Chapter 51 - Overruled

Arrow looked at Kai almost in disbelief. “I have to admit, those are words that I’d never thought I’d hear coming from you."

“What you’ve told me stays between us” Kai added.

Arrow tightened his lips. “Kai, my duty as your guard, as your beta is to protect you. I can’t just do nothing and let her potentially put you at risk.”

“Then as *my beta*, you’ll do as I instruct you.” Kai looked at him more forcefully as a stand-off commenced between the two of them. There was always a slightly blurry line between them when it came to Kai being both his friend and his superior. Kai could use his alpha tone to reinforce this but he didn’t want to on Arrow if he didn’t have to. It was a line he very rarely crossed with him having never felt the need to.

“Then listen to me as a friend then…” Arrow pleaded.

“My answer is still no. I’m not walking away from her.” Kai interrupted.

Arrow looked away from him frustrated. He wasn’t happy. Kai was constantly prioritizing her over himself. It was making him increasingly vulnerable and frustratingly there was nothing that he could do about it. *‘Is this the true power of the fated mate bond?’* Arrow questioned himself. He could only hope that the mate bond would make her feel just as selfless towards him and that they could find some way to protect each other.

“You have so much faith in her.” Arrow sighed before resigning himself.

“I know there is not much point trying to talk to you when you’ve made up for your mind about something. You’ve always been this way. For what it’s worth, I hope you’re right and all of this is not what I’m thinking. I was just starting to like her.”

Kai eyes narrowed at his last comment.

“Relax Romeo, she’s not my type.” Arrow added with a cheeky smile on his face before patting Kai on the shoulder. Kai rolled his eyes at him.

“Have you spoken to your dad about her?" Arrow changed up the subject to ease some of the atmosphere. "I heard half of the guests at the ballroom saw what happened.”

“I spoke with him last night. He knows that we’re fated mates. It seems pointless to try and hide it from him now. He doesn’t know that she was poisoned or what’s happening between me and some of the council. My mother has agreed to keep a lid on that. She’s told him and the witnesses from the ballroom that she had a severe allergic reaction. To anyone that saw what happened it would look plausible.”

“Hmm” Arrow tutted to himself in surprise to what Kai said. “I’m surprised she’s chosen to do that. Ophelia has never typically been the 'let’s wait and see’ type. She can be more fearless than your father at times.” Arrow added.

“If she's agreed to keep that from my father, I'm not going to question her reasoning."

"Fair enough." Arrow concluded.

"What's concerning me more is that whoever is behind targeting Adalyn is getting bolder and more reckless to attempt something like this so publicly. At this rate they’re going to slip up and give themselves away. The fact that they attacked her convinces me that they know she’s my fated mate now, but if I were them it would make more sense to wait until we’d unified our bond before acting out, to guarantee how it would affect me. So why strike now? They’re rushing this which makes me think that there is something else that we’re missing.” Kai ran his hands through his hair as he thought.

“Either way, we need to start narrowing down who’s involved from the council to focus our efforts. They’re too unpredictable like this and it’s putting me on edge. They only have to get lucky once, so I can’t keep giving them an opportunity to do so,” Kai continued.

“What do you need me to do?” Arrow asked.

“For now, just keep close. The more eyes I have round me the better.”

Arrow nodded, “Okay, whatever you need.” With Kai committed to staying close to Adalyn Arrow knew that he would have to dedicate as much time to protecting her to be able to truly look out for Kai. He also hoped that in doing so he'd be able to work out her intentions as well, just incase they weren't honourable.

Arrow and Kai headed back inside, where Adalyn was scanning through the final page of the binder. “Any luck?” Kai asked.

“I’m sorry but I didn’t see anyone that matched who I remember.” Adalyn was disappointed that she couldn’t do more to help. Kai was having to fight everyone and she was starting to feel more like dead weight than anything else. Being the victim was not a role that she was comfortable with. She was determined to do more for him and hoped that her old friend Dylan might be able to offer some assistance in trying to work out who was orchestrating this.

Kai could see the disheartened look in her face. “Don’t worry, it was worth a shot.” He smiled at her then kissed her forehead. “We’ll figure this out. Rest a bit more than we’ll take you back home.”

Adalyn flopped back in the bed and exhaled. His bed was so damn comfortable, just like the one back in the manor house. She hated to admit that she could get used to these little luxuries. As she turned her head in the bed, the desire to sleep quickly took hold.


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A few hours had passed and the royal physician had come to check on Adalyn again. He had given Adalyn the all clear. Her accelerated healing had taken care of most of the damage already and her bloods had showed that none of the poison was still in her system.

With her being close to 100%, Kai was really keen to get her out of the palace as soon as possible knowing that an unknown assassin was in their midst.

“Are you ready to go?” Kai was stood at the door of his bedroom where Arrow was also waiting. The walk out of the palace felt like some kind of gauntlet to him and he was struggling to hide his tension.

Adalyn could sense his unease. She nodded then tucked herself in against him. Her touch instantly offered him some mild comfort. She wrapped her arm around his waist and he wrapped an arm around her back to help keep her close to him.



As they walked through the palace, the hallways were pretty quiet and empty. Kai walked with Adalyn in front and Arrow followed them closely behind.

"This is a pretty impressive home," Adalyn spoke quietly against him.

Kai almost looked a little sad as she said that. "I've got no particular attachments to it. If I had the choice, I'd much rather be far away from here, but even royalty isn't offered such freedom."

"You couldn't leave?" Adalyn asked.

"I made a commitment to my King, and to my position. I pledged loyalty to Galas and as a result I'm kinda stuck here. With that being said I won't sacrifice you for it."

Adalyn was surprised to hear him say that. He made it sound like he would give up his title for her. "I wouldn't want you to have to make a choice between me and your family Kai."

Kai smiled at her and looked at her. "Choice? There is no choosing involved when it comes to you. If push comes to shove, I have no issue in giving that up. My first loyalty is with you now. That's not a hard decision to make at all. In fact, it’s quite an easy one."

Something about his choice of words unsettled Adalyn. There he was again declaring how committed he was to her. He would give up everything for her. She didn't know what she had done to earn such commitment from him so quickly. She felt more determined than ever now to try and support him. She had to get stronger, she had to do more to feel worthy to stand next to him.

As Adalyn steeled her resolve, they walked past an open courtyard in the middle of the palace. The light beaming in from the open roof lit up the hallway. A few of the palace staff were tending to some of the flowers there. As she watched what they were doing, one of them caught her eye before swiftly turning away. Adalyn stiffened in Kai's arms as she recognised their face. Kai quickly picked up on this.

"What is it?” he asked softly.

“Kai, that’s him. Over there by pillars. He's the one that offered me the drink.” She whispered then motioned with her eyes as to who she was referring to.

Kai looked discretely across the courtyard out of the corner of his eyes whilst they continued to walk. “Standing up? with the mousey hair?” he asked quietly.

“Yeah…”

"How sure are you?" Kai whispered back to her.

"Kai I’m positive. He had really piercing hazel eyes. That's him."

Kai looked over his shoulder. “Arrow...”

“I’m on it.” Arrow peeled off from behind them and disappeared in to the shadows.

“What’s going to happen?” Adalyn asked.

“We’re gonna take care of it.” Kai’s eyes flashed black as he tried to stay calm. The person that nearly killed his mate was just feet away from her and he was having to try and restrain himself from going over there. With Adalyn so close to him, he didn't want to risk alerting him that they had caught his attention, incase he suddenly acted out. Arrow would have to hold on to him for now.

Kai tightened his arm around her then started to speed up. “I need to get you out of here.”