LOGINI did not sleep deeply.I knew it the moment I opened my eyes, because my body felt alert instead of rested, as though something inside me had remained awake long after the room fell silent.The chamber was still dark. Quiet. Unchanged.I wasn’t.I lay there, listening to my own breathing, to the faint rhythm of my pulse.My hand moved slowly to my wrist.The exact place where his lips had brushed my skin.There was nothing there now. No warmth. No mark.Still, my pulse quickened beneath my fingers.I pressed harder, as if I could force the reaction to stop.It didn’t.“Staying close to me.”His voice returned easily, steady and certain.“And let me do the rest.”I swallowed.What lingered was not the kiss.Not even the closeness.It was the fact that I had not stepped back.His hand at my waist had not pulled me. He had not trapped me. He had only stood there... occupying the space behind me in a way that made retreat feel unnecessary.He had not dragged me closer.He had simply not
My hand was still in his.I did not pull it back.I think I forgot how.The place where his lips had touched my wrist felt warmer than the rest of my skin, a quiet heat that refused to fade no matter how still I held my breath. I could feel my pulse there, loud and uneven beneath his fingers, betraying every attempt I made to sit properly.His thumb moved once.Barely.Not a stroke.Just enough to remind me my hand was still trapped in his.My breath shortened.'Why does that feel worse than being held?'Beta Nial cleared his throat.I almost jumped.“The role,” he repeated, flat and patient, as if explaining something simple to a slow student. “Is necessary to stabilize perception.”My mind struggled to follow his words.“Perception…?” I asked.Nial nodded once. “The council believes the Alpha’s judgment is compromised.” His eyes flicked briefly to our joined hands, then back to my face. “We will not correct that belief.”My chest tightened.“You want them to think…” I hesitated.“Th
“Almost… like you are asking me to force you to obey.”The words did not feel like a threat.They felt like… heat.It spread low and slow beneath my ribs, tightening something I did not know how to name. My breath caught halfway in my throat. My fingers curled in his shirt without permission.Force.Obey.My body reacted before my pride could.A sharp pulse flickered low in my stomach. My knees felt weaker instead of steadier. I should have pushed him away.I didn’t.And that frightened me more than his words did.The words had barely settled between us when the door opened.I startled so sharply that my entire body reacted before my mind did. I pushed against Alpha Kael’s chest without thinking and stepped away from him as if I had been burned. My back hit the sofa. I sat down too quickly, too stiffly, hands folded in my lap like I had done something wrong.Like I had been caught.My face felt hot. My pulse was still racing from his words. From his breath near my ear. From the way my
I did not move.My back rested against the edge of the table. The wood pressed into my spine, solid and grounding, yet it barely registered. What I felt was him. The warmth radiating from his body, steady and close, changing the air between us until breathing felt different. Slower. Thinner.Alpha Kael leaned closer.Not enough to touch.Enough that my breath shortened anyway.I felt the warmth of his breathing near my temple. It brushed my skin in faint intervals, soft and steady, and each pass tightened something low in my chest before I could stop it. My shoulders drew in on their own. My fingers lifted without permission and rested lightly against his chest. I had not decided to touch him. My hands simply settled there as if they needed something solid to anchor to.Beneath my palm I felt the firmness of him. Warm. Unmoving. The quiet strength of a body that did not shift unless he wished it.His eyes lowered.Not to my hands.…to my mouth.My pulse jumped once. Then again, louder
“Everyone. Leave.”Alpha Kael’s calm voice cut cleanly through the silence in the room.“Everyone. Leave.”He did not raise it.He did not repeat it.He did not need to.The effect was immediate. Chairs scraped against stone in uneven bursts. Papers were gathered in hurried hands, parchment edges bending under nervous fingers. Quills were set down with exaggerated care, as if no one wanted to be the last sound lingering in the air. A wax seal rolled off one table and no one dared chase it.No one argued.No one hesitated.They moved.Not chaotically. Not openly afraid. But with the quiet efficiency of people who understood exactly what that voice meant.As they filed past me, I felt their glances brush over my skin. Not lingering long enough to be obvious. Not bold enough to be called staring. But there.Different now.Not pity.Not curiosity.Meaning.Speculation. Calculation. Something unspoken and shared between them.I felt it settle over my shoulders heavier than the elder’s insu
There are two faces people wear.The one that stands tall when the world favors them.And the one that cracks when it does not.I saw both on Elder Ruis in the span of seconds.He entered the wing with his chin lifted high, shoulders squared, boots striking the stone with slow authority. His robes were layered and precise. His ring caught the torchlight each time his hand moved. His eyes slid over me like I was something dragged in on a shoe.Disgust.Superiority.Amusement.The clerks felt it too. I heard quills slow. I heard chairs shift. The air tightened around the tables.Then his ring struck the invisible barrier.The crack rang thin and metallic.It was small. Sharp. Wrong.His smile fell apart.First shock.Then shame.Then anger, climbing up his face in different shades of red.“You… tramp,” he spat, voice shaking in a way he tried to disguise as fury. “A plaything lower than dust. How dare you look at me like that?”I had not looked at him like anything.“I cannot believe th







