Chapter 6 Aetherion.

Kaelen.

Father's dominating presence filled the air beside me immediately the door slammed behind Morwen.

I felt his gaze.

Once.

The way you look at someone when you think they can't see you. Like he was checking me out.

I turned around calmly, facing him. Sure enough, he had never looked like anything except serious and diploma.

Our closest conversation had always been War and attacks and I am pretty sure it's one.

“Remain in the palace for a few more days” he huffed pleasantly. “We need to keep your wolf under observation.”

I stared squarely at him. Certain I must have heard him wrong.

Because what he just said was impossible.

I don't have a wolf.

I repeated the lingering reality to myself. This must be a joke, because never had it been true.

Father's eyes remained fixed on me like a predator watching its prey. His silence, creepy and haunting.

“What wolf?”

My heart began racing with every tensed silence that eventually turned to a reality.

This revelation was a whole new territory for me. Something I would have sworn on my life I wasn't capable of.

“Don't be excited” Father snapped. His voice dropped into a low purr.

“Inform Althea you'd be staying in the palace for a few days or there about.”

I didn't remember agreeing. But somehow I nodded.

He turned fully at me, his eyes glued intently on my neck.

I opened my mouth to ask questions but not a word came out.

I just followed his gaze and it was on my Fenrir pendant.

"Be careful with that”

“Huh”

“Guide it like a treasure”

He took a sharp step back. Continued at a controlled pace until the door shut behind him. I did not even had the chance to ask further questions.

His warning wasn't loud.

Not authoritative.

Just absolute.

Now walking back to my room, I couldn't help but question everything I knew and grew up to believe.

I couldn't summon my wolf at my coming of age ceremony. Every wolf perceived me as defective. No wolf meant I never chose a mate. Althea and I were practically an arranged alliance.

And now: Morwen? Keeping my wolf in check?

What am I not being told? The question hammered through my mind like a broken record.

Finding out about my wolf in my thirties was worth celebrating and being happy about, but the thought gnawed at me. Mostly, it made me restless.

I reached my door and walked past it. Barely remembering where I was going. Completely hollow with many questions.

Halfway down the staircase, I began shaking badly. I couldn't hold myself upright. I doubled over with a pain I couldn't explain.

It felt as if my heart was shredded into many pieces. I pushed myself up at the scent of peonies, spring rain.

‘Mate! We need to go to her,’ Aetherion.

The wolf I had just discovered howled inside my head.

There was actually a voice inside me. I paused and listened to its ranting. Forgetting my unsettleness for a while.

I smiled.

So this is what I've been missing all my life.

I braced myself, letting my new friend take over. Morwen's scent guided us until I was standing in the least place I expected existed in this palace.

‘Veyra is right here.’

He sniffed and pushed impatiently. I needed no further proof to know that he is real.

I moved closer to the door, close enough to satisfy Aetherion but far enough to pretend I wasn't enjoying this.

‘Just open it’

I felt him pressing inside my head.

My gaze dropped to the space between me and the door. It was just an arm length. Nobility etiquette crawled at me to knock. Which was the right thing to do.

But Aetherion countered it, and I found myself slowly pushing the door open.

Everything looked normal at first glance. Old home decors and dusty cabinets stacked together, except for one steady creaking sound, coming from the middle of the room.

My eyes darted around. No Morwen in sight.

‘She’s here’

Aetherion insisted and I took the first step inside

An intense emotion pressed through the bond, throbbing me and Aetherion.

Little but steady pants and stomping were unmistakeably coming from inside here.

I peeked behind an old baby cradle and the sight nearly knocked out every air from my lungs.

Aetherion wanted us close enough to intervene but cold discomfort crawled over my skin. This is something that is disturbingly close to wrongness.

Morwen and Leoric.

She was having sex with the same person that humiliated her.

I felt intense agitation in me and it hurt so much. So much that I almost crashed through that stacked cabinets to confront them.

“Hu-mph ” A breathless sound escaped from behind the cradle. No doubt it was Morwen’s.

