Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 444 of 619

The next night Ajax found Kael gone from the fire. His squad drilled without him. Ajax climbed to the lodge suite where Tucker kept the wine and found the door ajar. Inside, only Kael waited. The wine had not run out of him yet. He had come here on his own, hunting a second cup and a second look. "Watch is two hours off," Kael said. He did not stand when Ajax entered. He grinned, loose and easy, the grin the drink had let out of him. "Plenty of time." Ajax knew Kael sober. The man clipped his words and watched every corner. This Kael leaned back on the bench with his cup swinging from two fingers. He set the cup down. Then he pulled his shirt over his head and dropped it on the floor. "Look," Kael said. He flexed one arm, then the other. The muscle stood out hard in the lamplight. He turned so Ajax could see his back and chest, tan and scarred and thick from years of the blade. "Better than any chain you gave me." Ajax stood at the door and did not move toward him. He had bound this man twice. Sworn him, made him a squad leader, hung silver on his neck. Kael had never once asked for more. Now the wine asked for him. "I know what I want," Kael said. He came off the bench slow. He set a hand flat on his own chest, then let it fall toward his belt. His dark eyes stayed on Ajax and did not waver. "You do too. I've watched you long enough." Ajax measured the man. A squad leader loose on wine, half undressed, chasing the master's bed. Say yes tonight and Kael would wake ashamed, or worse, expect the door open every night after. A leader who shared the master's blanket could not hold thirty men steady. Ajax had built the whole house on choice made clear-eyed, not clouded. "No," Ajax said. Kael's grin held a moment, then broke. "No." "You're drunk. You lead a squad at dawn." Ajax bent and picked the shirt off the floor. He put it in Kael's hands. "Ask me sober, if you still want to. Not tonight. Not like this." Kael took the shirt. The looseness ran out of his shoulders. He looked at the cloth in his fists, then at the floor. "Sober," he said. Flat. The subject closed in one line. "Sober," Ajax said. "Now go sleep it off. Your men see you steady, or they don't follow you." Kael pulled the shirt on and walked out without another word. Ajax stood alone in the suite. He had kept the wall between master and man where it belonged. His captain would hold. But he knew Kael would come back one day with a clear head, and then the answer would be his to give again.