The weight of it pressed hard against his ribs, sharp as a blade.
“The princess first left her home under the influence of Castiel Vaelmont,” he said, voice tight. “Youngest son of the Duke of Caerelle from Aethonia. You know them?”
Solmaz tilted her head thoughtfully.
“I know of the Vaelmonts. But Castiel himself? No. And I don’t know if he’s connected to this.”
Kaelen’s jaw flexed. Not yet connected—or too careful to leave proof?
Pawn or mastermind—it hardly mattered. The Beta had woven his lies too deliberately, stolen too much. He had wrapped Reiya’s fears around her like chains, dragged her into danger she couldn’t have seen coming.
But why? What did Castiel want? What was the ultimate prize he risked everything to take?
Kaelen’s fingers drummed once against his knee, forcing his thoughts into order.
Anger was a poor strategist.
He needed clarity. He needed to be ready for whatever came next.
He lifted his gaze back to Solmaz. “Did your sources from the Luminara Isles say the same?”
The woman’s smile was slow, her gaze flickering with quiet amusement.
“Ah, the Isles.” She paused deliberately, taking a slow sip of her tea. “I wondered if you’d bring them up.”
“It’s hard not to,” Kaelen replied, careful to keep his tone light. “Knowing it’s visited by all kinds of powerful people from across the nine kingdoms, and all the information trickling into the place.”
“Youwould know. You spent a few months there yourself, when your father sent you to study under one of my sworn sisters.”
For a moment, her eyes glinted with a teasing light, her tone a mix of amusement and sharp memory. “I remember how you were back then: young, wide-eyed, overconfident—just like every young Alpha noble sent to the Isles. Did you figure out why your father sent you there?”
Kaelen held her gaze, her words stirring memories he hadn’t revisited in years. The Luminara Isles had been unlike anything he’d expected. At eighteen, he’d stepped onto those shores with the arrogance of a young Alpha certain of his destiny. He’d thought the training would be about mastery of dominance, about refining the power that pulsed through his blood.
But it had been far more than that.
The Moonflower trusted with his education had stripped him of his bravado with disarming grace, teaching him that control began not by mastering others but by masteringhimself. She’d taught him patience and precision, to understand the needs of an Omega beyond instinct, to turn natural dominance into something deeper—a bond meant to last.
He still remembered those lessons—the admonishments, softly-spoken but never meant to spare his pride, the way every misstep had been met with a knowing look that made him flush despite himself.
At the beginning, he hadn’t understood why his father had sent him. But as the weeks passed, it became clear: the training wasn’t for him. It was for his future Omega bride.
The lessons were meant to shape him into an Alpha worthy of thebond.
The bond was more than marriage, more than claiming, more than duty. The world often reduced it to something simple—an Alpha taking an Omega as his, sealing the arrangement with a bite mark, often brutally inflicted upon the woman. Most thought the journey ended the moment an Alpha marry an Omega, tie her to him by the law of king and land. But a marriage was only a shallow imitation of what the bond was truly meant to be.
It was an unbreakable tether, something that went beyond instinct and reason, something not every Alpha and Omega pair could achieve. Most never did. An Alpha could claim, mark, and promise, but they could not force a bond.
An Omega had tochooseit—not with words alone, or even with her body, but with something deeper. She had to trust her Alpha with every part of her being. Only then would her instincts surrender to the bond, recognizing it as something lasting. Eternal.
Kaelen had been raised for that very thing. Not just to court an Omega’s favour, not to win her obedience—but to become the Alpha she would choose to stay with. Freely. Forever.
His father and mother had been such a couple. That was why, even after his queen’s death, King Azarion had never taken another wife, never sought to replace what had been lost. Hecouldmarry again—any Omega of noble blood would’ve secured an advantageous match—but Kaelen doubted he’d ever attempt another bond.
Some things couldn’t be replicated, no matter how much time passed.
“At first, I thought he sent me to Luminara Isles as a test,” Kaelen replied, his lips quirking into a self-deprecating smile. “A chance to prove I was Solthar’s gift on earth. But later, I realized it was something else—a lesson in humility.”
Solmaz threw her head back and laughed, the sound rich and unguarded, but without mockery. As one of Luminara Isles’ former Moonflowers herself, she must be well-acquainted with many young Alphas’ rude awakenings.
