Page 12 of Her Fated Alpha Prince
Kael turned slowly, keeping his face neutral. “You should rest. You’re safe here.”
She stepped into the corridor. Bare feet. White robe, slightly too long. Her hair was damp, like she’d just bathed.
She looked like something sacred.
Or something sent to test him.
“I know I’m safe,” she said. “You keep saying it.”
He swallowed. “Because it’s true.”
“Is it?” she asked, eyes searching his face. “You keep looking at me like… I’m dangerous.”
Kael’s voice was rougher than he meant. “You are.”
Her lips parted, but no sound came.
He clenched his jaw and stepped back, farther into the shadows. “Go inside, Ariana.”
Her breath caught, and for a second, he thought she might press him. She didn’t.
She gave a small nod and slipped back inside.
The door clicked shut.
Kael stood there a long time, staring at the grain of the wood, fists clenched, dragon raging.
Then he turned and walked away.
Kael didn’t return to his quarters.
He needed distance—from her scent, from the heat under his skin, from the hunger curling tighter in his chest every time he heard her voice.
Instead, he stalked through the palace’s northern corridor, a path only those in the royal inner circle dared to tread. Guards stepped aside. No one spoke to him. One look at his face made sure of that.
He found Elder Varos in the private study just before midnight, seated by the open hearth with a scroll in one hand and a glass of dark red wine in the other.
Kael didn’t wait for an invitation.
“She’s not just a human girl,” he said.
Varos didn’t look up. “No,” he said, sipping. “She’s not.”
That stopped Kael cold. “You knew.”
“I suspected,” Varos said calmly. “But I needed more time to confirm it. Unfortunately, time isn’t something your decisions have given us.”
Kael stepped deeper into the room, jaw tight. “What is she?”
Varos finally met his eyes. “I don’t know yet. Not fully. Her aura hums differently. The flames react to her, even the old stones in the foundation do. You’ve felt it too, haven’t you?”
Kael didn’t answer.
Because yes—he had.
The air around her shimmered when she laughed. The plants in the garden near her window had already begun to bloom out of season. When she’d stepped onto sacred land, the fire hadn’t hissed in rejection. It had curled toward her.
“She doesn’t know what she is either,” Kael muttered.
