Chapter 106 Episode 106: Jealous Kael

Kael’s POV

Akira slept against my chest in the quiet dark of our room. His breathing was slow and even. One of his hands rested over my heart.

The weight of him usually brought calm. Tonight the calm could not settle.

My mind kept returning to the training wing earlier that evening. I had gone there to surprise him after his solo practice.

I wanted to walk him home and maybe steal a few kisses in the empty corridors. Instead I stopped outside the private room when I heard voices.

Akira’s voice was clear. The second voice was softer and female. I could not make out every word, but the tone was familiar and close. Something about a still place.

Something about what was real. The kind of talk that belonged to people who shared private ground.

Surprise hit me first. Then confusion. Then a sharp, ugly jealousy that sat heavy in my stomach. I did not know any woman who should have been in that room with him at that hour.

I did not know any woman who spoke to him with that kind of quiet closeness. I left before either of them noticed me. The walk back to the condo felt long.

Hurt and doubt mixed with the jealousy and made each step harder. By the time Akira came home later and climbed into bed beside me, the feelings had only grown thicker.

Now he was here in my arms, warm and trusting, and the questions still burned in my chest. I wanted to ask. I also did not want to sound controlling or suspicious.

We had only just started building this life together. I did not want to damage it with ugly accusations.

I stared at the ceiling and tried to quiet the noise in my head. The jealousy refused to leave. The fear that I had somehow missed an important part of his life refused to leave.

Protectiveness and insecurity twisted together until I could not separate them. My hand moved slowly up and down his back. The familiar shape of him under my palm should have eased the tight feelings.

It only made the jealousy sharper. He was mine. We had said the words. We had moved his things into this home. Yet a woman’s voice still echoed in my memory and planted doubt where there had been none.

Akira shifted against me. His hand moved slightly on my chest. After a moment he lifted his head and looked at me in the low light.

"You are still awake," he said softly. "And you feel tense. What is wrong?"

Worry for me colored his voice. The care in it made my chest tighten with fresh guilt and lingering hurt. I did not answer right away. I needed time to choose words that would not come out sharp or accusing.

He waited. His thumb brushed small circles over my shirt. Patience and concern moved through the simple touch. The silence stretched between us and grew heavier with every breath.

I looked at the dark shape of the ceiling and tried to push the jealousy down one more time. It rose again at once. The memory of that soft female voice talking about real things with my man refused to fade.

"Kael," he said after a long while. "Tell me. Please. I can feel that something is wrong. Do not carry it alone."

I let out a slow breath. The jealousy and the fear of sounding controlling warred inside me. Finally the need for truth won. The words came out quieter than I expected.

"I went to the training wing earlier. I wanted to surprise you and walk you home. I heard you talking to someone. A woman. I did not stay. I left before you saw me."

Akira went still in my arms. I forced myself to keep going even while embarrassment and vulnerability burned in my chest.

"I do not know who she is. I do not know why she was there with you so late. The way you spoke to each other felt close. It has been sitting in my head ever since.

I keep thinking the worst and I hate it. I keep seeing someone else sharing pieces of you that I have not reached yet."

I finally looked at him. I knew my expression was open and unsettled and probably a little sulky. Jealousy and vulnerability and fear of loss sat plain on my face. I could not hide them. I did not even try.

Akira stared at me for a second. Then a soft laugh left him. The sound held surprise and fondness and clear relief. He reached up and cupped my face with both hands. His thumbs brushed the skin under my eyes.

"You are jealous," he said. There was no mockery in the words. Only warm recognition and gentle amusement. "Your face looks so worried and cute right now. I have never seen you look like this."

Embarrassment joined the other feelings in my chest and made my ears feel hot. I tried to turn my head away. He did not let me.

Instead he shifted up and wrapped his arms around my neck in a full, tight hug. The next moment he had settled himself across my thighs so we could see each other clearly.

I automatically braced him with my hands on his waist. The familiar weight of him on my lap sent a wave of comfort through the jealousy. I still felt exposed and a little foolish. The sulky feeling refused to leave completely.

Akira gently pulled my head forward until my face rested against his chest. His fingers moved through my hair in slow, soothing strokes. The care in the gesture made my throat tight with leftover emotion.

"The voice you heard belongs to Gleam," he said quietly. "She is not a human woman. She is a celestial dragon. She has been with me since the system first bound us. The increase in my mana let her take a human shape when she needs to. That is who I was talking to tonight."

Surprise washed through me first. Then confusion. Then the beginning of relief. I kept my face pressed to his chest and listened while his heartbeat steady under my ear.

"She stays in the spirit well most of the time," Akira continued. His fingers never stopped moving through my hair. "Tonight she spoke to me after I found something new during suppression practice. We only talked about that. There is no one else. There has never been anyone else. You are the only one I want."

