Trois

I should’ve pulled away when Kael grabbed my wrist.

But I didn’t.

Not because I couldn’t. But because I wanted to understand what the hell he thought he was doing.

He stalked down the hall like he didn’t care who watched. I had to jog to keep up with him, his grip firm but not painful. Not yet.

Behind us, Selene’s voice echoed once before cutting off completely. Either she decided not to make a scene, or she was waiting to make a better one.

Kael’s security team opened the building’s private elevator the moment they saw us. He didn’t say a word until we were inside.

Then he let go.

Finally.

“What the hell was that?” I snapped, rubbing my wrist.

He didn’t answer immediately. His eyes stared straight ahead, jaw clenched. The numbers above the elevator blinked slowly as we descended.

“You shouldn’t have been there,” he said flatly.

“You told me to come!”

“And you listened. That was your mistake.”

I scoffed. “So you’re dragging me around for what? Fun? You don’t know me. You don’t get to treat me like some…”

Kael turned toward me, fast. Not enough to scare me, but enough to shut me up.

“I’m trying to keep you alive,” he said.

Silence stretched between us.

“From what?” I asked.

He didn’t answer.

The elevator dinged. We stepped out into the underground lot. The tension followed us like a third person.

Kael’s driver stood waiting beside the car. But before I could reach it, someone else stepped into view.

Another heir.

Taller than Kael. Broader shoulders. That same dark Draven hair, but styled sharper, slicker. And a smile that didn’t touch his eyes.

Elias Draven.

Kael’s older brother.

And the next in line to inherit everything.

“Well,” Elias drawled, “isn’t this interesting?”

Kael stopped walking. I could see the muscle ticking in his jaw.

Elias gave me a once-over. “Bringing girls down to the private garage now? That’s a new one.”

“She’s not your business,” Kael muttered.

“Everything you touch is my business,” Elias replied. Then he looked at me again, slower this time. “Lena Veyra, right?”

My skin prickled. “Yeah.”

“Did you know,” he said casually, “that our mother once had a handmaid named Veyra? Claimed she had alpha blood. Some forgotten bloodline from before the treaties.”

My heart thudded once.

I didn’t answer.

Elias smiled wider. “You look like her.”

Kael stepped in between us. “Back off.”

Elias shrugged. “I’m just making conversation.”

Then, to me: “Be careful around this one. He breaks his toys when he gets bored.”

He walked past us like nothing had happened, suit jacket fluttering as he disappeared into the building.

Kael’s hands curled into fists.

I waited, unsure what to say.

Finally, he spoke. “Ignore him.”

“Hard to ignore someone who knows things about me I haven’t told anyone.”

Kael looked at me. “He doesn’t know you. He knows pieces. That’s not the same.”

But the way Kael was looking at me now like he was trying to put my pieces together too, made me feel stripped bare.

He opened the car door for me.

I got in.

The drive back to the academy was quiet. The roads were empty, the sky darkening as the day finally gave up.

Kael didn’t talk. He just tapped his finger on the steering wheel like he wanted to break something.

I stared out the window, mind racing.

Elias knew about my mom. And her bloodline. Something most packs had buried decades ago.

I wasn’t just a nobody. Not to them.

And Kael? He was acting like he knew more than he was saying.

The car slowed at the academy’s west gate. Kael didn’t drive to the front. He took a side road students weren’t even allowed to use.

“Why here?” I asked.

“Less cameras.”

“Why do you care about cameras?”

His eyes flicked to mine. “Because if they catch you getting out of my car, Selene will turn your dorm into a war zone by morning.”

I frowned. “So you’re protecting me again?”

Kael didn’t answer right away. “I’m protecting myself from distraction. That’s all.”

Right.

He parked in the shadows behind a hedge near the north dorms.

I opened the door and stepped out.

“Lena.”

I turned.

Kael’s expression had changed. Still unreadable, but less cold.

“When someone comes to you tonight,” he said, “don’t say anything. Don’t agree to anything. Just walk away.”

“What are you talking about?”

But Kael was already pulling away.

I barely made it back to my room before someone knocked.

Not banged. Knocked. Polite. Soft.

Which was worse.

I opened it to find a note on the floor. No one in sight.

I bent to pick it up and opened the folded sheet.

Come to the rooftop. You’re not safe down here.

No signature.

No scent.

But the handwriting was neat, expensive. Like someone who had never used a pen out of ink.

I stood there for a long time, staring at the message.

My instincts said: bad idea.

But something else, that fire in my chest that flared around Kael told me I was already tangled in something too big to back out of.

And if someone thought I wasn’t safe, I needed to know why.

So I pulled on a hoodie, stepped out barefoot, and slipped up the back stairwell to the roof.

The wind was colder up here. Silverfang’s main building stretched below like a castle.

Someone stood near the ledge. Back turned.

He turned when I stepped forward.

Elias.

Of course.

“I knew you’d come,” he said. “Kael always underestimates curiosity.”

I folded my arms. “What do you want?”

He stepped closer, gaze narrowing slightly. “Answers. And maybe… an ally.”

I blinked. “An ally?”

“You’re not who they think you are,” he said. “And neither am I.”

I didn’t trust him. Everything about him felt wrong. Slick. Shiny on the outside and rotted underneath.

But I listened anyway.

“Kael,” Elias continued, “is lying to you. He knows what you are. He knew before you ever spilled that drink on him.”

“Prove it.”

Elias smiled. “That’s the fun part. I want to show you something. But you’ll have to come with me. No cameras. No Kael.”

I hesitated.

The rooftop door creaked open behind me.

Footsteps.

I turned…

Kael.

His expression wasn’t just cold now. It was wild. Possessive.

Elias smirked. “Speak of the devil.”

Kael’s eyes never left mine.

“I told you not to come here.”

I swallowed. “You said someone would come. You didn’t say it would be him.”

Kael stepped closer. “I said don’t say anything. Don’t agree to anything.”

His voice dropped to a dangerous growl.

“You’re mine, Lena. Stay the hell away from him.”