Chapter 103 – The Man Who Loved Her Anyway
POV: Kael
Kael had spent most of his life trusting his instincts.
They had kept him alive through wars.
They had helped him navigate pack politics long before he beca Alpha.
They had warned him about threats before anyone else recognized them.
Most importantly, they had never lied to him.
That was why he couldn’t ignore what they were telling him now.
Sothing was happening to Liora.
Not physically.
At least, not in any way the healers could explain.
Her health remained stable. The pregnancy continued progressing without complications. The strange incidents surrounding her awakening hadn’t caused any visible damage.
Yet every ti Kael looked at her, he felt the distance growing.
It wasn’t a physical distance.
Liora still attended etings when necessary.
Still spoke with pack mbers.
Still smiled occasionally.
Still existed beside him.
The problem was that she felt further away than ever.
Like soone standing on the opposite side of a river that widened a little more each day.
The realization haunted him.
Because no matter how carefully he observed her, he couldn’t identify exactly when it started.
Perhaps it had begun after the awakening.
Perhaps after the mories.
Perhaps after whatever happened inside the hidden chamber.
The truth was that he didn’t know.
He only knew the woman he loved seed to be carrying a burden she couldn’t share.
And it was slowly consuming her.
Kael sat through an afternoon council eting without hearing half of what was said.
His attention remained fixed on the chair beside him.
Liora occupied it physically.
ntally, he wasn’t entirely certain where she was.
Several tis throughout the discussion, he noticed her expression shift.
Not dramatically.
Subtly.
A distant look crossing her face before disappearing again.
A slight narrowing of her eyes as though listening to sothing nobody else could hear.
A brief pause before answering simple questions.
The changes were small.
Most people wouldn’t notice them.
Kael noticed all of them.
Because he had spent months learning her expressions.
He knew how she looked when she was annoyed.
How she looked when she was worried.
How she looked when she was hiding fear behind stubbornness.
This was different.
These monts didn’t resemble confusion.
They resembled distraction.
As though part of her attention existed sowhere else.
The realization unsettled him more than he cared to admit.
By the ti the eting ended, most of the council mbers seed relieved to escape the growing tension surrounding the fortress.
Kael remained seated.
Across the table, Liora gathered several docunts before standing.
For a brief mont, she swayed.
The movent was slight.
Almost invisible.
Yet Kael noticed imdiately.
He was beside her before she could take another step.
"Liora."
She blinked and looked at him.
For a second, genuine surprise crossed her face.
As though she hadn’t expected him to be there.
The thought bothered him.
"You okay?"
A small smile appeared.
The kind she used whenever she wanted to reassure people.
"I’m fine."
Kael didn’t believe her.
Not because she was lying.
Because she genuinely seed to think she was.
That sohow worried him more.
He studied her carefully.
The faint shadows beneath her eyes.
The exhaustion she tried hiding.
The way her attention occasionally drifted.
The way she seed to be constantly listening for sothing.
"You need rest."
The smile widened slightly.
"You sound like the healers."
"They’re usually right."
She laughed softly.
The sound ward sothing inside him.
For a mont, the distance seed smaller.
Then it returned.
Not because she stepped away.
Because sothing shifted behind her eyes again.
A brief mont.
Barely noticeable.
Yet Kael felt it.
The sensation lingered until she excused herself and left the room.
He remained standing there long after she disappeared.
The unease refused to leave.
Because every instinct told him the problem wasn’t exhaustion.
The problem was knowledge.
Liora knew sothing.
Perhaps several things.
And whatever those things were, she hadn’t shared them.
The realization followed him throughout the evening.
He found himself replaying conversations.
Examining details.
Searching for answers.
None appeared.
Only more questions.
Later that night, he finally found her alone.
She stood on one of the upper balconies overlooking the mountains.
Moonlight painted silver across the stone floor.
The wind moved gently through her hair.
For a mont, Kael simply watched.
She looked peaceful.
Yet sohow lonely.
The sight tightened sothing inside his chest.
Slowly, he approached.
Liora sensed him before he spoke.
She always did.
A faint smile touched her lips.
"You’ve been looking for ."
It wasn’t a question.
Kael stopped beside her.
"I usually don’t have to."
The smile faded slightly.
Not because she was offended.
Because she understood what he ant.
Silence settled between them.
The comfortable kind.
The kind they once shared effortlessly.
Tonight it felt more fragile.
Eventually Kael spoke.
"You’re sowhere else lately."
Liora looked toward the mountains.
"I know."
The simple admission surprised him.
"I don’t think you do."
Her expression tightened.
Not defensively.
Sadly.
As though she wished he were wrong.
The reaction confird his suspicions.
Sothing had changed.
Sothing significant.
Kael rested both forearms against the railing.
"You don’t have to carry everything alone."
The words ca naturally.
Because they were true.
Liora laughed softly.
Not because anything was funny.
Because she seed tired.
"Telling that won’t make it true."
"It is true."
She looked at him then.
Really looked at him.
The expression in her eyes caught him off guard.
There was affection there.
Love.
But sothing else too.
Sothing deeper.
Older.
The feeling hit through the bond before Kael could prepare for it.
Emotion flooded across the connection.
Not intentionally.
Not deliberately.
Accidentally.
A montary lapse in whatever control she usually maintained.
The sensation nearly stole his breath.
Grief.
Not ordinary grief.
Not recent grief.
Ancient grief.
The emotion crashed into him with overwhelming force.
For a split second, Kael felt sothing impossible.
Loss.
Not fear of losing soone.
The certainty of having already lost them.
The pain felt old.
Worn smooth by ti.
Yet sohow still sharp enough to wound.
Images threatened the edge of his awareness.
Not mories.
Not exactly.
Feelings.
Echoes.
A desperate attempt to hold on.
A final goodbye.
An unbearable sense of helplessness.
Then the sensation vanished.
As quickly as it arrived.
Liora stiffened.
Her eyes widened.
She had felt it too.
The realization passed silently between them.
Neither spoke imdiately.
Kael struggled to steady his breathing.
His pulse hamred against his ribs.
The grief lingered long after the connection settled.
It didn’t belong to him.
He knew that.
Yet part of him recognized it.
That was what frightened him.
Because it felt familiar.
The emotion should have been foreign.
Instead, it felt rembered.
As though so forgotten part of him understood exactly what he had just experienced.
Liora looked away first.
The movent was small.
Instinctive.
Like soone retreating from a wound.
Kael’s chest tightened.
Not because she was pulling away.
Because he suddenly understood that she wasn’t doing it intentionally.
Whatever was happening to her, she wasn’t choosing it.
She was struggling against it.
Living with it.
Surviving it.
And sohow that realization made him love her even more.
Not despite the distance.
Because of it.
Because even now, with the world changing around her and impossible burdens settling on her shoulders, she continued fighting.
Continued trying.
Continued carrying more than anyone should.
Kael reached for her hand.
This ti she didn’t pull away.
Her fingers tightened around his imdiately.
The simple gesture eased so of the tension inside him.
Not enough.
But so.
They stood together in silence.
Watching the mountains.
Listening to the wind.
Neither speaking about what had just happened.
Neither understanding it completely.
Yet the questions remained.
Especially one.
A question Kael couldn’t shake no matter how hard he tried.
Because the grief that passed through the bond hadn’t felt unfamiliar.
It had felt rembered.
And that made no sense.
As the moon climbed higher above the fortress, Kael stared into the darkness beyond the mountains and felt unease settle deeper inside him.
For reasons he couldn’t explain, a single thought refused to leave.
Why does it feel like I’ve already lost her before?
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