Kael didn't move from Neve's side.
The other women were untied and guided out by the guards. The buyers and the hosts were arrested, cuffed and pulled away one by one until the room emptied. Through all of it, Kael stayed exactly where he was, crouched in front of Neve, watching him with those steady pale eyes.
Neve's hands were still tied behind him.
He was quietly working on that. Twisting his wrists in small careful movements while keeping his expression neutral and his eyes on Kael.
A guard approached with a blade to cut the ropes.
"Leave him," Kael said without looking up. "Handle the others."
The guard left.
The room finished emptying.
Neve kept working on the rope.
"We're finally alone," Kael said.
"I have a mate," Neve said.
Kael raised one brow. "A mate?" He looked at Neve's neck and his wrists. "I don't perceive a bond anywhere on you. I don't think you have a mate."
Neve pressed his teeth together.
He was right. There was no bond mark. He didn't even fully understand what a bond mark was yet but he understood that he didn't have one and that it was apparently the only proof that counted here.
"He's going to find me," Neve said. "So please untie me and let me go."
Kael considered that for approximately one second.
Then picked Neve up and put him over his shoulder after cutting the ropes.
"I'm Prince Kael," he said, standing. "Royal wolf tribe. There's no version of this where you'd choose your so-called mate over me."
"NEVE?"
The voice came from the entrance.
Cael was standing there breathing hard, eyes scanning the room until they landed on Neve dangling over Kael's shoulder. His chest was still moving fast. He had been running.
Neve felt something in his chest settle slightly at the sight of him.
"Oh! There he is," Kael said pleasantly. "The young chief of the leopard tribe."
"Let go of my mate." Cael's voice had dropped to something low and not friendly at all.
"Mate?" Kael tilted his head. "So you're the one. I see no bond mark between you two. So technically..." he held Neve slightly closer "...he became mine the moment I bought him."
"You said you weren't buying anyone!" Neve said.
"Semantics."
"Let go of him!" Cael took one step forward, claws already out.
"BOTH OF YOU." Neve's voice bounced off the walls. They both looked at him. He was still over Kael's shoulder with approximately zero physical leverage in this situation. "No one is fighting. I am not mating with anyone. Put me down."
Kael set him down.
Neve walked to Cael and stood in front of him. "Calm down. He's not taking me anywhere."
"He had you on his—"
"I know. Calm down."
Cael looked at him for a long moment. Then looked at Kael. His claws were still out.
"Cael," Neve said quietly.
The claws went back in.
Kael watched all of this with mild interest. "The bond between you two is interesting for an unmated pair."
"Do not start," Neve said.
Cael's arms came around him from behind and pulled him back against his chest. Neve opened his mouth. Felt something press against him from behind that was very clearly not a hand.
His face went completely red.
He looked straight ahead and said nothing.
"You seem pretty scared, for a leopard," Kael observed.
Cael's jaw tightened.
"Kael," Neve said quickly. "It's getting late. Is there somewhere we can stay before heading back tomorrow?"
Kael smiled for the first time, like he had been waiting for exactly that question. "Both of you can stay at my palace."
Cael's grip tightened. He wanted to say no. He could definitely stay somewhere in the open sky, but he doesn't want anything to happen to Neve.
"We need to prepare for winter," Neve said to him. Quietly. "We'll spend just one night. Then we go back."
A long pause.
"...Anything you say," Cael said, still looking at Kael.
Kael turned and walked out. They followed into the street, Neve beside Cael, the city quieter now in the late hour.
"What happened to the boar?" Neve asked.
"I left it. I'll go back for the linen tomorrow. The trader is an acquaintance."
"He said it was reserved for royalty."
"He'll make an exception."
"If you need linen," Kael said from slightly ahead, not turning around, "I'll give you everything in the palace. Whatever you want, Neve."
Neve looked at him. "How do you know my name?"
Kael glanced back. Said his name again slowly, like he was testing the sound of it. "I heard him call it. Neve." He nodded toward Cael. "It suits you."
"I can't have multiple mates," Neve said.
{You can!}
The system offered helpfully.
Neve glared at the box and it disappeared.
He knew he could. That wasn't the point. The point was that he needed them to understand he was a person making his own decisions and not a very attractive piece of fruit being passed between interested parties.
"In my family," Kael said, slowing to walk beside him, "having multiple mates is normal. My mother has ten. My father is number six." He paused. "He's also a king."
Neve's jaw dropped.
Kael stopped walking and turned to face him. He took his hand before Neve could move it.
"So it doesn't matter how many mates you already have," he said. "Or that you can't bear my cubs. I want to be your mate, Neve."
Neve stared at him.
The street was dark enough that nobody could see his face properly.
Good.
Because his face was doing something he had no control over.
'Is this,' he thought slowly, 'a proposal? I have been in this world for three days. Three days. And I have three men from three different tribes who have all decided...'
{Kael — 38%}
The number had jumped from twenty-five to thirty-eight in under an hour.
Neve looked at it floating above Kael's head in the dark.
Then looked at Cael standing two steps behind him with an expression that could have cut stone.
'I should have let Rena fall,' he thought for the second time.
He felt guilty again immediately but thought about it a third time anyway.