Chapter Twenty-Three: The Debt
I didn't realize when I fell asleep.
One moment I was awake, staring at the carved ceiling above Kael's bed, aware of his arm heavy across my waist, aware of the steady rhythm of his breathing against my shoulder.
He had taken my first time, and I had let him.
The next, dawn was bleeding through the curtains in thin gray strips, and my body felt slow, my thigh felt sore and warm in a way that almost convinced me last night had been something ordinary.
It wasn't.
The amphitheater. The blood on stone. The crack of bone when he snapped the elders neck. The way the pack had watched in stunned silence while their Alpha chose me without asking anyone's permission.
And the way he had looked at me after. Not victorious. Not triumphant. Just… raw.
His fingers tightened slightly at my hip as if he felt me waking.
"You're thinking too loud," he muttered, voice rough with sleep.
"I wasn't aware that was possible."
