Chapter 7 Nyx's Provocation

[Kaelan's POV]

Early the next morning, Nyx had me dragged out of the cabin.

The storage shed was damp and cold, heavy with years of salt and fish that pressed into my nostrils until my chest felt tight. Nyx leaned casually against the shelving, methodically polishing her dagger without bothering to lift her eyelids, only using her foot to kick a burlap sack to my feet.

"Move these to the back," she said flatly. "Quickly. Don't dawdle."

I bent down and lifted the sack. The dried meat and coarse salt inside pressed hard against my palms, numbing with pain. I said nothing, just carried it to the back and set it down properly.

"The floor's dirty." She tilted her chin, tone airy. "Come clean it up."

I picked up a worn cloth and crouched down, slowly wiping away mud, water stains, and dark dried blood from the gaps between floorboards. Above my head, the blade was slowly wiped by fingertips, creating thin, cold scraping sounds. Once. Then again. Like someone patiently sharpening something.

"So obedient." She suddenly laughed, voice barbed. "When Wolfsbane sold you off, were you this obedient too?"

My fingers paused. Just for a moment. Then continued wiping.

When she didn't get the reaction she wanted, her boot turned and she walked straight over, stepping on the cloth in my hand.

I looked up.

Nyx looked down at me from above, close enough that the faint, almost cold scent of pine and cold iron on her body pressed clearly over me.

I caught it.

And she knew I caught it.

The amusement in her eyes immediately deepened. Colder. More malicious.

"Finally reacting?" She laughed low. "I thought you could really pretend not to care at all."

I didn't follow her lead, only stood up and asked calmly: "What else do you need me to do?"

When those words fell, the air felt like it had been slapped hard.

The smile on her face froze for an instant. Not because I'd talked back to her. Because I hadn't shattered. What she'd been waiting for was never a question. She'd been waiting for me to go red-eyed, waiting for me to tremble, waiting for me to show the ugliest kind of collapse like those people she'd stepped on the throats of.

But I hadn't.

I just stood there. Quietly looking at her.

Nyx narrowed her eyes, then after a moment, smiled again. That smile was colder than before, like a knife point touching skin, slowly pressing inward.

"Do you know where Draven goes at night these days?"

I said nothing.

She circled halfway around me, boot soles crushing wood shavings on the floor with extremely light sandy sounds, so light they were eerie, like a beast circling its prey.

"He comes to me," she said. "Every night."

My breathing didn't change.

She stopped behind me, leaning closer, voice pressed very low, low like a poisonous snake breathing against my ear.

"Do you know how he fucks me?"

I still didn't move.

"He pins me to the bed, buries his face in my neck, rams his cock deep into my cunt, fucks me hard until he nearly breaks my waist." Her tone suddenly slowed, like deliberately dulling a blade before driving it inch by inch into my ear.

She circled back in front of me, staring at my face.

"He's covering your scent."

The storage shed suddenly fell terrifyingly quiet. The air tightened, even the wooden shelves seemed to hold their breath. Like she'd finally found the sharpest cutting edge, her eyes gradually lit up with almost cruel excitement.

"He doesn't want you." She stared at me, voice vicious. "Mate means shit! That's just the body going crazy—who he really chooses is his own decision!"

She pressed forward another half step, almost smashing the words into my face, each word deliberate and heavily bitten.

"His cock chose me, not you!"

I looked at her.

So he'd been avoiding me to this extent. My heart sank bit by bit, settling at the very bottom like a hard stone.

Nyx wanted me to break. She was waiting, waiting for me to crack on the spot, for those pathetic fragments to splash at her feet.

But I refused to.

She stared at me without blinking, as if unwilling to miss even a flutter of my eyelashes. But when I spoke, my voice was strangely light.

"Are you finished?"

The smile at the corner of Nyx's lips immediately froze.

She clearly hadn't expected me to respond like that, her entire being stopping for half a beat.

"What did you say?"

"You're finished." I looked at her, tone flat. "If you're finished, then move aside. I still have work to complete."

Her complexion immediately sank to the bottom, terribly ugly.

"What are you pretending?" She suddenly raised her hand to push my shoulder, force both harsh and urgent. "You think by pretending to be so calm, you can act like nothing happened?!"

She pushed me back half a step, my back hitting the wooden shelf, tin cans shaking lightly. I stared hard at her, word by word: "Then what are you afraid of?"

She didn't respond.

But I could see clearly—her fingers resting on the dagger handle suddenly tightened once. Just that once was enough.

"You're telling me all this nonsense," I tugged at the corner of my mouth, voice cold and hard, "even describing how you two make love in such detail—what, do you need to tell it like this to make it seem real?"

I took another step forward.

She didn't retreat. But her shoulders suddenly tensed, like a string pulled taut that could snap at any moment.

"If he really chose you," I lowered my voice, saying gently, "you wouldn't need to prove it at all. Not even once."

Nyx's lips suddenly pressed tight.

She stared hard at me, fire in her eyes suddenly flaring up, burning urgent and chaotic. I could even smell the agitation from her emotions, like something had been brutally torn open by me, spread bloody across this storage shed.

I didn't look away.

"If you're capable," I said, "say it again to his face."

Her gaze suddenly sharpened: "What did you say?"

"Aren't you very certain?" I looked at her. "Then say it to his face. Say he chose you, not me."

"What?" I stared into her eyes, voice lighter but more vicious. "Don't dare anymore?"

"Why wouldn't I dare?" She was almost gritting her teeth, forcing the words out inch by inch.

"Because you know better than anyone," I said, "how he'll choose."

I didn't give her a chance to breathe, didn't give her time to dodge.

"He's the one outside my door every night," I said. "He's the one who keeps following me—didn't you see it all?"

The instinctive counterattack after being exposed had already surged up, but she opened her mouth and couldn't find anywhere to bite back.

Her hand still pressed on the dagger handle, pressed for a long time, wanting to draw it but not daring to really draw it—if she really drew it, she'd lose!

I stood motionless, watching her.

"Did you win, Nyx?" I asked.

She stared hard at me, that malice in her eyes finally cracking open. What leaked through the crack was panic.

The next second, she suddenly slammed her dagger onto the shelf.

CLANG.

The iron blade made the wooden shelf tremble, even the air seemed cracked by that blow.

"Come with me," she said hoarsely.

I didn't move.

She pushed past me, charging toward the door herself, shoulders taut like a bow about to snap.

"I want to see—" She suddenly turned to stare at me, eyes red and vicious, "whether he can control that damned desire in front of me."

I watched her back, bent down to put the dirty cloth back by the wooden bucket, then straightened up to follow.

She heard my footsteps.

Didn't look back. Only walked faster. The storage shed door was slammed open by her, cold wind suddenly pouring in like knives scraping across skin.

I followed behind her, lifting my foot to step outside.

When Nyx and I walked through the training ground one after the other, all the patrolling people saw us, gaze after gaze sweeping over us. Passing through the mess hall, even the helpers paused for a moment, the clamor seemingly forcibly suppressed. We were like performers ready to take the stage, the entire Pack waiting for a grand show.

Nyx walked in front, spine straight as a rod, steps heavy and fast.

I walked behind, unhurried.

We walked toward the same destination.

The leader's council hall.