Gathering Husbands with a System in a Game Like World [BL]

Written in Elias’s POV.

I never meant to fall for Kai.

That was the first thought that came to me as I lay cramped inside a wooden cargo container, listening to the wheels rattle against the stone road beneath me. I had spent years learning how not to become attached to anything. People were liabilities. Feelings were weaknesses and Love was something other people had the luxury of indulging in, not me. I had believed all of that for most of my life.

Then Kai came along.

Somehow, in three months, he had managed to become the one person I couldn’t imagine losing.

I shifted slightly inside the container and immediately regretted it. There was barely enough room to move my shoulders. Seraphina’s people had packed the shipment carefully, which was fortunate because the Dome inspected cargo more thoroughly than almost any other organization in Ravenport. Unfortunately, careful packing also meant there was very little space for me.

I had spent the last twenty minutes listening to crates being moved around me. Boots, Voices.... I remained perfectly still. This was not the sort of infiltration where strength mattered. If I were discovered, I could kill a few people. Maybe several...That wasn’t the problem.

The problem was that the Dome had hundreds of assassins. Some were stronger and faster than me Some specialized in magic I had never encountered. And all of them knew how to kill. If the alarm sounded, I wouldn’t be infiltrating anymore. I’d be fighting my way through the headquarters of the organization that had trained me. That was something I had no intention of doing. Not yet anyway.

I closed my eyes.

Kai appeared immediately. His ridiculous expressions. His temper, The way he complained about everything. The way he pretended not to care when something obviously bothered him, The way his face changed when he was genuinely happy. I smiled despite myself.

I never meant to fall for him. I didn’t even notice when it happened. At some point, being around him stopped being something I tolerated. Then it became something I looked forward to, Then something I needed. And somewhere along the road after Voltra, I finally had to admit the truth.

I was head over heels for him.

Completely, Hopelessly and pathetically.

If someone had told me three months ago that I would one day willingly crawl into a cargo container and infiltrate the Dome because a man had been kidnapped, I would have laughed in their face. Now I was doing exactly that. And I wasn’t even questioning it.

The container suddenly lurched. I braced myself. A few seconds later, a voice came from outside.

"Open it."

My eyes opened. I reached for the knife hidden beneath my sleeve. The lock rattled. Another voice spoke.

"Personal cargo belonging to Lady Seraphine Veyra."

"Scan it."

A magical pulse passed through the container. I held my breath. The pulse moved across the wood. For one horrible second, I felt it brush against the cloak suppressing my presence. Then it moved on.

"Clear."

The lock closed again. The wagon started moving. I exhaled. That had been too close.

I leaned my head against the wood and thought about Seraphina. I hadn’t expected seeing her again to affect me as much as it did. Ten years, Ten years since I had left this place. Ten years since I had decided I would rather die than return. And yet here I was. Because of Kai. Funny how life worked.

Yes, we had a kind of blooming relationship in the past and I fucked her. She was clever. Beautiful and Dangerous. I liked her. She liked me. And eventually, we crossed that line. I slept with her. There was nothing particularly complicated about it at the time. At least, that’s what I told myself. Then I did it again. And again.

Unfortunately, Seraphina wasn’t the only woman in the Chairman’s household who had caught my attention. I had slept with all three of the Chairman’s wives. Individually and Repeatedly playing in all Thier faces. And eventually, someone noticed. That was the beginning of the end.

I still remember the look on my master’s face when he found out. He hadn’t even yelled. He had simply stared at me for a very long time.

"You slept with all three?"

I’d shrugged.

"Apparently."

He’d closed his eyes.

"I trained a fool."

Looking back, I couldn’t even defend myself. It had been reckless. Arrogant. Stupid, And eventually, it became the crime that forced me out of the Dome. I didn’t regret the relationships themselves. I regretted the consequences.

But Kai was different.

That was the part I couldn’t explain. Seraphina had been someone I wanted. Kai was someone I was drawn to. There was a difference. With Seraphina, I could walk away. With Kai... I didn’t think I could.

Even Dexter’s death had taught me that. I had watched Kai change after losing him. I had watched the way he carried that pendant. The way he sometimes touched it without realizing. And if Dexter had still been alive, perhaps things between the three of us would have remained complicated. Maybe I would have tolerated the awkwardness. Maybe I would have stayed beside Kai regardless.

The thought surprised me. I had never been the kind of man who stayed. Yet somehow, with Kai, leaving wasn’t even an option anymore.