She's enjoying it.

I gnawed in disgust. My wolf surged forward so violently that I nearly stumbled.

‘Take her away’

He roared in my head.

I looked groggily at their tangled shadows on the wall, rising and falling with a perfect rhythm.

Why?

My fingers curled into fists.

‘Mate!’

This was the same man who had rejected her before the entire pack. The same coward who had called her a whore.

And yet here she was.

With him.

A low growl rose from somewhere deep inside my chest.

‘Mine.’

Before I could regain control of my emotions again, the old cradle splintered beneath my feet. Aetherion wasn't asking anymore.

He had taken control.

For some moments, they didn't notice anything, completely lost in ecstasy. Morwen's black eyes were rolled up like something possessed by demons.

And Leoric.

His hands were on her. Sweaty body pressed deeply against hers, head buried on her breast. This left no room for misunderstanding.

Morwen recovered first, and suddenly pulled away from Leoric. Her eyes widened as she looked toward the broken cradle.

She saw me.

And the horror that crossed her face destroyed whatever remained of my restraint.

It was awake.

“Get your hands off her.”

My eyes flashed with a quick, dark dissatisfaction.

Leoric recovered more slowly. He turned once, and for a moment neither of them moved.

Neither spoke.

Neither moved.

“Leoric.”

My voice stayed steady, even though a storm was raging inside my chest .

He let out a small breathless gasp and slowly released her. She scrambled for cover, pressing herself against the wall.

“Sir Kaelen, please let me expla—”

“Sh-sh!” Leoric hushed. “You need not explain this to anyone. I will handle it”

The wolf inside me went completely silent. That frightened me more because I felt him twisting an angry scowl, and I'm yet to fully understand how he behaves.

Leoric unhesitatingly covered himself with Morwen's dress and moved between she and I.

“Brother Kaelen, You need to leave.”

I stared at him for a considerable amount of time before letting out a scoff. Shameless.

There was zero regret on his face. Not to even think of accountability.

“What you're doing is wrong.”

“Morwen consented.”

His jaw tightened in defiance.

“How convenient”

Morwen nodded beside him, wrapping her hands around her bare chest. Something inside me snapped. A part of me wanted to tear my brother apart for touching what the moon had claimed as mine and telling me it's no business of mine.

“See,”

Leoric flexed.

‘Shut up. She’s ours.’

Aetherion snarled with obsession.

I laughed once. There was no humor in it but confusion rose on their faces.

“You won't back off easily.” Leoric stepped forward. “Brother, that your wolf singled her out doesn't mean she gets to be your mate.”

“You're married. Remember?”

Silence.

I narrowed a questioning gaze at Morwen and she lowered her gaze. She already told him everything.

Leoric continued, this time leaning close to my ear. “Have your own share of fun, and go back to your wife. She's non-less than a slut. A few sweet promises. That the bargain.”

My chest tightened. Leoric wasn't here because he felt sorry.

He still wanted to use her, but advising me to do the same that was the height of it.

The urge to snap his head against the wall became intense. So intense that I felt my hands shaking.

Instinctively I prayed and hoped Morwen still had a little dignity left in her. Enough for her to walk away from this room without looking back.

Enought for her to realize she was just being played.

I saw her move behind Leoric, she reached and pulled on her dress which he wrapped around his waist.

“I need to go before Luna or Elara comes.”

Leoric's defiant face crumpled at her request, and he turned to her. “You don't need to be afraid of him. I trust father to find another way for you to reject him”

He moved closer but immediately his hands found their way around her shoulder, a strong wave of jealousy overwhelmed me. I closed my eyes.

And for the first time since I had entered that room, dark edges formed around my eyes.

“No” Aetherion roared through my teeth,

Anger.

Rage, and everything the

re in-between.

“What?”

Leoric stared at me.

I opened my eyes.

‘Tear him already’

“I said no.” The words echoed through the room.

I didn't know whether I was answering her, Leoric, or the beast inside me.

Perhaps all three.