chapter 10

Chapter 10

The soldiers charged up the slope in a wave of steel and shouting.

I felt the impact in my bones before I saw it. My bare feet gripped the cold rock as I stood beside Vaelor, silk slipping lower on my shoulders, my heavy breasts rising and falling with each panicked breath. My soft belly pressed against his side, and his large hand stayed there, palm spread wide, fingers gently kneading the plush curves as if the touch alone could hold me together.

“Kael, please!” I cried out, voice breaking over the clash of metal. “These are men you trained with. Boys we grew up with. This is not worth their lives.”

My brother did not slow. His sword caught the moonlight as he led the front line, face tight with the same stubborn anger I had seen every time I brought home another uneaten plate. “Sera, move aside. The beast has twisted your mind. Mother is down at camp right now, praying for you. She made your favorite stew. Come home.”

Vaelor’s wing curved around me like a wall of living warmth. He did not strike first. He blocked, deflected, used his tail to sweep legs out from under the closest men. Golden blood still trickled from the wound in his side, but his voice stayed steady when he spoke to me.

“You do not have to watch this,” he said quietly, golden eyes never leaving the fight. “Go back inside. I will end it without killing anyone you love.”

I shook my head, pressing closer to him. My thick thighs trembled against his leg. “I cannot hide while you bleed. Not when this is my fault. I woke you. I brought this on all of us.”

Another soldier broke through. Vaelor caught the man’s wrist, twisted, and sent him tumbling back down the slope without breaking bone. The gentleness in his violence made my chest ache.

Kael saw the move and snarled. “You see? He plays with us. Sera, look at yourself. Standing there half-naked next to a monster. You have never been this reckless. You were always the quiet one. The safe one. The one who stayed inside where it was soft and easy.”

The words landed exactly where they always did — right in the soft center of every doubt I had carried for twenty-four years. My belly tightened under Vaelor’s hand. Heat flared there again, hotter than before, spreading through my blood like sunlight on water.

Vaelor felt it. His fingers flexed against my skin, not pulling away but sinking deeper into the giving flesh, stroking slow circles as if he could coax the power out of me. “Do not let him put you back in that box,” he murmured against my temple. “You were never meant to be small. Not in body. Not in spirit. Feel how this belly fills my hand. How these hips fit perfectly against me. You are exactly enough.”

I looked at Kael again. My own brother. The one who used to carry me on his shoulders when I was little and then, later, joked that I had grown too heavy for anyone to carry. Tears stung my eyes.

“You never carried me when it mattered,” I said, voice louder than I expected. “You only reminded me how much space I took up. Mother did the same. Every dress she let out, every sigh when I asked for seconds. I lived my whole life trying to take up less room. And then he came.” I pressed my hand over Vaelor’s on my belly. “He never asked me to shrink. He asked me to let him hold all of me.”

Kael’s face twisted. “He is using you. The king offered gold for your return. Real gold. Enough to fix our house, to buy Mother the medicine she needs. Enough to give us a future. You have always been the dreamer, Sera. Wake up.”

The betrayal hit harder than any sword could. My knees almost buckled. “Gold?” The word tasted bitter. “You came for gold?”

Vaelor’s hand slid lower, cupping the generous curve of my hip, pulling me flush against him. His voice stayed low, meant only for me. “They see value in what they can sell. I see value in what you are. Stay with me. Let me show you the difference.”

The soldiers pressed closer. Vaelor met them again, movements precise and controlled even while wounded. I lifted my hand without thinking. That same golden shimmer burst from my palm, knocking two men off their feet. They landed hard but unharmed.

Kael stared at me like I had grown horns of my own. “What have you done to my sister?” he shouted at Vaelor.

“Nothing she did not choose,” Vaelor answered, voice calm and deep. “She is waking up to herself. The same way she woke me.”

I felt the magic pulse stronger under my skin, warm and alive, fed by every gentle press of Vaelor’s fingers on my body. My soft rolls, my heavy breasts, my wide hips — they no longer felt like things to apologize for. They felt like something powerful. Something chosen.

But the guilt remained, sharp and heavy. These were the same men who had once shared bread with me at village festivals. This was my brother, blood of my blood, fighting for what he truly believed was my rescue.

I stepped forward half a pace, still sheltered by Vaelor’s wing. “Kael, listen to me. I am not under a spell. I am scared and confused and more alive than I have ever been. If you really love me, go home. Tell Mother I am safe. Tell her I am… learning how to be enough.”

Kael’s sword arm shook. For one heartbeat I thought he might lower it.

Then a soldier behind him screamed as Vaelor’s tail swept him down the slope. The moment shattered.

Kael charged.

Vaelor moved to meet him.

And in that single frozen second I realized my choice to stay had just turned my brother into my enemy.

The mountain itself seemed to hold its breath.

Whatever happened in the next few moments would change everything between us forever.