CHAPTER SIXTEEN

It should have been a normal morning in the Alpha’s quarters.

Servants moved in practiced patterns, quiet footsteps across stone, trays balanced with care. Aides stood clustered near the shelves and tables, murmuring over reports, ink already smudging their fingers. The space was busy without being loud, efficient without being warm.

Everything was as it should be.

Except for me.

I sat where Alpha Kael had left me, close enough that his presence still shaped the room even when he was not speaking. Close enough that no one pretended not to notice.

The wolfless omega.

The one who had spent the night in the Alpha’s quarters.

I felt their eyes even when I did not look up.

Servants glanced too often, then looked away too late. Aides kept their gazes carefully averted, staring at walls and parchment and empty air, but their awareness pressed in from every direction.

Attention weighed more than chains.

It settled on my shoulders, heavy and constant, like standing beneath something vast and watchful.

I shifted slightly, trying to make myself smaller. Invisible. My hands folded in my lap, fingers lacing together tightly enough that my knuckles paled.

I shifted once, then stopped, my body settling into stillness the way prey does when it realizes it has already been seen.

Alpha Kael sat on the sofa nearby.

He looked… different today.

Anyone could tell. He was...calmer.

The sharpness that usually lived in him was muted, as if something had been soothed without being dulled. The dark shadows beneath his eyes were lighter, his posture loose, one arm resting along the back of the sofa with careless authority.

Contained.

Still dangerous. No...more dangerous... like a predator who was relaxing and bidding his time after a great meal. 

Beta Nial stood near the central table, irritation written plainly across his face as his gaze swept the room.

“Tsk.”

The sharp sound cracked through the quiet.

“This is wrong. And this. As well as this."

"This is what happens when you don’t mind your own business,” he snapped. “Are you all juveniles now, unable to keep your attention where it belongs?”

Two aides—who had been paying me far too much attention—went pale as the blood drained from their faces.

“We’re sorry, Beta,” one of them said quickly.

“Clean this up,” Nial ordered. “And if I catch another pair of wandering eyes, you’ll be reassigned to inventory duty for a month.”

They scrambled at once.

Alpha Kael did not comment.

He did not correct Nial.

He did not even look up.

Only his fingers shifted once against the arm of the sofa, as if the entire matter did not concern him.

That was when it happened.

One aide stepped back too quickly.

Another turned at the same time.

They collided.

Books and documents spilled from their arms in a single, chaotic rush. Parchment and leather hit the stone floor with a loud thud, scattering across the room. Several slid to a stop near my feet.

The room went still again.

Heat crept up my neck.

‘I should not move.’

I knew that instinctively.

But my eyes dropped before I could stop them.

One document lay open, its edges worn, ink faded but deliberate. The script was unfamiliar and yet…

My chest tightened.

Not painfully.

Recognitively.

Alpha Kael’s head lifted slightly.

Not fully.

Just enough.

I leaned forward without thinking and picked it up.

The moment my fingers touched the page, something inside me aligned.

The symbols were strange, angular, half worn away by time. Incomplete. Fragmented.

But they made sense.

Not as language I remembered learning.

As something I recognized.

“Wolflike?” I murmured under my breath.

The word slipped out before I realized I had spoken aloud.

Silence snapped tight.

Beta Nial turned sharply.

“What did you say?”

I froze.

Every eye was suddenly on me again.

“I…” My throat felt dry. “I said wolflike.”

Nial stared at me.

“You can read that?”

It was not accusation.

It was surprise.

I hesitated, then nodded.

“I...think so.”

Behind him, Alpha Kael straightened.

Not abruptly.

Deliberately.

One ankle crossed over his knee. His forearm rested against his thigh, posture still relaxed, but his attention had sharpened completely.

The room felt different.

“Heads up,” one aide breathed before catching himself.

Nial did not look away from me.

“That text is incomplete,” he said slowly. “Half the symbols are degraded. No one has been able to decipher it fully.”

I looked down at the page again.

“The meaning is fragmented,” I said quietly. “But the structure is intact.”

Alpha Kael’s gaze did not leave me.

I felt it like pressure at my back.

Not heavy.

Focused.

The warmth inside me shifted, subtle but present, reacting to his attention the same way it always did. Steadier. Calmer.

One of the aides made a small sound before clapping a hand over his mouth.

Nial lifted his head slowly and looked around the room.

“All of you,” he said sharply. “Out.”

No hesitation this time.

The aides moved immediately. Servants withdrew without comment. Doors closed softly, one by one, until the room held only the three of us.

The quiet settled thick and deliberate.

Alpha Kael had not moved.

He had not spoken.

But when I finally dared to look at him, his eyes were on me.

Gold.

Clear.

And bright in a way I had never seen before.

Like something in him had shifted.

Not forward.

Inward.

Nial set the remaining documents aside and gestured toward the chair opposite him.

“Can you translate it?” he asked, voice lower now. “Word for word.”

I hesitated.

Not because I could not.

Because I understood what answering meant.

Alpha Kael spoke then.

“Step back.”

Nial blinked.

“You’re hovering over her.”

Realization crossed Nial’s face. His jaw tightened as he shifted back a step.

The space around me widened.

His gaze didn’t soften. It didn’t leave me either.

I lifted my head.

“I can try,” I said. “But some parts are missing. I can tell you what it intends. Not everything it once said.”

That was my choice.

Kael’s mouth curved.

Just barely. I felt a blush coming in. 

Nial studied me for a long moment, then nodded once.

“Start from the beginning.”