Page 31 of Storms of His Wrath

He was quiet for a long moment, lifting a thick hand to rub his bearded chin. When he finally spoke, his words were of absolute conviction. “I didn’t expect to survive it. I didn’t want to.”

The admission made her cold. There was no hesitation, no softness or self-pity in his tone. Just cold fact delivered like a death sentence.

“Of all the dynasty lines, the Sy should not have been the one to survive.” The rage in his eyes made her chest tighten. “And no one was better positioned to destroy them than me. I was the only one who could get close enough, the only one who hadtrained with weapons, the only one who would dare to do it.” Something twisted in his gaze. “And I was the only one of them who carried any shame at all.”

Naya’s stomach lurched as she realized what he was telling her. He hadn’t been a noble hero—he’d turned himself into a weapon against his own family, driven by shame and rage and the conviction that his bloodline was poison.

His dark eyes found hers again, and she saw no trace of the vulnerable boy she might have expected. Instead, she saw the weapon that violence had forged—harder, colder, more dangerous than anything his family had ever produced.

“When I survived, the people took care of me,” he said. “They nursed me back to health, treated me like some kind of fucking hero when all I’d done was what had been necessary.” His hand squeezed her thigh, but his eyes were lost in his memories. “They needed a leader, someone who could prioritize them and give them stability. Before I’d even healed, they decided that that leader was me.”

He paused, jaw working silently. “When I thought about it, I agreed with them. Why else would I have survived? So I made a public vow to give my life to them, to erase what my family had done and givessukkuriansthe life they should have had. To do that I had to change the perception of the Sy name. I had to make it something the people could rally around and be proud of. If I was going to rule these people successfully, that shame couldn’t follow me—or them—around.

“So, I gathered the surviving dynasties and made them agree, by blood contract, that only the Sy Dynasty would remain. No others. And even then, only Oppo and I would be recognized as Sy.”

“But weren’t you the only ones left anyway?”

“No.” Akoro’s voice dropped, hardening. “Everyone in Tsashokra was killed. But one of my cousins was out of theregion during the Battle of Sy. I wasn’t going to risk him or anyone else coming back to claim what I’d planned to build.”

“What was in it for the dynasties?” Naya asked. “Why would they agree to give up their lineage like that?”

“They agreed with everything I wanted; that I would claim Tsashokra as king, that they would stay out of Onn Kkulma and build settlements outside of it, that no one would move against me, that all my laws would be obeyed... on the condition that I ensured no more wild magic would attack any settlements in the region.”

Naya inhaled a sharp breath. “That’s why you banned Omegas.”

He nodded. “There weren’t many to ban anyway. We kept getting reports of dying or missing Omegas but when we searched, we couldn’t find any. We tried searching for them for the first few years, then we received a message from them saying they’d found a place in that dead forest and will abide by the law and never return.”

Naya lowered her eyes, mind lurching. That message had to have been sent from the Ilia community. Based on what the Oshrun said, most of the Omegas were taken there at that point. They probably sent him the message so he would stopped looking for them.

“After that, the full Sy history wasn’t spoken about by any official in Onn Kkulma. It only lives in rumor and whispers among people who half-remember it.” He paused, holding her gaze. “The moment I decided to protect the Sy name, I buried their crimes with it. And I buried myself right beside them.”

Naya absorbed his words in silence. He had destroyed his family for their crimes, yet spent years burying those same crimes beneath lies and careful omissions. The contradiction twisted through her thoughts—a man who had committed necessary murder to stop injustice, only to protect the verylegacy he’d killed to end. And now, she saw the danger in that. Because what he destroyed, he never mourned. What he built, he never questioned.

If she forgave him now, what did that make her? Complicit in rewriting a history that wasn’t hers to forget?

The hand on her hip began to stroke her. “Of course, you have changed everything.”

The statement caught her off guard. She studied his face, searching for the trap she was certain hid in his words. “How could I? I haven’t done anything.”

The Alpha’s arms tightened around her. “You’re my mate, Naya. Before you, I had nothing that belonged to me alone. I lived for the people. I’d have died for them. But if they try to take you from me, I’ll turn on them too.”

“You would?” The whisper escaped before she could stop it.

He paused. “I cannot uphold my vow to them when I live for you now.”

The declaration hit her hard, forcing the breath from her lungs. She dropped her gaze, unable to meet his eyes while she processed the magnitude of what he’d said.

She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, reorienting herself. “You didn’t treat me like that,” she said evenly, looking back up at him. “You treated me like a prisoner.”

A low growl rumbled from his chest, displeasure darkening his scent until it became sharp and bitter. “I had to. I didn’t know you were my mate when?—”

“When you cut me, you knew.” Her words were level and unforgiving. “You knew I was your mate then, Akoro, and you knew exactly what that wound meant—the history of that wound.”

The muscle beneath his beard rippled with tension. “You need to understand something, Nayara.” His thumb traced around her wrist. “Nothing has ever kept me from what I want.Nothing.” He spoke with the coldness of a man who had carved his path through blood. “The invasion preparations consumed everything for years. Then when I took you and realized you were my mate… you were a distraction and you caused delays. Then you started wandering around my city.”

His dark eyes roamed her face. “You think I didn’t notice how you watched everything, cataloged any possible vulnerability? Planned how you could escape? You were clever enough to destroy months of planning if you got the chance. I couldn’t spare the time to watch you properly and I couldn’t risk you escaping, not because of the invasion but because of me. I wanted you. And not even you were going to keep me from that.”

Naya tried to keep her breathing even. His admission was both raw and reluctant.

---