Page 21 of Her Fated Alpha Prince
She swallowed hard, a strange mix of fear and excitement swirling in her chest. The night was far from over.
And so was her journey.
CHAPTER 8
_____
KAEL
The palace was a labyrinth of whispers and shadows after dusk. The grand halls, draped in velvet darkness, held their breath beneath the weight of secrets too dangerous to voice aloud. Kael moved through the corridors like a ghost, silent but always watching. Every step measured, every glance calculated. He had learned long ago that power was not in the thunderous proclamations but in the quiet moments no one else noticed.
Tonight, the air was thick—not with the usual perfumed courtesies, but with something darker, something brittle. His fingers itched beneath the edge of his cloak, a restless tension curled in his chest. Ariana was on his mind—not the woman she presented herself to be, but the storm waiting to break loose beneath her calm surface.
He remembered how she looked last night—eyes wide with a storm she didn’t understand, breathless from a dream that clawed too close to truth. It was that something inside her, a spark no one but he seemed to feel. Dangerous, yes, but also fragile. A contradiction he could not reconcile.
A soft tap echoed behind a concealed door. Kael’s hand slid to the hilt of his dagger, fingers steady despite the surge ofadrenaline. He waited. The door creaked open just enough for a sliver of shadow to slip through.
“Kael,” a voice whispered.
He recognized it immediately—Varos. The elder noble’s silver hair caught the moonlight as he stepped inside, eyes sharp, unreadable.
“We don’t have much time,” Varos said, voice low but urgent. “Seryna’s reach is longer than you think.”
Kael’s jaw clenched. Seryna. The name tasted like ash. The woman whose ambition had left scars on the kingdom, whose spies thrived in every corner. If she learned what Ariana might become—what she already was—it could mean ruin.
“What have you learned?” Kael asked, voice steady, but inside, the old dread gnawed at him.
Varos glanced around, then produced a folded parchment, sealed with a sigil Kael barely recognized.
“Messages intercepted. Observers in the palace. Not just your usual eyes and ears, but something... unnatural.”
Kael’s fingers brushed the paper, a flicker of cold crawling up his spine. This was no ordinary threat. The same dark undercurrents that churned in Ariana’s dreams were seeping into reality.
“Are you sure she knows?” Kael’s question was barely more than a breath.
Varos shook his head. “Not yet. But soon. And when she does…”
The silence stretched, heavy with unspoken fears. Kael’s mind raced with possibilities—alliances to question, enemies towatch, and the one woman he was supposed to keep at arm’s length.
His thoughts fractured abruptly as footsteps approached—close, deliberate. Varos tensed beside him. Kael melted into the shadows, dagger ready, eyes narrowing.
The corridor emptied as quickly as it had filled, but the warning lingered. The palace was watching. And so were they.
Kael’s breath slowed. He folded the parchment carefully, slipping it into the inner pocket of his cloak.
Tonight, the game had changed. And for the first time in a long while, Kael felt the edges of control slipping.
He had to protect her. Even if it meant breaking every rule he’d ever sworn to uphold.
Kael didn’t return to his quarters. Instead, he headed for the west tower—the one no one used anymore, where the stones still bore the scorch marks of the fire that gutted the upper floors three winters ago. It wasn’t on any of the regular patrols. No servants came here. Which made it perfect.
He moved fast, but not so fast as to draw attention. Every instinct drilled into him over years of training warned that things were moving too quickly. Ariana wasn’t just awakening to something ancient—she was being watched. Manipulated. Positioned.
And he didn’t know by whom.
Inside the tower, the air was cool, dust motes spinning through the silver light. He knelt and pulled back the edge of a cracked stone tile, revealing a small iron box beneath. Only two people in the kingdom knew it existed—Kael, and the man who had taught him how to lie better than anyone else.
He opened it. Inside, letters. Old. Worn at the edges. Not all from Varos. Not all meant for Kael.
