Rejected by my Alpha, Claimed by the King의 모든 챕터: 챕터 11 - 챕터 20

Kane's POV.I'm bored out of my mind. Alpha Renner of the eastern packs has been talking for almost ten minutes, and I've stopped listening to most of it.He's here about grazing rights. Some dispute between two border villages that his own Beta could have settled without troubling me, except every Alpha in this kingdom seems to think a personal audience with the crown makes their problem sound more important than it is. I let him talk because interrupting him would take less time than the report he clearly practiced on the ride here, and because watching him sweat through his formal coat is, admittedly, a small entertainment on an otherwise dull morning."—and so, Your Majesty, if the crown could simply confirm the original boundary line—""I'll have Soren review the old grants," I say. "You'll have an answer within the week."Renner blinks, thrown by how quickly I've ended something he clearly expected to take longer. "Of course. Thank you, Your Majesty." He bows, too low, the wa

No chains this time.The guard who comes for me in the morning doesn't bind my wrists at all, which feels stranger than almost anything else that's happened since I left Silvermoon. He just holds the door open and waits."Where am I going?""Healer's wing. You're to help there for now." He says it like it's already old news to him, like orders from the King about a wolfless stray get handed down and forgotten within the hour. "Greta, the palace head healer will show you the rest."I follow him out, and this time I actually get to look at the palace instead of just moving through it half-blind with exhaustion or fear. It's bigger than I understood from the dungeon and the guarded room. Long halls with high windows. Guards posted everywhere, straight-backed, watching everything and nothing at once. Servants moving fast with their eyes down, the particular walk of people who've learned not to be noticed.Nobody looks directly at me. A few look at the empty space beside me instead, like t

Four days pass before I understand what's actually happening to me.Kane comes to the healer's wing every day. Not for long. Always unannounced. I guess that was expected since he was the Alpha King. He checks on the wounded soldier, exchanges a few clipped words with Greta. Before he leaves, he finds some reason to end up taunting me.Today it's a torn page."You're doing that wrong," he says, watching me struggle to fold a bandage around a jar that clearly wasn't built to be wrapped."I'm aware.""You're aware and still doing it wrong.""I'm aware of that too."Something flickers at the corner of his mouth. He doesn't smile outright. He rarely does, at least not genuinely. He reaches over, takes the jar from my hands, and wraps it properly in about four seconds, like it cost him nothing at all."There," he says. "Was that so difficult to watch?""I could have managed eventually.""Eventually isn't a word I have much patience for." He sets the jar down and doesn't step back right awa

Kane finds me after the healer's wing empties for the night.Greta's already gone. The wounded soldier's asleep, breathing steady now, and I'm alone folding the last of the clean linens when the door opens and he steps in, closing it behind him with a quiet click that feels different from every other time he's walked into a room I was in."Sit down," he says."I'm fine standing.""Sit down, Luna."Something in his voice makes me listen. Not the command of a King. Something closer to a man about to do something he's been putting off for a while. I sit on the edge of the nearest cot, and he pulls a chair around to face me, and for once he doesn't sit close enough to crowd me. He keeps his distance, like whatever he's about to say needs the space between us to survive it."I owe you an explanation," he says. "For Vaelor. For all of it."My stomach tightens. "Okay.""Every wolf carries one inside them. You know that much, even without having one yourself." He says it plainly, no unkindnes

The courtyard is still dark when I get there. Torches burning low along the walls, breath fogging in front of every mouth, horses stamping and blowing steam into the cold.I almost turn back twice.Soldiers move around in tight, practiced formation, checking straps, checking blades, none of them sparing me more than a glance. I press myself against the stone archway and watch, and for a moment I think I've missed him entirely, that he's already mounted somewhere in the crowd of grey coats and I've lost my chance without even trying.Then I see him.He's by the largest horse, one hand resting on its neck, listening to something Soren's saying with his jaw set hard. He looks different out here. Harder. The man the whole kingdom fears, not the man who wraps a jar in four seconds and calls me little stray.I make myself walk toward him before I can talk myself out of it again.Soren sees me first. He says something low to Kane, and Kane's head turns, and across the space between us someth