War Is Coming

POV: KAEL

My fingers twisted the stifling silk tie around my neck. The luxurious fabric felt like a hangman’s noose as the glass elevator carried Rowan and me upward. Floor after floor of the towering Apex Citadel blurred past us, revealing the sprawling, gray cityscape of our territory far below. We were heading straight to the seventeenth floor. We had been summoned for an emergency meeting, but there was no mystery about what awaited us behind those heavy doors. We were being called to face the dreaded Apex Assembly. More specifically, we were called to answer directly to our father, the ruthless Alpha King. The man did not request simple meetings. He orchestrated brutal ambushes.

I dropped my hands from my collar and let out a harsh, ragged breath. "We are about to be on trial for bringing a female onto our Vanguard team. What do you think is going to happen in there?"

My stomach churned with a heavy, sickening dread that I could not shake. The suffocating heat inside my tailored suit was becoming unbearable. I shifted my weight from foot to foot, unable to stand still.

Rowan stood beside me like a statue carved from ice. His face was an immovable mask of calm. His baby blue eyes tracked the rising floor numbers without a single flinch of anxiety. He did not sweat. He did not fidget. He simply existed in a state of perfect, robotic detachment. "I think we will be fine."

I scoffed at his lack of concern. The sheer audacity of his calm demeanor grated on my frayed nerves. "No, you will be fine. Father is going to bite my head off the second we walk in."

Rowan finally turned his head to look at me, his gaze steady and infuriatingly blank. "Bringing Elara Vance onboard was my decision solely. Whatever Father says, I will bear the full responsibility."

I shot back bitterly, shaking my head in disbelief. "Of course you can say that. You have the luxury of immense confidence because you are his clear favorite."

A tense, suffocating silence dropped between us. I braced myself for a reaction, maybe a spike of irritation echoing down our brotherly bond, but there was nothing. Just empty, maddening calm. It was infuriating how easily he brushed off the impending storm. Our father had spent years grooming Rowan to be the perfect, emotionless Alpha, and he had succeeded flawlessly.

Rowan broke the quiet a moment later, his voice dropping to a softer, more serious register. "We are brothers first before we are his sons. Do you understand me?"

I let out a slow sigh and nodded my head. That singular statement was our sacred vow. It was a solemn promise we had whispered to our dying mother all those years ago. We swore to always remain a united, impenetrable front against our father’s endless manipulation and cruelty. We promised to never let his twisted games turn us against one another. Sometimes, standing in the shadow of his blatant favoritism, holding onto that vow felt like carrying a boulder up a steep mountain. I was starting to grow wary of the crushing weight of that commitment.

Rowan added quietly, just as the digital display chimed for the seventeenth floor. "I will always have your back, Kae. I hope you will have mine."

The metal doors slid open before I could offer a reply. We stepped out of the glass cage and into a long, dimly lit hallway. Two towering security guards stood at the far end, flanking a set of massive, heavy oak doors. They bowed deeply as we approached, grabbing the brass handles and pulling the heavy wood open to grant us entry.

The grand, circular assembly room was exactly as intimidating as I remembered. A massive table carved from polished mahogany dominated the center of the space. My chest tightened the moment my boots crossed the threshold. Sitting proudly at the head of the table was the Alpha King himself. My father. He was a man in his late sixties, though his imposing frame had not lost a single ounce of its terrifying strength. His face was set in a permanent, unforgiving scowl, and his piercing green eyes shone with dark, calculating malice.

Surrounding him were his highest-ranking men, a council of elite Alphas who mirrored his cold, expressionless demeanor. They were the very definition of modern rulers—robotic, unfeeling, and ruthless. Looking at my father, a dark, festering memory clawed its way to the forefront of my mind. The oppressive scent of alpha dominance in the room transported me straight back to the darkest night of my childhood.

‘Emotions will get you killed!’

His furious roar echoed vividly in my mind, perfectly synchronized with the phantom agony ripping across my flesh. I was only twelve years old when he decided to teach me a twisted lesson about weakness. He had dragged me onto the cold stone floor and mercilessly torn my back open with his bare claws. The grotesque, jagged physical scars still crisscrossed my skin to this day, a permanent reminder of my failure to be the merciless son he wanted. He wanted me to kill my emotions. Instead, the trauma birthed a deep, festering guilt and a burning anger that haunted my nightmares for decades. I held onto that rage, letting it eat me alive from the inside out like a terminal disease.

Rowan stepped forward, executing a flawless, respectful bow before taking his designated seat at the table. "Greetings."

The Alpha King grumbled, his tone carrying a rare, warm formality that he reserved solely for his prized heir. "Greetings, Rowan."

I took a step forward, bowing my head just as respectfully before moving to take my seat at Rowan’s right side. "Greetings, your majesty."

Deafening, deliberate silence met my words.

My father did not look at me. He did not nod. He did not even twitch a single muscle to acknowledge my existence. He kept his cold gaze locked on my brother, treating me like a ghost haunting his meeting room. The blatant, humiliating disrespect hit me like a physical blow to the ribs. The council members shifted uncomfortably, a few of them glancing my way with poorly veiled pity before quickly looking down at the polished wood. I hated that pity. I hated knowing they all saw me as the pathetic prince who could never earn his father’s basic respect.

