Semua Bab Bound To The Ruthless Alpha: Bab 1 - Bab 10

I didn't feel the bond take root.There was no sudden jolt of connection, no mystical warmth curling between our souls. Just silence. Cold, unfeeling, sterile. I was expecting something—anything—to confirm that the world had just changed. But the only thing I felt was the slow trickle of blood down my thumb and the numb ache in my knees.The parchment had turned a shade darker where our marks bled together. The magic of the old law flared once—brief and colorless—and then vanished.That was it.My life was gone, and no one in the room looked surprised.Kael stepped closer.He didn't reach for my hand. He didn't offer a nod of acknowledgment. Instead, he reached up and tilted my chin with two fingers, slow and cold.I stiffened.He studied my face like a man inspecting a statue, as if weighing my value on a scale only he understood. My skin burned beneath his touch—not from desire, but from humiliation. The room was full of witnesses: guards, advisors, servants. Even my father, who now

Kael straddled my hips, not touching me yet, just looming over me. His bare chest gleamed in the firelight, the scar across his ribs cutting a brutal path through the muscle. His pants were still undone. I could see the thick weight of him, hard again already."You're quick," I whispered, the words escaping before I could bite them back.His eyes narrowed."You'll learn not to speak unless I tell you to."I opened my mouth to respond—but his hand was at my throat instantly, not choking, just resting there. Possessive. Warning."I said lie still."I stared up at him, silent, burning.He leaned down until his mouth hovered above mine."Say it," he whispered."Say what?""That you're mine."I swallowed. My lips trembled."No."His palm slid lower—across my collarbone, between my breasts, down my stomach. Then his fingers slipped between my legs again, rough and slow.I gasped."You're wet," he murmured, voice like velvet-wrapped knives. "That's shameful."I turned my face away.He grabbe

I stayed kneeling beside Kael's throne, staring at the veins of the marble beneath me until they blurred into something meaningless. My knees had long since gone numb. My throat ached where the collar pressed against it, silver still pulsing with heat.The great hall emptied.Except for him.And me.Kael shifted at last, standing from his throne. The movement sent a low creak through the wood. I felt him turn toward me."Up," he said.I moved slowly, carefully, as if my bones might betray me. The robe clung to my skin. My head swam.I was halfway to standing when I felt his hand on my shoulder.I flinched.It was instinct—pure and small and immediate.But it was enough.Kael paused behind me, his fingers still resting lightly where I'd recoiled.Then, slowly, deliberately, he moved in closer, chest brushing my back, mouth near my ear."Did you just flinch from me, little bride?"I didn't answer.He laughed softly, almost to himself."Good. That means you're not numb yet."His voice sl

The sound of their conversation was a low rumble, punctuated by the clink of goblets and the scrape of knives against plates. They ate with the casual violence of men who took what they wanted and never questioned their right to do so.Some I recognized from the attack on my home, some that had watched as my life was destroyed, then sat down to dinner as if nothing had happened. Others were strangers, but they wore the same expression of casual cruelty that seemed to be required uniform here.Kael sat at the head of the table.Not a crown on his head. He didn't need one.He commanded the space without effort, his presence a gravitational force that pulled every eye, every word, every breath in the room toward him. Even when he wasn't speaking, the others oriented themselves around him like planets around a dark star.He didn't look at me.Not when I entered. Not when I stood there waiting. Not when the silence stretched long enough that my skin began to crawl with awareness of being w

She moved with a kind of practiced quiet — not rushed, not hesitant. Like she'd done this before. Too many times.Each stroke of the cloth removed another layer of evidence, but I could feel new bruises forming beneath my skin. Tomorrow there would be fresh marks to clean.When she was done, she dipped the cloth again and reached for my arm, dabbing at the faint bruise just above the elbow where Kael's fingers had pressed too hard."He likes to break people slowly," she said under her breath.The words were barely audible, but they hit me like a shout.My chest tightened."I'm fine," I said.It was a lie, and we both knew it.She gave me a long, quiet look."No. You're not."I blinked, startled by the directness. No one had spoken to me with such plain honesty since I'd arrived. Everyone else dealt in lies and pretense and careful omissions.She stood and brought over the fresh robe. This one was thicker, darker — still sheer in the wrong places, but warmer. She helped me into it with