Lorelei POV

I stared at him for a long moment, feeling my entire body turn to ice.

Could he really do that?

Well, of course he could.

He was the Alpha’s right-hand man. I had already witnessed the Alpha King kill a maid who drugged him without even blinking. Darius would be no different.

This was their world.

A life, especially a maid’s life, meant nothing to them.

"Well..." I started slowly, trying to find my voice through the sudden wave of fear. "She can be annoying, but so far... I think I can handle her."

I had been handling her fine up to this point.

I think.

At that exact moment, Darius’s gaze finally shifted to meet mine.

"Can you really?" he asked, leaning in a little closer.

I practically held my breath as I slowly nodded, but he simply shook his head at my naivety.

"Do you really think throwing a few words and a few fists can stop someone like that? Or are you forgetting what she did to you?" His voice dropped, turning dangerously low. "She almost got you killed, Ella, and she felt absolutely no remorse for it. Do you really think you can handle that?"

He had completely invaded my personal space now, his towering frame cutting off the morning sun. His face was only inches from mine as he hooked a single finger beneath my chin, tilting my head up until I had no choice but to look directly into those cold gray eyes.

"I have seen this play out countless times around here," he murmured, his breath fanning lightly against my skin. "There is only one way to truly solve a problem like her, and that’s..."

"Death," I finished for him, the word tasting like lead in my mouth.

The corners of his lips curled into a sharp, almost lethal smile that made my skin crawl.

"Just give me the word," he whispered, his eyes never leaving mine. "And I will have it done."

My legs suddenly felt weak as a heavy wave of horror washed over me.

I knew I should have pulled away from his touch. I should have told him an absolute, resounding no. I should have insisted that there had to be another way to handle this.

But my mind drifted back to everything that had happened since I arrived here.

There was a terrifyingly high chance I would have been executed by Kaelen the night I mistakenly entered his chamber.

There was an even higher chance I would have been brutally whipped or worked to death by Hawke after being falsely accused of stealing.

Chelsea knew exactly what the consequences of her actions would have been. She knew those accusations could have led to my death or torture, and she had gone to such horrific lengths anyway.

For what?

Simply because I had publicly challenged her for bullying someone else.

In a completely messed-up way, I had only survived this long through pure luck.

Despite our physical fight and the public humiliation I had just handed her in the corridor, Chelsea still refused to back down. If she wasn’t stopped now, how far would she go the next time? Wouldn’t it be better to end it before she actually succeeded in getting me killed?

My hands twitched nervously at my sides as I weighed the terrifying options.

Maybe it was because I had never killed anyone before, but this was an incredibly difficult decision for me to make.

"There is no rush," Darius murmured.

His voice softened slightly, as if he could somehow sense how uneasy I was.

"I know this is hard for you. There can always be a next time."

At his words, my tense shoulders finally relaxed, and I let out a long breath I hadn’t even realized I’d been holding.

"Why are you still wearing this uniform?" he asked suddenly.

I blinked, completely caught off guard by the abrupt change in topic. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

"What?"

"Your maid uniform," he clarified, his gray eyes flicking down toward the dress I was wearing. "You’re not a maid anymore. Didn’t the Alpha provide you with new clothes?"

"Ah..." I shifted uncomfortably. "No. I didn’t ask for any."

That caused him to frown slightly.

"What’s your size, then?" he asked, still not releasing my chin.

I hesitated for a moment before quietly telling him my measurements.

He simply hummed in response, nodding as he processed the information.

"There you are."

A deep, commanding voice suddenly cut through the quiet courtyard.

Both Darius and I snapped our heads toward the sound at the exact same time.

My eyes widened the moment I saw Kaelen standing only a few yards away.

His brows were drawn tightly together into a harsh line as he stared directly at us. More specifically, he was staring at Darius’s hand still hooked beneath my chin and at how dangerously close the two of us were standing.

But Darius didn’t immediately pull away in fear.

Instead, his thumb casually brushed along the underside of my chin for one deliberate second before he slowly stepped back, finally giving me some space.

The moment he did, I immediately lowered my head and bowed deeply in respect, my heart hammering against my ribs.

"Good morning, Alpha," I greeted, suddenly feeling my pulse race for reasons I didn’t understand.

"Am I interrupting something?" Kaelen asked.

His deep voice sliced through the morning air like ice.

Before I could even open my mouth to explain, Darius spoke first.

"Not at all," he said casually. "We were just taking a stroll outside while having a very fun conversation."

At that, Kaelen’s amber eyes shifted from me back to his Beta.

"A stroll," Kaelen repeated.

Immediately, a suffocating tension filled the air.

Neither man moved.

Neither looked away.

They simply stood there, locked in a silent, intense staring match that made the atmosphere feel ten times heavier.

I could only stand off to the side with my brows knitted together, completely frozen and utterly confused about what the hell was actually happening between the two of them.

"You know we have business to attend to," Kaelen finally said, breaking the silence without taking his eyes off Darius. "Let’s go."

Darius didn’t seem fazed in the slightest.

Instead, he turned back to me and offered a small, knowing smirk.

"I’ll be leaving now. Talk to you later, Ella."

With that, Darius walked toward Kaelen.

But just as both men were about to leave, my eyes widened in panic as I remembered the entire reason I had come outside in the first place.

I needed to speak to Kaelen.

"Wait!" I blurted out before I could stop myself.

Both men halted and turned to look at me.

Under their combined gazes, I swallowed hard and forced myself to meet the Alpha King’s eyes.

"I... I would like to have a quick conversation with you, Alpha, if you don’t mind," I said, trying to sound as respectful as possible.

"I do mind," Kaelen replied, as he looked down his nose at me with a completely unreadable expression.

"I’m busy."

"It will be quick," I insisted, taking a small step forward. "I promise."