Betrayed by My Ex, Marked by His Alpha Emperor Brother novel Chapter 199

Chapter 199: Chapter 199

Kaelen’s POV

She tasted like blood and salt and years of absence.

I kissed her like I was trying to consume her. Like if I pressed hard enough, deep enough, I could erase every mile she’d put between us. Every night I’d spent staring at the ceiling of our empty chamber.

Ela fought.

Her free hand shoved against my chest. Hard. Her palm flat against the ridge of my sternum, fingers clawing at the fabric of my shirt. She twisted beneath me, her wrist jerking with a desperate energy.

She kicked my shin. The impact was sharp—precise, aimed at the bone. A stubborn instinct. The sheer defiance of a prey refusing to be conquered. She was choosing to fight me with everything she had rather than submit.

I didn’t stop.

I caught the back of her neck with one hand. Held her there. Her silver hair tangled through my fingers like threads of moonlight. She made a sound—strangled, furious—and then her teeth found my lower lip.

She bit down. Not a love bite. Not a playful nip. She sank her teeth into the flesh with the intent to wound, and she succeeded. Pain lanced through my mouth. Hot. Bright. The taste of my own blood flooded my tongue.

I pulled back just enough to see. Crimson dripped from my lip onto her collarbone.

Her ice-blue eyes blazed up at me. Defiant. Terrified. Both at once.

Good, Alex snarled inside me. She still has teeth. Now claim what’s ours.

I spun her.

One fluid motion—my hand on her hip, the other still gripping her nape. I turned her body and pressed her face-first against the wall. Her wrist twisted overhead. Her free hand slammed flat against the stone, bracing.

I caught that wrist too. Pinned both above her head with one hand. My fingers locked around the delicate bones like iron.

The force of it shook the tapestry. The heavy fabric swayed, its embroidered edge brushing her shoulder.

"Years," I said against her ear. My chest pressed into her back. I could feel every ridge of her spine through the thin, stained fabric of her shirt. "For years I searched for you."

"Kaelen—stop—"

"For years you were out there struggling. Barely surviving. Nearly dying." My voice wasn’t steady. Wasn’t controlled. It was something dragged across gravel and set on fire. "And you didn’t come home."

"Let go of me—" she gasped, her breath ragged.

"Do you know what that did to me?" I pressed closer. My mouth grazed the shell of her ear. Her body was rigid against mine—every muscle locked, every tendon drawn tight.

A sob ripped through her. Raw. Involuntary. The sound cracked something in the air between us.

I turned her back around. My hand found her jaw. Tilted her face up. Those shattered blue eyes, swimming with tears and fury and something underneath both that I recognized because it lived inside me too.

I kissed her again.

Slower this time. Deliberate. I pressed my bleeding lip to her split one and tasted our pain mingling together. She resisted—her body stiff, her breath ragged through her nose. Her free hand pushed against my shoulder.

Then—

A few moments. Maybe less.

Her fingers stopped pushing. They curled into the fabric of my shirt instead. Her mouth softened. Just barely. A brief fraction of surrender so small anyone else would have missed it.

But I wasn’t anyone else. I was her mate. And I felt it the way I felt my own heartbeat.

Alex roared in triumph. The sound reverberated through my bones, primal and possessive, shaking loose what remained of my restraint.

I lifted her.

She weighed nothing. That was the first wrong thing. My hands spanning her waist, my fingers nearly touching at her spine—she weighed nothing. But the wolf didn’t care. Alex didn’t care. Years of starvation had made him feral, and now his mate was in our arms and nothing else existed.

I carried her to the bed. Laid her down. Her hand pressed flat against my chest again—not pushing now. Just there. A barrier made of trembling fingers and paper-thin resolve.

I straddled her hips. Looked down at her. Silver hair fanned across the dark sheets. Tears tracking through the dirt and blood on her face. Chest heaving.

I grabbed the collar of her shirt with both hands.

And ripped.

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