All Chapters of A Dorm With My Alpha Mate : Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

Arden's/Aria's POVThe silence in the infirmary was a heavy blanket, smothering me. Each breath Kai took was a whisper of life, a fragile sound in the quiet gloom. His skin was too pale, the bandages too white—a map of the pain he carried for me. The weight of it was an anchor around my soul, pulling me down into dark water, and I had to move. I had to escape the scent of healing herbs and helplessness.My feet carried me away, a traitor fleeing the scene of the crime. The training ground was empty, a stage waiting for its players. The dirt was still torn from our battles, each scar a memory, a ghost of violence. I stood there alone, a single statue in a field of echoes. Then, a shuffle, a whisper of sound. I turned. Finn and Lyra stood there with three others, a small cluster of nervous energy. Their eyes were wide saucers, reflecting a version of me I did not recognize. Finn’s voice was a hesitant thread in the quiet. "Aria, we were wondering," he stumbled over my name, a new word o

Arden's/Aria's POVThe sun was a warm kiss on my skin, the air a sweet mix of dust and effort. The world felt soft at the edges, the sharp fear of the morning smoothed away by the rhythm of teaching, by the light in their eyes. Finn moved with a new grace, a flickering fish in a stream. Lyra’s strikes were sharper now, a hawk’s focus taking flight. And then I saw him, a ghost in the archway, a pale king leaning on stone. My heart stuttered, a bird crashing against its cage. His face was tight with pain, his body a testament to his own stubborn will, but his eyes, his eyes were a summer storm, full of a pride so fierce it stole my breath. He did not speak; he did not need to. His presence was a shout, a banner raised high, a shield offered not to hide behind but to stand beside. The cadets saw him, their movements faltering for a second, their gazes flicking between us, a silent understanding passing through them like a current: the wounded heir and the teaching queen, a story unfoldi

Arden's /Aria's POV The ashes were cold, a dark smear on the stone—a funeral for my last shred of innocence. The fear had been real, a visceral, animal thing that curled in my belly like a sickened child, but it was gone now, burned away in that small fire, leaving something else in its wake: a clear, cold purpose. Kai’s shoulder against mine was a bastion, a wall of warmth and steady breath. His silence was not helpless; it was profound. It was the quiet of a deep river running swift and strong beside me. We sat in the moonlit dark, not as protector and protected, but as two pillars holding up the same trembling sky.“He wants me afraid,” I said, the words tasting of iron and resolve. “He wants me small and panicked, to make a mistake, to run, so he can catch me.” I looked at our joined hands—his so large and scarred, mine slender but no longer soft. “I will not run.”Kai turned his head, his stormy eyes searching my face in the shadows. “What will you do?” It was not a challenge; i

Arden's / Aria's POV The silence after the council chamber was a living thing—a thick, velvet blanket smothering the echo of our defiance. Our footsteps were the only sound in the cavernous hallway, a synchronized heartbeat moving away from judgment and toward an even greater test. Kai leaned into me, his weight more pronounced; the confrontation had cost him. I could feel it in the slight tremor of his arm across my shoulders. The pain was a silent scream beneath his controlled breathing, but his spirit blazed bright and fierce.“Your father’s envoy?” I whispered, the words tasting of cold iron and uncertainty.“His name is Varian,” Kai replied, his voice low. “My father’s right hand, his sharpest eye, and his hardest heart. He does not bring greetings; he brings a verdict.”We reached our room, the door a welcome barrier against the world. Inside, the familiar space felt different, smaller. The ghosts of the council’s disapproval seemed to have followed us, seeping through the ston

Aria's POVThe hall held its breath after Varian’s departure, a vast lung frozen. His words echoed in the smoky air—not a blessing, a gravel falling onto the next chapter of our lives. A living weapon, he called me. The words were cold, sharp, and they resonated with the harsh reality I now faced, more so than any silk dress ever could. The tension in my shoulders didn't dissipate; it morphed, the fear of rejection replaced by a heavier dread of expectation. In the cooling silence, Kai’s hand found the small of my back, a warm, steady anchor.“Come,” he murmured, the word a low vibration just for me. “We are done here.”We turned away from the stares, the hushed judgments, a united front retreating from a battlefield of politics. The stone corridors seemed longer on the walk back. The dress, once armor, now felt like a suffocating shell, a chrysalis I was desperate to shed. The silence wasn't empty; it was thick with unspoken thoughts. Varian’s conditional support weighed heavily on u