Chapter 14: Kieran
I storm down the corridor, blood still hot on my hands, jaw clenched so tight it aches. The stone walls blur past me in a haze of fury and humiliation, every torch I pass sparking too close to combusting. My boots slam against the floor with the force of my rage, echoing behind me like war drums.
She played me.
She baited me like I was some starving dog and she was just stupid enough to believe I wouldn’t bite.
But I didn’t bite.
I snapped.
Snapped the neck of the guard like dry kindling, let her watch the life drain out of him for touching something that didn’t belong to him. And she—she smiled. Strung up in chains, body trembling, wrists bruised and mouth split with defiance, and she still had the audacity to smile like she’d won something.
And maybe she had.
I shove the doors to the war room open so hard they slam against the stone, rattling the chandelier overhead. Kellan jolts where he’s standing over a map spread with pins and blood markers. Killian barely flicks a glance up from where he’s polishing one of his knives, though the slight twitch of his mouth tells me he’s already heard something.
“She seduced the guard,” I snap, voice low and laced with something sharp. “She let him touch her.”
Killian whistles under his breath. “Didn’t peg her for the type to beg.”
“She didn’t beg,” I grit out, pacing a sharp circle around the table. “She baited. She made it a show. Every movement planned. Every gasp exaggerated. She wanted me to come.”
Kellan frowns, folding his arms as he watches me. “So she wanted a reaction.”
“She wanted control,” I snarl. “And she got it.”
“She’s an Omega in chains,” Killian says lazily. “What control could she possibly have?”
“She knew I’d feel it,” I growl. “She used the bond to lure me in, like she wrote the damn blueprint.”
My voice cuts off at that. Too close. Too telling.
Kellan watches me, too perceptive for his own good. “You’ve had prisoners before,” he says slowly. “And you’ve had Omega prisoners before. This is different.”
I don’t answer.
Because I can’t.
Because he’s right, and I don’t know how to say it without choking on the truth. She is different. Not just because she smells like something that crawled out of fate’s mouth with my name etched into her bones, but because I know her. I remember her. I remember her voice before she ever spoke. Remember the words she used to describe me, the lines she built me with, the curse she wove into every breath I take. She made me. And now she dares to unmake me—one look, one taunt, one stupid fucking guard at a time.
“She’s not just an Omega,” I say, forcing the words through my teeth. “She’s something else.”
Killian snorts. “Yeah. A pain in the ass.”
“She’s got answers we don’t have,” I continue, ignoring him. “She knew how to trigger the bond. She knew how to make me feel it—like a blade to the ribs. That kind of manipulation doesn’t come from instinct.”
“You think she’s a spy?” Kellan asks, though his tone is already doubtful.
“No. I think she’s something worse,” I mutter. “She knew that I’d lose control the second someone touched her. She wanted to watch it happen. She wanted to prove she could still reach me even when shackled.”
And she did.
She reached deeper than anyone has. Not through softness or submission—but through defiance. Through the refusal to break, even when she should. She turned the chains into her stage and made me the beast on a leash.
Killian raises a brow. “So what now? You gonna kill her for it?”
“No,” I say, voice quieting.
Because I can’t.
Because the bond won’t let me.
Because something in me wants this—to fight her, chase her, hate her so viciously it looks like love from a distance. I want to hear her scream—but only if it’s my name. I want to hear her beg—but only if she means it.
“I’m going to make her beg,” I say instead, softer now. “But not with threats. Not with pain.”
Killian’s smile sharpens. “Going for the slow burn, then.”
“I’m going to make her want me,” I say, locking eyes with my brother. “I’m going to make her need me. And then I’m going to rip the truth from her lips so gently she won’t even notice she’s bleeding.”
Kellan exhales, watching me like he’s trying to see through my skin. “And if she never breaks?”
“She will,” I answer, certain now. “Because she’s already started.”
Because I saw it—behind the taunts, behind the teeth. A flicker of something else. Guilt. Grief. A knowing that doesn’t belong in this world because it came from somewhere else.
From before.
She’s fighting herself as much as she’s fighting me, and that’s what’s going to undo her. Not the chains. Not the threats.
The bond.
She doesn’t understand it yet, but it’s inside her now, like poison. And it’s mine. It’s not just about dominance. It’s not about breeding or biology. It’s about truth. And the truth always rises.
I turn back toward the door, my hand twitching like it wants to reach for her even now. She’s probably still smiling. Still smug. Still certain she’s got the upper hand.
Good.
Let her believe that.
Let her feel safe in the illusion.
Because tomorrow, I bring the truth closer. Tomorrow, I remind her that her scent isn't the only weapon in the room. That I can touch her too—slowly. Sweetly. That I can make the bond burn so deep she’ll think it’s pleasure until she’s sobbing with it.
And she’ll talk.
Not because I force her to.
Because it’ll be the only way to stop unraveling.
I head for the stairs that lead back toward the dungeons, already planning the next move. Not violence. Not yet.
No, this game is about seduction now.
And I never lose.