Chapter 170: ¹⁷⁰: be a good girl

Chapter 170: 1??: be a good girl

"I am not!" Kael shot back, his voice leaving absolutely no room for argument. "I’m fine!"

I stared at him in disbelief. It was outrageous! My hand was practically burning from the heat radiating off his forehead, and he had the audacity to stand there and insist that he was perfectly fine?

"Kael, you have a fever! Even a child could tell that!" I snapped, my patience rapidly wearing thin as I glared at him. How could someone be so stubborn when it was painfully obvious that something was wrong with him?

"Athena, I’m telling you, I’m fine!" he insisted. "I know myself better than you do. This..." He pointed at himself, his eyes narrowing as he struggled to make me understand whatever it was he was trying to explain. "This isn’t a fever or anything like that. I know what it is, and I know what will help me."

I blinked at him, utterly bewildered. "Kael, why are you behaving like this?!" I demanded, moving my hands to his waist as I tried to get him to understand just how ridiculous he was being. "I can’t even understand what you’re talking about!"

Whatever he thought was happening to him, I couldn’t make sense of it. All I knew was that he was burning up, looked as though he had barely managed to make it here, and was now arguing with me instead of doing something about his condition.

"Come on. Let me help you to the bed. You need to rest in the state you’re in!"

Before he could protest again, I grabbed his arm and began pulling him toward the bed. I wasn’t about to stand there arguing with him all night. First, I would get him to lie down, and then I could figure out what to do next; whether that meant finding some medicine or getting someone to help him.

"Athena, rest is not what I need right now!" Kael gritted out.

I ignored him completely and made him sit on the edge of the bed.

"Kael, I’m getting worried about you, and this is how you’re behaving?" I demanded, my frustration rising as I looked at his flushed face. "I know you don’t consider our relationship anything more than an agreement, but helping someone who is so obviously in need of help doesn’t require a relationship!"

The moment the words left my mouth, I regretted them. Why had I brought up our agreement?

The last thing I wanted was for him to suspect that I was thinking about us as anything more than what we had agreed upon. I had spent the past seven days trying to convince myself to keep my distance from him, and now I was practically reminding him of the very thing I had been trying not to think about.

But then I looked at him again, at the unnatural flush on his face and the heat radiating from his body, and the regret faded beneath my concern.

I no longer cared what he might think of my words. Kael could interpret them however he pleased. He could believe I was acting out of obligation, pity, or nothing more than common sense. None of that mattered right now.

All I wanted was to make sure he was okay. Whatever confusion existed between us, whatever mistakes I had made, and whatever feelings I was struggling to put behind me could wait. I could deal with all of that later. Right now, I needed to help him.

With that thought firmly in my mind, I moved closer, intending to guide him back onto the bed so he could lie down properly.

I had barely leaned forward when everything happened in a flash. Kael moved with such startling speed that I didn’t even have time to react. One moment, I was standing in front of him, and the next, he had seized me, lifted me off my feet, and thrown me onto the bed.

"My God, Kael!" I screamed. My back hit the mattress with such force that the impact nearly knocked the air out of me. For a moment, I could only stare up at him, stunned by what had just happened.

Where had that strength come from? I knew Kael was powerful. He was the Alpha King, after all, and I had never mistaken him for someone weak. But this was different. The speed with which he had moved, the sheer ease with which he had lifted me, and the complete disregard for my attempts to help him left me struggling to make sense of the situation.

He had looked exhausted only moments ago. He was burning up, and yet he had just thrown me onto the bed as though I weighed nothing.

" I told you this isn’t the fever you think it is, Athena!" Kael snarled. His voice sent a shiver down my spine, raising goosebumps along my skin.

I stared at him, my breath still uneven from the sudden impact, and for the first time since he had entered my room, I felt a flicker of genuine uncertainty.

Something was wrong. Not just with his temperature or his stubborn refusal to accept help, but with the way he was behaving. The man in front of me seemed so unlike the Kael I knew that, for a brief moment, I struggled to reconcile the two.

It was as though I were looking at someone else entirely. Someone I had never seen before.

"I know exactly what state I’m in right now, and I know what I need to do to change this fucking thing!" Kael growled. His words rumbled through the air like thunder, each one sending a fresh wave of unease through me as he leaned even closer, bringing his face nearer to mine than it already was.

I could feel his heartbeat pounding abnormally fast, his chest pressed against mine. The intensity of it was almost unreal, and I struggled to comprehend what was happening to him.

What on earth was wrong with Kael? I had never seen anything like this before. I had never even heard of someone behaving this way, not even among the werewolves I knew. His temperature, his strength, his erratic behavior, none of it made sense.

"Kael, you’re confusing me," I whispered, unable to tear my eyes away from his.

His eyes were dark, but there was something different about them. Something unfamiliar, something that didn’t seem connected to the Kael I knew or even to his wolf. I couldn’t explain what I was seeing, but I knew it wasn’t normal.

"You’re burning up, your heart rate is abnormal, and despite looking like you can barely stand, you’re somehow ten times stronger than usual. What the hell is happening to you?"

"It’s none of your business, Athena!" he snapped back.

Before I could respond, he moved suddenly, shifting his weight until he was positioned over me. The heat radiating from his body seeped through our clothes, making it impossible to ignore just how unnaturally hot he was.

"You just have to be a good girl for me and cooperate with me for a few hours."

My breath caught at his words. His hands moved to mine, pinning them beneath his palms as his fingers locked around them. His grip felt heavier than usual, and I found myself acutely aware of how little effort he seemed to need to hold me in place. His breathing had grown increasingly rapid, each breath coming faster than the last.

"You agreed to this arrangement for a reason, didn’t you?" he continued, his voice rough and insistent. "For the sex, for the physical closeness. So I’ll give you exactly the same thing again tonight. Just don’t ask questions."

The moment his words reached me, something inside my chest twisted painfully. Only I knew how much they hurt. And I hated myself for being hurt by them.

Just a few days ago, I would have been able to hear those words without letting them get under my skin. I would have reminded myself that this was precisely what our arrangement had been built upon, that I had entered it with my own intentions and had no right to expect anything more from him.

But now, those same words felt like knives. How could I have changed so much in such a short time?

I didn’t know whether other people could change this drastically in a matter of days, but I knew I had. I had gone from someone who believed she could control her emotions to someone who couldn’t even keep a promise she had made to herself only days ago.

I had promised myself that I would stop letting Kael get close to me. I had decided to put some distance between us, to protect myself before my feelings grew any stronger.

And yet, here I was, lying beneath him, feeling wounded by words that shouldn’t have mattered to me in the first place.

It was pathetic. At least, that was what the frustrated part of me insisted as I struggled to make sense of my own emotions. I was angry with him, but I was even angrier with myself for allowing his words to affect me this much.

"Kael, what are you saying?" I managed to ask. My voice came out unsteady, and I had to swallow before I could find the strength to continue looking at him.

Despite everything, my gaze drifted away from his eyes and toward his lips. The moment I realized what I was doing, I mentally scolded myself.

No. I had to get a grip on myself. I had made a promise, and I couldn’t afford to abandon it now. I had decided that I wouldn’t let Kael get close to me again, not when I was already struggling to keep my feelings under control.

I couldn’t let the walls I was trying to build around my heart crumble before I had even laid their foundation. I had to stop this.

"You know exactly what I’m saying!" Kael replied. His voice was devoid of emotion, giving me no clue what was going through his mind. He leaned closer still, until his lips were only inches from mine.