The Alpha King And His Chosen Luna novel Chapter 204

Better judgement

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Better judgement

(Caius)

I found Kael in the eastern corridor.

He saw me coming and I watched him make the decision in real time about whether to turn and walk the other way. He decided against it, which showed better judgment than I might have credited him with twenty minutes ago on the training ground.

He stopped and faced me.

“Alpha King,” he said.

“Kael,” I said. I stopped in front of him. “What happened on the training ground wasn’t your fault.”

He looked at me carefully, the way wolves looked at things they weren’t sure were safe yet.

“I shouldn’t have touched the Luna,” he said.

“You didn’t know,” I said. “You weren’t doing anything wrong. What I did was an overreaction and I wanted you to know that directly.”

He was quiet for a moment.

“Is the Luna alright?” he asked.

“She’s fine,” I said. “She finds the whole thing funny.”

Something shifted in his expression. Not quite relief/Something adjacent to it.

“I won’t touch her again,” he said.

“I know,” I said. “But that’s not why I came to find you. I came because you deserved an explanation and an apology and I’m giving you both.”

He nodded once. “Thank you, Alpha King.”

I left him there and went to find Isla.

She was in our quarters exactly where I’d left her, sitting on the bed, and when I came through the door she looked at me with the expression she’d been wearing since the pack member had apparently

delivered a full report of the morning’s events.

“How is Kael?” she asked.

“Fine,” I said. “I apologized.”

“Good,” she said. “Was it awkward?”

“Moderately,” I said.

She smiled. “Come on,” I said. “Dinner.”

< Better judgement

She got up without argument, which told me she was hungry, and we went down to the dining room. It was Tater than the peak hour and the room was quieter than usual, a handful of wolves finishing up at the far

end of the table. They glanced at us when we came in and then away again.

We sat and the food came and for a while neither of us said anything

Then Isla said, “Kael was very complimentary.”

I looked at her.

“He said I was a natural,” she said.

“I remember.” I said.

“He wasn’t wrong,” she said. I

“I know he wasn’t wrong,” I said.

“You still growled at him.”

“I’m aware,” I said.

She picked up her fork and gave her plate more attention than it needed.

“Vorak is adjusting,” I said.

“You said that already,” she said.

“It bears repeating,” I said.

She looked up at me. “I’m not complaining,” she said, “I told you I liked it.”

“You told me,” I said. “And then you told half the pack house.”

“I didn’t tell half the pack house,” she said. “Half the pack house already knew. I just confirmed the details.”

I looked at her.

She looked back with complete innocence.

“Eat your dinner,” I said.

She did, and the smile she was hiding gave up entirely about thirty seconds later.

We stayed at the table longer than we needed to. She asked about the eastern border reports I’d been working through earlier in the week. I told her what they said. She asked two questions that told me she’d been thinking about territorial politics more carefully than most wolves twice her age.

We talked about the High Council. Not strategically, just as a fact that was approaching. Less than two weeks. She wasn’t nervous and neither was I and there was something worth noting in the fact that two weeks ago both of those things would have been different.

Eventually we left and went back to our quarters.

Isla was asleep before me, which happened more often than not. I lay beside her in the dark and felt the

< Better judgement

Claim

bond between us, complete and warm and entirely without the reaching quality it had carried for so long.

Vorak was settled.

More settled than he’d been all day.

I closed my eyes.

I didn’t know how long I slept before something woke me. Not a sound. Not movement. Something else, a change in the room that pulled me out of sleep before I understood what had caused it.

I opened my eyes.

Isla was floating.

Not high. A foot above the bed, maybe less, suspended in the air with her eyes closed and her hair loose around her and her hands relaxed at her sides. Entirely asleep. Entirely unaware.

I sat up slowly.

There was silver in her skin the way there sometimes was when Vaela was near the surface. Nothing in the room was producing that light.

I sat there and looked at her for a long moment.

Her breathing was even. Her face was the face she had when she was fully asleep, open in the way she only got when nothing was asking anything from her.

Vorak stirred beside me.

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