Betrayed by My Ex, Marked by His Alpha Emperor Brother novel Chapter 174

Chapter 174: Chapter 174

Kaelen’s POV

"Gone."

The word left my mouth like venom. Low. Quiet. The kind of quiet that made men reach for their swords.

Marcus stood before my desk with his jaw locked tight and his eyes fixed on a point somewhere above my left shoulder. Smart. Looking me in the eye right now would be a mistake.

"Years." I rose from my chair. Slowly. "Years of hunting. Years of burning their camps, tracking their supply lines, dismantling every fucking hideout across the borders. And you stand here—" I slammed both palms flat on the desk. The wood groaned. "—and tell me Malak and Isolde are gone after all these fucking years?"

Marcus didn’t flinch. But I saw it—the slight tightening around his mouth. The barest shift of weight onto his back foot.

Good. He should be afraid.

"Your Majesty." His voice was steady but careful. Measured. "Our scouts confirmed the last known location was abandoned. No tracks. No scent trail. They vanished without a trace—"

"Vanished." I let the word hang. Let it rot in the air between us. "People don’t vanish, Marcus. Not unless someone helps them."

His silence confirmed what I already knew.

I turned away from him. Walked to the window. The capital sprawled below—rooftops and spires and the distant glitter of the river cutting through stone. Beautiful. Ordered. Everything in its place.

Everything except the one thing that mattered.

"There’s a traitor." I said it without looking at him. My reflection stared back from the glass—hollow-eyed, unshaven, looking like a man who hadn’t slept properly in a long time. Because I hadn’t. "Someone inside these walls fed them information. Someone told them we were closing in."

"I’ve already begun an internal—"

"Find them." I turned. The alpha command rolled through my voice without effort—an involuntary thing now, like breathing. "Find whoever sold us out. Bring them to me alive. I want names. I want confessions. I want to look them in the eye before I rip their throat out."

Marcus inclined his head. "Yes, Your Majesty."

"If Malak survives—" I moved toward him. Each step deliberate. Predatory. "If that bastard lives through this, then every soldier we’ve buried, every village they’ve burned, half the violence they’ve unleashed across my borders—all of it means nothing. Years of work. Wasted." I stopped close enough that he had to tilt his chin up to hold his position. "Do you understand what that means, Marcus?"

"I understand, Your Majesty."

"Then get out."

He didn’t need to be told twice. The door closed behind him with a soft click that somehow echoed louder than a slam.

I stood alone in my study. The silence pressed in. Suffocating.

My hands were shaking.

I curled them into fists. Pressed my knuckles against the edge of the desk until the skin went white. Until the trembling stopped. Until the rage found somewhere to settle that wasn’t my chest, wasn’t my throat, wasn’t the place behind my ribs where something vital had been torn out and never put back.

Years. Years since she left. Years since I woke up in an empty bed with a letter on the pillow and a hole in my world that no amount of war could fill.

The door opened again without a knock.

I knew who it was before I turned. Only one person in this palace had the arrogance to enter my study uninvited.

"Emperor Kaelen."

Elder Henry. Gray-haired. Sharp-eyed. Standing in my doorway with the posture of a man who believed his bloodline made him untouchable.

"Get out, Henry."

He didn’t move. "We need to discuss your behavior."

"I said—"

"Your erratic conduct over the past few months has not gone unnoticed by the council." He stepped inside. Closed the door behind him. Folded his hands at his waist like a priest delivering a sermon. "The outbursts. The isolation. The refusal to attend state functions. It cannot continue."

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