Chapter 3 THE CALCULATIONS

Chapter Three

The tower room was too quiet. Too perfect. Too much like a cage draped in silk.

I didn’t sleep. Couldn’t. My wolf wouldn’t settle, pacing beneath my skin, claws scraping against my veins. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Kael’s eyes—gray as storm clouds, endless, merciless.

Mine.

The word clung to me like a scent I couldn’t wash away.

When dawn bled through the curtains, I still hadn’t moved from the spot by the window. The courtyard below was alive now—warriors training in the yard, their growls and grunts carrying on the wind. Wolves sparring, their fur bristling, claws clashing.

I should have felt at home among them. I didn’t.

A knock shattered the silence.

The door opened before I could answer.

Kael stepped inside. No warning, no hesitation. He moved with the certainty of someone who owned the room already. His shirt clung to his frame, tattoos spilling down his arms like shadows carved into skin.

My heart tripped over itself, traitor that it was.

“You didn’t sleep.” It wasn’t a question.

I crossed my arms. “How would you know?”

His gaze flicked over me, sharp as a blade. “Your scent. Exhaustion clings to it.”

Heat flushed my cheeks. I hated how wolf terms sounded so intimate when he said them, like he wasn’t just reading me—he was peeling me open.

Kael stepped closer, closing the distance as if testing how far I would retreat. I didn’t move. Not because I wasn’t tempted, but because I refused to give him the satisfaction.

“You’ll train with the others today,” he said. “You need to learn our laws, our ways. You’ll obey, or you’ll bleed.”

I lifted my chin. “And if I refuse?”

His jaw tightened. “Then I’ll remind you what happens to wolves who forget their place.”

The words should have chilled me. Instead, something low in my stomach twisted in betrayal.

“Careful,” I whispered, the defiance slipping out before I could stop it. “If you push too hard, Kael, you might break me before you can claim me.”

For the briefest moment, something flickered across his face—something raw, dangerous, almost human. Then it was gone, shuttered behind steel.

“Break?” His voice dropped low, rough. “No, Ria. I don’t break what’s mine. I bend it. Until it never forgets who it belongs to.”

His hand brushed the back of mine as he passed, a ghost of a touch that burned hotter than fire. My knees nearly gave. And then he was gone, leaving the room colder than before.

The training yard was worse.

Eyes followed me everywhere. Warriors shifting between forms, snapping jaws and baring teeth. Their whispers were knives.

“That’s her. The auction girl.”

“Half-blood. Fragile.”

“She won’t last a week under Alpha Kael.”

I wanted to snarl back, to bare my teeth, to prove them wrong. But Kael’s words echoed in my head. Do not defy me in public. Ever.

A woman approached, her braid sharp as her stare. “I’m Selene,” she said flatly. “Beta of this pack. You’ll answer to me when Kael isn’t here. Don’t expect me to go easy on you.”

Her grip on my shoulder was too tight, her nails grazing my skin just enough to sting. Testing me.

I forced myself not to flinch. “Then don’t,” I said.

For a split second, her lips curved. Not a smile—something sharper. Approval, maybe.

Training began. Sweat, bruises, snarls. I was fast, but they were faster. Stronger. My half-human blood betrayed me. By the time the sun dipped low, I was gasping, every muscle screaming.

Kael had watched the entire time from the shadows. Silent. Calculating.

When I stumbled to the edge of the yard, he was there, catching my wrist before I fell. His hand was hot, calloused, steady.

“You’re not weak,” he said, voice so quiet it was almost a secret. “But you’ve been taught wrong. I’ll fix that.”

I should have pulled away. I didn’t.

That night, whispers carried through the halls.

Darius had returned.

I saw him in the feast hall, surrounded by warriors loyal to him. He was Kael’s opposite—smooth where Kael was jagged, fire where Kael was stone. His smile could melt steel, but his eyes… his eyes made my wolf bristle.

When his gaze landed on me, heat skittered down my spine. He raised his cup in mock salute, his grin wicked.

Kael’s presence appeared beside me like a shadow. His hand rested low on my back, a claim. A warning.

“Stay away from him,” Kael said under his breath.

“Why?” I asked, reckless from exhaustion.

“Because Darius doesn’t want you. He wants to take you from me. There’s a difference.”

My heart pounded, torn between fear and something far more dangerous.

But later, as the feast wore on, I slipped away into the quiet of the corridor. I needed air.

That was when Darius found me.

He leaned against the wall, smile sharp as a blade. “You don’t belong to him, Ria,” he said softly. “You never will. Kael thinks he can chain what he doesn’t understand, but you’re fire. And fire burns.”

I froze, caught between his words and the way his gaze pierced me.

“You think I should belong to you instead?” I asked, voice trembling.

His smile widened. “Not belong. Choose. There’s a difference.”

And then he leaned closer, close enough that his breath brushed my cheek, close enough that the bond in my chest ached in confusion.

Before I could answer, a low growl rippled down the corridor.

Kael.

His eyes burned, his jaw set, his entire body thrumming with fury as he stepped out of the shadows. The growl in his chest shook the air.

Darius didn’t move. Didn’t flinch. He only smirked.

“Careful, brother,” he drawled. “Chains don’t hold forever.”

Then he vanished into the dark, leaving the storm between Kael and me heavy and suffocating.

Kael’s gaze snapped to mine, blazing with something I couldn’t name. His hand fisted at his side, as if he was holding himself back from shaking me, from claiming me, from tearing me apart.

“Don’t ever let him near you again,” he said, voice low, lethal.

My chest rose and fell too fast. “Or what?”

His jaw clenched. “Or I’ll show you exactly what happens to wolves who forget who they belong to.”

The silence stretched, electric, dangerous, almost unbearable.

And for the first time since the auction, I realized that this wasn’t just survival anymore.

This was a war between brothers.

And I was the prize.