Chapter 38: Enemy

Flora’s gaze moved from Kai and settled on Levi. She knew Kai had just lied to her. Sure Levi was a servant, but she knew damn well he hadn’t come here for laundry, and she was tired of looking at him too.

She did not raise her voice, nor did she step closer. She simply looked at him and the temperature in the room seemed to drop another degree.

"Leave," she said with very little emotion, her voice carrying no room for negotiation.

Levi swallowed hard. Every instinct he had developed in this house screamed that speaking would only make the situation worse. He had already seen what happened when he tried to explain himself to people who had already decided what he was. He inclined his head once, short and careful, and moved toward the door without looking at Kai. The first heir did not stop him. He stepped into the corridor, pulled the door shut behind him with deliberate care, and only then let himself draw a full breath.

Inside the room, Flora waited until the latch clicked before finally letting her true emotions show..

"That creature," she curse, the words low and vicious, "was in your private rooms."

Kai remained near the center of the chamber, posture still controlled, though the strain beneath it had become more visible once Levi was gone. "Flora—"

"Do not." She turned fully toward him, the wine-dark fabric of her dress shifting with the motion. "Do not stand there and offer me another explanation. I walked in and found the Hill omega standing close enough to touch you, with your hand still on his arm and the air so thick with tension a blind servant could have felt it. And your first instinct was to tell me he had come for laundry."

A short, sharp breath left her, almost a laugh, except there was nothing humorous in it.

"Laundry," she repeated. "In the first heir’s private chambers. In the middle of the afternoon. While you looked at him as if he had just set the room on fire."

Kai’s jaw tightened. He did not move from where he stood. "The household still assigns residual duties. He remains a blood debt under this roof, and while I understand it’s not ideal for him to work for me under the recent circumstances, he still has to do his job."

"That job is finished." Flora’s voice rose only slightly, but the edge in it could have cut glass. "I do not want him near you. I do not want him in these rooms. I do not want him assigned to your laundry, your correspondence, your baths, or any other convenient fiction that puts him within reach of you again. Am I understood?"

"You are making this larger than it needs to be."

"Am I?" She stepped closer, the dominant Luna presence she usually kept carefully measured now fully present in the space between them. "I warned him, Kai. I sat in his room and gave him a simple, clear request. Stay away from you. Do not seek you out. Do not allow himself to be found. Pretend, for all practical purposes, that the first heir does not exist. I even offered him the courtesy of framing it as a path to peace between us. And what did he do with that chance?"

She gestured sharply toward the door Levi had just closed.

"He walked into your private rooms. And you—" her eyes narrowed, "—you did not immediately throw him out. You stood there and let it happen, and the first story you offered me was laundry."

Things began to make a lot more sense for Kai now. Flora’s threat was likely the reason Levi had acted so weirdly with him while he was on a walk with Elvis. He drew a breath and just stared at the visibly mad Luna before him. He could argue back or say something, but he really didn’t have the energy for it. His mind was still mostly focused on the ridiculous request Levi had just made.

"I think you’re overthinking things, maybe you need to take a moment to relax." Kai finally said, but that hadn’t worked.

"No! I’ve done enough relaxing, and I’ve given him enough chances," she said, more to the room than to Kai. "It was a simple request. Stay away. That was all. If he had listened, I wouldn’t even care for his existence. But he has disrespected me, and has refused the boundary I set. He’s made himself a problem I now have to address directly."

Kai watched her in silence. He had no idea Flora would get this jealous and insecure over an omega. He understood why she was being so careful, Levi was his true mate after all, and that bond was stronger than anything he had with Flora. She had a right to be worried, but she was definitely overreacting now.

"What do you intend to do?" he asked.

Flora stopped pacing. When she looked at him again, the rage had not disappeared; it had simply been refined into something more precise and far more threatening.

"First," she said, "he will no longer serve you in any capacity. I will speak to the household staff myself if necessary. And If the supervised wing requires management, it will be handled by someone else, not you. That omega does not set foot near your rooms again."

"And second?"

"Second," Flora continued, "he is going to learn what it means to make an enemy of me.."

She stepped closer to Kai again, close enough that the scent of her filled the space between them.

"I do not share," she said quietly. "Not the future of this territory. Not the first heir. And certainly not with a claimed servant who arrived as payment for a dead Luna. Keep him away from you, Kai. Or I will remove the problem myself, and I will not ask for your permission first."

The silence that followed was heavy.

Kai held her gaze for a moment, still trying to understand where all the rage was coming from. He let out a sigh, ran his fingers through his hair dramatically before finally coming up with a response. He did not want trouble, and he had too much on his plate already.

"I will speak to the staff," he said at last. His voice was even. "Levi will not be assigned to my rooms again."

Flora studied him for another long moment, as if weighing whether the concession was sufficient or simply the opening move in a longer negotiation. Then she smoothed an invisible crease from her sleeve, the gesture restoring a fraction of the public composure she had discarded.

"See that you don’t reconsider," she said. "I have already been more patient than the situation deserves."

She moved to the door, paused with her hand on the latch, and looked back once more.

"I’m glad you’re smart enough to recognize how serious this is."

She left without waiting for a reply, the door closing softly behind her.

Kai collapsed to his bed the moment some semblance of peace returned to his room. Despite how small of a problem that was, it had taken more than required from him, and he simply didn’t want to think about it anymore. However, what he couldn’t get out of his head was the omega’s request, and the unnatural feeling in his guts to fulfill that request.