Betrayed by My Ex, Marked by His Alpha Emperor Brother novel Chapter 248

Chapter 248: Chapter 248

Kaelen’s POV

My fingers closed around her throat.

Not the collar this time. Not the fabric. Skin. Warm, damp, trembling skin beneath my palm. I could feel her pulse slamming against my grip like a trapped bird.

I squeezed.

Her eyes went wide. Bulging. The calculated tears dried up instantly, replaced by something raw and animal. Real fear. The kind that lives in the spine, not the mind.

"I asked you a question."

She clawed at my wrist. Her nails scraped uselessly against my skin. Her mouth opened and closed, but nothing came out except a thin, wet rasp.

I held her there. Suspended in silence.

A few long heartbeats passed.

"Where is Gareth?"

Her lips moved. No sound. Just the faint blue tinge creeping into her cheeks, spreading outward from her mouth like frost on glass.

I leaned closer. Close enough to see every burst capillary in her eyes. Close enough to smell the salt of her tears and the sour edge of genuine terror beneath her perfume.

"I don’t—" A strangled whisper. "—know—"

I tightened my grip. Her feet scrabbled against the stone floor.

"Try again."

"I swear—" Her voice was barely a thread now, thin and breaking. "He stopped—answering—I don’t—"

Her face was turning purple. A dark, mottled shade that meant the blood had nowhere to go. Her hands stopped clawing and started shaking instead, fingers trembling against my forearm in weak, fluttering spasms.

I held for another moment.

Then I released her.

She dropped like something boneless. Collapsed onto the stone bench, then slid to the floor. Coughing. Retching. Dragging air into her lungs in great heaving gasps that echoed off the granite walls.

I stepped back. Rolled my shoulders. Flexed the hand that had held her throat. Her pulse still ghosted across my palm like a stain.

I turned toward the cell door and knocked twice. Slow. Deliberate.

The iron door groaned open.

Three men entered.

They were built like siege equipment. Broad shoulders. Thick arms. Necks wider than Seraphine’s waist. Each one dressed in plain black—no insignia, no rank markings, nothing that could be traced. They carried heavy wooden clubs at their sides, the kind designed to break bone through armor.

They fanned out across the narrow cell without a word. One blocked the door. The other two flanked the bench where Seraphine had crumpled, still gasping and coughing on the damp floor.

She looked up. Saw them. And whatever color had returned to her face drained away completely.

"Kaelen—" Her voice cracked. "What is this?"

I crouched down. Slowly. Until my eyes were level with hers. I wanted her to see my face clearly. Wanted her to understand that what came next wasn’t a bluff.

"I’m going to give you two choices." My voice was calm. Conversational. The voice I used for trade negotiations and border treaties. "Listen carefully, because I won’t repeat them."

She pressed herself against the wall. Her hands wrapped around her belly in that protective gesture she’d practiced so well in court. The gesture designed to remind everyone she was carrying an innocent life.

It meant nothing to me now.

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