Betrayed by My Ex, Marked by His Alpha Emperor Brother novel Chapter 17

Chapter 17: Chapter 17

Kaelen’s POV

“Save me,” she whispered. “Please...”

Her fingers tightened in my cravat. Her dilated ice-blue eyes locked onto mine. Empty of everything except need. Raw, aching, unnatural need that turned her pupils into black moons.

“Elara.” I kept my voice level. Barely. “We’re going to the royal hospital. The physicians will—”

“No.” The word tore out of her throat. Ragged. Almost a sob. “No physicians. No hospital. Just you.” Her other hand found my chest, pressing flat against my bare skin. Her palm burned like a brand. “It hurts, Kaelen. Everything is burning. Please.”

Mark her, Alec snarled. He was clawing at the walls of my skull. She’s asking. She needs us. MARK HER.

I shoved him down. Hard.

“Elara, listen to me. You’ve been drugged. That bastard gave you something. You’re not thinking clearly—”

She pulled on my cravat again. Harder. Her knuckles were bone-white.

“I know what I feel.” Her voice cracked on every syllable. “I know it’s you. It’s always been you. The bond. I can feel it. It’s screaming.” Tears spilled over her lashes. “It hurts so much. Make it stop.”

The scent hit me then. Not the sickly sweetness of the potion. Something underneath it. Something that had been building since the moment I’d pulled her from that room.

Her arousal.

It rolled off her skin in waves. Winter roses drenched in honey. Warm. Thick. Intoxicating. The potion had done more than cloud her mind—it had triggered a false heat, forcing her body into a state of desperate, agonizing want.

My jaw clenched so hard I thought my teeth would crack.

“Driver.” My voice came out like gravel dragged over broken glass. “Change of route. The empty training grounds near the palace. Now.”

The carriage lurched. Wheels rattled over cobblestone. I kept my hand on the back of Elara’s head, my thumb brushing circles against her scalp. Trying to soothe her. Trying to soothe myself.

You know what she needs, Alec growled. Stop pretending you don’t.

“She needs a physician.”

She needs her mate.

I said nothing. Because he was right. And I hated him for it.

The training grounds materialized through the carriage window. A wide, empty parade field surrounded by dark warehouses. No torches. No guards. Nothing but frozen dirt and silence.

The carriage stopped.

I turned back to Elara. “I’m going to carry you—”

She moved.

Fast. Faster than someone pumped full of drugs should have been able to move. She swung one leg over the bench, then the other, and suddenly she was in my lap. Straddling me. Her knees pressed against my hips. Her torn gown slipped further, baring the curve of her collarbone. Beneath the ruined silk, black lace clung to her skin like shadow against ivory.

Her hands framed my face.

“Don’t take me to a hospital,” she breathed. “Don’t hand me off to strangers. I’m your mate. Help me.”

Every rational thought I’d ever had went up in flames.

MINE, Alec roared.

Her mouth found mine. Not gentle. Not tentative. She kissed me like she was drowning and I was the last breath of air above the waterline. Her fingers raked into my hair. Her hips ground down against me with a desperate, rolling pressure that made my vision blur.

I grabbed her waist. My hands nearly spanned it entirely. I meant to push her back. To create distance. To be the rational, controlled emperor that people expected.

Instead, my fingers dug into her skin and pulled her closer.

She gasped into my mouth. The sound shattered something inside my chest.

“Kaelen—”

“You’re drugged. When I mark you, you’ll be sober. Clear-eyed. Choosing me because you want to. Not because some bastard’s poison is making you beg.”

She made a frustrated sound. Her nails dug into my shoulders.

“Then everything else,” she demanded. Her hips rolled again. Deliberately. “Everything but that.”

I answered with my hands.

I pulled her against me. Skin to skin. The contact was electric—the mate bond amplified everything tenfold. Every brush of her fingers left trails of fire. Every sound she made carved itself into my bones.

The carriage was too small. The bench too narrow. I didn’t care. She didn’t care. We moved together with a rough, graceless urgency that had nothing to do with technique and everything to do with need. Pure, screaming, bone-deep need that had been building since the first moment I’d caught her scent.

She was loud. Unrestrained. The drug had stripped away every layer of composure she usually wore like armor. She cried out my name. Begged. Demanded. Clawed at my back hard enough to draw blood. And when the first wave hit her, she screamed—a sound that rattled the carriage windows and sent Alec howling in triumph inside my skull. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

I held her through it. Through the second one. Through the third. Each time, the feverish burn in her scent faded a little more, replaced by something sweeter. Something real. The bond humming between us like a plucked string.

Finally, she went still. Her forehead dropped against my shoulder. Her breathing came in ragged gulps. Tremors rolled through her body in slow, weakening waves.

Mark her now, Alec pressed. She’s calm. She’s ours. Do it.

I closed my eyes. Every instinct I possessed howled in agreement. She was here. Pliant. Warm against me. Her throat bared. The mark point flushed pink from my earlier kiss.

One bite.

“No,” I said. Out loud. To Alec. To myself.

I gathered Elara against my chest, wrapping both arms securely around her shaking frame in the afterglow of her climax.

“I will not bite you until you are entirely sober,” I told her roughly. “Not until this poison is completely out of your system.”