Chapter 35: Kael’s Resolve
Kael's Pov
The night was colder than usual, though the fire in the great hall burned high. My warriors feasted, drank, and laughed around me, but none of it reached me. My eyes stayed fixed on her.
Fianna.
She sat at the long table, not far from me, her hood gone now, her face bare to my pack. And still, she looked untouchable. The firelight clung to her hair, gilding it like spun gold. Her lashes lowered as she toyed with the rim of her cup, but I could feel the tension radiating off her—like a bow drawn too tight.
And then there was Derek.
I watched him from the corner of my eye as he leaned back in his seat across from her, his smirk ever-present, his gaze burning holes into her. He didn’t hide it. He never did. He had always been the wolf who took what he wanted, and tonight, every line of him screamed his intent.
My jaw ached from how tightly I clenched it.
The memory of his words echoed in my head—his taunt that she wasn’t mine, that she had never been mine. That name he had breathed, Fianna, with such dangerous familiarity.
He had no right.
And yet… the way she flinched when the hooded stranger had spoken it, the way her pulse leapt at the sound—I couldn’t ignore it. She wasn’t just Elena. That much was clear. But who was she, truly? And why did it terrify me to think Derek might know before I did?
I slammed my goblet down harder than I intended. The wood groaned under the force, conversations stilled, and all eyes flicked to me. I didn’t care. My wolf pressed hard against my skin, demanding I tear Derek’s smug grin from his face.
“Something wrong, Kael?” Derek’s voice slid across the table, casual, needling.
I met his gaze, cold and sharp. “Only your presence.”
He chuckled, the sound dark and amused. “Careful, cousin. The girl might start thinking you’re jealous.”
Fianna stiffened. I saw the flicker of unease cross her face, quickly masked, but my wolf caught it. Her silence sliced deeper than any words.
“I don’t get jealous,” I ground out, though my clenched fists betrayed me.
Derek’s grin widened. “Then why do you look at her like you’d rip out the throat of any wolf who so much as speaks her name?”
Because I would.
The thought was vicious, feral. My wolf snarled inside me, echoing the truth I didn’t want to face.
Fianna pushed back from the table suddenly, rising. Her voice was calm, but her eyes betrayed the storm beneath. “I don’t need either of you fighting over me.”
The room fell quiet. Warriors shifted uneasily, their gazes darting between us. Derek smirked like he had already won.
I stood. The chair scraped loudly against the stone floor, my height casting a shadow over her smaller frame. “No one is fighting over you,” I said, my voice low, steady, but heavy with warning. “But anyone who thinks to take what’s mine…” I let the words hang, my eyes locked on Derek’s, “…will regret it.”
A hush fell over the hall.
Fianna’s lips parted, her eyes flashing, but before she could speak, Derek leaned forward, his gaze burning. “Yours?” His voice dripped with mockery. “She doesn’t look like she belongs to you, Kael. In fact, she doesn’t look like she belongs to anyone.”
The words twisted like a blade in my gut.
My wolf surged, demanding blood, but I forced him down, if only barely. This wasn’t the place. Not with so many watching. Not with her watching.
Fianna’s voice broke the silence, sharp as steel. “I belong to myself.”
The words rang through the hall, silencing even the boldest warrior. My chest tightened at the defiance in her tone, at the fire blazing in her eyes. She wasn’t mine. She had just reminded me of that.
And yet every instinct in me screamed that she was.
The feast ended with a tension that didn’t fade. Wolves whispered, Derek smiled like a man savoring a game he knew how to win, and Fianna slipped from the hall with her hood drawn tight once more.
I stayed behind, rooted in place, my claws digging into the arms of my chair until the wood cracked.
Derek’s words haunted me.
Her words haunted me more.
I could not l
ose her.
But how do you hold someone who refuses to be claimed?