Chapter 4 Problem to Solve

Kael

I don’t sleep. Not really. Sleep doesn’t fix anything anyway. It never has for me. I lie in my bed, staring at the ceiling, listening to the faint crackle of the fireplace and the distant sound of crickets outside my window. Every single time I close my eyes, I see her. I smell her scent. It’s soft and warm, but muted and wrong at the same time. I roll onto my side and squeeze my eyes shut. It doesn’t help. I don’t dream, but I never really do. Tonight though? Tonight, all I see when I close my eyes is red hair and green eyes. An Omega servant. Mine. No. She is not mine. I sit up quickly, groaning in frustration. I’m not doing this. Control is a choice, and I was raised to always choose it, but this… these images in my head don’t feel like a choice. I dress quickly and leave my bedroom without telling anyone where I am going. The palace is much quieter at this hour. Servants are in the bed, only moving in the shadows if they are summoned. Guards stand at their posts half-awake, and no one speaks to me. They don’t need to, honestly.

By the time the sun rises, I have already completed two hours of weapons training and showered. I also made a decision. It was simple. All I need is information. I don’t need emotions or fate. I need facts. My body feels steady after my workout, but my mind does not. No matter what I do, I keep seeing her standing against the wall with folded linens in her arms. Small. Still. Terrified. I don’t understand why it bothers me that she looks so scared of me. She should mean nothing to me, but she feels like an irritation under my skin. The images of her are persistent and impossible to ignore.

Adrian is waiting for me outside my bedroom door when I step out into the hall, and it’s a good thing. 

“Find out who she is,” I demand, and he looks at me, confused.

“Who?”

“The Omega from the service wing. Red hair and green eyes. I think she’s new. I’ve never seen her before,” I tell him, and recognition flickers across his face.

“Oh. Okay.”

“You notice her, too?” I ask, and he nods.

“It’s hard not to, if I’m being honest,” he says carefully. “She looks… out of place.”

“At my desk by noon,” I say, and he nods. No questions. No speculation. No assumptions.

“Yes, Your Highness,” he says, walking off to do what I asked. 

I walk to my office and take my seat behind the desk, reviewing reports that the King has directed to me. I don’t absorb a single word that I read. Ten minutes pass, then twenty, then the rest of the morning passes in a blur of training and paperwork. Borders, supply requests, and pack compliance reports. I just sign everything without really focusing. Nothing is sticking in my brain because I can’t stop thinking about the way her scent felt. I didn’t feel a wolf presence in her. Definitely not a Lycan either. Her scent was muted. Like her real scent is buried under layers, but that doesn’t make sense. Even Omegas still smell like wolves, but she doesn’t. That shouldn’t be possible.

“She arrived two days ago,” Adrian says as he walks into my office, closing the door behind him. “From the Ashwood Pack.” It can’t be a coincidence that this pack has come up twice in two days.

“What else?”

“Her name is Elowyn Hale. She is nineteen years old. No record of her shifting or even having a wolf. No formal training. Omega status.”

No wolf? That alone should explain everything, but it doesn’t. That can’t be right. It doesn’t feel right. 

“How is she serving in the palace with no training? I thought that was required.” I ask, trying to wrap my head around the no wolf bit.

“Annual service offering by the Ashwood Pack,” Adrian says. “Sometimes lower-ranking packs send untrained wolves.” Of course they did.

“Family?” I ask, and Adrian looks back down at the file.

“None listed. It appears she was raised by the Ashwood Pack orphanage.”

No parents. No siblings. No chosen mate. No ties. She’s completely alone in this world and, for some reason, I really don’t like that thought. I couldn’t tell you why though.

“Is she a troublemaker? Has she caused any problems?”

“Nope. She’s pretty quiet and obedient. Keeps to herself. Seems like her roommate has taken a liking to her, though. They get along pretty well.”

“Something about her scent is off…” I say and Adrian hesitates before answering.

“I agree, Kael. Her scent isn’t right,” he says and my gaze flicks to him.

“Explain what you mean,” I tell him and he nods, sitting in the chair across from me.

“It’s… faint?” he says, his voice lowered. “Not like it’s weak or damaged, but like something is sitting on top of it preventing it from coming out.”

“Yes,” I agree. “It’s definitely curious.”

“Even Omegas still smell like wolves, but she barely does,” Adrian continues and I nod. Barely isn’t normal. Elowyn Hale is clearly not normal. Another silence stretches between Adrian and I as we sit on this information.

“Run whatever basic scent verification tests you can,” I tell him. “Discreetly.”

“Yes, Your Highness,” he agrees, but he doesn’t move.

“Is there something else?”

“It’s almost like she’s avoiding you,” he continues. “Her eyes went wide as saucers when I entered the servants' wing, but when she didn’t see you she calmed down. A couple of the other Omegas were whispering about how she only goes down hallways you’re not known to frequent and if she knows you’ll be coming to a room, she leaves her station early. No positioning. No lingering. No attempts to draw attention to herself.”

“She’s… Avoiding me?” I ask. That should satisfy me because it’s what I want, but it feels wrong. Why does it feel wrong?

“It seems that way. Have you interacted with her at all?”

“Nope. I’ve never met the girl. I was just suspicious because she doesn’t look like someone that belongs there.”

“Interesting,” he says and I shrug, dismissing him with a sharp nod. 

When he leaves, I lean back in my chair and stare at the ceiling. Elowyn Hale. An Omega who doesn’t smell like an Omega. A servant who isn’t trying to climb the ladder. A girl who looks like she expects to be hurt. Fate wants me to accept that? No. None of it matters or at least it shouldn’t. So why do I find myself wondering where in the palace she might be? What task she was assigned today... Who she’s working with... I don’t like that either. I shake my head, moving back to my paperwork and trying to keep my focus solely on it. I will watch her. I will learn everything about her. She is a problem and it’s my job to solve problems. She’s just another thing for me to solve.