The Ghost Of Kael

The Ghost Of Kael
Chapter 13

The Ghost Of Kael

The pale morning fingers crept in under the curtains, golden light spilling out onto the hotel room floor. My head pounded with heavy throbbing and my mouth was parched, the bitter taste of too much drinking still clinging to my tongue. I remained perfectly still for a moment. I merely glanced at the ceiling, fragments of the night before bursting in over me in jagged, slicing pieces I wanted to rub away.

The warmth beside me was what prompted me to shift. The sheets shifted. A slow, shallow breathing filled my ears. I rolled my head slowly, and there he was—broad shoulders half under the rumpled blanket, strands of his dark hair spilling negligently over his forehead. The stranger. The alpha for whose name I still had no knowledge.

A shiver of shame ran through me. My heart tightened. Flashbacks looped: the bar, the bitter burn of alcohol, my head leaning into his, dazed spin of the hotel hallway. My voice, broken and begging, calling one name, over and over—Kael.

Kael.

Even in my drunken haze, I had tied myself to the ghost of the man who destroyed me. My husband. My betrayer. My downfall.

The stranger stirred. His eyes—grey as a storm waiting to break—fluttered open and met mine. For a moment, there was silence between us, heavy and suffocating. His gaze was searching, unsure, but not cruel.

“You’re awake,” he said softly, his voice hoarse with sleep.

I sat bolt upright, clutching the sheet to me as if it could shield me from what really happened. My voice cracked when I spoke. "What… what happened?"

He hauled himself up off the bed, his body tensed as if preparing himself for my anger. His jaw tightened before he spoke, and the words were contained in restraint.

You made me," he admitted quietly, but there was no blame in his voice—merely a strange sadness. "You kept repeating another man's name. Kael. Over and over. I tried to make you hear me, but you wouldn't.".

The room began to spin once more, but this time not from the booze. From the shame. I buried my face in my hands, trembling as if the shame itself was too much for my bony frame.

"I…" My voice caught. "I don't even remember… I didn't mean—"

"I know," he cut in gently, as if rescuing me from choking even more on my shame. "I could tell. You weren't here with me. You were with him—whoever he is."

There was a silence that suffocated me, one so heavy I could hear my own heartbeat echoing in my ears. His voice dropped lower, almost to begging.

"Tell me. Who is Kael?"

My throat burned at the sound of that name spoken aloud by someone else. The pain I had fought to seal over was ripped open again, weeping and tender. He approached me, gaze on me with a concentrated intensity I could not help but catch.

"I have to ask, Selene. What is Kael to you?"

The ring of my name on his lips made me startle. He was a stranger, but in that moment, he understood more of my truth than any human had ever done before. His voice cracked, heavy with sincerity I hadn't been expecting. 

"Tell me," he pleaded again. "Please. Who is he? Why did you call out his name all night like he was your salvation… or your curse?"

Tears shrouded my vision. My chest ached as though saying it would tear me in half. I wished to flee, to hide the memory deep inside of me where no one could touch it—but his desperate-bound eyes held me prisoner.

Finally, the words came tumbling out, quivering and naked.

"He was my favorite man in this world," I whispered, each word slicing through me. "He was my husband."

The stranger froze, his face tightening with shock. I saw his eyes widen, his breath catch. But I did not stop. The dam in me had burst, and the truth flowed out in merciless torrents.

"And I was betrayed."

The last word trembled in the air like thunder, loaded with all the pain I'd concealed, with all the wounds that still bled beneath my skin.

The silence that followed was unbearable. His expression altered—a flicker of pity, of indignation not for me but for the ghost of the man who had destroyed me. He reached out to touch my hand, then stopped himself, leaving the space between us thick with unspoken words.

I covered my face, but I felt the weight of his stare, dense and immovable. I had no idea what he was going to tell me. I had no idea if he would soothe me, chastise me, or simply go away.

But I knew it the moment I uttered the name Kael out loud, the world that I had started rebuilding shattered again. And nothing—nothing—would ever be the same.