Betrayed by My Ex, Marked by His Alpha Emperor Brother novel Chapter 20

Chapter 20: Chapter 20

Kaelen’s POV

“Don’t.”

The word left my mouth before I could stop it. My fingers were locked around her wrist like a steel band. I could feel her pulse hammering against my thumb—fast, panicked, alive.

She stood frozen, half-turned toward the door. Those ice-blue eyes finally lifted to mine, and the fear in them hit me like a blade between the ribs.

I should have let go. A better man would have.

Instead, I tightened my grip.

“Sit down, Elara.”

“Your Majesty—”

“Sit. Down.”

She obeyed. Not because she wanted to. Because my voice left no room for refusal. She lowered herself into the chair across from my desk, spine rigid, hands clasped in her lap. Her knuckles were white, but I did not release her wrist. I held her there, a prisoner in the silent archive.

The archive was empty now. The last clerk had gone some time ago. Shadows pooled in the corners of my office like spilled ink.

Images kept flashing through my mind—the memory of her warm body yielding in my arms, and the impossible reality of her son, Valerius, staring back at me with those unmistakable dark golden eyes.

“Your son,” I said, my voice dangerously low. “Valerius.”

Her chin lifted, though her ice-blue eyes darted away nervously. “What about him?”

“You told me he is not Gareth’s. I need to understand what I saw. Have you ever thought of finding him? Valerius’s father?”

Her face went pale. Milk-white. The kind of pale that comes from blood retreating inward, the body bracing for a blow. She looked at me with pure terror.

“I... I tried, Your Majesty,” she whispered, her voice trembling. “Once. But there was nothing to find. No name. No trail. I had no leads.”

Liar, Alex snarled. Those eyes. His eyes. OUR eyes.

I leaned in closer, my grip on her wrist unyielding. My voice grew hoarse, desperate as I fished for the one truth that mattered—the location of the golden wolf-crest brooch, engraved with my initials, that I had left on her pillow.

“Did he leave a creed? A calling card? Anything at all?” I demanded.

Tears streamed down Elara’s pale face as she flinched at my tone. “Nothing, Your Majesty. I woke up and the bed was empty. He left absolutely nothing behind. He vanished like a ghost.”

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