Chapter 7: Silk and Scrolls

Maeve’s POV

The silk clung to my skin like sin itself.

Soft. Crimson. Low cut.

Mira had gasped when I stepped out of my room.

“Are you certain, my lady?” she’d asked, wide-eyed, eyes flicking to the slit running up my thigh.

“Quite,” I had replied with a smile that didn’t reach my eyes.

She didn’t need to know how long I had stared into the mirror, second-guessing everything.

But in the end, the decision had been easy.

If Alpha Kael wouldn’t claim me by instinct, then I would make it impossible for him to ignore the truth his wolf already knew.

I arrived at the mansion with my heart thudding like war drums. The guards barely glanced at me, accustomed now to my presence. But I didn’t miss the subtle widening of the older one’s eyes as I passed. I smiled. Good.

Let Kael hear about it.

Let him imagine the shape of me before I even walked through his door.

I found him in his study, as I’d hoped. The heavy door creaked as I pushed it open. Sunlight poured through tall windows, catching the gold edges of his black robes as he stood behind his desk, head bent over a scroll.

His head lifted at the sound of my heels.

For a moment, he didn’t move.

Just stared.

His eyes swept down my body in a slow, reluctant drag, like a man biting his tongue against a growl.

When they met mine again, they were guarded, too guarded.

"Lady Maeve," he said, voice low and careful. "You look... refined."

"Refined?" I arched a brow as I walked toward him, letting my hips sway just a touch more than usual. “That’s one word for it.”

His eyes flicked to the book in his hand as if he suddenly remembered its existence.

"I meant it as a compliment."

"I know." I sat across from him, crossing my legs, watching him pretend not to look. "But I was hoping for something a little more... passionate."

"You’re playing a dangerous game," he said quietly, not meeting my gaze.

"Only if you’re afraid of losing.”

That pulled a twitch from his mouth. Almost a smile.

We sat in tense silence for a beat too long before I leaned forward. “Tell me, Alpha... do you often spend your evenings brooding over scrolls? Or is that just your way of avoiding your feelings?”

His eyes narrowed slightly, the faintest spark of amusement flashing in their depths.

“I find brooding far more productive than being reckless with emotions.”

“Spoken like a man who’s never been in love,” I teased, watching the way his jaw clenched.

“I’ve lived long enough to know what love becomes when the fire burns out.”

I tilted my head, studying him. “And what do you think love becomes?”

“A burden,” he said flatly.

The air shifted between us. Heavy. Tense. Truthful.

“And yet you still indulge me,” I said softly. “You still asked me to visit. You still look at me like I’m the only fire that could ever touch you without burning you alive.”

He didn’t deny it.

Didn’t look away, either.

Instead, he stood slowly and walked to the shelves behind him.

“If you’re going to accuse me of brooding, you might as well do it while reading something worthwhile.”

He pulled out a leather-bound volume and handed it to me.

The Philosophy of Empires.

I blinked at it, and snorted. “You think this is what I need?”

“I think if you’re going to challenge the thoughts of an Alpha, you should learn how they’re made.”

I laughed softly, trailing a finger down the worn spine. “History, politics, and philosophy. You’re determined to make me fall for your mind instead of your body.”

His lips twitched, but it wasn’t amusement. It was caution. “It would be safer for both of us that way.”

“Would it?” I stood and walked to him, slowly, clutching the book against my chest.

We were close again. Too close.

I could feel the heat rolling off him. The tension humming between us like a taut string waiting to snap.

He didn’t back away.

Instead, he turned and gestured toward the far end of the room. “Come with me.”

We ascended the spiral staircase just beyond the study—something I’d never noticed before, hidden behind a half-curtained archway. The stone steps curved tightly, wrapping around until we reached the final floor of the mansion.

His private chambers, where he lived.

A hidden staircase? Of course he would.

The door he opened wasn’t just another room.

It was a world.

Bookshelves lined every wall, towering to the ceiling, crammed with scrolls, tomes, and volumes in languages I didn’t recognize. There was a large desk beneath the massive window, a long couch near the hearth, and a bed tucked in the corner with dark navy sheets, barely made.

My eyes widened.

“This is your personal library,” I whispered, stepping in slowly.

Kael nodded. “It’s part of my chambers. My refuge.”

“And you’re letting me in?”

He didn’t answer. Just motioned toward a seat by the window. “You said you wanted to understand the world better. Start here.”

There was something intimate in the air. Not sexual. Not yet. But intimate, like he was handing me a piece of his mind to hold in mine.

I sat.

He handed me a thick volume, different from the first one, and watched as I opened it.

“Read,” he said. “Learn what it means to rule with your head, not just your heart.”

“And you?” I looked up. “Are you going to stay and teach me?”

“No,” he said, backing toward the stairs. “I trust you’ll be too distracted by ideas to notice I’ve left.”

I smiled, not looking away from him even as he reached the top step.

“You’re wrong, Alpha.”

“About what?”

“I notice everything about you.”

His eyes lingered for a beat longer than they should have. Then he was gone.

And I was left in the middle of his world, with a book in my lap, desire in my chest, and a dangerous plan unfolding in my mind.

He could try to guard his heart all he wanted.

But I had just been granted entrance to the one place he never let outsiders enter.

He didn’t realize what he’d done. But I did.

He had let me in, into his mind, his world.

And I have no plans of leaving empty handed.