LOGINVaelin’s POVThe little bastard didn’t even scream.He just froze on the bottom riser of the grand staircase, one boot planted on the cold marble, looking up at me like a stray dog trying to figure out if he should bite or run.My fingers clenched so hard around the hilt of my broadsword that the leather groaned under my palm. I’d been waiting in the shadows of this landing for nearly an hour, nursing the ugly, throbbing ache along my spine where Father’s shadows had slammed me into the subterranean floor. My lungs still tasted like the blood I’d coughed up down in that dark vault.And then the whispers had started crawling up the stone shafts from the cellars.Less than two hours after Lord Garrick’s corpse was dragged out of the Great Hall, word reached the upper guards that this wolfless rat had just cornered Count Malakor in the lower pantry. Not crying. Not trembling for mercy. He had backed the head steward into a wash bucket.A branded slave, walking through this fortress like
Asher’s POVMy heart hammered against my ribs, but my hands didn't shake. Keeping my breathing even, I slid the leather folder into the false slot, clicked the wood flush with my palm, and grabbed the silver water pitcher from the desk.I poured a quick measure into the goblet and turned around.“You were tossing in your sleep, My Prince,” I said softly. “Your brow was burning hot. I went to fetch you water.”Kaelen blinked, his pupils wide and sluggish. He looked from my face down to the cup, his suspicion drowning beneath the thick haze of spiked wine and the sleeping draught.“Water…” he muttered, chin dipping toward his chest.“Drink,” I whispered, crossing to the mattress. I lifted his shoulders just enough to press the rim to his dry lips. He swallowed clumsily, water dripping down his throat.“Lie down,” I urged, easing him back into the pillows. I ran my fingers through his hair, smoothing damp strands back from his forehead. “You need rest.”Kaelen let out a heavy exhale. His
Asher’s POVKaelen let out a low breathless laugh that dissolved into a quiet sigh.Before he could finish speaking, he shifted beneath me, tightening his hands around my hips as he slowly rolled us over.He pressed his broad frame down over mine, burying his face into the crook of my neck, hot breath fanning across my collarbone. The wine and the draught were already fighting in his blood, but his body still knew what it wanted.His hand slid down my stomach, brushing against the front of my trousers.“You’re already hard, little bird…” Kaelen murmured into my skin, voice growing heavier by the second.I hadn’t even realized I was. My heart was hammering so fast my whole body vibrated with nervous electric energy. Fear. Heat. All of it tangled until my body answered before my mind could shut it down.“I want you too, Kaelen,” I whispered desperately, clutching at his bare back, pulling his head back up to face me. “I want you… but tell me. Answer me. Did you buy me from my brothers?”
Asher’s POVKaelen set me down on the edge of the mattress with a gentleness that made my chest ache. His hands, still stained with Garrick’s blood, hovered near my shoulders for a second before he turned toward the washstand, pouring hot water into a silver basin and snapping a clean linen towel from the rack.My pulse was still hammering against my ribs. I sat there in the dim firelight, tunic torn and damp against my left thigh. The Great Hall felt a world away, but the crack of Garrick’s neck still sat in my ears, and the ache between my legs still sat deeper than that.Kaelen knelt between my knees on the thick rug. He didn’t speak. The tight muscles of his jaw slowly relaxed, the murderous alpha aura that had consumed him downstairs settling into a quiet heat that filled the space between us.Slowly his fingers reached out and gathered the hem of my gold silk tunic, pulling the fabric higher, pushing it past my knee until the deep angry tear near my upper inner thigh was fully e
Kaelen’s POVMy fingers tightened around the stem of my goblet until the silver warped under my palm.I was already on a razor’s edge. Ever since Asher stepped onto the dais in that fine gold silk, his usual quiet grace had felt different. Fragile. Distant. Wrapped in a terrifying guarded silence that made my skin itch. He sat between me and my brother like a frightened ghost, flinching at the slightest movement, refusing to eat, and keeping his eyes pinned to his plate like the food might turn on him. My father’s suffocating gaze had been hovering over us the entire feast, practically choking the air out of the Great Hall, but this pig across the aisle was the final spark in the powder keg.“Tell us, My Prince,” Lord Garrick’s slurred boisterous voice echoed off the high stone arches, cutting straight through the soft music of the harps. “How many iron coins does it take to buy a night with a soft Eastern boy like that?”The Great Hall didn’t burst into laughter. The high vassal lor
Asher’s POVThe gold silk chafed against the fresh dark bruises on my hip.Every step up the wide marble dais sent a dull throbbing ache through my lower back, but I kept my spine straight, my chin level, and my hands folded neatly inside the oversized bell sleeves of my tunic. Kaelen walked half a step ahead of me, his velvet cloak sweeping the polished floor as his alpha aura radiated authority.The Great Hall was not merely hosting a feast. It was suffocating beneath a silence so heavy that even breathing seemed like an interruption.The high vassal lords of the Western Empire began entering through the tall doors, each one arriving with his guards and household banners. Some exchanged quiet greetings as they crossed the hall, while others barely acknowledged the people already seated. Their clothes were rich, their jewelry heavy, and the rings on their fingers carried the marks of houses that had ruled their lands for generations.Servants moved between the tables, pulling out ch







