Chapter 91 Faint desires
Keal carried Lila through the palace corridors, ignoring the shocked stares of everyone they passed.
He took her directly to his chambers in the warriors' wing, a place few had ever entered. The room was sparse but clean, containing only essentials. He laid her carefully face-down on his bed.
Lila remained barely conscious, her breath coming in shallow gasps. The pain had become a living thing, pulsing with every heartbeat.
Keal moved to gather supplies. Clean water, bandages, healing salves. He'd treated wounds before, battle injuries on himself and occasionally other warriors. But his hands hesitated as he prepared to tend to Lila's torn back.
Before he could begin, the door slammed open with such force it cracked against the wall.
Adrian stood in the doorway, his eyes blazing red with barely controlled rage. "What do you think you're doing?"
Keal straightened but didn't step away from the bed. "Treating wounds that shouldn't have been inflicted in the first place."
"She destroyed priceless property. She deserved punishment." Adrian's voice was cold despite the fury evident in his posture.
"She was set up." Keal's tone was matter-of-fact. "The cleaning solution was tampered with. Anyone with basic knowledge could see that."
"That's only your suspicions."
"That's fact." Keal crossed his arms. "And you would have seen it too if you weren't so determined to find reasons to hurt her."
Adrian's wolf surged. The air in the room grew heavy with Alpha power. "You overstep, Delta."
"Someone has to." Keal didn't back down despite the pressure making the air hard to breathe. "You're not yourself. This rejection ritual did something to you. Made you cruel where you used to be just."
For a moment, the two men stared at each other, the tension thick enough to choke on. Then Adrian moved with Alpha speed, crossing the room and lifting Lila from Keal's bed before the Delta could react.
"She's my responsibility. Not yours." Adrian's voice was absolute authority. "Return to your duties."
He carried Lila out, leaving Keal standing alone in his chambers, fists clenched with frustration he couldn't act on.
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Adrian took Lila to his private chambers, the rooms reserved for the King alone. He laid her on his bed, then stood staring down at her unconscious form, breathing hard.
What was he doing? Why did seeing her in Keal's arms fill him with such rage? He felt nothing for her. The bond was severed. She was nothing but a servant who'd failed her duties.
And yet his hands were already reaching for medical supplies, his wolf demanding he tend to her wounds personally.
He carefully cut away the ruined dress, exposing her back. The sight made him pause. Ten lash marks crossed her skin, some bleeding, all inflamed and angry. They would scar.
Something twisted in his chest at the sight. Not quite emotion, not quite pain. Just a strange discomfort that made him want to undo what had been done.
Adrian wet a clean cloth and began gently cleaning the wounds. His hands moved with unexpected tenderness, carefully removing blood and dirt.
Lila stirred at his touch, her body tensing. Her eyes fluttered open, unfocused with pain and confusion.
"Don't move," Adrian said quietly. "I need to treat these."
"No." The word came out hoarse. Lila tried to pull away despite the agony it caused. "You're... my sister's husband. This isn't proper."
"I'm also your King. And I ordered your punishment. That makes this my responsibility."
"I don't want you to touch me." Her voice shook but held conviction. "Every time you're near me, something terrible happens. You hurt me or yell at me or look at me like you hate my existence. Please just let someone else do it."
Adrian's hands stilled. "There is no one else. Keal shouldn't have interfered. And I don't trust the servants not to make this worse deliberately."
"Then I'll tend to them myself." Lila tried to sit up and immediately collapsed back down with a gasp of pain.
"Stop being stubborn." Adrian pressed a hand gently to her shoulder, keeping her down. "I know you don't remember, but you used to trust me. Used to let me care for you."
"I don't remember that." Lila's voice broke. "I don't remember anything except that you married Celeste. That you were her husband. And now she's dead and I'm here and everything feels wrong. Everything feels like I'm doing something terrible just by existing near you."
Adrian said nothing. He continued cleaning her wounds with careful precision, his jaw tight.
As his hands moved across her bare skin, applying healing salve to each lash mark, something shifted. A flicker of sensation that wasn't quite anger. His fingers traced the edge of a wound and he felt an echo of something through the severed bond. Not the full overwhelming connection from before, but a whisper. A ghost of what used to be.
His hands trembled slightly. He'd thought he felt nothing. Thought the rejection had killed everything. But touching her like this, tending to wounds he'd ordered inflicted, brought back fractured memories.
Holding her. Kissing her. Nearly marking her under the moon. The bond pulling so hard it felt like his chest would tear open.
He jerked his hands back as if burned.
Lila noticed. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing." Adrian forced himself to continue, wrapping clean bandages around her torso to hold the treated wounds. "This will hurt for several days. I'll have pain medicine sent."
"Why are you doing this?" Lila's voice was small. "You hate me. I can feel it every time you look at me. So why bother treating wounds you ordered given?"
Adrian finished securing the bandages before answering. "Because despite what you think, I'm not actually a monster. And because keeping you in pain serves no purpose."
He stood and moved to the window, putting distance between them. "You'll stay here tonight where I can monitor the wounds for infection. Tomorrow we'll determine proper accommodations."
"Here? In your chambers?" Lila's voice rose with alarm. "That's completely inappropriate."
"You're in no condition to be moved further. And I won't have you bleeding out in some servant's quarters because no one bothered checking on you." Adrian's tone left no room for argument. "Sleep. That's an order."
He walked out onto the private balcony, leaving Lila alone in his bed, confused and frightened and aching.
Outside, he gripped the stone railing hard enough his knuckles went white. His wolf churned restlessly. The faint echo of sensation from touching her had unsettled everything.
He'd thought he was free. Thought the rejection had severed all connection. But his hands still remembered the feel of her skin. His wolf still recognized her scent. And some traitorous part of him had wanted to keep touching her, to trace every wound, to hold her close until the pain faded.
What had the ritual actually done to him? Had it truly severed the bond? Or had
it simply buried it under layers of anger and false indifference that were starting to crack?