Chapter 147 - 0147
Kaelen POV
"You said there were no severe side effects," I hissed at the healer, forcing myself to keep my voice low so I wouldn’t wake Ella. She was finally asleep on my bed, her fever slowly coming down after the sedative he had given her.
The old man trembled beneath my glare. His chest rose and fell rapidly as he instinctively shrank back against the wall.
"It... it doesn’t, Alpha," he stammered, his voice shaking. "It usually doesn’t."
He knew exactly how dangerous I could become when my temper snapped.
And right now, I was hanging by a thread.
My patience had already been worn dangerously thin after the interrogation with Darius. Hours of relentless torture had finally broken Julian, and when he confessed, he revealed something we hadn’t even thought to ask.
The entire incident at the club had been orchestrated by members of the Council.
Their goal had never been to simply get their hands on Ella. They wanted to force her into heat, record her in bed with another man, and use the footage against me. The fact that they had known she was leaving the estate meant only one thing.
There was still a rat hiding within my own household.
I had spent the entire morning tearing the estate apart in search of the traitor, questioning servants, interrogating guards, and turning over every stone I could find.
I found nothing.
To make matters worse, just as Julian was about to reveal the names of the elders behind the plot, he suddenly began choking on his own blood before collapsing dead at my feet.
Once again, they had used the forbidden Silence Curse, the Council’s favorite way of ensuring their loyal pawns never lived long enough to expose them.
Without names or evidence, all I had were suspicions, and suspicions weren’t enough to wage war against the Council.
For now, all I could do was tighten Ella’s security, and now she was lying in my bed, burning with a fever.
"Then why is she in this state?" I demanded through gritted teeth, my fists clenching so tightly my knuckles turned white.
For a brief moment, my mind drifted back to the day he had handed me the fertility supplement.
He had called it his masterpiece.
The strongest brew he had ever created.
He had assured me it would dramatically increase Ella’s chances of getting pregnant quickly, exactly as I had requested.
The only reason I had secretly started lacing her meals with it was because he had explicitly sworn it wouldn’t have any serious side effects. According to him, the worst she would experience was occasional nausea.
"It... it isn’t because of the fertility supplements, Alpha! I swear it!" the healer babbled, the promise of death in my eyes clearly terrifying him. He immediately bared his neck in submission before rushing to explain. "The two of you were... intimate far more than her body could physically endure. Combined with the highly concentrated aphrodisiac she was given at the club, it pushed her stamina well beyond its limits. Her immune system simply crashed from the strain. It isn’t anything serious, I promise you, Alpha King."
Hearing that, the rigid tension in my shoulders slowly began to ease.
Now that I stopped to think about it, the healer wasn’t wrong.
Last night, she had been... completely unlike herself.
Driven out of her mind by the drug, she had chased every wave of pleasure with a desperate, insatiable hunger that left me with no reason to hold back.
Even I had nearly grown tired.
Nearly.
Considering this might be the only time I would ever see her in a state where she was the one pulling me closer instead of pushing me away or pleading for me to stop after barely three rounds, I couldn’t bring myself to even think about getting tired. I hadn’t wanted to waste a single moment.
"My only advice is for the two of you to abstain for at least a week," the healer continued, finally relaxing as my expression returned to normal. "The medicine I administered will bring her fever down, and within a day or two, she should make a full recovery."
At his words, I gave a single nod in acknowledgment.
After the healer bowed and quietly took his leave, the room fell into a heavy silence.
I slowly made my way back to the bed and stood over her sleeping form, my gaze lingering on her peaceful face as everything that had happened earlier replayed vividly in my mind.
"Please... Kaelen... do it for me?"
Her soft, melodic voice as she whispered my name, paired with those wide, glassy eyes filled with helplessness, kept echoing in my head. I had tried so damn hard back in my office to act like hearing her say my name, or even simply hearing her say please, hadn’t completely shattered every ounce of my resolve.
But sitting here now, alone with her, I couldn’t stop the small, genuine smile that tugged at the corners of my lips.
"What am I going to do with you?" I murmured quietly.
I lowered myself onto the edge of the mattress beside her and gently brushed a few stray strands of blonde hair away from her forehead. My thumb traced the warm curve of her cheek before lingering along the soft line of her jaw.
"You finally figured me out," I whispered, watching her chest rise and fall in a slow, peaceful rhythm. A quiet chuckle escaped me as I shook my head. "That’s definitely not good for me."
Saying that, I leaned in, intending to steal a soft kiss from her sleeping lips when the sharp buzz of my phone shattered the moment.
A low growl rumbled in my chest as I pulled away and reached into my pocket. The instant I saw the caller ID belonged to one of my men, my jaw tightened.
"This better be important," I said the moment I answered.
"Alpha," the guard stammered, his voice laced with panic. "Forgive me for disturbing you, but your presence is urgently needed at the eastern perimeter armory."
I let out an irritated scoff, and my grip tightened around the phone. "Why the fuck are you calling me? Is my Beta dead?"
There was a long, awkward pause.
"Uh... no, Alpha," the guard finally answered. "But... the Beta said he lost his voice."
Slowly, I raised a brow.
"And how, exactly," I asked flatly, "did he communicate that tragic news to you?"
"With... with his voice, sir," the man answered nervously.
I closed my eyes and let out a long, exhausted sigh. "You are exceptionally stupid, you know that?"
"Yes, Alpha. Completely, sir," the guard replied without missing a beat, causing me to pinch the bridge of my nose and shake my head.
As much as I had no intention of leaving her side, it was painfully obvious this was Darius’s childish, petty way of getting back at me.
Fuck you very much, Darius.
"Fine. I’ll be there in twenty minutes," I growled as I pushed myself to my feet.
"Wait! Before you hang up, Alpha," the guard blurted out in a rush. "That woman called again..."
I nearly rolled my eyes into the back of my head as I asked, "What does she want now?"
"She wanted me to remind you about your scheduled meeting tomorrow afternoon."
"Wonderful," I replied dryly, and before the idiot could say another word that might genuinely test my patience, I ended the call.
With that done, my gaze drifted back to the bed, settling on Ella’s peaceful sleeping face.
For a long moment, I simply stood there, memorizing her.
Then I walked back over, gently pulling the blanket higher around her shoulders before brushing another loose strand of hair away from her face.
"Get some rest," I murmured softly, more to myself than to her.
Reluctantly, I turned and walked out of my chambers, quietly closing the door behind me.