CHAPTER 7: UNDER HIS RULE

Lyra learned very quickly that being under the Lycan King’s protection felt a lot like being trapped inside a storm that refused to break.

The room she was kept in was not a cell. That much was clear.

Soft furs covered the bed. Heavy curtains filtered moonlight into silver shadows across the stone walls. The fire never went out. Servants came quietly with food, clean water, fresh bandages… and left just as fast.

But the doors never stood unguarded.

And Ares never left for long.

She felt him before she saw him. Every time.

It started as a pressure in her chest. A warmth under her skin. A strange awareness that tightened her spine and made her breath shallow.

Then he would enter.

Tonight, he didn’t speak at first.

Lyra sat upright, blanket pulled around her shoulders, watching as Ares stepped inside and closed the door behind him. He looked different in the low firelight… less king, more beast barely contained.

His dark shirt was open at the throat. His sleeves rolled back, revealing strong forearms marked with faint scars. His hair was loose, brushing his shoulders like he hadn’t bothered to tame it.

He looked… dangerous.

“You’re healing faster,” he said finally.

She tilted her head. “You’ve been counting?”

“I notice everything about you,” he replied without hesitation.

That sent a ripple through her chest. Not fear. Something sharper.

“You shouldn’t,” Lyra said. “I’m just a human village girl. Remember?”

Ares stopped a few steps away from her bed.

“You don’t smell human,” he said quietly.

The words hit harder than she expected.

Her fingers tightened in the blanket. “What do I smell like, then?”

His gaze dragged slowly over her… not leering, not rushed. Studying. Claiming. His pupils darkened.

“Like rain before lightning,” he murmured. “Like blood that calls to the Moon.”

Her heartbeat stumbled.

“That’s not possible.”

“No,” he agreed softly. “It isn’t.”

Silence stretched. Heavy. Loaded.

Lyra broke it first. “You said you refused the Moon.”

Ares’s jaw tightened. “I did.”

“And yet you keep touching me like you’re afraid to stop.”

His eyes snapped to hers.

The fire popped. The room seemed to shrink.

“I am afraid,” he said lowly. “Of what happens the moment I stop pretending you don’t belong to me.”

Her breath caught. Heat curled in her stomach, unfamiliar and unwanted… yet impossible to deny.

“You don’t get to decide that,” she whispered.

Ares moved then.

Not fast. Not threatening. Just enough that suddenly he was standing beside the bed, towering close enough that she had to tilt her head back to look at him.

“I am the Alpha King,” he said. “I decide many things.”

“And me?” Lyra challenged. “Am I just another thing?”

His hand came down beside her. Not touching. Braced. Caging.

“No,” he said. “You are the one thing I should walk away from.”

Her pulse thundered in her ears.

“Then why don’t you?”

Because the truth sat between them… raw and dangerous.

“Because the night you bled,” Ares said slowly, “every ward in this kingdom trembled. Because my Lycan crossed distance no beast should survive. Because when I held you… something inside me locked into place.”

Lyra swallowed hard.

“And what if I don’t want that lock?” she whispered.

His eyes burned brighter, gold bleeding into something darker.

“Then you will fight me,” he said honestly. “And the Moon.”

A shiver raced down her spine.

She shifted, testing her strength. Her body responded… stronger than before. Lighter. Too aware.

“You’re not letting me leave,” she realized.

Ares straightened slightly. “Not yet.”

“Until when?”

“Until I know whether you are a threat…” he said. “Or my ruin.”

Her lips parted.

“That doesn’t sound fair.”

He smiled faintly. Dark. Crooked. “Kings rarely are.”

Lyra exhaled slowly, gathering courage she didn’t know she had. “If I stay… I want answers.”

His expression hardened. “Some truths will break you.”

“Try me.”

Ares studied her for a long moment. Then he reached out and placed his hand over her heart.

The contact was electric.

Her breath hitched. His fingers pressed lightly, steady, as if feeling something beneath her skin.

“You feel that?” he asked.

“Yes,” she breathed.

“So do I,” he murmured. “That is the bond pressing against its cage.”

Her body reacted instinctively, leaning into his touch before her mind could stop it.

Ares cursed under his breath and pulled his hand away sharply, turning his back like a man standing on the edge of a cliff.

“This is why I refused the Moon,” he said. “Because mates do not come gently. They come to take.”

Lyra hugged the blanket tighter, heart racing. “And what do you want to take from me?”

Ares turned slowly.

“Everything,” he said. “If I let myself.”

The words hung between them… heavy… intimate… dangerous.

Outside, the Moon climbed higher.

And somewhere deep inside Lyra’s blood, something ancient stirred again… restless… impatient… waiting to be unleashed.

The cage was cracking.

And neither of them was ready for what would happen when it finally broke.