All Chapters of THE WRONG VOW, MY PERFECT ALPHA: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

KAELDinner should not have been this loud, nor should have the dining hall. The estate remained as quiet as ever, the staff moving with trained precision, the guards stationed at every entrance without speaking unless necessary. The noise came entirely from Lena.“You know,” she said while stabbing aggressively at a piece of roasted meat, “for someone who nearly strangled me an hour ago, you seem very relaxed.”I glanced up from my glass. “You survived.”“That is not the point,” she bit back but I was honestly too tired to indulge in whatever thing she had going on. Her eyes narrowed immediately. “Do you enjoy irritating me?”“Yes.”At least that answer earned me the reaction I expected. Lena stared at me in disbelief before muttering under her breath and returning to her food with unnecessary violence.The servants avoided looking directly at either of us, though I noticed several of them listening anyway. News traveled quickly in this estate. By morning, half the household would kno

LENAWaking up felt awful, not dramatic or painful in the sharp, cinematic way stories liked to describe suffering. It just felt heavy, like my body had been dragged underwater and forgotten there for days.My throat burned first, then my head, and then every muscle in my body joined the rebellion.A weak groan escaped me before I could stop it, and even that sounded terrible. My eyes fluttered open slowly, lashes sticking together as sunlight spilled across the room in pale streaks.The ceiling above me looked unfamiliar for exactly three seconds before memory returned all at once.Dinner, the corridor, Kael, and then nothing.“Oh, thank the Goddess.”I turned my head slowly toward the voice and immediately regretted moving that quickly. Nausea rolled through me hard enough to make my stomach twist.A girl hurried toward the bed from the chair near the fireplace. She couldn’t have been much older than me, maybe twenty at most, with dark curly hair tied loosely behind her head and sof

LENAI should have known better than to believe I could survive a room full of people who had already decided what I was worth.The hall was too large for comfort, too bright for hiding, and too full of eyes that didn’t bother pretending they weren’t watching me anymore. It wasn’t the kind of staring that came from curiosity. It was assessment and measurement like I was something placed on a table and everyone had been invited to decide if I belonged there or not.My fingers were still curled loosely around Kael’s hand. I didn’t know when that became the only steady thing in the room.I told myself I could let go but I didn’t.Kael walked beside me like he had done this a hundred times before, like rooms full of powerful people dissecting his every decision were as meaningless as weather. His expression didn’t change as we moved further into the hall, but I noticed the smallest details now—the way his jaw tightened once when someone whispered too loudly, the way his gaze flicked acros

LENA“Excuse you?” I blinked. “It’s a compliment, you’re supposed to thank me,” he said, moving to stand beside me but not too close to make me uncomfortable. “I owe you nothing?” I deadpanned and he nodded, shrugging casually. “That’s fair.”A moment of silence passed, and while I contemplated how to leave without making it seem overly awkward, he spoke. “You’re hiding,” he said lightly, eyes sweeping over me with an ease that felt practiced rather than careless.“I’m not hiding,” I replied immediately, straightening away from the railing. “I’m here for a breath of fresh air. There’s a difference.”His mouth curved slightly as he stepped closer onto the balcony. “Ah, so it’s a philosophical escape. Noted.”I frowned at him despite myself. “Do you always talk like you’re delivering commentary on people’s lives?”“Only the interesting ones,” he said, tilting his head as if studying me. “You’re new, you know. People are curious.”“I’ve noticed,” I muttered, turning my gaze back towar

LENAThe scream tore out of me before I could stop it, raw and immediate, slicing through the silence of the corridor like something that didn’t belong in a place like this.For a second after it left my mouth, I couldn’t breathe.My throat tightened as the sound echoed back at me from the stone walls, warped and wrong, like even the estate was startled by it. My chest rose too fast, my heartbeat stumbling into something unsteady as I pressed a hand against the wall behind me just to stay upright.My vision refused to settle on my thoughts long enough to let it fully form.“No,” I whispered, my voice thin and unsteady as I forced myself to step forward. “No, no, no…”My boots hit the stone harder than they should have as I moved toward them, each step feeling disconnected from my body. The corridor stretched too long in both directions, too quiet, like the world had narrowed into this single stretch of horror.The closest guard was slumped near the wall, head tilted at an unnatural an