chapter 4

Chapter 4

The iron door clanged shut, plunging Kaelen into a silence so profound it was almost deafening. The single lightbulb above flickered erratically, casting long, dancing shadows across the cramped room. She was alone, but the weight of Silas's presence lingered, a cold, clinical ghost. His offer echoed in her mind, a deal with a devil she barely knew, yet understood all too well. To kill a king, sometimes you needed a fellow wolf.

The cot was hard and smelled of disinfectant. She sat on its edge, her fingers tracing the worn lines on her sidearm. She was used to solitude, to the hard-won freedom of the open road, but this was a different kind of confinement. This was a cage with a key, and Silas held it. She didn't trust him. A man who could so easily betray his own leader was a man who couldn't be trusted. But a man who saw the same rot and weakness she did? That was a man you could work with, for a time.

A low thud from the other side of the door broke her reverie. The door slid open, and Silas was there again. This time, he carried a tray with a bowl of something steaming and a tin cup. He placed it on the small table without a word.

"Food," he said, his voice flat. "It's not much, but it's not poisoned."

Kaelen eyed the bowl warily. "Is that supposed to be a joke?"

Silas’s lips twitched, but no smile formed. "Just a fact. Gideon likes his food. He assumes everyone else does too. He'd never waste good poison on a potential weapon."

He was still standing in the doorway, a dark, imposing figure. The flickering light caught the scar over his eyebrow, making it look like a fresh wound. She was a predator, and so was he. Two wolves, circling. But in this enclosed space, their animal instincts were heightened, twisted into something else entirely. It was a dangerous magnetism, a recognition of a shared darkness.

"Why me?" she asked, her voice low. "You're smart enough to do this yourself."

Silas leaned against the doorframe, his arms crossed over his chest. "Gideon knows me. He knows my every move, every thought. He doesn't know you. You are a ghost, a legend he thinks he buried. You're the perfect knife for a king's back."

He wasn't just offering her a deal; he was offering her a partnership based on mutual destruction and a shared history of violence. He was talking to her like a partner, not a prisoner. The cold, logical part of her mind saw the merit in it, saw the intricate trap he was building. But the other part, the part that had been running for so long, felt a spark of something she hadn't felt in a long time. A challenge. A twisted kind of camaraderie.

He stepped inside the room, pushing the door shut behind him. The sound of the latch clicking into place was loud and final. The room shrank, the air growing thick with an unspoken tension. He was close enough now that she could see the flecks of gold in his stormy gray eyes, close enough to feel the heat radiating from him. The flicker of the lightbulb was their only witness.

He took another step closer, his eyes fixed on hers. "There's a fire in you, Kaelen," he said, his voice dropping to a low growl. "Gideon tried to put it out, but he only made it burn hotter. You and I are the same, you know that? We're both wolves, caught in a world of sheep. But there are no sheep in this room. Just two wolves."

He raised a hand, his fingers stopping just short of her face, hovering over the scar on her cheek—a souvenir from her last run-in with Gideon. The air crackled between them. It was a moment of dangerous, intoxicating recognition. It wasn't affection or tenderness. It was something far more primal: the acknowledgment of a kindred spirit, a mirror held up to her own shadowed soul. This wasn't a romance born of love, but one forged in the heat of a shared vendetta.

"The question isn't whether you'll betray me," he whispered, his voice rough. "It's a matter of when. And I'll be ready for it."

He finally let his fingers brush against her cheek, a touch as cold as steel but with a strange, possessive intensity. He was staking his claim, not just on her loyalty, but on a partnership built on fire and vengeance. Kaelen didn't flinch. She met his gaze, her own eyes a reflection of the wilderness outside.

"Good," she breathed, the word a promise. "So will I."

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