The jealousy began to loosen its grip one layer at a time. Embarrassment stayed behind, warm and a little painful.

I had jumped.... Or rather dived to the worst conclusion and carried it home like a heavy stone. The shame of that sat beside the rising relief.

Akira’s hand kept moving through my hair in the same calm rhythm. "Tomorrow I will ask her to appear in her human form so you can meet her properly. You will see she is not a threat to us. She is part of my power, not a secret lover. I promise you will understand once you see her."

I finally spoke against his shirt. My voice came out muffled and rough. "I felt stupid the moment I left the training wing. I still could not stop the thoughts. I kept seeing some other person sharing pieces of you I have not reached yet. The idea hurt more than I expected."

"I understand," he said. His voice stayed gentle and close. "If I heard you speaking privately with someone I did not know in a quiet room late at night, I would feel the same fear and the same jealousy. But you are the one I love. You are the one I moved in with.

You are the one I want every night and every morning. No one else holds that place. No one else ever will."

Love, relief and leftover shame moved through me in a heavy, cleansing wave. I wrapped my arms tighter around his waist and kept my face hidden against his chest. The steady beat of his heart under my ear helped the last sharp edges of jealousy drain away.

"I did not want to sound controlling," I admitted. The words were hard to say but necessary. "We are still new in this life together. I did not want to accuse you of anything or make you feel trapped.

But the voice stayed in my head and the doubt kept growing until I could not ignore it anymore."

"You told me the truth when I asked," Akira said. "That is enough. I would rather you speak the ugly feelings than carry them alone and let them turn into something worse. I am glad you told me even though it was hard."

Gratitude rose strong and clear inside me. I pressed a kiss to the center of his chest, right over his heart. Then another. Then a third.

The simple contact helped rebuild the calm that had been missing all evening. Each kiss carried apology and love and the need to be close.

We stayed like that for a long time. Akira on my lap. My head against his chest. His fingers in my hair. The quiet of the room wrapped around us and made space for the softer feelings to return one by one.

Protectiveness settled back into its usual place. Fondness followed close behind. Love filled the remaining space until there was no room left for doubt.

I had heard a voice I did not know and my heart had panicked. Now I knew the truth and the panic had no ground left to stand on.

"I want to meet her," I said after a while. My voice sounded more like myself again. "Gleam. In the form you spoke to tonight. I want to see the person who shares that bond with you. I want to understand."

"You will," Akira promised. "Tomorrow. I will call her after morning training. You can ask her whatever you need to feel settled. She will answer. She already knows you matter to me."

I nodded against his chest. Acceptance and growing peace moved through me in slow waves. The jealousy felt distant now, like a storm that had passed and left the air clean and cool.

Akira shifted just enough to tip my face up with both hands. He kissed me once, soft and sure and full of quiet feeling.

The kiss carried reassurance and affection and the steady promise that I was the one he had chosen. I returned it and felt the last tight knot in my stomach unlock completely.

"You are my man," I told him. The words came out rough with leftover emotion. "I do not share easily. I do not want to share you at all."

"I know," he said against my mouth. "But I do not want to be shared. I only want you Kael. Just you. Only you."

Happiness and deep relief flooded my chest until it almost hurt. I pulled him closer on my lap and held him the way I had wanted to hold him all evening while the doubt was still loud.

His body fit against mine without any space left between us. The fit felt right and necessary and healing.

We stayed awake a little longer in the dark. Soft words passed between us. Soft touches followed. The quiet rebuilding of trust that had never truly been broken, only shaken for a few hard hours, continued with every calm breath.

Every time he pressed a small kiss to my hair or my temple, another piece of the earlier hurt dissolved.

When sleep finally pulled at both of us, I eased us down onto the bed without letting him go far. Akira curled into my side with his head on my shoulder and one leg hooked over mine.

I kept one arm around him and stared at the ceiling for a few final minutes while the last of the tension left my body.

The female voice now had a name and a place. Gleam. Celestial dragon. Partner in power, not rival for his heart. The explanation felt solid and clear.

The promise to meet her tomorrow felt solid. Most of all, the man in my arms felt solid and real and still completely mine.

Love and protectiveness and quiet gratitude filled me as my eyes finally closed. The jealousy had hurt while it lasted. The honesty that followed had made the bond between us stronger than before.

I held Akira close and let sleep take me with that knowledge resting safe and steady in my chest.

Tomorrow I would meet the dragon in her human form. Tonight I only needed the man who loved me and chose me and moved into my home. That was enough.

It was more than enough. It was everything I had ever wanted and everything I had been afraid to lose in those short, ugly hours of doubt.

I slept with my face pressed to his hair and my arm locked around his waist. The last feeling that moved through me was deep, quiet peace.

The jealousy was gone. The truth was here. Akira was here. Nothing else mattered.