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BOUND TO MY ALPHA ENEMY 90
Lydia’s POV The crown arrived on a silver tray like a small, secret moon; when the servant set it down, the room felt suddenly consecrated. Light caught the gold filigree and scattered across the satin of my gowns, turning each shimmer into a promise. My breath hitched, this was the part I had rehearsed in the mirror a dozen times and yet nothing had prepared my chest for the honest, ridiculous thrill of it.“Don’t touch,” I warned Lou with a grin as she reached, already trembling with the giddy reverence of a child offered candy. Her eyes were the exact shade of mischief and devotion I’d taught her to keep. “It’s not a toy.”She dropped back as if stung; a practiced bow tipped her chin. “Forgive me, my lady. Hail you, Luna Lydia.” Her voice danced, half teasing, half worshipful.I laughed and lifted the crown, letting its weight settle like a benediction. The first time the circlet met my hair, the room tilted, just a fraction, and for a second I felt exactly like the heroine in the
BOUND TO MY ALPHA ENEMY 89
Cade's POV I could feel my pulse in my ears, loud as a drum. “Lucian,” I said, and my voice tried to be the tether; reason had to be the first responder. “She saved you once. She bled for you. You can’t make that into a tool without telling her. You can’t make her a sacrifice on your altar.”He laughed then, half humorless. “You’re sanctimonious tonight, Cade. This is not a sacrifice. This is a necessary step. There are probabilities. If we…if she helps bring Clara back, she’ll have saved me more than once. People do things they would not do otherwise.”“You’re rationalizing,” I said bluntly. “You’re rationalizing the weaponization of someone else’s life because you’re scared. That’s not a calculation. It’s cowardice dressed as strategy.”His face flickered with something unreadable; I couldn’t tell whether it was hurt or anger. “You don’t understand,” he said low. “You were never the one who watched her in a glass box for a year. You don’t know what it costs a man to hold a hollow p
BOUND TO MY ALPHA ENEMY 88
Cade's POV I stood by the bed long enough to memorize the way the lamplight threw Lucian’s face into relief, the planes of his cheekbones like carved obsidian, the slow rise and fall of a chest that had no business heaving with so much something he refused to name. He lay half-turned away, bandage at his forearm dark with fresh blood, a frown sketching new lines into an already severe face. Sabrina hovered, eyes on me; the brief exchange between us was all in a tilt of her chin, and that small, urgent look spoke. She left without a word after that, leaving the room to the two of us the way a tide leaves shells stranded, everything exposed and raw.Lucian’s gaze snagged my movement like a hook; he said nothing when I closed the door behind me. He never liked to be watched while vulnerable, and yet vulnerabilities were the only places where he let anything not-perfect leak through.“Go on,” he rasped finally; it had the clipped edge of someone daring me to pry.I crossed to the bed an
BOUND TO MY ALPHA ENEMY 87
Lucian's POV I turned away, toward the bathroom, needing the hollow of tiles and the sharpness of water to focus my thoughts. The room spun faintly on the weight of my uncertainty. I rubbed my forehead and closed my eyes for a second; fatigue and adrenaline warred in the edges of my vision. The wound throbbed like a second heartbeat; the handkerchief had darkened to a ring of crimson I could not scrub away.Sabrina called from the doorway as she left; the sound of her footsteps retreated like a tide. “Hurry, Lucian. Don’t let it get worse.”I closed the bathroom door behind me and leaned my forehead against the cool wood. The world blurred, lines smearing like wet ink. I tried to steady my breath. Cade’s voice echoed in the hollow I’d been attempting to drown out; she’ll understand if you explain. The line might as well have been a razor.My vision fractured; the edges went gray. I took one step to the vanity and the bathroom tilted. The tiles beneath my boots seemed to rise and drop
BOUND TO MY ALPHA ENEMY 86
Lucian's POV The gym felt like a forge tonight; the machines hissed and the lights buzzed, and my breath came out in hot, staccato chords. I moved from one equipment to the next, heavier work each time, as if piling weight onto my chest would flatten the ache I could not name. The treadmill had been a drum; now it was the rower, the sled, the heavy ropes I slammed until my arms trembled and my hands were raw. Each motion was precise, surgical, controlled in motion, the only antidote I had for the memory of her falling and not being the one to pull her out.I pushed until my muscles sang. The gym smelled of iron and old leather; sweat coated my skin and my shirt clung like a second, unwilling skin. Every rep became an argument with myself; each lift a refusal to stay still and wrestle with the thought that Cade had been the one to dive when I had hesitated. The idea scraped raw inside me like gravel.Then my forearm spasmed. A tight, sudden knot pain I had been ignoring; the handkerc
BOUND TO MY ALPHA ENEMY 85
Lucian’s POVThe rhythmic pounding of my feet against the treadmill drowned out the faint hum of the gym’s overhead lights. Each step was heavier than the last, like I was trying to outrun my thoughts, but they clung to me like shadows stitched to my heels. Sweat rolled down my temples in beads, tracing hot paths down my face before dripping onto the dark, rubber surface beneath me.The air in the gym behind the packhouse was humid, thick with heat and salt, as if the walls themselves were suffocating me. My black singlet was plastered to my chest, soaked through, and my shorts clung stubbornly to my thighs, the fabric damp where the sweat pooled. Every muscle in my legs burned with each stride, but I welcomed the ache, it was easier than feeling the gnawing weight sitting in my chest.I had skipped dinner on purpose. The thought of facing Alina across the table, pretending like today hadn’t happened, pretending like I didn’t watch her fall, sink, and nearly not come back, I couldn’t
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