Zane had offered her painkillers and a protocol.
Kaelen had offered her a vow with his eyes and a threat with his heat.
They gave Nora a room with no windows.
A cot. A chair. A camera in the corner that stared without blinking.
On the table sat a folded set of clothes—soft gray sweats, a plain shirt, socks. No strings. No metal. No anything that could be turned into a weapon.
Zane stood in the doorway like he belonged there.
"Change," he said. "You've got coffee on you."
Nora stared at him. "Are you going to watch?"
Zane's mouth twitched. "If I wanted to watch, I wouldn't have asked."
He stepped back. The door didn't fully close, but it turned opaque with a flick of his hand—privacy mode.
Nora exhaled slowly.
When she finished changing, the door cleared again. Zane handed her a small paper cup of painkillers.
"Take these," he said.
Nora eyed them. "Are you serious?"
Zane's gaze was steady. "I don't need you unconscious. I need you functional."
Nora took the pills.
Her tongue tasted bitterness.
Zane watched her swallow.
Then he spoke, voice calm. "Here's what happens next."
Nora sat on the cot, folding her hands to hide the tremor.
Zane leaned against the wall like he was about to present a quarterly report.
"Kaelen's stability window is short," he said. "We can measure it. You're the stabilizer. We need to establish a protocol."
Nora frowned. "Protocol?"
Zane nodded once. "Procedure-first. We don't improvise around gods."
Nora almost laughed.
Almost.
"What do you want from me?" she asked.
Zane's eyes flicked to the camera. Then back.
"I want you to decide," he said. "How close you're willing to keep him."
Nora's skin prickled.
"Because if you want distance," Zane continued, "we restrain him harder. He resists harder. People get hurt."
"And if I stay close," Nora said slowly, "I become… bait."
Zane's gaze sharpened. "You become leverage."
Nora's stomach turned.
"So what," she said, voice tight, "I'm supposed to babysit a king in a cage?"
Zane's mouth curved—faintly. "You already did it in a cubicle."
Nora hated that he was right.
A low vibration shivered through the building.
Not a quake.
A pulse.
Nora felt it in her bones, and her cold flickered like a compass needle.
Zane watched her face change.
"You feel that," he said.
Nora swallowed. "Yes."
Zane's voice dropped slightly. "Then you already know this isn't a one-time event."
Nora stared at the wall.
Behind it, Kaelen was restrained.
Behind it, a king waited.
And somewhere out there—beyond office towers and black vans and fluorescent lights—something else had smelled her.
Rain on cut grass.
That impossible scent at the end of today.
Nora's fingers curled into her palms.
She lifted her head.
"Okay," she said. "Rules."
Zane's eyebrow lifted. "I'm listening."
Nora's voice steadied—because anger was a kind of courage.
"One: No one touches me without permission," she said. "Not your soldiers. Not your doctors. Not anyone."
Zane nodded. "Agreed."
"Two: If I say I need to see him, you open the door," Nora continued. "Not in an hour. Not after your meeting. Immediately."
Zane's gaze held hers. "Within reason."
Nora's eyes narrowed. "There is no 'within reason' if he's about to burn through the building."
A beat.
Then Zane inclined his head. "Agreed."
"Three," Nora said, and her heart kicked. "He doesn't get to touch me whenever he wants. I decide. And I decide… in front of you."
Zane's expression flickered—just once.
Not shock.
Interest.
"You want him leashed," he said.
"I want him trained," Nora corrected. "There's a difference."
Zane studied her for a long heartbeat.
Then he pushed off the wall.
"You're smarter than you look," he murmured.
Nora didn't smile. "I'm tired of looking harmless."
Zane reached the door. "Come."
________________
Kaelen was standing when she entered the containment chamber again.
Restrained, yes.
But upright.
His eyes fixed on Nora like she was a lighthouse in a storm.
The moment she crossed the threshold, the heat in the room eased.
Sensors ticked down.
