Chapter 4: Rules
~Rowan’s POV
The hall was filled with music, clinking glasses, and forced laughter, but none of it reached me. Not truly. I stood beside my brothers, face carved in stillness, hands clenched behind my back. My wolf paced inside me, restless and snarling. Damon to my left wore his usual smirk, though it was thinner now, more brittle. And Kael...Kael looked like he could tear down the walls of the palace with his bare hands.
We were all unsettled. The entire evening had soured the moment we sensed that human girl was our mate. Our mate.
The Moon Goddess was either playing tricks or testing the depths of our patience.
I watched Kael grip his goblet too tightly. A hairline crack formed, and red wine trickled through his fingers like blood. Damon didn’t bother hiding his discomfort. He kept glancing at the doors, as if wanting to bolt.
The event dragged like an anchor through the mud. Courtiers bowed, nobles flattered, but none of it mattered anymore.
When the last of the guests finally departed, we left the hall like a storm, our silence heavy with rage. No one dared cross our path. The guards stepped aside. The servants bowed so low I feared their bones would snap. They knew what it meant when the Alphas were in a mood like this.
Kael was the first to speak.
"This is madness. A human?"
I said nothing.
"She can’t even shift. She has no wolf. The Moon Goddess must be mistaken," Kael growled, slamming his fist into a marble pillar. The crack echoed down the corridor.
"She isn’t mistaken," Damon said, his voice low.