Kaelen POV

"So what is it?" I asked coldly.

We were alone now. Darius had given us a tight nod before continuing ahead, leaving the two of us behind, but even then, my irritation hadn’t lessened.

If anything, it had gotten much worse as my mind refused to stop replaying the scene I had walked into.

How close Darius had been standing to her, how his hand had been under her chin, and most importantly, how she hadn’t pulled away.

I didn’t even know why the hell it bothered me this much. All I knew was that every time the image flashed through my head, my mood darkened even further.

"Well..." she began, her fingers nervously fidgeting with the fabric of her dress. "I need something to do."

Hearing that, I let out a scoff. "Didn’t you say you didn’t want to work? So what’s this new bullshit you’re spewing now?"

Her green eyes widened slightly at the harshness of my tone, but I didn’t give a fuck.

"Yes, I don’t want to work as a maid," she replied, trying to keep her voice steady. "But I also can’t just sit in my room all day waiting for you to want me. I just need something to occupy my time. That’s all."

"Occupy your time?" I repeated with a harsh, mocking laugh. "What’s your level of education?"

"I..."

"Did you even finish school?" I cut her off sharply.

For someone with her background, someone who had supposedly spent her life consorting with lowlife rogues, there was no reason for me to assume she had received any proper education.

She was nothing but a rogue and a thief.

What else could she possibly be useful for?

"I asked you a question," I pressed, taking a step closer. "Did you finish school?"

Had she even attended one?

"No," she admitted quietly, her voice dropping until it was barely above a whisper. "But I can still—"

"What exactly can you do?" I finally snapped, the words ripping out of my throat before I could stop them. "You can’t help me with paperwork. You can’t contribute to important pack discussions. You have no education, no training, no qualifications that would make you useful in any official capacity, and no value beyond what you were born with."

The moment the words left my mouth, I saw her shoulders stiffen.

But fueled by an irritation I couldn’t seem to control, I kept going.

"The only thing someone like you is good for is scrubbing floors and spreading your legs. Since you refuse to do the first, stop complaining and focus on the second. Because so far, that’s the only thing I see you’re worth."

The vicious words hung in the air between us like poison.

She stared at me, completely frozen. Her lips parted slightly as if she wanted to defend herself, but no words came out. Instead, her eyes, those striking green eyes I had recently found myself getting lost in, filled rapidly with tears.

Why the fuck was she crying?

More importantly, why the hell was my chest tightening at the sight of it?

A strange, uncomfortable pang hit me square in the chest, but I forced my expression to remain cold and unreadable.

"Oh," she whispered.

Her voice cracked painfully as she struggled to hold herself together. She blinked rapidly, trying to keep the tears at bay, but she failed. A single tear slipped free and rolled down her flushed cheek.

"I’m sorry," she said softly. "I just thought..."

The rest of the sentence died in her throat.

She lowered her head immediately, hiding her face from me as another tear followed the first.

"I’m so sorry."

My hands twitched at my sides as I stared at her trembling frame.

I opened my mouth to say something, but no words came.

What the hell was I supposed to say?

Nothing I could think of would sound any less worse than the garbage I had already thrown at her.

I had taken every ounce of my frustration and dumped it onto her shoulders. The worst part was that it hadn’t even made me feel better.

If anything, I felt worse.

Watching tears stream down her face made me feel like absolute shit, and I hated that feeling more than anything.

With a frustrated exhale, I turned on my heel and stormed away.

I couldn’t stand there and look at her for another second.

My shoes pounded heavily against the stone floor as I made my way through the estate. Guards stepped aside without a word as I passed. Servants scrambled to get out of my path, sensing the murderous mood radiating from me.

I ignored all of them.

By the time I reached the garage, my jaw was clenched so tightly it ached.

The large doors were already open and Darius was seated behind the wheel of the black SUV with the engine running.

Without a word, I yanked open the passenger door and climbed inside, slamming it shut hard enough to rattle the vehicle.

I stared straight ahead through the windshield as Darius shifted into drive.

The heavy iron gates of the compound slowly opened before us, and moments later we were on the road.

The drive would take nearly three hours. Three whole fucking hours.

And during every single minute of it, I didn’t say a word.

The only thing replaying in my head, over and over like a sickening loop, was the scene I had left behind.

Her tears, her trembling voice, and the way she had seemed to shrink into herself as she apologized.

Fuck.

This wasn’t the first time I had spoken to someone that way. In fact, what I had said to her was mild compared to some of the things that had come out of my mouth during one of my tempers.

When I was in a bad mood, everyone suffered for it. Servants, guards, advisors. Even Darius wasn’t immune.

And yet I had never felt a single shred of guilt afterward. Not once.

So why now?

Why couldn’t I stop thinking about it?

Why did the image of her crying feel like a lead weight lodged in my chest?

"Fix your face." Darius’s voice finally cut through the suffocating silence.

I looked up just as we drove through the massive gates of the Central Convocation Hall, the neutral territory where Alphas from allied regions gathered to meet with me.

The building stood in the heart of the Empire’s capital. It was a massive ancient structure, its towering stone walls rising toward the sky, carrying centuries of history within them as it had existed for centuries.

"So you don’t scare the shit out of everyone before the meeting even starts," Darius added casually, and my fists immediately clenched at my sides.

Hearing Darius’s taunting voice only stoked the fire beneath my skin, as part of this foul mood was his fault to begin with.

At this point, I didn’t even want to attend this godforsaken meeting anymore.

No.

I wasn’t going to fix my face.

If anything, these Alphas were about to become the unfortunate victims of my temper since I currently had no one else to direct it at.

The SUV rolled to a smooth stop in front of the Convocation Hall’s grand entrance.

Outside, a line of well-dressed wolves stood waiting on the stone steps.

Representatives from more than a dozen territories had gathered for today’s meeting, and the moment they spotted the vehicle, nervous smiles immediately appeared on their faces.

Every one of them straightened their posture.

Every one of them looked tense, already bracing themselves for the arrival of their King.

Unfortunately for them, I was in the worst mood imaginable.