Betrayed by My Ex, Marked by His Alpha Emperor Brother

Chapter 62

Elara’s POV

"I was starting to think she kept all the handsome ones hidden away for herself."

Finnian blinked. Then laughed—a real laugh, warm and surprised, like he’d forgotten that sound existed somewhere inside him. The rigid line of his shoulders loosened by a fraction. His hand was still wrapped around Brenna’s.

"She didn’t mention you either," he said. "Which seems like a serious oversight."

Brenna tilted her head. Her dark eyes sparkled. "Ela has a habit of leaving out the important details. I’ve learned to just show up and fill in the blanks myself."

"Efficient," Finnian said.

"I prefer ’indispensable.’"

They were still holding hands.

I watched this unfold from behind the safety of my wooden spoon, a strange warmth spreading through my chest that had nothing to do with the steam rising from the pot. Brenna’s cheeks were pink—not just from the cold anymore. And Finnian... Finnian looked like a man who had just walked out of a dark room into unexpected sunlight.

Beside me, Kaelen radiated displeasure like a furnace. His knife came down on a tomato with more force than necessary. The blade hit the cutting board with a sharp crack.

I ignored him.

"Those eyes," Brenna murmured, releasing Finnian’s hand at last but not stepping back. She gestured vaguely toward his face. "Are those real? That shade of blue shouldn’t be legal."

Finnian’s ears turned red. Genuinely red. The blush crept up from his collar and consumed his entire neck. He rubbed the back of his head. "They’re—yes. They’re real. Just what I was born with, nothing special."

"Nothing special, he says." Brenna looked at me over her shoulder. "Ela, are you hearing this?"

"I’m hearing it," I said, unable to suppress a smile.

"And yours," Finnian said quietly, recovering with the steadiness I’d come to associate with him. He met Brenna’s gaze directly. "Brown like autumn. Warm. The kind that makes a person feel like they’ve come home."

Brenna’s mouth opened. Closed. Opened again. For the first time in all the years I’d known her, she was speechless.

The moment hung in the air like a held breath.

Then Kaelen’s knife cracked down on the cutting board again, splitting a tomato clean in half with the precision of an executioner.

Both Finnian and Brenna flinched.

"So," Kaelen said, his voice deceptively casual. "Finnian. You work in the north?"

Finnian turned toward him. The softness that had appeared during his exchange with Brenna didn’t disappear entirely, but it was joined by caution. He straightened. "I do. My family runs a smithy in our territory. Ironwork, mostly. Weapons, tools, structural fittings."

"A blacksmith." Kaelen’s tone was flat. Neither impressed nor dismissive. Simply... cataloguing.

"Among other things." Finnian folded his arms across his chest. "We supply several northern estates. I’m in the capital to meet with a new supplier tomorrow morning."

"Tomorrow morning," Kaelen repeated.

"That’s right."

A silence followed that could have cut glass.

I turned from the stove, wiping my hands on a cloth. "Which reminds me—Finnian, where are you staying tonight? You mentioned you haven’t arranged lodging yet."

Finnian shook his head. "I figured I’d find an inn near the merchant quarter. Something simple."

"Don’t be ridiculous." The words left my mouth before I’d thought them through. "You escorted me all the way from the north. Your family took me in when I had nothing. The least I can do is offer you a place to sleep."

Kaelen went very still beside me. The kind of stillness that preceded storms.

I didn’t notice. I was already working through the logistics, counting rooms in my head.

"The apartment is small, but we can make it work," I continued. "Valerius has a trundle bed in his room. You could take that. And Brenna—" I turned to her. "You could stay in my room with me. We’ve shared tighter spaces."

"We literally shared a cot once," Brenna confirmed. "For weeks. I still have the back pain."

"See? It’s settled." I smiled at Finnian. "You’ll stay here."

The word "No" came from two directions simultaneously.

Finnian said it with a polite shake of his head, already raising one hand. "Ela, I couldn’t possibly impose on you like—"

Kaelen said it like a verdict handed down from the throne. Low. Final. The single syllable carried enough weight to crack the floorboards.

"No."

They looked at each other. The fact that they’d spoken in unison seemed to irritate both of them equally.

Finnian recovered first. He turned to me with that careful, considerate expression I knew so well. "It wouldn’t be right. You’ve already done too much. I don’t want to crowd your family."

"It’s not crowding," I insisted. "It’s one night."

"Elara." Kaelen’s voice was quiet. Controlled. But the undercurrent running beneath it was anything but. He set the knife down on the cutting board—slowly, deliberately—and turned to face me fully.

The kitchen shrank.

His monarch aura hadn’t fully receded since he’d first walked through the door. Now it thickened, pressing against the walls, settling over the room like a heavy wool blanket in midsummer. The lamp on the counter flickered. Valerius, who had paused mid-lunge to watch the adults with wide eyes, climbed silently back onto his stool.

"A man," Kaelen said, "does not sleep under the same roof as an unmated woman and her child."

"He’s not sleeping under my roof," I argued. "He’d be sleeping in Valerius’s room. On a trundle bed. With the door closed. While Brenna and I are in an entirely separate room."

"In an apartment this size," Kaelen said, his dark gold eyes boring into mine, "there is no such thing as a separate room. He should find an inn."

"That’s absurd—"

"It’s not absurd. It’s a fact of architecture."

Finnian cleared his throat. "He’s right," he said, and I could see how much that admission cost him. "It’s too tight. I’ll find an inn."

"You will not find an inn," I said, my stubbornness flaring now. "It’s late, the merchant quarter inns are overpriced, and you spent a long time on the road getting me here safely. I owe your family more than I can ever repay, and the least—the absolute least—I can do is give you a bed for one night."

The silence that followed was suffocating.

Kaelen’s jaw worked. A vein pulsed in his temple. His gaze shifted from me to Finnian and back again with the controlled precision of a predator deciding which threat to eliminate first. His hands rested on the counter, fingers pressing into the stone surface hard enough to whiten his knuckles.

I watched something dangerous calculate behind his eyes. Something shift from raw territorial fury into something colder. More strategic.

Then—slowly, like a drawbridge lowering—the tension in his shoulders changed. Not relaxed. Redirected.

"If lodging is the concern," Kaelen said, his voice suddenly smooth, almost pleasant, "then the solution is simple."

I narrowed my eyes. "What solution?"

He turned to Finnian. The hostility didn’t vanish from his expression—it was still there, simmering beneath the surface like magma under ice. But it was overlaid now with something worse.

Calculated, possessive, unmistakable generosity.

Finnian stared at him. Brenna stared at him. I stared at him.

The unspoken tension hung in the air like a silk-wrapped trap. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

Because refusing an emperor’s hospitality was an insult. And accepting it meant sleeping under Kaelen’s roof. Under Kaelen’s watch. Miles from my apartment, from my door, from any proximity to me.

Finnian understood. I could see it in the slight narrowing of his blue eyes, the way his jaw set. He knew exactly what this was.

But he was also a guest in this city. A human. Standing across from an Alpha emperor whose patience had been shredded to ribbons tonight.

The silence stretched. Valerius crunched a cucumber slice.

Finnian exhaled through his nose. "That’s... very generous of you."

"I have six bedrooms, with more guest space than I know what to do with," Kaelen said with hypocritical generosity. "Enough for a tired traveler to stretch out and rest properly before the long journey home. I insist."