Chapter 50: The New Room

RHYDIAN

Vessa was breathing when I reached her quarters.

The healer had already opened the windows despite the cold. Thin curtains shifted inward every few seconds with the breeze. A basin sat crooked on the bedside table beside a cloth soaked through badly enough that water kept slipping down onto the floorboards beneath it.

Two attendants stood near the wall with their backs too straight.

Vessa lay against the pillows with her hair loose around her face, one arm half hanging off the side of the bed like she’d fallen before anyone could catch her properly. Her skin looked pale against the dark blanket pulled over her legs.

“The shock of it sent her pressure down,” the healer said quietly while adjusting the blanket again even though it didn’t need adjusting. “She’ll wake eventually. She needs rest first.”

I nodded once.

“Stay here,” I told the attendants. “If she wakes, come find me.”

One of them opened her mouth like she meant to say something, then lowered her eyes instead.

I looked at Vessa a second longer.

Seeing her like that pressed strangely at my chest. Not guilt exactly. Something heavier than irritation and far less useful.

Then I turned and left before it could settle into anything worse.

Ana stood outside the hall near the long window overlooking the lower courtyard. Light from outside caught against the short ends of her hair every time she moved her head. Her arms were folded tightly enough that her sleeves had bunched at the elbows.

She looked at me immediately.

Then past me.

Then back again.

“She collapsed,” I said.

Ana blinked once. Her fingers slipped briefly against the rings beneath her shirt before she pressed her hand flat against them.

“...Right.”

“The healer’s with her now.”

A pair of younger wolves hurried past us carrying stacks of folded cloth between them. One glanced at Ana too long before the other elbowed him sharply forward again.

Ana watched them disappear around the corner.

“What happens now?”

I rubbed my thumb once against the side of my hand before answering. “The healer’ll keep people away from her tonight.”

Ana turned fully toward me. “Rhydian.”

I exhaled quietly through my nose.

“Vessa’s position is complicated now.”

“That sounds like something Bram would say.”

“It probably is.”

That almost pulled a smile out of her.

Almost.

“Come with me,” I said after a moment. “I need to show you something.”

She hesitated just long enough to notice it herself. Her shoulders shifted slightly like she’d nearly refused out of instinct alone.

Then she nodded once and followed me.

The eastern wing stayed warmer than the rest of the compound during colder months. My father preferred those rooms because the southern windows held heat later into the evening.

We passed two guards near the stairwell and another outside the gallery entrance. Ana kept glancing around as we walked, counting exits without meaning to. I could see it happening every time her eyes caught on a doorway or corner.

When we reached the chambers, I opened the door and stepped aside for her.

She walked in slowly.

The fire had already been lit earlier that morning. Heat drifted through the room carrying cedar smoke and fresh linen with it. Someone from the household had prepared everything carefully enough that the place already looked lived in. A dark green coat hung over the chair near the hearth. Books had been stacked on one side of the desk. Fresh clothes rested folded inside the open wardrobe.

Ana stopped near the middle of the room.

Then she turned once slowly before looking back at me.

“Rhydian,” she said quietly. “These are Alpha family chambers.”

“They’re beside mine.”

Her eyes flicked toward the door connecting the adjoining rooms.

“You’re serious.”

“You’ll have your own key. Guard rotation starts tonight.”

She walked toward the window, then stopped near one of the chairs instead. Her fingers brushed the carved wood along the top of it before she continued the rest of the way.

“Your father agreed to this?”

“My father suggested this wing himself.”

Ana looked over her shoulder at me sharply enough that a few strands of hair slipped loose against her forehead.

“He did?”

“He finds the situation entertaining.”

A log shifted in the fireplace behind us with a burst of sparks climbing briefly up the chimney.

Ana looked back out the window again.

The compound spread beneath us from that height. Patrols crossed the lower paths. Workers hauled crates toward storage near the western wall. Farther out, the southern gate stood open while riders moved through in pairs.

“What happens when Vessa wakes up?” she asked again, quieter this time.

I looked out across the courtyard instead of answering immediately.

A cart wheel below caught against uneven stone hard enough to tilt sideways before the driver corrected it.

“She still has my father’s goodwill,” I said eventually. “As long as she doesn’t push him too far.”

“That’s still not what I asked.”

I rubbed my hand once across the back of my neck.

“She’ll be watched closely for a while.”

Ana turned from the window then. Her arms folded across herself again before she pulled them apart a second later.

“You’ve changed everything in one afternoon.”

“I was going to eventually.”

“That sounds reassuring.”

I laughed softly at that.

She looked at me for another second, then glanced away too quickly afterward.

I crossed the room toward her.

“You’re protected now,” I said. “Pack law applies fully. Your title carries weight whether people like it or not.”

“I’m aware.”

“Then stop looking at the walls like you’re figuring out how fast you can climb out the windows.”

That finally got a real reaction from her. The corner of her mouth lifted briefly before she bit it back.

“I always figure that out.”

“That sounds exhausting.”

“It’s useful.”

I touched her jaw lightly with one hand.

She went still immediately.

For a second she only looked at me. Then her hand caught against the front of my shirt and she kissed me first.

Ana always started carefully.

Like she was still deciding something midway through it.

Then she exhaled softly against my mouth and moved closer all at once.

The fire warmed the room behind us. Outside the windows someone shouted across the courtyard for a gate runner and got an irritated answer back almost immediately.

I walked her toward the bed.

Halfway there the back of her knee bumped the frame hard enough that she muttered under her breath and grabbed my shoulder tighter.

“You alright?”

“Quiet.”

I laughed into her neck and felt her shove lightly at my chest for it.

The servant’s room had always carried tension with it. Listening for footsteps outside. Watching the door constantly. Rushing through moments neither of us actually wanted rushed.

This room felt different from the second she settled back into the sheets beneath me.

Afternoon light stretched across the blankets and climbed slowly higher along the wall while I relearned her carefully in the open instead of in shadows and stolen minutes. The way her breathing changed under my hands. The way she pressed her face briefly against my shoulder when she lost track of herself for a second. The way her fingers tightened unexpectedly whenever I kissed the inside of her wrist.

At one point she reached for me too quickly and knocked one of the pillows onto the floor beside the bed. She stared at it for half a second afterward before covering her eyes with one hand.

“Don’t say anything.”

“I wasn’t going to.”

“You were absolutely going to.”

“Probably.”

Later she lay against my chest with one hand resting loosely over the rings beneath her collarbone.

The room had gone quieter by then.

A soft crack came from the fireplace beside us as the wood shifted lower into ash.

Ana traced one finger absently across my ribs while staring up toward the ceiling.

“Bram really laughed?”

“He did.”

“What exactly did he say?”

I looked down at her.

“He said I’d finally done something interesting for once.”

A short laugh escaped her before she pressed her mouth against my shoulder like she was trying to hide it there.

“You do that every time,” I said.

Her voice came muffled against my skin. “Do what?”

“Look surprised that something amused you.”

She lifted her head just enough to squint at me. “That sounds fake.”

“You absolutely do.”

She made a face at me without moving away.

Outside, voices drifted upward from the lower courtyard while evening patrols changed posts. Somewhere farther down the hall a door slammed hard enough for Ana to glance toward it automatically before settling again a second later.

The fire burned lower beside us.

Neither of us bothered moving for a while.