Chapter 14 A visit to the prince Chambers
Meira’s POV
My heartbeat picked up the closer I got to the Alpha Prince’s chambers. It felt as if each step added another weight to my chest. Different thoughts ran through my mind, none of them comforting. Why would he call for me? What could he possibly want from someone like me? Every answer I tried to form only tangled into a bigger knot of confusion.
I stopped in front of the tall dark wooden door, inhaling shakily. My fingers trembled as I lifted them and placed a gentle knock.
“Come in.”
His voice rolled out from inside; it was deep, thick, and commanding enough to make my trembling worse.
I pushed the door open. The hinges creaked lightly, and immediately my senses were overwhelmed. The chamber was grand, yes, but not overly decorated like I had expected. No heavy golden drapes, no intimidating royal artifacts. It was simple… clean… almost too clean.
A large king-sized bed sat against the far wall, perfectly arranged. The air itself smelled faintly of cedar, smoke, and something uniquely him, something that filled my nose and made my wolf stir restlessly beneath my skin.
The scent alone was dangerous.
He stood near the window, his back to me. Moonlight washed over him, outlining the sculpted build of his shoulders, his back, and his entire frame. I swallowed. Hard.
“M…” he began, as if trying to recall my name.
“Meira. Meira Ashford,” I said quickly, bowing my head in respect.
He didn’t respond immediately. The silence thickened around us. The pull… goddess, the pull… grew stronger by each passing second. My chest tightened, heat crawling its way beneath my skin. I clenched my fists, forcing a thin veil of magic between us, trying to dull the unbearable tug I felt toward him.
I didn’t want to ask if he felt it too. I didn’t want to embarrass myself. But the curiosity gnawed at me. Then he turned, Slowly and calmly
Too calmly.
Those eyes were sharp and unreadable; they met mine, and the world seemed to still. His gaze was cold and direct, but something flickered beneath it—it was something darker, something searching. He looked at me like he was peeling away every layer of my soul, examining what lay beneath.
“Meira,” he said again, and the way my name rolled off his lips made my breath catch. It wasn’t normal. No one said my name like that. Not even people who liked me.
“Alpha,” I murmured, tearing my gaze away because I couldn’t stand the intensity.
“Do you know why I saved you from banishment?” he asked, voice steady and unreadable.
My lips parted. “Umm…”
“Speak up. I can’t hear you.”
“Because… because you thought the judgment was unfair.” I forced the words out.
His head tilted slightly. “Was it?”
“Yes,” I said after a moment, eyes fixed on the floorboards. “It was unfair.”
“And why do you think I trust you?”
My head snapped up at that. My brows pulled together in confusion. “I… I don’t know, Alpha.”
He turned away from the window, walking closer, not too close, but close enough for the pull to slam into me again. My pulse stuttered. His presence alone was overwhelming.
“Your stay here is simple,” he said. “The Alpha King doesn’t like you. You should know that by now.”
His voice was low, almost indifferent, but the way he said it sent an icy ripple down my spine.
“You will stay out of trouble. Any scandal, any misstep, and I won’t be able to help you again.”
His eyes never left mine while he spoke. There was no softness there. Just cold logic… and something else I couldn’t name. Something that made my wolf push against me as if wanting to go to him, to breathe him in, to close the distance.
I managed to take in the meaning of his words despite the way his scent kept invading my senses, clouding my thoughts.
“Okay, Alpha,” I whispered.
He gave a dismissive wave of his hand, signaling I could leave.
Relief washed through me. I turned, desperate to get out, to breathe air that didn’t belong to him, to give my heart a chance to stop trying to leap out of my chest—
“Wait.”
The word sliced through the room like a blade.
I froze.
Slowly, I turned back toward him. He was no longer near the window. He had taken a step closer. His expression had shifted. It was still calm, but there was something new in his eyes. Something that made my breath still in my throat.
“Come here,” he said.
My pulse jumped. “Alpha, I—”
“Don’t make me repeat myself.”
The firmness in his tone walked the line between command and something strangely… personal.
I took a hesitant step forward. Then another. I stopped when there were only a few feet between us. The air grew heavier, charged, almost electric. He studied me closely, eyes lingering on my face longer than necessary.
“You used magic earlier,” he said quietly. “To hold something back.”
My heart dropped. He sensed that?
I swallowed, unable to lie. “Yes, Alpha.”
His eyes darkened, the silver deepening like a storm gathering. “Why?”
I opened my mouth… then closed it again. What would I even say? That being near him felt like gravity was folding in on itself? That his scent made something primal inside me claw wildly? That the strange attraction terrified me because I shouldn’t feel anything toward the Alpha Prince?
“It’s nothing,” I whispered, shaking my head.
He stepped closer.
Too close.
“Don’t lie to me.”
My breath hitched. I felt the heat radiating off him. I felt the pull tighten around my ribs like a rope. His gaze dropped to my lips just for a second before rising back to my eyes.
“What exactly are you trying so hard to resist, Meira?”
My pulse roared in my ears.
I backed up a step, but my spine met the wall behind me. His brows lifted slightly, as if he found that reaction very… telling.
He didn’t touch me. He didn’t have to.
His presence alone pinned me in place.
From this close, I could see the faint scar near his temple, the way his jaw flexed, and the way his lashes framed those impossible silver eyes.
“Is it fear?” he asked softly.
I shook my head.
“Then what is it?”
I opened my lips to answer, to say something, anything, but nothing came out.
A ghost of a smirk touched the corner of his mouth. Not arrogant. Not mocking. Just… knowing. Like he already understood the answer I was too afraid to say.
His hand lifted slightly, not touching me but close enough that I felt warmth skim the air between us.
“Tell me,” he murmured. “What are you hiding from me?”
I inhaled sharply, my control slipping.
He leaned in slowly, deliberately, his voice lowering to something that wrapped around me like velvet.
“Or…”
He paused, eyes glinting.
“…should I find out myself?”