Ehlian couldn’t look away. He was caught in those magnetic, mesmerising eyes and he could see himself climbing the hierarchy of the pack bond, higher and higher, until he was just a breath away from reaching Hayce’s side—
Something icy surged through him, slicing through the pack bond, and he plummeted—down, down—crashing hard at the bottom.
He blinked. The cell snapped back into focus. Cold reality hit hard. His eyes stung, as if something had been torn from them.
Hayce wasn’t looking at him anymore. Jaw tight, he stared out the window, where the bright side of Arox drifted slowly by. He radiated something Ehlian couldn’t quite name, his mental shield was so tightly drawn that nothing could get through.
As soon as Ehlian’s mind cleared, it dawned on him what really happened. What could have happened.
They nearly bonded.
He was such a colossal idiot, lowering his guard over a few kind words.
“I didn’t—don’t misread it,” he babbled. “It’s not like that—I’m just—”
“Don’t panic.” Hayce finally looked back at him. The amber flecks in his eyes had dulled, no longer glowing. Ehlian hated that he couldn’t read the emotions hidden behind them.
He hated this whole thing.
“It’s the pack bond,” Hayce said calmly. “It got stronger after we spent your heat together. Intimacy can confuse any telepathic connection.” Hayce picked up his book once more, adding like an afterthought, “There’s nothing more to it.”
“Yeah.” Ehlian swallowed. “That makes sense.”
Still, nothing like this had ever happened to Ehlian before. Not with other alphas, and he’d had more than one relationship.
Hayce looked so calm, so unbothered, while Ehlian was falling apart inside.
Fake. Only a deal. A need. A means to survive.
His mind echoed it like a mantra, yet each word sounded hollow, faint, no longer aligning with what he felt inside.
And that scared him more than anything else.
Chapter 14
“You have a visitor.”
Ehlian didn’t look up from the letter he was writing to Willian, only distantly registering that Hayce’s secret visitor was here again. His curiosity about what business they had with Hayce had grown stronger recently, but Ehlian brushed it aside, refusing to ask again.
“465, did you hear me?”
Ehlian snapped his head up, frowning. “For me?”
“Yes,” the guard said curtly. “Follow me.”
Ehlian glanced at Hayce, who appeared uninterested in the mysterious visitor.
Within ten minutes, they were in the visitors’ room, and a guard led him to one of the private cubicles. Ehlian froze in his tracks when he recognised the figure behind the glass.
Daribon, his attorney, offered him a small smile.
Unease pressed down on Ehlian’s chest. He hadn’t scheduled a visit, and he couldn’t think of a single reason for it, unless Daribon was here to deliver bad news.
“There’s nothing to worry about, Ehlian,” Daribon reassured him. “Please, take a seat.”
Ehlian sank into the chair, the unease still lingering. “I didn’t schedule a visit with you.”
“My assistant might have forgotten to inform the prison,” Daribon said. “We parted ways not long ago. I’m currently looking for a replacement.”
