Page 22 of Blood Marked

“You could’ve been killed!” The words ripped out before he could temper them, raw and hoarse.

She flinched. Just a fraction.

Then her chin lifted.

“I saw one of your justice rituals,” she said, biting off each word. “A man on his knees. Blood down his face. You brandedhim like an animal and forced him into a half-shift that nearly killed him. What was his crime, Kael? Did he look at someone wrong?”

Kael’s jaw tightened until it ached. “He broke a blood oath.”

“And that’s how you handle it? With torture in front of an audience?”

“This is the Dominion,” he said, quieter now, voice cold. “Not the council halls your kind simper in.”

Her eyes flared. “You think that makes it right?”

He didn’t answer.

Because no, he didn’t think it was right. But he’d lived it. Been shaped by it. He knew the rules weren’t made to be questioned. Not here. Not with the old blood watching.

Selene stepped forward, fire rolling off her in waves.

“You think I’m weak.”

“No.”

“You think I need protecting. Locking up. Leashing.”

Kael exhaled sharply. “You’re not weak, Selene. You’reunfamiliar. You don’t know how this world works, and until you do, you’re a liability.”

She laughed. No humor. Just disbelief and something darker underneath.

“I’m not your liability,” she hissed. “And I’m not your responsibility.”

He stepped closer.

“Iknowthat,” he said, low. “You think I asked for this bond? You think I wanted you in my blood, in my skin, every time I breathe?”

Selene blinked, and for a beat, her breath caught.

“Then why do you care if I’m safe?” she asked.

Kael opened his mouth.

Nothing came out.

She stared at him, her chest rising and falling. Her face flushed, eyes bright, the line of her jaw stubborn and proud even when she was standing ankle-deep in a world ready to swallow her whole.

And gods help him, she wasbeautiful.

Not in the polished, jeweled way of court-born princesses.

She was sharp angles and defiance. Fire wrapped in silk. Chaos that made his wolf want to kneel and bite all at once.

“I care,” he said finally, “because if something happens to you, the bond will backlash through me. Through my House. Through the Veil itself.”

Her expression faltered. For a heartbeat.

Then returned, harder.

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