A technician outside the glass muttered, "Unreal…"
Kaelen took in Nora's new clothes, the lack of coffee stains, the way her hair was pulled back.
For a second he didn't look like a disaster made flesh.
Then his gaze slid past her—to the glass—where Zane stood watching.
Kaelen's eyes narrowed.
The temperature spiked hard enough that the sensors screamed.
Nora stepped in before it could turn into a scene.
She placed her palm on Kaelen's chest.
Heat surged.
Pain sharpened—bright, clean, immediate.
She breathed through it anyway.
Kaelen's jaw flexed under her hand, then eased a fraction.
His voice came out low. Controlled. Forced.
"You were taken," he said.
Nora met his gaze. "Yes."
Kaelen's fingers flexed against the restraints. "I will—"
A speaker crackled.
Zane's voice, smooth as a blade.
"—tear down my facility? Break your chains? Burn my staff alive?"
A beat.
"You can. I've read the incident reports. The question is whether you will, in front of her."
Kaelen stared at the glass like he could melt it.
The heat licked higher.
Nora didn't move her hand.
Not because she wasn't afraid.
Because she wanted Kaelen to learn, right now, what her fear cost.
"Kaelen," she said softly. "Eyes."
His gaze snapped back to hers.
"Good," she whispered. "Stay with me."
Outside the glass, Zane tilted his head, studying the way the temperature dropped when Kaelen obeyed.
Interest sharpened his expression—clinical, yes.
But also… hungry in a different way.
He tapped something on the tablet in his hand.
The outer lock clunked.
The inner door didn't open.
Not fully.
Just enough to remind Kaelen that Zane could, if he wanted, step into the room.
Nora's stomach tightened.
Zane didn't cross the threshold. He leaned into the gap, gloved hands visible, posture casual.
"Routine verification," he said to no one in particular. "If she's going to be in proximity to him, I need baseline readings."
Kaelen's mouth curled, sharp and humorless.
"You want to touch her," he said.
Zane's smile was faint. "I want data."
Kaelen's laugh was worse than a growl.
"Say 'data' again," he murmured, "and I'll show you what you can't measure."
Nora felt the heat build under her palm like a storm front.
The restraints creaked.
Zane's eyes flicked to Nora, not Kaelen.
"May I?" he asked, as if Kaelen wasn't in the room at all.
It hit Nora hard—what kind of man looked at a king and addressed the woman holding his leash.
Nora swallowed.
This was a test.
Not of Zane.
Of her.
And of Kaelen.
She kept her hand on Kaelen's chest and turned her head toward the glass.
"You ask," she said, voice calm. "And I decide."
Zane's gaze warmed, just enough to feel like danger.
"May I take your wrist," he said, "and clip the sensor? Ten seconds."
Nora's pulse fluttered—annoyingly human.
She looked up at Kaelen.
His eyes had gone almost black.
Jealousy did strange things to him; it made him quiet.
"Ten seconds," Nora said to Zane. "Over the threshold stays closed. You do not step in."
Then, to Kaelen, without looking away from him:
"You do not move."
Kaelen's nostrils flared.
His restraint chain sang once, a warning.
Nora felt it—his edge.
So she made a choice.
A deliberate one.
"Okay," she told Zane.
Zane's gloved fingers slid through the gap and found Nora's wrist.
The contact was cool, impersonal—until it wasn't.
His thumb brushed the inside of her pulse point.
Not necessary.
Not for the sensor.
Kaelen's heat detonated.
The metal restraint shrieked.
The room's air thickened as if it wanted to ignite.
Nora's vision flashed white.
"Enough," she said.
One word.
Not a command meant to crush.
A rule.
Kaelen stopped—mid surge—like his body had hit an invisible wall.
He didn't calm.
He didn't like it.
But he held.
A technician outside the glass whispered, horrified, "He… he stopped."
Zane's eyes lifted.
His expression didn't change much, but something in him sharpened—approval, maybe. Satisfaction.
"You heard her," he said, quietly, to Kaelen.
"Good."
