Let Them Kneel (kaelani and Julian) novel Chapter 29

Her throat tightened at his words, though she kept her tone steady. “I’m fine.”

There was a pause on the line, a faint rustle, then his voice, lower now. “Oh…are you sure? Because if you need—”

“Yes,” she cut in, sharp. “I said I’m fine.” Her grip on the phone tightened beneath her trembling hand, but her voice didn’t waver. “Why wouldn’t I be? We have no ties to each other whatsoever.”

The silence that followed was thick, suffocating. She pressed on anyway, twisting the knife. “That’s a good thing, right? Isn’t that exactly what you wanted?”

Julian’s breath caught, audible even through the line—but she didn’t give him the chance to answer.

“We don’t have to see each other ever again. And we certainly don’t have to do…whatever this is.” Her voice cracked once, but she swallowed it down, steel hardening over the break. “So, please—don’t call me again.”

The line went dead with a soft click, leaving nothing but the deafening silence of his office.

Julian lowered the phone slowly, setting it face-down on his desk with deliberate care, as though gentleness could undo the sting of her voice.

Don’t call me again.

The words replayed, merciless, every syllable cutting right down to the bone.

His wolf snarled in the hollow of his chest, vicious and unrelenting, demanding he get up—go to her, make her submit, remind her who she belonged to. The instinct thrashed hot and ugly, but Julian kept himself anchored, fingers digging into the edge of the desk so fiercely the wood threatened to splinter beneath his grasp.

“No ties.”

The phrase lodged like shrapnel, because it wasn’t hers. It had been his, spat out in cold calculation after he’d rutted her. He had handed her that weapon, and she had gutted him with it.

His jaw clenched. Rage and guilt burned together, molten and choking. She hated him, that was clear as day and she had every right to ice him out. But that didn’t cool the fire in his blood.

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