Iva instinctively straightened, her heart racing all over again.
Caleb’s arm tightened slightly at her side.
The king stepped forward.
Each step echoed.
Measured.
Deliberate.
The entire room seemed to hold its breath as he approached, stopping just a few feet away from her.
Up close, his presence was overwhelming.
Iva had faced alphas before… but this was something entirely different.
This was a ruler.
This was dominance refined into something absolute.
For a long moment, he said nothing.
He simply looked at her.
Studied her.
Weighed her.
And Iva felt it like a physical pressure, as if he was trying to peel back every layer of her existence, searching for weakness, for deception, for anything that would contradict what he had just witnessed.
Her pulse thundered in her ears.
