58. In Denial.

Adrian's POV

The training room was the only place I could breathe.

Steel, stone, sweat—those things made sense. Pain made sense. Rage made sense. What didn’t make sense was the glowing mark on Lucy’s skin, the way the world kept tilting every time I remembered it, the way my chest felt like it was being torn in two by names I wasn’t ready to say out loud.

So I trained.

Harder than I ever had.

My fists slammed into the reinforced pillar again and again, cracks spider-webbing across the stone as power rolled off me in violent waves. My muscles burned, my bones screamed, but I didn’t slow down. I welcomed it. Pain was honest. Pain didn’t lie to you the way destiny did.

I shifted mid-strike, claws ripping out as I tore into the dummy across the room. It flew back, smashing into the wall. I barely noticed.

I needed this.

If I stopped, I would think.

And if I thought, I would remember Rose’s face… and Lucy’s mark.

The door opened.

I didn’t turn.

I already knew who it was.

Caleb’s presence was as familiar as my own heartbeat—steady, grounding, irritatingly calm.

“You’re going to bring the whole place down,” he said mildly.

I didn’t answer.

I struck again.

The floor shook.

I heard him move closer, heard the quiet stretch of his muscles as he joined me, his fist slamming into another pillar with controlled precision. He didn’t match my rage. He never did. That was the problem.

“You’ve been at this for hours,” he said.

I growled low in my chest.

“Leave it.”

He ignored that too.

We trained side by side in silence for a while. My strikes were wild, brutal. His were clean, deliberate. Alpha rage versus second-in-command restraint.

Finally, he spoke again.

“You can’t outrun this forever.”

I snarled and hit harder.

“Adrian,” he continued, voice calm but firm, “you might need to accept that you—”

I spun on him, eyes flashing.

“Don’t.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Accept what?”

“That you might love her,” he said evenly. “And that Rose is still in your mind. Both can be true. But you can’t keep tearing yourself apart pretending neither exists.”

Something inside me snapped.

I lunged back toward the pillar instead, slamming my fist into it so hard the stone collapsed inward. Dust filled the air.

“I don’t love her,” I said through clenched teeth. “And don’t say her name.”

Caleb exhaled slowly.

“Then why are you this angry?”

I ignored him.

I moved faster, my body blurring as I attacked the next target, ripping it apart with pure force. Training wasn’t enough anymore. Nothing was.

“Adrian,” Caleb said again, closer now, “you need to let go. Of Rose.”

That did it.

I stopped.

Slowly, I turned.

The room went very quiet.

“You don’t get to tell me that,” I said.

“I’m telling you because someone has to,” he replied. “She’s human. She’s gone. And this—” he gestured vaguely, “—this situation with Lucy isn’t going away.”

I laughed bitterly. “So that’s it? I just accept it? Pretend the mark means I chose her?”

Caleb stepped closer. “I’m saying the mark exists for a reason.”

He reached out.

Just a touch. Just his hand on my arm.

Everything went red.

Caleb's POV

I barely had time to brace.

The shove came fast—raw Alpha strength, unfiltered, violent. Adrian’s palm hit my chest and sent me skidding back several feet, my boots carving lines into the stone floor.

I caught myself before hitting the wall, digging in, absorbing the force.

The room hummed with power.

Adrian stood there breathing hard, eyes glowing, shoulders tense like he might strike again.

I straightened slowly, lifting my hands—not in surrender, but in warning.

“Easy,” I said. “I’m not fighting you.”

He stared at me like he didn’t recognize me.

“Not now,” he said sharply. “Not you. You’re meant to be at my side.”

I took a step forward anyway.

“I am,” I said. “That’s why I’m talking to you.”

His jaw tightened.

“To protect you,” I continued, voice steady despite the adrenaline still buzzing through me. “From making rash decisions. From tearing down everything you’re trying to save.”

He laughed—short, harsh.

“You think this is about rash decisions?” he snapped. “I didn’t choose this. I didn’t ask for it.”

“I know,” I said quietly.

“That mark shouldn’t exist,” he went on, voice breaking just a little. “It doesn’t make sense. I don’t feel anything for her. Nothing. And yet—” He cut himself off, shaking his head.

“And yet it’s there,” I finished.

He looked at me like he wanted to deny it all over again.

“You think I’m betraying you,” I said. “But I’m not. I’m trying to keep you standing.”

He scoffed. “By telling me to give up?”

“By telling you to face reality,” I replied. “You’re the Alpha of Alphas. Every choice you make ripples outward. You can’t keep pretending this will disappear if you ignore it.”

His fists clenched.

“You’re supposed to side with me,” he said again, more quietly this time.

“I am,” I said. “Even when you hate me for it.”

For a moment, I thought he might say something else. Something honest. Something that would crack the wall he’d built around himself.

Instead, he turned away.

Adrian's POV

I couldn’t stay.

If I stayed, I would explode—or worse, I would listen.

Caleb’s words followed me as I headed for the door, my footsteps heavy against the stone.

“Not now,” I said again, more to myself than to him. “I can’t.”

I shoved the doors open and stalked out of the training room, my chest tight, my mind a battlefield of memories and instincts I no longer trusted.

Rose’s smile.

Lucy’s glowing mark.

The council.

The gods.

Destiny.

I hated all of it.

Behind me, I knew Caleb was watching, saying nothing, letting me go because he understood that if he pushed any harder, I might shatter completely.

I didn’t look back.

The doors slammed shut.

And for the first time in a long while, I didn’t know where I was going—only that standing still wasn’t an option anymore.