I slid into my leather chair, curling my hands into tight fists under the mahogany table. My blunt fingernails dug brutally into my own palms. I welcomed the sharp sting of physical pain to keep myself anchored. The stifling heat of my suit returned with a vengeance, but I refused to adjust my tie. I refused to let him see me sweat. I would not give him the satisfaction of knowing he still possessed the power to unravel me.

The Alpha King leaned forward, steepling his thick fingers together as he fixed his terrifying stare on my brother. "Let us get down to business. We are gathered here today because it has been brought to our attention that you and Prince Kael recruited a female into your Vanguard team. I demand a thorough explanation for the presence of Elara Vance."

Rowan did not flinch under the heavy, crushing pressure of our father’s aura. He leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest in a display of supreme ease. "To set the record straight, recruiting Elara Vance was solely my decision. Prince Kael simply followed my orders as his Commander. I believe it is time for a change. Women are succeeding in advanced fields now, so why not the military?"

The Alpha King scoffed loudly, the sound vibrating with deep disgust. The sycophant men sitting around the table nodded eagerly, murmuring their immediate agreement to his archaic beliefs. "Women are nothing more than child-bearing machines, Prince Rowan. Their sole purpose is to be a wife and make a comfortable home. I have read her file. She is an omega who does not even shift! In a military room full of unmated alpha, beta, and gamma males, she is nothing but a dangerous distraction. She is trouble!"

Rowan held his ground fiercely, refusing to back down an inch. "I beg to disagree, your Highness. I feel women should be given a fair chance to go to war."

Our father slammed a heavy fist onto the table, rattling the crystal water glasses. "Feel? I did not raise you to feel, Rowan. I raised you to think logically, like a cold-blooded killer!"

Rowan replied smoothly, unbothered by the sudden outburst. "And I am doing exactly that. My men are handling her presence fine."

The King snarled, his face turning a dangerous shade of crimson. "You think so now, but according to the latest reports, forty-three girls signed up to be a Vanguard next year. Forty-three, Rowan! That is more than two-thirds of an entire squad! What about five years from now? This is a fundamental disaster!"

Rowan countered effortlessly. "Is it a disaster, your Highness? I think it is a revolution."

The King roared, slamming his fist down against the mahogany wood once more. "Revolution my ass! Your men will not be able to cope!"

Rowan’s voice hardened, carrying the unmistakable edge of true Alpha command. He leaned forward, resting his forearms on the table as he locked his icy blue eyes with the entire assembly. He addressed the council directly, ignoring our father’s fuming glare. "I am their Commander, and I know my elite men. If they cannot control themselves around a single woman, then they are fundamentally doomed on the battlefield. We might as well surrender and lose the war that is coming. For every lost female, there is a male doomed to never find a mate. We cannot deny that women are vital to our survival. But if we can effectively train them to fight, they can protect themselves better than we ever could. War is coming to our borders. It is time for a change."

A heavy moment of contemplation settled over the massive room. I watched the faces of the older Alphas shift. The unyielding tension in their shoulders relaxed slightly. My brother was a brilliant speaker. He always had a way with words, slicing through ancient prejudices with sharp, undeniable logic. A small, hidden smile graced my lips. I just hoped his progressive stance was actually getting through to these cold, dead hearts.

The Alpha King growled, clearly unwilling to yield a single inch of his ancient beliefs. He glared around the table, daring his men to defy him. "Fine. We will put it to an immediate vote. I want Elara Vance gone. All in favor of removing the girl and placing a permanent ban on all women joining the Vanguard force, raise your hands."

Six hands rose slowly into the air.

The King snapped, his jaw ticking in frustration. "All in favor of keeping the girl?"

Six hands rose firmly against him.

My father smirked in grim satisfaction, waving his hand to shut down the debate. "So, it is a tie. The proposal fails."

Rowan turned his head and looked directly at me. "No, it is not a tie. We have a thirteenth person with us today."

Every single pair of eyes in the grand assembly room snapped toward my chair. My heart hammered wildly against my ribs. Decades of fiercely suppressed anger boiled over in my veins. The phantom scars on my back burned with searing heat.

The Alpha King sneered dismissively, staring straight ahead. He did not even bother to glance my way. "His vote does not count."

I dug my sharp nails deeper into my bleeding palms to anchor myself to reality. I pushed my chair back, the wooden legs scraping loudly against the floor. "You forget that I am a Prince too, Father. I outrank all your Alphas sitting here."

A suffocating silence dropped instantly over the massive room. The air grew thick and unbreathable. The Alpha King finally turned his head. He slowly shifted his massive frame, pinning me to my seat with cold, piercing green eyes. His gaze was filled with pure, unadulterated disgust. The sheer weight of his hatred crashed over me, threatening to crush my lungs.

He spat viciously, his deep voice dropping to a terrifying, rumbling threat. "Go on, then. Use your vote... wisely."

I stared back into his merciless eyes. My pulse throbbed painfully in my ears. I knew exactly what that dark, unspoken threat meant. The weight of the world rested squarely on my shoulders, and the path forward was agonizingly clear. If I threw Elara Vance under the bus and voted in his favor, would it finally be worth the betrayal? Would he finally look at me with pride? Would he finally warm up to me and forgive me for what horrifically happened ten years ago?