12 A Crown Built on Silence 2
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12 A Crown Built on Silence 2
Kieran’s POV
The bottle went still in my hand.
My head snapped up. “What?”
Charles didn’t flinch. “Don’t play stupid.”
My pulse spiked. “What are you talking about?”
Charles sighed like he was tired of my denial.
“I’ve known you’ve been seeing Nyra for four years,” he said, blunt as a blade.
For a second, I couldn’t breathe.
My wolf surged, alarm, threat, instinct.
“You,” My voice came out hoarse. “How?”
Charles lifted a brow. “You smell like her half the time.”
My stomach dropped.
He continued, calm, matter-of-fact, almost annoyed. “And you go missing. You sneak away. You vanish for hours and come back looking like you’ve been given something you don’t deserve.” His eyes sharpened. “I’m your Beta, Kieran. And I’m your best friend. It’s my duty to know what threatens you, externally and internally.”
I stared at him, throat tight.
Charles stepped closer, voice lowering. “I’m not happy with how you’ve been hurting that girl.”
Anger flared, defensive and sharp. “I’m not hurting her.”
Charles’s gaze didn’t move. “Then what do you call it?”
Silence swallowed the room.
Charles shook his head slowly. “Being wolfless isn’t a plague. Not knowing her father isn’t a plague either. The only plague in this story is your fear.”
My jaw clenched so hard it ached.
“You don’t understand,” I snapped. “You have no idea what it costs.”
Charles’s eyes flashed. “Then explain it.”
I stood so fast the bottle rattled in my grip.
1/4
12 A Crown Built on Silence 2
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“If I tell everyone,” I said, voice tight, “I lose the Alpha position.”
Charles didn’t blink.
“What happens to us then?” I demanded. “We trained our whole lives for this. Our whole lives. You think the pack forgives a future Alpha who mates with an outcast bastard? You think they’ll follow me? You think they’ll respect me?”
My chest heaved.
“Would you forgive me,” I asked, the words raw, “for losing it? It means you won’t be beta,”
Charles stared at me for a long moment.
Then he said, steady and unflinching, “Nothing should be more important than your mate.”
The sentence hit me like a punch.
I let out a rough laugh. “Easy for you to say.”
“It’s not,” Charles replied. “But it’s true.”
I dragged a hand through my hair again, pacing, desperate for something that didn’t exist.
“I just need time,” I said. “A little time. Once I secure the position, I can call off the engagement to Beverly. I can claim Nyra openly.” My voice dropped, breaking slightly. “I can’t lose her, Charles. I love
her.”
Charles’s expression didn’t soften.
“I hope it won’t be too late,” he said quietly.
The words slid under my ribs and twisted.
“Nyra isn’t going to hang around forever,” Charles went on. “A woman like that, beautiful, loyal, starved for kindness, doesn’t stay starving once she realises she can eat somewhere else.”
My stomach turned violently.
The image flashed in my mind uninvited, Nyra in someone else’s arms, Nyra laughing for someone else, Nyra being held in daylight by a man who didn’t flinch at the world’s judgement.
My wolf snarled so hard inside me I nearly doubled over.
Mine.
Mine.
I squeezed my eyes shut, breathing through the rage and fear.
“She wouldn’t,” I whispered, but it sounded like a prayer, not certainty.
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A Crown Built on Silence 2
Charles’s gaze sharpened. “You’re gambling with fate.”
I swallowed hard.
My wolf pressed against me again, frantic now.
Claim her.
Now.
Tonight.
I exhaled, shaking, and forced my mind back to the only plan I had left.
Just a little longer.
Just until Ronan returns.
Just until the pack sees I’m strong enough.
Just until the seat is mine.
Then Nyra will forgive me. 3
She has to.
We’re fated.
We’re bonded.
We’re,
I clung to the thought like it was a rope over a cliff.
And deep down, where truth lived, something in me whispered that ropes could snap.
But I shut that voice out.
Because fear was easier than losing her.
And I couldn’t survive losing her. 1
Karima Sa’ad Usman
Author
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Thank you for coming on this adventure. I hope you enjoy this story. Don’t forget to leave a review, comment, and vote. It will help this book go a long way. Thank you.
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