CHAPTER FIVE: His Bed

The tension escalated immediately after his words.

It stayed in the room, heavy and unmoving, pressing against my skin as if the air itself had weight and intention.

“Come here.”

Alpha Kael’s voice was calm, controlled, and certain, as if there had never been any other possible outcome.

The command settled deep in my chest, not loud, not sharp, but impossible to ignore.

I did not move.

My back was still pressed against the door, and my palms were flat against the wood behind me. I could feel the faint vibration of my own heartbeat traveling through my hands and into my arms, fast and uneven.

My eyes stayed on him.

The room was silent, but my thoughts were not.

Images rose without warning, stacking one on top of another before I could stop them.

The market.

The way people had looked at me when they realized what I was.

Not like a person who belonged somewhere.

Like something useful.

Like something meant to be taken.

I remembered the guard’s hand on my arm, the way his thumb had pressed and lingered longer than it needed to. I remembered the hunger in his eyes when he sensed my scent and understood what it meant.

Wolfless omega.

The words echoed now with a weight they had not carried before.

The council chamber followed in my mind, clear and sharp.

The way they spoke about me while I stood there.

Not as someone.

As a resource.

As power.

I understood it now, and the understanding settled coldly in my chest.

Intimacy with someone like me was not only about desire.

It was strength.

It made wolves stronger, sharper, and more dangerous.

That was why they stared.

That was why they wanted.

That was why their eyes followed me even when they pretended not to look.

A chill spread through my chest, slow and deliberate.

I looked at Alpha Kael again.

A thought formed quietly, unwelcome but impossible to ignore.

‘Is he the same?’

For the first time since I had been brought here, doubt touched my expression and refused to leave.

Alpha Kael did not move.

He did not explain.

He did not repeat the command.

He simply waited, as if time itself answered to him.

Authority radiated from him without effort. He did not need to raise his voice or step closer to make it real.

The command was already complete.

I understood something painful and clear in that moment.

He was not asking me to come closer.

He expected me to obey.

My jaw tightened, and my teeth pressed together hard enough to ache.

‘Do I have to do this?’

The question trembled inside me, sharp and unsteady.

I did not want to move.

I did not want to step toward anyone who held that kind of power over me, especially not after everything I had seen and felt.

But his words still pressed against my chest, heavy and insistent.

Come here.

I clenched my hands at my sides.

My emotions began to shift, sliding out of balance.

Fear was there, sharp and immediate.

Anger followed, hot and restrained.

And beneath them, something worse took shape.

Confusion.

It tangled everything together until my thoughts no longer felt steady or safe.

I took a breath, slow and careful.

Then another.

They did not help.

My chest felt tight, like something inside me was pulling inward instead of expanding.

Unstable.

I gritted my teeth and pushed myself away from the door.

One step.

My foot touched the stone floor softly, but the sound felt too loud in my ears.

My heart leapt too fast, slamming against my ribs as if it were trying to escape.

Heat spread through my chest, sudden and sharp, blooming where something should have been anchored.

I stopped.

My breath caught halfway in, trapped and useless.

Something was wrong.

The room felt heavier, pressing down on me from all sides.

Not because of Alpha Kael.

Because of me.

A pressure began to build deep inside my chest. At first it was not pain. It felt like heat gathering in a place that had no shape and no direction.

My power.

I did not know how I knew that, but the certainty was immediate.

It stirred without purpose and without control, restless and searching.

There was no wolf to anchor it.

No place for it to go.

My breathing grew shallow and uneven, each breath shorter than the last.

The air felt thick, like I was trying to breathe through water that resisted me.

Alpha Kael noticed at once.

His gaze sharpened, and something alert flashed in his eyes.

“Come closer,” he said.

His voice was firmer now, still controlled, but no longer distant.

There was something else beneath it.

I tried to obey.

I truly did.

I forced my foot to move and took another step toward him.

The moment my foot touched the floor, pain exploded in my chest.

Not physical pain.

Something deeper and more violent.

It felt like my heart was tearing itself open from the inside.

Heat surged through my body all at once, rushing upward and outward without warning. My vision blurred at the edges, and the room tilted sharply.

My ears rang.

My heartbeat stuttered, then raced too fast to follow.

My fingers tingled painfully before going numb, as if they no longer belonged to me.

I could not tell if I was standing or falling.

I gasped, but the air refused to fill my lungs, stopping short as if blocked.

The pressure inside me swelled again, wild and frantic, as if something were trying to break free through my ribs.

My knees buckled.

The floor rushed up.

Everything went dark.

X x x

Voices reached me first.

They were muffled and distant, drifting in and out as if I were underwater.

I floated somewhere between sleep and waking, unsure which side I belonged to.

Warmth surrounded me.

Not the harsh, burning heat from before.

This warmth was steady, even, and strangely calming.

I shifted slightly, testing my body.

The movement felt slow and heavy, like my limbs did not quite answer the way they should.

“You’re awake.”

The voice was not Alpha Kael’s.

My eyes opened slowly.

Light blurred above me. The ceiling was unfamiliar, smooth and clean, closer than I expected.

I blinked once.

Then again.

The world sharpened into focus.

I was lying on a bed.

Not the narrow one in the west wing.

This bed was larger and softer, the sheets warm beneath me. The scent around me wrapped tightly around my senses the moment I breathed in.

Pine.

Steel.

Clean.

Alpha Kael.

My heart stuttered painfully in my chest.

I turned my head slowly, careful not to move too fast.

A man stood nearby.

He was calm and observant, dressed simply, but there was something precise in the way he carried himself. His posture was relaxed, but his eyes missed nothing.

He looked at me the way someone looks at a fragile situation.

Not with hunger.

With care.

“The omega who slept in the Alpha’s bed,” he said.

His tone was neutral.

Stating a fact.

The words landed heavily in my chest, sinking deep and refusing to move.