Help! Five Beast Alphas Want To Breed Me!!(BL)-Chapter 277: Mine To Uncoil

Zerana; 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

I stare at Selthía’s graceful figure in the silence of the room.

She’s resting her weight on one leg and has her hips pushed out on one side.

Although her body might be here, I can tell that her mind is several miles away.

She quiet. The kind of quiet that means her mind is screaming. I hate seeing her like this.

Spine held straight, hands folded behind her back, and chin slightly lifted — the posture she uses when she wants the world to believe she is calm.

But she can never hide her truth from me. She’s anything but calm.

Her magic betrays her. It curls restlessly around her, tugging at the hem of her dress like an anxious child.

I walk to her without announcing myself. I never need to. She always seems to know when I’m around her.

The moment I stop beside her, a few steps to her back, I clearly see what she’s staring at — the garden below, where the moonlight spills like milk over everything in its path.

Everything under it... including Alana who’s sitting on a bench, with her legs folded neatly beneath her, and fingers moving through the dark-brown hair of the girl they call Asa.

The rabbit-eared girl sits obediently at her feet, small and fragile-looking, with her head bowed, and lips sealed.

Salthía has been watching them for a long time. Long enough that the glass has fogged slightly where her breath touches it.

I tilt my head. Wondering how to break her out of this worry, now.

"Mm," I hum, and her shoulders drop a bit..

That sound I made, was not a question. It was an opening. An opening to a conversation I can only hope Salthía is ready for.

I move closer to, and place my hand gently along her spine.

"Why has my love allowed a frown to taint her beauty?" I question softly, and Selthía’s jaw tightens.

"Do not pretend you don’t see what I’m seeing." She speaks, and I hum again, this time amused.

"I see many things," I reply honestly as I stand fully by her side now.

"I am asking which part has your pulse climbing," I add curiously, and she exhales, slow and sharp.

"When Alana crossed through the Nagari border gate, I felt her. Her signature. Her warmth. Her soul’s request

for permission..." She begins, and I listen attentively, even though my eyes are now fixed on her fingers which are now curling into tight fists at her sides.

"But I did not feel the girl beside her." She adds, and everything inside me pauses.

"W-what?" I demand in disbelief, and Selthía nods before looking at me briefly.

"I didn’t sense her, Zerana. I sensed Alana, but not the other girl." She explains, and I gulp. Now that is a problem.

A problem that causes a chill to run down my spine and for me to straighten a little.

"You’re certain." I probe, and her head turns to me. The look she gives me is cold, regal... and offended that I even asked.

"I am the Queen of Nagari, Zerana. My people breathe through me. My mana keeps the balance... Every man, woman, and creature that enters my territory brushes against my magic. I sense it. That is how it has always been" She explains almost frantically as her eyes return to the garden.

"Even a sparrow leaves a whisper. But that girl... left nothing." She adds, and I study Asa from above, and I hold my breath.

"Is that why you kept watching her during breakfast?" I ask, and Salthía nods once.

"I was examining her. I had to, and what I found was disturbing." She notes and my heart skips a beat.

"What... did you find?"

"She has no mana, Zerana. None. Not a trace. Not sleeping, not suppressed— Just absent." She says and I pause.

"But if she has no mama, then you should have definitely sensed her. Only a person with immense mastery of mana manipulation can mask their presence when—" I begin, but stop as confusion sinks its fangs into my mind.

A creature with zero mana should be louder than a storm.

Mana is presence, and its absence is an anomaly.

"That should be impossible," I whisper, and Awlthia nods.

"Yes." Salthía’s she says with her voice sharpening in worry.

"But it happened. And I do not know how." She adds, and her worry presses against me like heat.

I place a hand gently on her back. Not to soothe, but hopefully, to anchor...

"You have already run through every theory in your head," I say, and I sigh.

"You’ve already questioned your authority in seven different ways for not understanding this, haven’t you?" I add, and the silence that follows is admission.

"Enough, Selthía," I whisper as I wrap my arms around her from behind. "You will not unravel tonight," I add as I kiss the nape of her neck, and she scoffs.

"Do not command me." She rants, and I smile.

"I’m not commanding you, my love," I whisper with another kiss and I feel her relax a bit.

"I’m only reminding you that you haven’t slept properly in three days. Your magic is stretched thin. And when you are tired, you start seeing ghosts where there are shadows." I add, and she sighs.

"And this?" she asks quietly.

"Ghost or shadow?" She pushes, and I look over her shoulder, down at Asa again, and my stomach twists..

The girl looks so small, still and heavy-eyed.

She looks harmless, but something sits under her posture like a weight. Not fear. Not guilt.

But a kind of... coiled silence.

"I don’t know yet," I admit, and Selthía groans.

"But you are not wrong to question her," I add, and that earns me a long breath from her. The kind she only releases when she trusts the person beside her.

"I do not want anything slipping into Nagari. Not now. Not with Elián in such a delicate condition. Not with our people preparing for war. I don’t want things to go wrong." She adds, and I shut my eyes.

"And nothing will," I answer. "We will investigate quietly. Without alarming the boys, and without worrying Elián." I add, and only then does she turn fully to look at me. To properly... look at me m.

I watch some of the strain around her eyes loosen, and I smile as I caress her face.

"Zerana," she whispers. "I am tired." She adds, and my heart cracks.

There.

The truth she hates admitting.

She hates being seen vulnerable yet time and again, she trusts me enough to beat her lowest around. I don’t think words will ever emphasise how grateful I am for that.

"I know you’re tired, Selthía," I reply softly as I lift her hand from where it hangs stiffly at her side and bring it to my lips.

I plant a soft kiss on the palm of her hand. Light but deep enough to ground her back into her own skin.

She exhales again. This one melts a little andI watch her shoulders drop lightly and I smile as I kiss the back of her hand this time.

"You’re trying to distract me," she accuses knowingly, and I smile up at her.

"Yes, my queen," I reply, and she smirks at me.

"And is it going to work?" She teases, and my smile grows.

"No idea," I say honestly, and she raises a curious brow at me.

"But I’m willing to try anything short of carrying you bodily away from this window," I add, and she almost laughs. Almost.

Then I take her by the waist and stare at her beautiful golden eyes with a smile I hope mirrors even half of the love I have for her. I guide her away from the window, and she lets me.

Not because she must, but because with me... here with me, is the one place she doesn’t have to be Queen first.

She can be my lover, my baby, mu child, my friend,.. but queen? That’s never something we put first between us.

Her forehead lowers to my shoulder. My hand rises to her back, tracing up her spine with that pressure she secretly likes... the one that untangles her magic when it knots.

Outside, Alana finishes the braid and ties it off with a ribbon.

Asa bows her head, obedient.

Then, Salthía whispers,

"Something is wrong."

"Then we will find it." I whisper back,

She closes her eyes. "Stay."

"I wasn’t leaving."

Her fingers curl into my sleeve.

I brush my lips against her temple... a quiet promise, a quiet claim.

"Come," I whisper. "Let me make you forget the window for a few minutes."

She huffs a breath that sounds almost like surrender.

And as I guide her from the window toward the privacy of her inner chambers, her magic settles — not gone, but no longer trembling.

Asa can wait.

Whatever she is... ghost, shadow, or something unnamed... morning will expose more than the moon does.

For now, Salthía is mine to uncoil. And I intend to do it properly.