They were watchinghimreact to her. Mapping his priorities. Learning how quickly the Alpha King would abandon everything else when something threatened what was his.
And now they knew.
Through the bond, he felt Elsa’s heartbeat beginning to slow as the immediate danger passed. Her fear easing into wary alertness. Her mind already turning to analysis, to understanding—the endless tactical calculations that made her so much more than the soft prey his court believed her to be.
She was planning something. He could feel it in the purposeful edge of her thoughts, the new determination that had nothing to do with survival and everything to do with action.
A life that didn’t orbit him.
Sylas’s claws punctured stone.
The sound echoed through the damaged corridor, sharp as the jealousy he couldn’t quite suppress.
He should be pleased. A human with purpose was easier to guide than one who’d given up entirely.
Instead, all he could think was:They’re trying to take her from me.
Not physically. Not yet. But piece by piece, connection by connection, they were weaving a web of influence that had nothing to do with him—and everything to do with drawing her away from his control.
The infirmary time had been a mistake. The freedom to bond with others had been a mistake. Every inch of room he’d given her had been a mistake, because she’d used it to build something separate, somethinghers, something that didn’t need him at all.
And his enemies had noticed.
Sylas turned from the sabotaged conduit and walked toward his chambers, where his human waited with new confidence in her eyes and new allies in her mind.
He would not make the same mistake twice.
22
Elsa
The plan was simple. That should have been Elsa’s first warning.
Three human women. Lux Saber escort. A polite request to verify the wellbeing of fellow survivors. Everything above board, everything by the rules—or close enough to look that way.
Mia had taken convincing. She’d flinched when Elsa first approached her in the corridor outside Yarx’s infirmary, her pale eyes darting toward the guards stationed at either end like she was calculating escape routes. The same hunted look Elsa had seen in the medical bay after the crash—before either of them knew what this world would cost them.
“You want to go where?”
“The pit access corridor.” Elsa kept her voice steady, conversational. The kind of tone she’d used with nervous ship captains and territorial navigators back when her world still made sense. “I want to deliver food and medicine. Check on Rowan and Milo. Make sure they’re still alive.”
Mia’s jaw tightened. She had a way of going still that reminded Elsa of prey animals sensing a trap. “You want to walk into the pits and ask nicely if we can visit the prisoners.”
“I want to make a formal request through proper channels. With witnesses. With an escort.” Elsa met her gaze without flinching. “Hard to accuse us of sneaking when we’re announced at every checkpoint.”
Something flickered behind Mia’s careful composure. Not hope—Mia had learned not to trust hope in this place—but calculation. The math of survival that every human in the fortress ran constantly, weighing risks against rewards against the simple question of making it to tomorrow.
“And if they say no?”
“Then I document the refusal. I escalate. I make it clear that the Alpha King’s claimed female was denied a reasonable request, and I make sure everyone who matters knows about it.” Elsa paused. “They don’t have to let us in. They just have to look unreasonable when they refuse.”
The silence stretched between them. Somewhere down the corridor, a door opened and closed. Claws clicked against stone. The fortress breathed around them, alive with sounds Elsa was still learning to parse.
“You really think that’ll work?”
Elsa thought about Sylas. About the bond that tugged at her awareness even now, that constant low hum of connection she couldn’t ignore no matter how hard she tried. About the way the court watched her every move, weighing her worth, calculating her usefulness.
“I think,” she said carefully, “that being the Alpha’s claimed female has to be worth something. And I’d rather find out where the limits are now than discover them later when it matters more.”