He love him, just in denial.
He def felt some affection for Rapiel, but didn’t love him as much as he desired Aeroc. A lot of Klopps whole issue in the first timeline stems from the fact that he can’t reconcile the fact that he was in love (one that was twisted in his own way ig) with his husbands murderer
i don't particularly think he liked Raphael. he looked 'exactly like Aeroc' apparently and was an omega which had him interested in the first place.
Sadly he was just a place holder for Aerox but when Aeroc' had a hand in his death i think that made Kloff feel like he had some power over Aeroc' and used that to guilt trip him AND use that as punishment.
Kloff did not love Raphael, he definitely cared for him, but he was not in love with him. That’s why he hated and felt disgusted with himself back then, he felt himself feeling something for another alpha.
He didn’t love Rapiel… he didn’t even respect him. One of his lines in season 2 mentioned, Kloff described his potential marriage with Rapiel to be so peaceful that it would be boring. It showed why he used Rapiel to aggravate Aeroc, using his so-called beloved wife to humiliate Aeroc.
Rapiel looked tired as Kloff dragged him around heavily pregnant.. the way he looked at Aeroc while being affectionate to Rapiel. Rapiel was a tool, a tool to be normal. He is very homophobic.
Kloff feels he needs to have a family. In the novel, after his engagement with Rapiel was broken, he simply threw the ring away to be forgotten.
I read the novel, all the side stories and author's notes in Ridibooks. There's also a Q&A where someone asks the author about that. For all that is shown plus the author's answer, no, Kloff didn't actually love Raphiel, romantically, at least. First, he couldn't accept two alphas together, so he denied his attraction for Aeroc since the beginning. Second, he chose Raphiel exactly because he looked a lot with Aeroc, the author themselves said that. He liked Aeroc, couldn't accept, so he chose the closest and acceptable option. He was so invested in the revenge because he developed an affection as family for Raphiel, plus there was the matter of that his son was also killed, plus he was taking on Aeroc his own frustation about not accept his feelings. With time, that twisted relationship/revenge became all the connection he had with Aeroc, so couldn't bring himself to stop and kept going for years, or he wouldn't have anything to do with Aeroc anymore.
Was there anything else in the q&a? I’ve never had a love hate relationship with a novel before…this is my all time fave novel but I absolutely despise kloff
WAIT! someone clarify it for me, did kloff really love rafiel in the first time line? Or did he just fell in love after they got married and he got pregnant?