CHAPTER EIGHT: His Quarter

‘His quarters?’

My heart nearly leapt out of my body when I heard it.

At first, the words felt unreal. Too heavy. Too sudden. Like they carried a meaning I was not ready to understand.

Then, fear followed immediately…sharp and unwelcome, tightening my chest before I could stop it.

‘Why does he want me back there?’

The question repeated itself as images from the night before rose without permission.

His voice. Calm. Controlled.

The way the air had pressed down when he ordered me closer… The bed I had woken in, steeped in his scent.

My chest tightened.

Then the door opened.

And the fear hesitated.

…I was not taken into his bedroom.

Instead, I was led into a smaller room set aside from the center of his quarters. Clean. Quiet. Narrow. A simple bed. A small table. A basin of untouched water.

Nothing personal.

Nothing indulgent.

But it looked…peaceful?

“You will stay here,” the older servant said.

Her eyes lingered on me briefly. Measuring.

“Don’t touch anything. Don’t do anything unless you are told," she added. Not kind. Not cruel. Just factual. Then, she left. The door closed.

Only then did I realize how large Alpha Kael’s quarters truly were.

In daylight, it was obvious. Corridors branching outward. Heavy doors set deep into pale stone walls. Ceilings high enough to swallow sound. It was not merely his bedroom… His quarters were more like a territory.

‘So this is where he lives.’

Not sleeps.

Lives.

I sat slowly on the edge of the bed, feeling a little small.

I had nothing to unpack. Nothing to arrange. No belongings that marked me as someone who had existed before this morning.

“I don’t even have a name…is it that strange that I don’t have a change of clothes?”

That realization landed heavier than fear, and exhaustion followed.

It came all at once. My shoulders sagged. My chest tightened faintly. Too much had happened too fast.

The market. The ropes. The council. The pressure that forced me to my knees. Kael’s gaze. His voice.

‘Slow down.’

I pressed my palms into the mattress and focused on my breathing.

In.

Out.

To my surprise, it was easy.

The crushing pressure from before was gone. My breaths were smooth. Even.

The room felt… steady.

That unsettled me.

‘This should not feel safe.’

Nothing about my situation was gentle. And yet my body was calm, like something dangerous had been pushed far enough away that it could not reach me here.

‘Or someone.’

The thought stayed.

Hunger arrived later.

Not all at once. Not loudly. It crept in slowly, settling deep enough that I could almost pretend it wasn’t there.

‘They wouldn’t really starve me to death, right?’ The thought was calm. Sensible. I told myself to wait.

But the ache in my stomach sharpened, twisting tighter with every passing moment. It stopped feeling distant and began to feel personal, like my body was making its own argument without asking my permission.

Another wave hit, stronger this time. Pain flared low and sudden, stealing the breath I had just drawn. My vision dimmed slightly at the edges.

…I didn’t realize then that I was starting to think irrationally.

Eventually, I opened the door and stepped into the corridor.

The air outside felt different immediately. Thinner. Less contained. The fragile calm I had found in the room loosened, just enough for the ache in my stomach to pulse harder.

I moved slowly, barefoot on cold stone, each step careful and deliberate. The palace felt too large, too aware, as if it noticed every breath I took.

The hallway opened into a dining space.

A long table stood there.

Food lay arranged neatly, untouched… Cold now. Fruit dulled by time. Bread sliced with care. Cups filled and abandoned.

My throat tightened.

I knew immediately whose meal it was.

‘...definitely not mine.’

I stood there longer than I meant to, not reaching, just looking.

Another sharp twist of pain cut through my stomach, fierce enough to make my fingers curl at my sides.

I exhaled slowly.

I shouldn’t be here…I took one step closer anyway.

Not because I wanted to break a rule. But because hunger had begun to drown out everything else, and strength, I was learning, did not stop the body from needing to eat.

Hunger overruled caution. Always had.

I reached for a single grape.

But then…the tray shifted.

The plate tilted…before the grapes scattered across the table and onto the floor.

I froze.

Then, his voice came from behind me.

“What’s this?”

“...”

My spine went rigid.

I didn’t turn.

The space behind me felt heavier now. Charged. The air tightening like it had learned his presence.

“First,” Alpha Kael said calmly, “you disrupted my council.”

My heartbeat stumbled.

“When I ordered you to come closer,” he continued, “and you defied me and stayed on your feet until you collapsed.”

“Then you took my bed.”

A pause. Deliberate.

My fingers curled against the table.

“And now,” his gaze dropped to the floor, “you are dismantling my dinner?”

Silence pressed in.

I turned slowly.

Kael stood a few steps away.

Not angry.

Focused.

His eyes tracked me like he was cataloging damage.

“I… didn’t mean to,” I said quietly.

That much was true.

Alpha Kael heard me, but his expression didn’t harden.

It shifted.

He stepped closer.

Not fast.

My heart began to beat hard against my ribs, sudden and loud, like it was trying to warn me before my mind could catch up.

‘Is he going to hit me?’

The thought flashed through me before I could stop it. Instinct took over. I lowered my head, bracing without meaning to.

But no blow came.

Instead, I felt his fingers close around my wrist.

Light.

Controlled.

The contact was instant.

My breath caught sharply in my throat. Heat shot up my arm, sudden and sharp, spreading across my chest like pressure finally finding a way out.

I gasped before I could stop myself.

The tightness inside me eased.

Not gone.

Just… redirected.

Alpha Kael went completely still.

His fingers tightened slightly around my wrist, not enough to hurt, but enough to tell me he felt it too. His breathing slowed, deliberate, as if he were forcing control back into his body.

I watched his reaction instead of my own.

Not desire.

Alarm.

Something dark moved through him, fast and restrained, like power slamming into a wall. His jaw clenched. His shoulders locked, every line of him going tense.

He felt it.

‘He can feel it too.’

His eyes lifted to mine, darker now, sharper.

Not hungry.

Aware.

“This energy,” he said quietly. “It’s… very potent.”

His thumb pressed lightly against my pulse.

My chest loosened again at once. The tightness eased, just enough for another breath to slip in smoothly, then another.

Alpha Kael noticed.

His pupils widened.

Only a little.

But it was enough.

“It’s entering my body,” he said slowly. “Continuously.”

That was not a question.

“And it’s not dispersing.”

For the first time since I had seen him, his control wavered.

Not broken.

Strained.

He held my wrist more firmly now, not in anger, but in restraint, as if letting go might make something worse.

“Now,” he said, his voice low and careful, “I’m told you’ll die if you don’t release this excess.”

His gaze stayed locked on my face.

“And I’m starting to understand why.”

His eyes dropped briefly.

My throat.

My wrist.

The point of contact between us.

Then they lifted again, sharp and assessing, as if he were measuring something he could not yet name.

Something dangerous.

Something inevitable.

“So tell me,” Kael said, his voice controlled too tightly.

“What should I do with you?”