“I thought I was mated to a King… but that night, I met the monster beneath the crown.”
Lena
The silence in the North Wing wasn’t the peaceful kind.
It was like a heavy woollen blanket pressed over my face, making every breath a struggle.
The palace air felt tense, as if the very stones were bracing for an impact I couldn’t see.
“And then,” Rosie said, her voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper, “the Great Wolf of the Tundra didn’t just howl; he sang. They say the stars themselves stopped glinting just to hear him”.
I tried to smile, but my face felt stiff.
Rosie had been at it for hours, spinning tales of ancient kings, whispering legends of the moon, and gossiping about which maid was swooning over which guard.
It was really funny, but right now, I don’t find anything amusing.
A quiet unease settled in my chest, like something was about to go wrong.
Was it the hunting?
Was Kael out there hunting?
I kept asking myself those questions in the dark.
I knew what Rosie was doing.
She was trying to build a wall of words around me so the outside world couldn’t get in.
She was trying to drown out the fact that they locked me in here for my “protection,” just like Kira said.
“That’s a beautiful story, Rosie,” I whispered.
“It’s more than a story, My Lady. It’s history,” she insisted, though her eyes were beginning to droop.
She was exhausted.
The tension in the palace had worn everyone thin.
A few minutes later, her voice trailed off mid-sentence.
She was so sleepy I could see it; those long hours of talking were finally pulling her under.
She yawned, shifted on the velvet couch across from my bed, and drifted off.
Her breathing became slow and rhythmic.
She was the only thing in this room that felt normal.
I let her sleep.
She needed it.
With a heavy sigh, my hand reached under my pillow, and it brushed against the rough leather of the book Rosie had secretly brought me earlier.
I remembered begging her for it.
If I was meant to stand beside a King, I needed to understand the blood that ran through his veins, and whatever was beginning to stir in mine.
I hadn’t had the chance to read it before, but tonight felt like the perfect opportunity.
The book opened to a page titled;
The Lineage of the Lunar Throne.
I tried to focus, but the words were mostly in parables or in a language I didn’t fully understand.
Still, I continued.
I read about “Alpha’s bloodlines” and “The Binding of the Soul,” yet my thoughts kept drifting to Kael.
What was he doing now?
Was he safe?
My eyes grew heavy as the candlelight flickered, casting long, distorted shadows that seemed to crawl across the pages.
At some point, the battle to stay awake was lost.
The book slipped from my fingers, thudding softly against the mattress as darkness pulled me under.
***
I didn’t wake up to a noise.
I woke up to a scream that wasn’t a sound.
It was a sharp, piercing pain that slashed through my chest like a physical blade.
I gasped, clutching at my nightgown.
My heart was hammering, but the pain wasn’t coming from me.
Where was it coming from?
“What is happening to me?” I whispered.
I felt brittle, as if my very energy was being drained out of me.
I stood up without deciding to, walking past the sleeping Rosie, like a passenger in my own body.
I didn’t remember reaching for the door, but it was already open.
It was as if my body was moving on its own; I had no control.
Was I dreaming?
The lock shouldn’t have opened, I thought, a cold shiver running down my spine.
I knew it shouldn’t have.
Kira had made sure of that.
But it did.
The corridor stretched ahead of me, dim and endless.
Something felt wrong, not visible, but just there, like eyes in the walls.
My legs didn’t stop moving, even though every instinct screamed that I wasn’t alone.
The air shifted as I passed, as something had moved.
I could see my own shadow, but it seemed to engulf me.
I turned my head, but there was nothing but stone.
I could feel a breath catch somewhere behind me, unseen, as if something had noticed me.
Every step was a struggle, and my body was entirely weak.
I knew I was only human, but this was different.
It was as if I was using the very last of my strength to walk.
My brain said fight back, but my body couldn’t, so I left it to follow the pull.
With every inch I moved toward the centre of the palace, the “slashed” feeling in my heart grew deeper.
It was a rhythmic pain—slice, slice, slice.
Like my heart was being carved open, as the pain came, my strength decreased until it was even hollow.
Just then, I began to hear things that shouldn’t have reached this far.
Muffled cries of people begging and the wet thwack of steel hitting bone echoed through the corridors.
My body drained, and I leaned against the cold stone wall to keep from collapsing.
Something inside me was being emptied, my life force pulled into the bond to keep me moving toward him.
My legs kept walking until I reached the high gallery.
My hands gripped the stone railing so hard my knuckles turned white.
The orange lit the courtyard, an angry glow of torches.
Just then, my legs stopped, and my body froze, as if it had reached its destination.
Everything stopped.
Then I saw him.
Kael.
He wasn’t the man I knew.
It was like I was looking at a completely different man.
He wasn’t a king in that moment.
He was a butcher.
I watched, frozen, as he raised his blade and slit the throat of a man effortlessly.
His face was completely without emotion.
And just then, he smiled—a smile of pure satisfaction.
My heart, the one that felt pierced and broken, just shuddered.
This was the monster the stories warned about.
The truth settled in slowly, heavy and suffocating.
I wasn’t mated to a King.
I was mated to a God of Death.
Kael turned instantly.
His eyes, dark and sharp, scanned the gallery until they landed on me.
I could see his face now, his hands, everything was covered in blood.
He still held the bloody sword.
I looked into his eyes, and they were locked onto mine.
The only word that exploded in my brain was…
Run.
I turned, my legs feeling like they were made of lead.
I tried to draw a breath, but my lungs felt like they were filled with water.
“Run,” I gasped, but the world was already fading.
The weakness finally won, and my energy was completely drained.
My vision flickered, and just then I saw shadows rush in to meet me, and I felt myself falling.
The last thing I remembered seeing wasn’t the blood.
It was his eyes locked on mine.
And for the first time since I met him…
I was afraid of my mate.
Things just took a dark turn.
Lena’s connection to Kael is proving to be more than just emotional—it’s physical, and it’s draining her in ways she doesn’t understand.
Now that she has seen the “Ruthless King” in action, their bond will never be the same.
What do you think of Lena’s mysterious awakening?
Let me know in the comments!