"I’m not going to let you die in this room," Kieran said, his voice firm, golden red eyes glinting in the dim light. "Not while you’re still my servant. Not while you still belong to ."
The words sent a strange chill down my spine.... not of fear, but sothing else entirely. Sothing I didn’t want to na.
I shook my head, snapping myself out of the trance his voice always seed to pull into. No. I needed to stay grounded. To think clearly.
"I do not belong to you," I said, my voice quieter than I ant, but still steady.
Kieran’s gaze snapped to mine, like I’d just spoken a language he didn’t understand. He blinked, once, slowly.
"I might be serving you for one month," I continued, "but I do not belong to you. I belong to myself. And myself alone."
He didn’t move at first. Just stared, like no one had ever dared say sothing like that to him. Then he took a step forward. And another.
I took a step back. And another
"For a feral," Kieran murmured, the corner of his mouth twitching, "you sure do have a lot of nerve. Many ferals, hell, even nobles and the elites, would roll on the ground just to be acknowledged by . And here you are... you stubborn little wolf."
Another step. And I backed up again, but this ti my heel hit sothing uneven.
I looked down and it was too late.
A soft click echoed beneath my boot as the stone brick under my foot sunk into the floor.
Everything happened in a flash.
A section of the wall directly beside us hissed open, and fire exploded out of it with a deafening roar.
I gasped, frozen, eyes wide in horror, but Kieran moved before I could. One second he was in front of , the next, he’d pulled roughly into his chest, one arm wrapped tightly around my waist, the other shielding the back of my head as he turned his back to the fire.
I felt the heat. The intense, blistering, suffocating heat.
But not a single fla touched .
I buried my face into his chest, shaking. His arms never loosened. Not once
The fire raged. Then, just as suddenly, it stopped. The wall slid back into place, and the brick on the floor rose back up as if nothing had happened.
I didn’t move right away. Neither did he.
When I finally pulled back, I looked up into his face. My voice caught in my throat.
"You... Are you okay?" I asked, my heart pounding. "Kieran, you—your back..."
A smirk tugged at the corner of his lips. "So you worry about now, little wolf?"
I ignored him and tried to look at his back. His shirt was practically incinerated, hanging in scorched rags. But as the cloth fell away, I saw—
Nothing. Not even a single burn or scar.
Just skin. Tanned, sculpted, impossible skin—broad shoulders, defined muscle, like sothing chiseled out of marble. His back rippled with strength as he moved, as if the fire had only irritated the shirt and not the god wearing it.
He reached back and casually tore off the remaining scraps of his shirt, letting it fall to the floor.
"You’re not in a position to worry about , little wolf," he said with a glance over his shoulder. "I’m not nearly as weak as you ferals. Even the strongest of the Elites would cower at my feet."
He turned fully now, and I had to force myself not to stare. His chest, like his back, was flawless, sculpted and smooth, rising and falling with slow, calm breaths, like the fire hadn’t even touched him.
"I have the fastest healing ability in the entire werewolf kingdom," he added, his voice dropping a notch, smug and matter-of-fact.
I hated the way he made feel.
That sa confusing pull in in my chest, the way my breath got caught just looking at him, the heat that had nothing to do with the fire.
I hated that I didn’t hate him enough.
And I hated that he knew it.
Kieran’s hand shot out, grabbing my arm just as I was about to step backwards.
"Be careful," he said, his voice low and sharp. "This place is booby-trapped, and we don’t know how many more are hidden."
I nodded, heart still racing from the fire trap..... and sothing else. Sothing much more dangerous than fla.
He didn’t let go.
Instead, his arm slid around my waist, pulling flush against him. "Stick with ," he murmured, the warmth of his breath brushing the shell of my ear. "We don’t want you stepping into another trap, little wolf."
His words were teasing, but there was sothing deeper behind them. Sothing I couldn’t na.
And then we just stood there, frozen in place. His chest pressed against mine, his hand resting low on my back, holding like I was ant to be right there, with himm
I should’ve stepped away. Should’ve said sothing. Should’ve breathed. But all I could do was look up at him. His face. His eyes. His ssy long black hair. And those red eyes..... they weren’t just staring at . They were seeing .
Then my gaze dropped.
His lips.
Gods. I had never noticed a man’s mouth before, not like this. I had never wanted to lean in and—
What the hell was I thinking?
I blinked hard and jerked my eyes away, yanking myself out of the trance. My face was burning.
Kieran didn’t move either. He looked like he’d been just as lost. For a second, sothing open flickered across his face, soft, almost boyish, before he masked it with that cool, unreadable expression.
He turned his head sharply and froze.
"There," he said, stepping away from . He crouched in front of the wall we’d been trying to open. His fingers skimd the surface before he stopped at sothing I hadn’t noticed before.
A small hole. Barely visible.
He extended his claws. They grew long and sharp, unnaturally so, more like formidable weapons than just claws, and slid one into the hole.
A click echoed.
Then the wall slid open.
I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding. Relief flooded through .
Without a word, Kieran grabbed my wrist again and led through the secret door, back into Astrid’s office. Everything was untouched—eerily quiet, as if none of it had happened.
We walked out into the night. Cold air kissed my skin, and I stopped just outside the building, dragging in a deep breath.
"We made it," I whispered.
But that didn’t answer the most important question. I turned to him.
"What now?" I asked, still trying to process it all. "What do we do with everything we found? And how do we even begin to find out who Avelar and Maeryn are?"
Kieran’s eyes were distant, staring at sothing I couldn’t see. Then, slowly, he looked at .
"I know who Avelar is," he said.
I tensed.
"Avelar Draven Valerius," he said quietly. "He was the first Lycan King. The founder of Lunar Crest Academy. My ancestor."
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