you a rogue again?"
"I told you," Kael said, his gaze locking onto mine with an intensity that made my pulse race. "I felt you. The moment your wolf awakened to her true nature, I felt a pull in my chest so sharp it nearly dropped me to my knees. I knew you were in danger. I came to protect you."
"I am promised to your brother," I said, though the words felt hollow even to my own ears. "The council won't allow us to break it. And Rowan... Rowan doesn't deserve to be humiliated."
Kael looked at me for a long, silent moment. Then, to my shock, he stepped over the low fence and walked until he was standing right in front of me. He was so tall, his presence so massive, yet he looked down at me with an incredible, soft tenderness.
He lifted a hand, hovering his fingers just a millimeter away from my cheek close enough that I could feel the intense heat radiating from his skin, but without touching me.
"I won't force you, Elara," Kael said quietly, his voice a rich, dark velvet. "If you look at me right now and tell me that you want to marry Rowan... if you tell me that your heart belongs to him, I will turn around, step out of this territory, and never come back."
My breath hitched. "You would just leave?"
"If that is what you truly want," Kael said softly. "I love you enough to let you choose. I will not steal you like a piece of land. I will not cage you like the council wants to. Even if it destroys me to watch you walk down that aisle with him... if it is your choice, I will respect it."
Tears sprang to my eyes. Rowan loved me, but he saw me as his future Luna, his destined bride, his rightful place. Kael was offering me something I had never had in my entire life: absolute freedom.
Before I could answer, the heavy crunch of gravel rang out behind us.
Rowan stepped out from the shadows of the tree line, a silver blade drawn in his right hand, his face pale and contorted with rage and pain.
"Step away from her, Kael," Rowan snarled, his voice trembling. "I saw you out here from the balcony. I'm done watching you whisper in my fiancée's ear."
Kael didn't flinch. He slowly turned his body, placing himself between Rowan and me, keeping his posture relaxed and non-threatening. "Put the blade away, Rowan. We aren't enemies."
"You came back to steal my life!" Rowan shouted, stepping into the ring, his amber eyes flashing violently. "You took my title seven years ago when you ran away, leaving me to pick up the pieces! And now you want my bride?!"
"She is not a possession!" Kael barked, his voice dropping into a warning Alpha growl that made the air freeze. "She is a person, Rowan! Have you once asked her what she wants?"
"She wants what we built!" Rowan yelled, pointing the knife at Kael's chest. "We have three years of history! We have a pack to build!" Rowan stopped, his chest heaving, his eyes shifting from Kael to me, filled with an agonizing desperation. Rowan looked at his older brother and asked the single question he had been terrified to voice all night: "If she chooses me, Kael... if she stays with me... will you leave her alone? Will you walk away and let her go?"
Kael stood tall in the freezing night air. He looked at me over his shoulder one last time, his silver eyes filled with an unbearable, quiet grief, then turned back to his brother.
"Even if it destroys me," Kael said softly. "If she chooses you, I will walk away and never return."
Rowan lowered his dagger slightly, stunned by the absolute sincerity in Kael's voice.
Before anyone could say another word, an alarm horn shrieked across the dark estate a sharp, triple-blast whistle that signified an immediate red-level threat.
The ground beneath our feet buckled with a violent, unnatural force, and from the deep forest surrounding
the training grounds, dozens of red glowing eyes illuminated the darkness.
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