Alpha Kael's dangerous Obsession Chapter 17: What Was Taken

Chapter 17 : What Was Taken

Liora pov

I woke to Elara’s soft knock.

"My lady, I’ve brought fresh bandages."

For a second, I forgot why I would need them. Then I rembered the cut. The blood. The pendant rising from my palm.

I looked down at my hand. Smooth skin. No scab. No tenderness. No mark.

Of course.

I had healed myself before. Small burns. Minor scrapes. But this had been deeper. I expected at least a trace.

There was nothing.

"Co in," I said.

Elara entered quietly, closing the door behind her. She carried a small tray with salve and clean linen. She didn’t look at at first, just set everything down with practiced care.

"Let see your hand."

I gave it to her. She unwrapped the cloth I had tied around it last night and froze.

"My lady..." Her fingers hovered over my palm. "Where is it?"

"It healed."

She looked up sharply. "Overnight?"

"Yes."

She pressed her thumb gently against the skin where the cut had been. "There isn’t even a scar."

I pulled my hand back slowly. "You’ve seen wolves heal."

"You’re not a wolf."

No.

Whatever I was, it wasn’t that.

The words sat between us. Her breathing had changed. Not panicked. Just unsettled.

"This isn’t normal," she said quietly. "Even alphas take ti to heal blade wounds."

"I heal quickly," I repeated.

Her eyes searched my face, trying to understand what she had stepped into.

Before she could push further, sothing else struck .

The side table. Empty. My gaze snapped to the pillow. The velvet pouch was still there. But it felt wrong. I grabbed it and opened it.

Empty.

The pendant was gone.

"Elara."

She stiffened. "my lady?"

"It’s missing."

"What is?"

"The pendant."

She crossed the room quickly. "You moved it."

"No."

She checked the floor, the edge of the bed, beneath the table. "Are you certain you didn’t—"

"It was under my pillow."

Her face changed. "Under—? Who would—"

We both understood the implication. Soone had co close enough to reach beneath my head while I slept.

And I had not woken. My stomach tightened.

"Did you tell anyone about it?" I asked.

"No. I swear to you."

I believed her.

"Then soone already knew."

We began searching without speaking further. Drawers emptied. Bedding pulled apart. Cushions overturned. The wardrobe inspected.

The pouch was still there.

Which ant whoever took it didn’t want to notice imdiately.

The door opened without warning.

Kael stepped inside.

He stopped just past the threshold, eyes moving slowly across the room. The overturned chair. The scattered garnts. Elara standing near the bed.

"What is happening here?" he asked.

His voice was controlled, but sharp. Elara stepped back slightly.

I straightened. "I’m looking for sothing."

His gaze settled on . "What?"

"A piece of jewelry....it’s uhmm.. My mother sent it as a wedding gift." I lied

He didn’t react imdiately. Just watched .

"I thought I left it here," I continued evenly. "I wanted to wear it for the ceremony."

His expression shifted just slightly. Then he reached into his coat.

"Is this what you’re looking for?"

He held it out, The pendant.

Sa silver fra. Sa dark stone. Sa delicate chain. Elara inhaled sharply beside . I walked toward him and took it from his hand.

The mont my fingers closed around it, I knew.

It was identical.

But it was not the sa.

There was no warmth beneath the surface. No faint pulse. No weight of sothing sealed within.

This was cold tal and polished stone.

A copy.

"Where did you find it?" I asked.

"On the floor near the dresser," he said. "It must have fallen."

It had not been near the dresser. It had been beneath my pillow. He was lying.

"This indeed looks like it," I said slowly, turning it in my hand. "But it feels as if it’s not what I’m searching for."

His eyes narrowed slightly. "What do you an?"

Elara’s fingers brushed lightly against my arm.

Stop.

I forced a small breath through my nose. "Nothing. It must be the ceremony pressure. Everything feels... off today."

He studied . Then nodded once.

"Wear it," he said. "If it matters to you."

Elara stepped forward and fastened it around my neck.

"It seems old," Kael observed. "You might want sothing newer. Sothing more fitting for tonight."

"I’ll keep this one," I replied.

He didn’t argue. Instead, he shifted the conversation.

"How are you preparing?"

"For the ceremony?" I asked.

