Chapter 56 HYPNOSIS
Kael’s POV
I noticed the way Adam kept saying he was fine.
He said it when he shifted too carefully on the couch.
He said it when his shoulders tensed under my hands.
“You’re still sore, I feel so guilty.” I said gently, thumb brushing over his wrist where my grip had left marks that were starting to fade.
Adam glanced away. “It’s nothing. Please don't feel guilty, I wanted it, I begged you for it, and kind of enjoyed the monstrous side of you.”
“Uhghh… baby, was I that monstrous?”
“Yeah, you were.” He giggled and curled on the couch, knees tucked in, chin resting on his sleeve, eyes half-lidded like a cat in a warm patch of sun.
“You’re a little stiff,” I said, passing him a cup of water.
“I’m fine.”
That was the third time he’d said it in ten minutes.
I crouched in front of him and nudged his knee gently with mine. “You helped me through rut. You don’t get to be ‘fine’ three days after.”
“Stop talking about it.” He rolled his eyes but didn’t pull away when I took his ankle, thumb pressing lightly into muscle. He hissed before he could stop himself.
I raised a brow.
“That was—” he started.
“—nothing,” I finished for him, smiling. “I know.”
I leaned in and kissed the inside of his knee, soft and brief, then straightened. “We’re seeing the physician.”
Adam’s shoulders tensed. “Kael.”
“Just to check the soreness,” I said quickly. “And the marks. Nothing invasive.”
“I don’t want her poking me,” he muttered.
I smiled. “She won’t poke.”
“I don't want to see her. I just want to stay inside with you.”
I sighed and rested my forehead against his. “Adam.”
He studied my face like he was deciding whether to argue. Then he exhaled, defeated. “Okay. But I don’t want to lie down.”
“I won’t make you.”
He slid off the couch, made it exactly two steps, then swayed.
I caught him immediately and lifted him without asking.
“Hey—” he complained, automatically hooking an arm around my neck anyway.
“You’re tired,” I said. “I have arms. This is efficiency.”
He muttered something about being kidnapped by his own mate but relaxed against my chest, cheek pressing into my shoulder like it belonged there. The way he trusted me without thinking about it still hit me in the ribs every time. I want to keep him forever.
The physician’s quarters smelled faintly of herbs and burning wood. She looked up from her table when we entered, eyes sharp but kind.
“Alpha,” she greeted, inclining her head.
“Please,” I said, firm but polite. “No bowing.”
Her gaze flicked to Adam, immediately assessing. “Ohh, it's the mate who’s been causing such a stir.”
Adam flushed. “I didn’t mean to.”
She smiled faintly. “No one ever does.” She turned to me again, “congratulations on sealing your bond. You're now a mated Alpha.”
I felt so proud about that. “Thank you.”
I set Adam down on the cushioned chair and stayed close enough that my knee brushed his. The physician washed her hands slowly, deliberately, then turned back to us.
“How are you feeling?” she asked Adam directly.
He hesitated. “Sore. Tired. Less… panicked than before.”
She nodded. “Any pain from the marks?”
“They still burn,” he admitted. “But not as bad lately. It's like I'm getting used to the sensation.”
She glanced at me. “Because you’re regulating your pheromones better.”
I inclined my head.
She stepped closer to Adam, lowering herself to his eye level. “I’d like to try something, if you’re willing.”
Adam’s fingers curled into his sleeve. “What kind of something?”
“A light trance,” she said calmly. “Not to control you. Just to listen. Sometimes the body speaks more clearly when the mind steps aside. I've been thinking hard about you and I've searched for answers from your background but I couldn't find anything. But I know that nothing beats asking the source. Truth lives best on its owner’s tongue. So I want to make you fall back into your origin, and ask you.”
Adam looked at me.
I felt the instinct to refuse rise sharp and fast.
“I won’t touch you,” the physician added. “And he’ll stay right here.”
I squeezed Adam’s hand. “We don’t have to.”
He searched my face, then nodded once. “Okay. But if I say stop—”
“We stop,” she said immediately.
The trance was nothing like the stories. No swinging pendulum. No commands.
She spoke softly, guiding his breathing, asking him to focus on weight, warmth, sound. I watched his shoulders loosen inch by inch, watched the tension drain from his jaw.
“Adam,” she said gently. “Can you hear me?”
“Yes.”
“Good. You’re safe. You can answer only what feels easy.”
She waited.
“Who are you?” she asked.
There was a long pause.
Adam’s brow furrowed, not in distress, but in effort.
“I don’t…” His voice drifted. “There’s no name. Just… pressure.”
“Where do you feel it?”
“Everywhere,” he murmured. “Like gravity.”
“And if you had to call it something?”
Another pause.
Then, flat. Unemotional.
“Doom.”
My heart dropped.
“Why that word?” the physician asked quietly.
He didn’t answer the question.
He just repeated it, softer, like reciting a lesson.
“Doom.”
She let the silence sit.
“What does it feel like?” she asked.
“Heavy.”
“Wrong.”
“Like a dark cloud waiting to pour down plague.”
She glanced at me then, and I saw concern edged on her face...
Adam was still under when she spoke to me again, voice low.
“Are you certain you want to keep him? Are you sure you don’t want to let him go while there’s still time?” she asked. “He’s been molded to carry destruction. Loving him will cost you.”
“I know,” I said. “Whatever they tried to turn him into, I’ll undo it.”
She studied me carefully.
“He’s my mate,” I continued. “And I won't abandon him over anything, especially not because of something he had no control over. He was a victim of a man's arrogance and wickedness, it is my job to pull him out of where he's been thrown into. And I won’t hand him back to people who taught him that word.”
Something in her expression shifted. She nodded once.
When Adam woke up, he blinked up at me, disoriented. “Did I… say anything bad?”
I brushed my thumb over his cheek. “No, darling. You were rather too tired to speak. I should take better care of you.”
“You already take really good care of me, I'm just a very lazy person.”
“Hmm, my baby is not lazy. He's beautiful and so lovely.”
The physician cleared her throat, and I turned to see her questioning gaze. I knew she was asking me to tell Adam, but I won't.
I didn’t tell him.
I lifted him instead and carried him back to our chamber.
The rest of the day was small things.
Sweet bread, still warm. A carved charm I pressed into his palm. Brushing his hair while he complained. Reviewing and signing pamphlets while he watched and pretended not to want my attention. Stealing kisses that went nowhere.
He relaxed without noticing.
Later, he fell asleep against my chest, breathing slow and even.
I watched him long enough to feel terrified that I might not be able to ever reach his wolf.
And knowing, with a scary certainty, that whatever had forced his wolf into silence could kill.