Act Like It

***THIRD POV***

The door shut behind her with a quiet click.

Kaelan did not move.

Silence filled the room, thick and suffocating, as though the space itself was holding its breath.

The two alpha brothers had numerous thoughts running through their minds. Thoughts so heavy they tainted the air between them.

Then Kaelan exhaled sharply, breaking the silence.

“She’s gone,” he said, his voice edged with something close to frustration.

Lucian stood a few steps away from his brother, his gaze still fixed on the door, as though he could see through it.

“Yes, I can see that,” Lucian replied, his tone coated with sarcasm.

Kaelan turned toward him, disbelief and barely restrained anger swirling in his amber eyes.

“That is all you have to say?” Kaelan snarled.

Lucian’s expression did not falter.

“She is our mate, and you are standing here like nothing just happened,” he continued, his voice rising just enough to break the restraint he had been holding onto.

“We handled it as appropriately as possible,” Lucian said, moving to stand next to a small window that let in the night’s cool and velvety air. The faint breeze stirred the luxurious silk of his shirt.

Kaelan let out a short, humorless laugh, the sound hollow.

“Appropriately?” He took a step closer. “You let her walk out of this room.”

Lucian’s eyes finally shifted to meet his, unnervingly placid.

“And what exactly would you have had me do, brother?” Lucian asked calmly. “Chase after her? Drag her back into this room in front of the pack? Throw her into a room and lock her in it?”

Kaelan’s jaw tightened. A muscle twitched.

“I would have followed her,” he said without hesitation.

“I know,” Lucian shot back. “Trust me, I know just how reckless you can be. I have known you all my life. I would not be surprised.”

His answer only fueled Kaelan’s frustration.

“She is our mate,” Kaelan stated more firmly this time. “And you let her go, just like that.”

Lucian watched him for a moment, then spoke.

“She is also an omega, in case that slipped past you.”

A graveyard hush fell over the room at those words. Kaelan’s expression darkened slightly, but he did not look away. He did not retreat.

“And?” he challenged.

Lucian’s tone remained even.

“And that means she will be judged,” he said. “Judged for the littlest of things. You and I are both familiar with the scrutiny that a high-rank Luna faces. It would be much worse for an omega. There is quite a long list of obstacles she will definitely face, and you chasing after her tonight would have made her the center of attention before she is ready.”

Kaelan scoffed softly.

“She already is the center of attention,” he said. “She stood in that hall, and everyone witnessed something shift. They felt it. She felt it. I felt it. Heck, you felt it.”

Lucian did not try denying it.

That, more than anything, made the truth sit heavier.

Kaelan ran a hand through his hair, pacing once across the room before stopping again.

“I do not understand you, brother,” Kaelan said. “You felt it, and yet you stood right there and let her walk away.”

Lucian’s gaze sharpened slightly.

“I did not ‘let’ her walk away,” he said. “I chose not to act recklessly, as you would have preferred.”

Kaelan’s lips pressed into a thin line.

“Reckless,” he sneered.

“Yes,” Lucian said simply. “Because chasing her tonight would have told the entire pack exactly what she is to us.”

Kaelan turned sharply, his frustration flaring.

“Come on, what if they already suspect?” he shot back. “What if they already felt it? I am pretty sure they did.”

Lucian held his gaze, unyielding.

“Then we confirm nothing,” he said. “Not yet.”

A pause stretched between them.

Kaelan’s wolf, Vyre, stirred again. The presence clawed at him from beneath the surface, restless, agitated, pushing against the restraint he was forcing onto himself.

'She is ours,' the thought echoed within him.

“She is not just some omega,” Kaelan said, his voice lower now, more controlled but no less intense. “She is ours.”

Lucian’s icy grey eyes flickered slightly at that, the smallest crack in his otherwise composed demeanor.

“I am aware,” he said.

But the words did not carry the same weight.

Not to Kaelan.

Not with the way the bond still pulsed beneath his skin, refusing to be ignored, refusing to stay quiet.

Kaelan stepped closer again, closing what little distance remained between them.

His voice dropped as he spoke into his brother’s ear.

“Then act like it.”