Kael's POV
Kael's fist went through the stone wall.
The impact cracked the granite but didn't break it. His hand hurt but he barely registered the pain. All he could feel was the rage burning through his blood like wildfire.
Someone had tried to poison Arin.
Not just any poison. Dark magic poison. The kind designed to destroy someone from the inside out. Someone had sent it to her chambers knowing she would drink it. Knowing it would kill her.
And if Lyra hadn't arrived in time, Arin would be dead right now.
Kael was standing in his war room with his generals and council members scattered around him. They were all watching him carefully. Nobody wanted to be the next person he hit.
"I want guards stationed outside the Luna's chambers," Kael said, his voice low and deadly. "Not two. Not four. Eight. Rotating every two hours. I want someone with her at all times. When she bathes, there's a guard outside the door. When she eats, there's a guard watching the food being prepared. When she walks the corridors, there's an entire squad around her. Understood?"
"Yes, my king," his general said quickly.
"I want to know who had access to the kitchens last night," Kael continued. "I want to know who prepared that wine. I want to know who ordered it. I want names and I want them by sunset."
"Yes, my king."
Kael turned and walked out of the war room without dismissing anyone. He didn't care about protocols or tradition. Right now he cared about one thing.
Making sure nothing else could hurt Arin.
The attempts came faster after that.
The next morning, Arin was walking in the palace corridors with her guard when a stone balcony overhead suddenly cracked. Kael felt it through the bond before it happened. Felt the wrongness of the magic severing its supports.
He was there in seconds.
He grabbed Arin and pulled her back just as the entire balcony collapsed onto the stone floor. Tons of marble crashed down where she had been standing a moment before. Dust exploded through the corridor. Guards rushed in from all sides.
Arin was shaking in his arms.
"I've got you," Kael said. He didn't mean for his voice to sound tender. But it did.
Two days later, someone poisoned her bathwater.
Lyra caught it while Arin was getting ready. The water had turned a strange color when Lyra added the test herbs. Arin would have died if she'd gotten in that bath.
Kael had the servants arrested. Questioned them personally. None of them knew anything. They were just following orders from someone they'd never met.
Someone was orchestrating this from the shadows.
Three days after that, a guard Kael didn't recognize tried to attack Arin in a corridor.
She was walking toward the library with Lyra when the man suddenly pulled a knife from beneath his armor and lunged. Arin screamed. Lyra moved fast but not fast enough.
Kael appeared between them like he'd materialized from air.
The knife sank into his shoulder instead of Arin's chest.
She made a sound like her heart was breaking. He could feel her panic through the bond. Could feel her terror that he was hurt because of her.
Kael pulled the knife out and threw it across the corridor. The would-be assassin tried to run but Kael's guards had already surrounded him. They dragged him away, probably to the dungeons.
Kael didn't wait to find out. He just turned to look at Arin.
Her eyes were wide. There was blood on her hands. His blood.
"You're hurt," she whispered.
"It's nothing," Kael said.
But she was already reaching for him. Her healing hands pressing against his wound. The bond between them flared with her desperate need to fix what the assassin had broken.
He felt her magic flow through him. Warm and gentle and so powerful that it made his breath catch. She healed him completely in seconds. The wound that should have taken weeks to recover from was sealed. The pain was gone.
But the feeling of her hands on his body remained.
That night, Kael told himself he would stop watching her sleep.
He didn't.
Instead he stood outside her chamber door at midnight and felt like a fool. A weak man. A king who had forgotten how to rule because he was too busy being a person who cared about someone.
He told himself he was there because she was the Luna and protecting her was his duty. He told himself he didn't feel anything except responsibility.
He was lying and he knew it.
Through the open door, he could see her sleeping in the enormous bed. Her silver-blonde hair spread across the pillow. Her face peaceful for the first time since arriving at the palace. Her breathing steady and calm.
She was safe right now.
Because he was standing guard.
Kael touched the bond in his chest and felt her presence in his mind. Even sleeping, even unconscious, she knew he was there. He could feel her relief that he was nearby. Her trust that he wouldn't let anything hurt her.
And it destroyed him.
Because trust like that was dangerous. Love like that was a weakness he couldn't afford. The kingdom was already questioning his decisions. Already whispering that he was too protective of the girl who had trapped him.
If they found out he actually cared about her, really cared about her, they would use her against him. They would threaten her life to control his actions. They would exploit every feeling he had.
He had learned that lesson when his parents died.
Caring about people meant losing them.
So he kept his distance during the day. Sat across from her at meals with a cold expression. Refused to acknowledge the bond that connected them. Treated her like she was a responsibility instead of someone who was becoming the center of his entire world.
But at night, when he thought no one was watching, he stood in her doorway and admitted the truth to himself.
She was becoming his weakness.
And he had no idea how to stop it.
Three weeks after the poisoning attempt, Kael finally couldn't take it anymore.
He was standing outside her chamber again, watching her sleep, when he heard movement in the hallway. Footsteps. Someone approaching.
Lyra appeared with a concerned expression.
"She's been asking for you," Lyra said quietly. "During the day. When you're not there. She asks if you're okay. If you're sleeping. If you're eating."
"Tell her the Alpha King is fine," Kael said coldly.
"She doesn't want to know if the Alpha King is fine," Lyra replied. "She wants to know if you're fine."
Kael didn't answer. Just turned back to watching Arin through the open door.
Arin stirred in her sleep. Her hand reached out across the empty bed like she was looking for something. Someone. Him.
Kael's hands clenched into fists.
"How much longer can you keep doing this?" Lyra asked.
"Doing what?"
"Pretending you don't care about her," Lyra said quietly. "She's breaking apart, my king. She thinks you hate her. She thinks you regret binding yourself to her. And you're standing outside her door at night watching her sleep like you're losing your mind."
"Leave," Kael said.
But Lyra didn't move.
"There's going to be another attempt," Lyra said. "Soon. I can feel it. Something bigger than the others. And when it comes, you're going to have to choose. You're going to have to choose between being a king and being a person. And I don't think you can do both."
She left before Kael could respond.
He stood alone in the corridor, listening to Arin breathe. Feeling the bond between them pulse with her dreams. Knowing that Lyra was right.
There would be another attempt. Something bigger. Something that would push him past the point of being able to deny what he felt.
And when it happened, he would have to choose.
Protect his crown or protect his heart.
Stay cold and untouchable and alive.
Or admit that Arin Silverheart had become the only thing in his life that mattered.
Kael reached out and touched the doorframe, close to where Arin slept. He couldn't touch her directly. That would be crossing a line he couldn't come back from.
But he could stand here and feel the bond between them thrumming like a second heartbeat.
And he could hold onto the truth he was trying so hard to deny.
That he was already lost.
Had been lost since the moment she fell into his arms.