CHAPTER 13— THE ALPHA'S POV
The fortress felt colder than usual, though Alpha Kael would never admit that the air shifted whenever he thought of her. Aria. The princess he married out of duty, alliance, strategy. Fragile, delicate—a porcelain thing in a world carved from teeth and war. And yet… she unsettled him in ways he could not name, ways he hated to feel.
He stood on the high balcony overlooking his lands. Moonlight washed the courtyard in silver, casting long shadows over stone and steel. The wind whispered through the towers, stirring the banners that bore the sigil of his house. Behind him, the door creaked as his Beta, Rowan, entered silently.
"She's unsettled," Rowan said, voice low. "Aria can barely breathe here. She's… lost."
Kael didn't turn. "She'll adapt."
"You don't believe that," Rowan pressed, pacing slowly. "The council's pressing harder. They think this marriage makes you look weak, vulnerable. They whisper it openly."
"They can think whatever they want," Kael muttered. "They didn't watch the wolves tear into our borders. They didn't see the humans slaughtered at the river. This alliance is necessary. This marriage is necessary."
Rowan's sharp eyes lingered on him. "Yet you won't speak to her. Not properly. Not even once."
"She doesn't need my words," Kael replied, his tone colder than intended. "She needs to stay alive. That is enough."
Rowan exhaled, frustrated, but said nothing further. The silence stretched, only the faint clink of armor and the soft hiss of wind filling the balcony. Kael didn't move from the edge, though the temptation to retreat to solitude was almost unbearable.
The truth hung heavy in the air. He wasn't cruel for cruelty's sake. Aria didn't understand that stepping into his world meant stepping onto a battlefield. Enemies circled, his council doubted him, and whispers ran through the kingdom: a human bride weakened their Alpha King.
Then, faintly, a scent drifted through the window—jasmine and snow. Aria's scent. Fragile, stubborn, heartbreakingly… human.
Kael stiffened despite himself, heart tightening. He hated that the smallest trace of her presence could unsettle him. Rowan's lips twitched.
"So you do notice her," he said, teasing lightly, though it fell flat.
Kael ignored the jab. "Where is she now?"
"In her room." Rowan hesitated, as if the words themselves were dangerous. "She's scared, Kael. Truly scared. She's been asking why she isn't safe here. She thinks this place… this fortress… is a cage."
Kael's jaw clenched. She shouldn't have heard that—not yet. Not until he had found a way to make her feel untouchable.
"She shouldn't be afraid," he said finally, almost to himself. "No one will touch her. Not while I am alive."
"You might want to tell her that," Rowan muttered. "She thinks you dislike her. That you… don't care."
Kael's lips pressed into a thin line. "I don't dislike her."No. He disliked the vulnerability she stirred in him, the softness he had buried long ago. Her wide, uncertain eyes made him want to protect her, hold her close, and shield her from the world—but that was not the role of an Alpha. He was a warrior. A king. Not a husband in the way she deserved.
He descended the stairs, each step heavy with thought, deliberate with purpose. Guards bowed as he passed, their eyes sharp, measuring. He reached the corridor outside her door and stopped. His hand hovered above it.
He could smell her trembling on the other side.
He could hear the uneven rhythm of her heartbeat, fast and fragile.
He could sense the loneliness she tried so hard to hide.
And yet… he did not enter.
Not yet.Not while the kingdom teetered on the brink of war.Not while whispers of hungry fangs along the borders threatened his control.Not while enemies waited, eager to see weakness, eager to see him falter.
Still, every instinct screamed at him to step inside. To pull her into his arms, to tell her she was safe, to let her know she was not alone.
He didn't.
He turned away, fighting the tension coiling in his chest.
He would protect her.Even if she never knew.Even if she thought he was cold, indifferent, cruel.
The memory of her tiny hands clutching the hem of her gown, the way she had looked around the courtyard like it might swallow her whole, burned behind his eyes. He hated it. Hated that he could not give her comfort, yet could not stop thinking about her.
A low growl of frustration escaped his chest. This marriage… this alliance… it was supposed to be simple. Calculated. Predictable. And yet every time he thought of her, everything became unpredictable.
Kael clenched his fists, feeling the weight of his role as Alpha pressing down, demanding that he be strong, unyielding, invulnerable. And yet, in the quiet of the fortress, he felt his walls cracking in ways he could not control.
Somewhere in the shadows of his mind, he admitted a dangerous truth: he was no longer certain who this marriage was protecting—her… or himself.
And that thought… terrified him.