Kaelen's lips peeled back.
The heat threatened again.
Nora tightened her palm against his chest.
"Kaelen," she warned—not with fear, but with authority. "That wasn't his word. It was mine."
Silence.
Kaelen's throat worked.
Then—slowly—he exhaled.
Zane's thumb paused on Nora's pulse.
Nora turned her wrist slightly, just enough to break that unnecessary contact.
"Ten seconds," she reminded him.
Zane released her immediately, like a man who enjoyed rules because he knew where to press.
Sensor clipped. Beep. Data recorded.
Before he pulled back, he lowered his voice.
"Interesting," he murmured. "You can get him to stop without breaking him."
Nora's teeth clenched around the pain behind her eyes.
"It costs," she said.
Zane's gaze slid to her hand on Kaelen's chest.
"I can see that."
He looked back at Kaelen, and for the first time he addressed him directly.
"Try not to make her pay more than she has to," he said, polite as a knife. "If you do… I will sedate you. Repeatedly."
Kaelen's smile turned lazy, lethal.
"You think you're the threat," he said.
Zane's eyes didn't blink.
"No," he said. "I think I'm the man between you and the world that would dissect her to understand you."
That landed.
Even Kaelen went still for a fraction.
Zane withdrew from the gap. The door sealed with a hiss.
Locks cycled.
He was behind glass again, safe and smug and just close enough to be infuriating.
Kaelen's gaze tracked him like a predator.
Then it snapped back to Nora.
"You let him," Kaelen said, voice low.
Nora didn't apologize.
She lifted her chin.
"I chose it."
Kaelen stared at her like he didn't know what to do with a woman who didn't flinch from his jealousy.
The heat in the room steadied, hovering at a dangerous simmer.
Nora kept her hand where it mattered.
"This is how it works," she said, voice low enough that it felt like a secret. "You ask. I decide."
Kaelen's jaw set.
Nora didn't soften.
"And if I say 'Enough,'" she added, "you step back. No argument."
Kaelen's eyes searched her face, scanning for weakness.
Finding none.
Then—slowly—he nodded once.
"Enough," he tested, the word rough in his mouth.
Nora's pulse jumped.
"Good," she whispered. "Learn that one. It's cheaper than 'Stay.'"
Kaelen's mouth curled, almost amused.
"What do I do," he murmured, "to make you decide yes?"
Nora's cheeks warmed despite the cold in her bones.
"Start," she said, "by not turning every man who looks at me into ash."
Kaelen's laugh was a soft, dangerous sound.
"You didn't say I couldn't," he murmured.
"I said you wouldn't," Nora corrected.
Then, she did something reckless.
She lifted Kaelen's restrained hand and pressed her lips to his knuckles—brief, deliberate.
A reward.
A promise.
Kaelen blinked.
Then he went perfectly still, like even kings could be stunned by gentleness.
Behind the glass, Zane watched.
Not jealous.
Measuring.
Nora saw it in the way his hand hovered over the controls.
As if he wanted to press them just to see what would happen next.
The first time Kaelen had obeyed, it had been survival.
This time—
it was choice.
Pain pulsed behind Nora's eyes—an alarm bell:
If she could make one king choose restraint…
then every other king out there would come to test her.
Nora's cold flickered like a compass needle again.
Rain on cut grass.
Closer now.
And somewhere in the facility, a locked door clicked—soft, mechanical—as if something unseen had just been granted access.
The click came again—two short taps, like a lock being tested.
Zane's head lifted.
"Transfer just cleared," he said, almost pleased. "Second signature."
Kaelen's lips curled. "No."
Nora's throat went tight.
Her cold spun, frantic, pointing.
Closer.
Down the corridor, a soft laugh drifted—warm, wet, unfamiliar.
Nora raised her hand, not to touch Kaelen—yet—but as a warning.
"Enough," she said.
Kaelen stopped.
The laugh paused, as if listening.
Then a voice, amused and intimate, slid through the crack of the opening door.
"There you are."