Chapter 14: Conflicted
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Chapter 14
~Kael’s POV~
Moments After Leaving Rhiannon’s Quarters
I didn’t walk—I stalked.
Every step echoing down the marble corridor felt like it was trying to outrun the heat she’d left burning in my skin. Rhiannon’s scent clung to me—clean, sharp, wild—and the image of her, wrapped in that towel, chin high even when the world tried to bend her low, wouldn’t leave my mind.
Part of me wanted to turn back.
To go back to that room, push her against the wall, strip her of the towel and the walls she wore just as tightly, and show her what claiming really meant when I kiss her deeply.
But I didn’t because the other part of me—the part forged from discipline, command, and too many goddamn expectations—kept walking.
When I reached the strategy room, the others were already waiting.
The chamber wasn’t large, but it was fortified—two windows, a domed ceiling lined with maps, weapons, and war plans—and it was where we made decisions—unforgiving ones.
The door creaked open and four pairs of eyes snapped to me.