When I fucked Kai, it was never just sex. It was the one time I could stop thinking. The way his body reacted. The sounds he tried to hold back. The way he still got embarrassed even after a month of me wrecking him every night. It did something to me. I liked watching him fall apart. I liked knowing I was the only one who got to see him like that. I liked the way he still argued with me even while he was taking every inch.

Fucking him felt like the only honest thing I did anymore. And the second I finished, I already wanted him again. That was the part that scared me. I had never needed anyone the way I needed him.

The wagon slowed. I immediately pushed those thoughts aside. We were here.

The cargo doors opened. Light flooded the container. I remained still until I heard the workers begin unloading the surrounding crates. Then I moved. One hand pushed against the lid. A narrow gap opened. I looked outside.

My stomach tightened. The Dome. I hadn’t seen it in ten years. Nothing had changed. And everything had.

I slipped out when nobody was looking and moved behind a stack of crates. For a moment, I simply stood there. I remembered being seventeen. Running these corridors. Training until my hands bled. Sleeping on hard floors. Learning how to kill before I had properly learned how to live.

The Dome had raised me. It had shaped every instinct I possessed. Every movement. Every reflex. Every ugly part of me. And now I was breaking into it. I almost laughed. The irony wasn’t lost on me.

I moved through the shadows. The old paths came naturally. I remembered which corridors were watched. Which doors were usually locked. Which staircases were rarely used. I knew the Dome better than almost anyone alive from my past of sneaking off repeatedly. That knowledge was the only reason I had a chance.

I reached the first security corridor. Two guards stood outside. I waited. One walked away. The other turned his head. I moved. Three seconds later, I was past them.

I continued deeper. The further I went, the more memories returned. The training hall where I had broken my first opponent’s arm. The medical room where I had once spent three weeks recovering from a poisoned blade. The dining hall where young assassins had competed over who could finish contracts fastest. I remembered people. Some were dead. Some had disappeared. Some had probably forgotten me. I didn’t care,I kept walking.

Then I reached an information terminal. I slipped into the empty room and activated it. A list of recent internal movements appeared. My eyes scanned the records. Then stopped.

Prisoner transferred to Chairman’s private sector.

My jaw tightened. Of course. The bastard had Kai.

I closed the terminal. My hand tightened around my knife. I had expected resistance. I had expected the Dome to be dangerous. What I hadn’t expected was for Kai to already be this close to the Chairman. That changed everything.

Aster Ludacris wasn’t a man I could simply fight. He wasn’t dangerous because of one overwhelming ability. He was dangerous because he’d survived long enough to master practically everything he touched. I’d heard stories about him when I was young. I’d seen him fight once. Once was enough. If Aster wanted someone dead, that person usually died instantly.

So what the fuck was his play? Why move Kai to his private sector instead of a standard holding cell? Why keep him close? The thought made something cold settle in my chest. I didn’t like not knowing.

I moved deeper. One corridor. Then another. I reached the restricted section. Two guards. I waited. Then moved. One dropped unconscious. The second followed. I caught him before he hit the ground and lowered him carefully. Then I looked at the door ahead.

Beyond it was the Chairman’s private sector. Kai was somewhere inside.

My heart began beating faster, not from fear but from anticipation

I reached for the handle. Then stopped. Something felt wrong. The corridor was too quiet. No guards, No patrol, No magical barriers, Nothing. I slowly withdrew my hand. My instincts screamed.

I looked behind me. Nothing. Ahead. Nothing.

Then I heard footsteps.

I turned.

My old master stood at the end of the corridor. He wasn’t alone. Assassins emerged from the shadows behind him. Five. Ten maybe even More. Every escape route disappeared.

My hand moved toward my weapon. My old master looked at me. For the first time that night, I understood.

The cargo. Seraphina. The convenient security gap. The empty corridors. The absence of resistance. It had all been too easy. I hadn’t infiltrated the Dome. I had been allowed inside.

My old master smiled sadly.

"Welcome home, Elias."

I stared at him. Then at the assassins surrounding me. And finally toward the corridor where Kai was being held. I’d been so focused on getting inside that I had forgotten one of the oldest rules I’d ever learned here.

The easiest path is usually the one someone wants you to take.

My fingers tightened around my knife. Someone had set me up. And judging by the number of assassins waiting for me, they had known I was coming long before I arrived.

Fuck.

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