"Yes."

I t his gaze steadily. "I will stand where I’m required to stand."

"That wasn’t my question."

I held his stare. "I’m prepared."

He watched as if asuring the truth in that statent.

"You’ll be expected to remain composed," he said. "There will be wolves in their true forms. Displays. Challenges."

"I know."

"Unmated wolves will attempt to scent you."

I lifted my chin. "Let them."

Sothing unreadable passed through his expression.

"Your family has arrived," he said finally. "They’re waiting in the east hall."

My pulse jumped despite myself. "Already?"

"They arrived at dawn."

Dawn. The ssenger. The sealed letter.

"They’re eager to see you," he added.

I nodded. "I’ll greet them."

He stepped aside, allowing to pass.

As I moved toward the door, questions crowded my mind. When had he entered my room last night?

Why did he take the pendant? Did he recognize it?

He had said he never bonded with any of his previous wives. Elara had told none of them lasted long enough to be celebrated as Luna.

But he had looked at that pendant as if it ant sothing.

What did he do with the real one? Did he suspect ? Or was he protecting ?

I walked out without looking back.

---

Kael pov

I remained in the room after she left. Elara was still there, quietly restoring order.

"Leave ," I said.

She bowed and slipped out. Silence returned. I moved toward the bed. I had felt her cut herself.

The bond flared sharply in the middle of the night, brief pain, then controlled focus.

I knew she would heal. I had seen it before. But I went anyway. I told myself it was to ensure she had not done sothing reckless.

That was only partially true. She had been asleep when I entered. Her breathing steady.

The velvet pouch had been visible beneath her pillow.

I reached for it out of curiosity.

I took it because I recognized it. I knew that pendant.

I had commissioned it three years ago.

For Alia. The fourth bride Seraphina selected.

The only one who lasted longer than a few weeks. She asked questions. Too many.

She watched too closely.

She noticed patterns.

Then she died.

Officially, it was a rogue wolf attack during a night patrol.

Unofficially, I knew better. I had held that pendant when I gave it to her.

It was ant to symbolize protection. The irony had not been lost on .

When I found it beneath Liora’s pillow, sealed with old magic, I felt sothing I had not felt in years.

Suspicion, and sothing else.

Fear.

The pendant carried blood magic. Not fresh. Not Seraphina’s signature.

Older. Intentional.

I could not risk it remaining in her possession without understanding it. So I replaced it.

Had a replica made before dawn and returned it, to Let her believe nothing had changed, But she knew.

The mont she touched the copy, I saw it in her face.

Subtle. Controlled. But there. She felt the difference.

Which ant she knew the difference.

How did she get it?

She said her mother sent it. That made no sense.

Unless—

Unless Ebonvale had access to sothing buried here.

Or soone delivered it to her.

Or worse—

her family knew exactly what happened to Alia.

The thought tightened sothing in my chest.

I pulled the real pendant from my coat. The stone seed darker in daylight.

I turned it over slowly. There, near the clasp, faint engraving.

I hadn’t noticed it before. A single word.

Again.

My jaw tightened.

Again what?

Again a ceremony? Again a Luna? Again a death?

If Alia had hidden this intentionally, she had expected another woman to find it.

Expected the cycle to continue.

Which ant she knew she would die.

I closed my fist around the pendant.

If Liora’s family was involved, why send her here?

As sacrifice? As pawn? Or as sothing else?

And why did the bond react so strongly when she cut herself?

I exhaled slowly.

I had told her I never bonded with any of them. That was true.

None of them were true mates.

None of them reached ceremony. None of them were allowed to. Seraphina ensured that.

But this ti was different.

The bond with Liora was real.

Which ant she was vulnerable in ways the others had not been.

If this pendant was part of sothing older than Seraphina’s current control—

Then tonight would not be simple.

Outside, a distant horn signaled preparations beginning.

The pack would gather soon.

Liora would face them.

Wolfless.

Wearing a copy of a dead woman’s pendant.

Believing I did not know.

And I would stand beside her, knowing far more than I could safely say.

If Ebonvale was involved—

If Seraphina was tightening her hold—

If Alia had left a warning—

Then tonight would not be tradition.

It would be revelation.

And I had no idea who would survive it.