Kaelen POV
Fuck.
Why does everyone keep trying to get on my nerves?
Every second I spend in the sa room as those won, I’m fighting a battle with myself not to lose control and let my wolf take over.
And if that happens, the council, who have been secretly scheming for years to bring down, will use it against .
They already hated for bringing my father down.
They hated even more because I was his illegitimate son.
So if word gets out that the Alpha King cannot control his own wolf, they will conveniently forget every sacrifice I made to keep this empire standing and use it as an excuse to strip of my crown.
They’ve tried countless thods over the years, most of which ended with their execution, only making their hatred of grow stronger.
Then they found a loophole.
Their daughters.
From their perspective, if even one of their daughters managed to carry my child, it would give them the ultimate leverage. My bloodline would beco tied to theirs, giving them a permanent foothold in the empire and eventually a puppet they could use to replace when the ti was right.
The only flaw in their plan was that I couldn’t stand the scent of any female.
It was one of the reasons my wolf had gone mad in the first place.
Just a single touch from them was enough to agitate him so badly that I risked losing control.
Which was why I took asures like this.
I only employed female wolves who were convicted criminals.
That way, when I had to get rid of them, it was no different than taking out the trash.
Society wouldn’t mourn them.
The council couldn’t legally question their disappearance.
And my conscience wouldn’t lose a second of sleep over it.
But last night...
That maid.
That scent...
It was still stuck in my head.
"You don’t look too good," Darius, my Beta, said the second I stepped into my office.
He was sprawled across the sofa with a book propped lazily against his thigh.
He didn’t even bother looking up when the heavy door clicked shut behind , but his nose twitched.
No doubt he had already caught the bitter scent of death still clinging to my clothes.
"Where were you?" I asked as I settled behind my desk. "You were supposed to be present when the execution was carried out."
"I’ve witnessed it too many tis already. It ruins my appetite," he replied, his gaze still fixed on the book in his hand.
"What are your thoughts on erald gems?" he suddenly asked, making my brow furrow.
"Why?" I said as I pulled out the file Hawke had retrieved for and began flipping through it.
"I’m suddenly obsessed with the color green," Darius replied, finally looking up. His gray eyes flickered to the file in my hands before returning to my face. "What’s that?"
"A background check on a new maid," I said, but the mont I started reading, my expression darkened.
Her na was Ella. Born in a small village before eventually joining forces with rogues and becoming a thief.
That made my grip tighten around the parchnt until my knuckles turned white.
A rogue thief.
The lowest, most lawless scum crawling along our borders.
And I had been in bed with that.
Just the thought of it made want to march back out there and rip her throat out.
I despised rogues. I hated their very existence because of my history with them. In my book, they always deserved the harshest punishnts.
"She’s a rogue," I muttered, my jaw clenching.
"Who is?" Darius asked, confused.
"The woman I slept with," I replied flatly, and his eyes widened.
"What? You slept with a woman?" he said, already rising to his feet and walking toward .
Right. I hadn’t told him yet.
I had been too furious over the fact that a woman had managed to sneak into my chambers, offer herself to , and then disappear before morning.
The audacity of her still irritated . Did she really think she could hide from ? The only reason I hadn’t executed her imdiately was because she could serve a better purpose.
And now I was finding out she was a rogue.
"That’s good news," Darius said, now standing in front of .
"Good news?" I cut in, my voice rising. "How is any of this good news? A rogue sneaks into my room, tricks , and sohow that’s good news?"
Darius lifted both hands in surrender.
"You slept with a woman without losing control after almost a decade. Isn’t that progress?"
"I was drugged." I repeated a key fact he must have missed.
"Maybe. But your wolf still didn’t kill her."
That imdiately shut up.
Because as much as I hated admitting it, he had a point.
"You’re not going to execute her, are you?" Darius asked carefully after studying for a few seconds.
"She’s a rogue. Rogues get executed."
That was the law.
My law.
"You know I can’t stand their scent."
"That’s true," Darius replied. "Shouldn’t that be even more reason why your wolf should have ripped her apart? What does she sll like?"
At the question, a growl rumbled in my chest.
"She didn’t sll like them," I admitted honestly, my mind instantly replaying the exact mont from last night when I had caught that strange scent. "She slled like... nothing and everything. I can’t... fuck, I can’t explain it."
By this point, Darius’s grin had spread even wider.
"Then she’s not a rogue," he countered.
"But..."
"Yes, she might have been a rogue thief," he cut off, "but hanging around rogues doesn’t automatically make soone one. She’s also the first woman your wolf has accepted in ten years." He tilted his head. "Think about that before you do sothing you’ll regret."
That made sigh heavily because, as angry as I was, there was still truth in what he was saying.
My wolf had been getting more unhinged with every passing year. The isolation and the constant pressure of holding back a beast that despised the scent of females had been pushing closer and closer to the edge.
For more than ten years, my inner wolf had been a ticking ti bomb, growing louder, angrier, and more volatile with each passing day. I was losing the battle for control, and we both knew it.
"What does she look like?" Darius asked, breaking the silence. "Is she pretty?"
I didn’t answer. Instead, I slid the file toward him and opened it to the section containing the photo taken when she was captured.
But the second Darius looked at it, his expression changed.
"Wait... are you sure she’s the one?" he asked, a very stupid question.
"I might have been drugged, but my mories are still very intact. Besides, how could I not recognize the first woman I’ve been with since..." The rest of the words died in my throat, and my fists clenched at my sides.
"Oh," Darius muttered, gripping the file a little too tightly. The grin on his face slowly disappeared, making raise a brow.
"Why do you look defeated?" I asked.
But he just shook his head and set the file back down.
"Well, it could have been the drugs," he said.
I stared at him, even more confused.
Didn’t he just say the exact opposite?
Ah, forget it.
"That’s why I’m putting it to a test."
"A test?"
"Tonight is the full moon," I replied.
His eyes widened in complete disbelief as he realized what I ant.
"You can’t do that!" He suddenly grabbed by the collar and yelled in my face as if that would sohow change a decision I had already made. "If it doesn’t work, you’ll kill her."
"Why are you reacting so strongly over a rogue?" I asked, pulling his hands off . It wasn’t like this was the first ti won in this estate had died. "She’s a convicted criminal."
One way or another, she was already as good as dead.
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