The Alpha King And His Chosen Luna novel Chapter 126

Where I belong

(Isla)

The pack house was lit when we came up the rise.

Pack members had come out along the path, not summoned, just there the way the Wraithbone pack was always just there when something was happening. I kept my eyes forward as we rode toward the steps.

The first heads lowered before we reached the halfway point. Then more. Moving through the pack the way it always moved now, without command, without hesitation. Vaela stirred

inside me and I let her.

We reached the steps and I dismounted.

Caius was beside me when my feet hit the ground. He didn’t say anything. Neither did I. We walked up the steps together and through the doors and the warmth of the pack house came

out to meet us.

Dena appeared from the kitchen corridor. She stopped when she saw me.

“Welcome back,” she said.

“Thank you,” I said.

She nodded and moved off.

I stood in the entrance hall and let the building settle around me. The bond with the territory was still moving through me, quiet and steady, not asking anything from me. Caius stood beside me, close enough that I could feel him without looking. For once, I didn’t need time to

decide what I wanted.

I looked toward the stairs.

“Your quarters,” I said.

Caius’s attention shifted to me at once, but he didn’t ask if I was sure this time. We had

already crossed that line in Ashcrest. He knew I wasn’t asking for permission, and I knew he wouldn’t make me explain the same choice twice.

For a moment, neither of us moved.

Then he nodded once.

“Come with me.”

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Where I belong

He didn’t take my hand first.

He waited.

That small pause mattered more than it should have.

+25 Points

I reached for him, and his fingers closed around mine at once. The bond warmed between us, familiar now, easier than it had been the first night. Together, we walked toward the stairs.

The stairs felt different this time.

Not because they had changed, but because I had. I wasn’t being taken somewhere safe for the night. I was walking toward the room I had chosen, with the man I had chosen, in the territory that had welcomed me before I fully understood why.

Caius kept his pace even with mine.

No pulling.

No guiding.

Just beside me.

When we reached the upper corridor, I didn’t look toward the east wing. I already knew where I wanted to go. Caius turned toward his quarters, and I went with him.

The door was closed when we reached it.

Caius opened it and stepped aside, letting me enter first. He didn’t make the moment bigger than it needed to be, and I was grateful for that. I crossed the threshold without stopping.

The room was warm.

A fire had already been lit, and the scent of him was everywhere. It wasn’t strange to me anymore. It settled around me in a way that made Vaela go quiet inside my chest.

Caius came in behind me and closed the door.

For a moment, I stood there and looked around without speaking. This was not the temporary room in Ashcrest. This was his place, the room he returned to when no one else

needed him.

Now I was here too.

My chest tightened, but not from fear. I turned to him and found him already watching me. His expression was calm, but the bond told me he was feeling more than he showed.

Where I belong

“I need my things moved here,” I said.

Caius’s gaze stayed on mine.

“They will be,” he said.

Just like that.

No argument.

No question.

+25 Points

The answer made something settle inside me. I nodded once and looked toward the room

again.

For a few seconds, I didn’t know what to do with myself. That almost made me laugh. I had faced Ashcrest without lowering my eyes. I had stood in front of the pack that broke me and spoken without shaking. I had crossed into Wraithbone with the land itself reaching for me.

And now I was standing in Caius’s room, unsure where to put my hands.

Caius noticed.

Of course he did.

He didn’t point it out.

He only walked to the wardrobe and opened one side of it.

“This side is yours,” he said.

I stared at the empty space.

Mine.

A simple word.

A dangerous one.

I walked closer and touched the edge of the wardrobe door.

“When did you clear it?”

Caius didn’t look away.

“When you told me in Ashcrest that you didn’t want to keep sleeping in a different room,” he

said. “I had one of the servants clear it before we returned.”

Where I belong

+25 Points

I stared at the empty space until it stopped feeling like something I needed to react to and started feeling like something that was simply true.

Then I closed the wardrobe and stood there with my hand still on the door.

Caius hadn’t moved.

I turned around and looked at him and he looked back and the room was quiet between us and neither of us said anything for a long moment. There wasn’t anything that needed saying. The empty wardrobe had said it. The cleared shelf had said it. The fire already burning when we walked in had said it.

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