All Chapters of Rejected Omega, claimed by the Ruthless Alpha: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

By the time the sun slipped behind the jagged peaks, word had spread that there would be a feast. Kael called it “an obligation,” not a celebration. “We fed them at midday,” he said to Mirella as she tallied supplies, “but if I don’t set a table tonight, some idiot in the capital will say I starved the prince.” “And if you do set a table,” Mirella replied dryly, “they’ll say you’re trying to buy him.” “That,” Kael said, “is why I stopped caring what they say a long time ago.” Still, meat was roasted, ale was tapped, and torches were lit in the great hall. The stone glowed with a firelight; shadows danced on banners and faces. Talia helped lace me into another Blackthorn dress—this one deep green, the color making my eyes look more gold than hazel. “You sure you’re up for this?” she asked, tugging the last tie snug. “You already danced with Royal Sorrow this morning.” “I’m fine,” I said. It wasn’t entirely a lie. The conversation in the garden had left my insides scraped raw

The next time I woke, it wasn't Kael's hand in my hair or Nyra’s cool cloth.It was to voices.“…now,” Kael was saying, low and edged. “Before he starts making moves in the dark. I won’t give him that time.”“You’ll give *her* time,” Nyra replied. “Not him. Her.”“I am,” he bit out. “But I won’t have Lucian slinking through my halls thinking I’m hiding something from him while he calculates how to carve it out of her.”My eyes cracked open.The room was dimmer than before, daylight slanting thinner through the shutters. Kael stood near the hearth, shoulders bunched under a fresh shirt that did nothing to hide the lines of strain in him. Nyra sat on the edge of a trunk, arms folded, watching him like one might watch a wolf deciding whether to bite its own leg off to escape a trap.Jace lounged against the far wall, arms crossed, deceptively relaxed. Talia was nowhere I could see, but her scent lingered—tea, steel, and stubbornness.I shifted, the rustle of blankets giving me away.Kael

The circle felt older than the stronghold.Older than Blackthorn. Older than the stone in the mountains themselves.It sat a short walk beyond the outer walls, carved into a flat shoulder of rock that jutted out over a dark drop. Twelve standing stones ringed it, each the height of a tall wolf, their surfaces worn smooth by wind and rain, veins of silver lichen tracing their faces like old scars.Tonight, the Moon washed them in cold light—soaking into stone, into air, into me.Nyra stood near the center, robes tugged close against the bite of night. Her white hair glowed, making her look even less human, more like something the Moon had carved from bone and placed here as a reminder.Kael was a solid presence at my right, sleeves rolled to his forearms, hands bare. Talia and Jace lingered near one of the stones, both ostensibly on “guard duty,” which conveniently let them watch.“This place was used for rituals before your grandparents were even a bad idea,” Nyra said. “The stones re

Sleep didn’t come easy after the circle.Even hours later, something in me still thrummed—restless and overcharged, like my nerves hadn’t realized training was over.Kael’s quarters were dark, the banked coals in the hearth only a faint glow. His scent—smoke, pine, iron—filled the room, woven into the furs and blankets and the very stone. It should have soothed me.It did, a little.Just not enough.Kael wasn’t here. He’d gone back out with the late patrols after escorting me up from the training ground, muttering about “not liking the feel of the air” and “tightening the rotations” in case whoever I’d sensed in the trees decided to come closer.I’d offered to help.He’d kissed my forehead and told me to sleep.So much for that.I lay on my back in the bed for a while, staring at the dark rafters, counting my breaths like Nyra had taught me. In. Out. Four. Six. Each inhale only seemed to stoke that low thrum instead of quieting it.Finally, I gave up.The stone floor was cool under my

The scent of wolfsbane hit me through one guard’s nose—a rogue with a band of dark paste smeared along its gums. Someone had treated them before sending them. The poison burned their nerves, amped their pain into frenzy.I focused on that one. On the way, its mind frothing at the edges still had a direction. A target.*Who’s—* I pushed.A spike of blinding static slammed back.Not from the rogue.From beyond it.Like my awareness had brushed a live wire.A sharp burst of dread hit me, small and involuntary.“Aria,” Nyra’s voice snapped, louder. “Out of their heads. Focus on ours.”I gasped.Kael’s hands tightened on my thighs, his thumbs digging in just enough to ground me in the ache.“Stay in your own skin,” he growled softly. “Don’t make me go in there after you.”I pulled back. Hard.Centered on the wagon again.On our wolves.On the sound of steel biting flesh. On the snap of chains being thrown. On the ragged breathing of the guards. On the weight of Kael behind me, steady and u