Elowen
I’d finally given in and drunk some water, my thirst overcoming my stubborn resolve. The room blurred the lines between day and night, making time feel meaningless in this stone box. I couldn’t tell how long I’d been here–hours bleeding into days with nothing but the occasional guard’s footsteps to mark the passing time. Food remained untouched, the latest tray sitting just inside my cell door where a guard had left it hours ago. My stomach cramped with hunger, but I ignored it. Only when my body’s demands became too loud to silence would I force down a few bites, mechanically shoving food into my mouth without tasting it.
The sound of approaching footsteps barely registered. Probably another healer, or Kaius returning to try again to convince me to eat. I kept my eyes closed, feigning sleep, not wanting to face either possibility.
The cell door creaked open. I maintained my facade of slumber, waiting for whoever it was to leave.
“Elowen.”
My eyes snapped open. That voice–it couldn’t be. I struggled to sit up, my weakened body protesting the sudden movement.
And there he was, Kieran, standing in my cell doorway looking both furious and relieved. For a moment I thought I might be hallucinating, a product of starvation and dehydration.
“You are here,” I whispered, my voice cracking.
He crossed the cell in two strides, kneeling beside my cot. His eyes scanned my body, taking in my pallor, the hollows beneath my cheekbones, the way my clothes hung loose.
“What the hell did you do to her?” he demanded, turning his head toward where Kaius stood watching from the doorway.
“Kieran, I’m fine,” I said, trying to sound stronger than I felt.
“You don’t look fine to me,” he replied, his hands gentle as they brushed hair from my face. His touch was warm against my cold
skin.
“I am willing to offer you anything you want, so long as you let her go, Kieran said to Kaius, not taking his eyes off me.
“What can you offer me, Alpha? There’s nothing I’ll need from a pack so tiny.” Kaius’s tone was dismissive, but I caught the edge
beneath it.
This was a powder keg, and the fuse was lit. Two alphas, egos ablaze, on a collision course. I was the only thing standing between
them and disaster.
“I want to speak to Kieran… alone,” I said, surprising myself with the boldness of my request.
“That cannot happen,” Kaius replied immediately.
I turned to face him fully. “You told me once you were willing to do anything, as long as I ate the ‘damn‘ food.”
For a moment he looked like he might refuse. Then his jaw tightened and he nodded once, sharply. “Five minutes,” he conceded. “After this, I won’t take no for an answer.”
Once Kaius and the guards had stepped out, closing the door behind them, I turned back to Kieran.
“Coming here is not a good idea,” I said softly. “He would know that the attack had something to do with the storm wardens.”
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“I had never been afraid of a fight.” His jaw was set, determined.
“Kieran, it’s the Ravenhollow pack.” I needed him to understand the anger, the sheer power Kalus commanded.
“And I don’t care.”
“Many would die, and it would be all because of me.” The thought was unbearable.
He
took
my hands in his, warm and steady. “When I heard you had been captured, I couldn’t stay away. Gabriel said something very similar, but how would I leave you here? I did tell you not to do any other thing but wait at the borders.”
Guilt washed over me. “I’m sorry, I couldn’t. If I waited there, the others wouldn’t have made it out, and Kaius wouldn’t have hurt me.” A realization struck. “Those men… they did make it out right?”
“Yes, they did,” he confirmed.
“You seem so sure that Kaius wouldn’t hurt you,” he added after a moment.
I looked away, unable to articulate the certainty I felt. Despite everything, despite the public rejection and the imprisonment, something in me still trusted that Kaius wouldn’t physically harm me. It was illogical, perhaps foolish, but there it was.
“I would have handled this either way… but I am glad you are here.
He studied me thoughtfully, then his gaze dropped to my hand. “I haven’t lost it,” I said, lifting my hand to show the moonstone ring still on my finger.
“You need to feed,” he said abruptly.
I blinked at the change of subject. “I just… I couldn’t.” Pride, perhaps Or maybe some childish hope that my starvation would eventually force Kaius to release me.
To my shock, Kieran bit into his own wrist, blood welling immediately from the puncture. “What the hell are you doing?”
“Helping,” he replied calmly, holding his bleeding wrist toward me.
“What am I supposed to do with that?” I asked, though I feared I already knew the answer.
“Drink?”
“What?”
“Drink,” he repeated, his voice gentle but firm.
“I can’t drink your blood,” I protested, though the scent of it, coppery and rich,
was strangely compelling.
“It takes time to gain trust, but I want you to believe me with no questions; it is too much to ask, but I know what I’m doing. Drink.” His eyes never left mine, filled with an intensity I couldn’t look away from.
Hesitantly, I took his wrist in my hands and brought it to my lips. The first taste was shocking–not metallic and revolting as I’d expected, but warm, almost sweet. Energy seemed to flow through me with each swallow, my limbs growing stronger by the second.
When I finally pulled away, I felt more alive than I had in days. The wounds that had been healing slowly suddenly felt almost completely healed, my head cleared of the fog of hunger and thirst.
“I just drank your blood, and it wasn’t so bad,” I said, slightly dazed by the sensation.
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Chapter 195
“Yeah. Kieran smiled, something like pride in his expression.
I should be repulsed by the tatte; why does it taste so good?” I asked, disturbed by my reaction. Could it be because of what you
are**
“No,” he replied, his expression turning serious. I believe it pretty much tastes like any other. You enjoyed it not because of what i am, but because you are.‘
Before I could ask what he meant, the cell door swung open. Kaius stood there, his expression darkening as he took in my suddenly improved condition.
“Times up,” he announced, his eyes fixed on the blood smeared on my lips.
And I realized, with a chill, that whatever Kieran had just revealed about my nature, Kaius had just discovered it too.
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