MasukLUCEN'S POVThe door had barely finished echoing shut behind the last of them when the silence settled again... thick, heavy, almost intimate.I didn’t let go of him. Not after the kiss. Not after the way his lips had softened under mine, the way his hands had instinctively clutched at my suit like I was something solid he could anchor himself to. That reaction… it lingered. It stayed with me longer than it should have.”Lucen,” Eli murmured after the kiss.Eli was still close. Too close.Close enough that I could feel the uneven rhythm of his breathing, still trying to steady itself. Close enough that the faint trace of his scent... jasmine, gardenia and something softer tonight, dampened by tears and fountain water... curled into my lungs and refused to leave.Dangerous. I should’ve stepped back. I didn’t. Instead, my hand remained at his waist, firm, grounding. Keeping him exactly where he was.Mine. The thought came uninvited. I exhaled slowly, forcing it down before it could take
ELI'S POVHis hand didn’t let go. Even after the kiss or even after the music swelled again and the world slowly returned around us like nothing had just shifted.His hand stayed wrapped around mine... firm, warm, unyielding. And that… that alone was enough to unsettle me more than anything else that happened tonight. Because Lucen didn’t hold on to things. Not people. Not me. Not beyond what was necessary. And yet... Here he was. Still holding on mine. At some point, I want to believe this is all real. But I'm afraid that it is just wishful thinking... because I'm not in Lucen's side as myself but a temporary replacement to my brother.The doors to the ballroom opened, and the noise crashed back into me... music, laughter, the low murmur of conversations layered beneath chandeliers and gold light. The same place that had suffocated me earlier now felt… different. Not welcoming. Not comforting.But different because this time I wasn’t alone. Lucen didn’t slow as we stepped in. If anyt
LUCEN'S POVFor you.The words left my mouth with a simplicity that betrayed nothing of the storm beneath it. But there was nothing simple about this. Not anymore.I watched him as he held the suit… the silver catching the faint garden lights, reflecting against his damp skin, against the tear tracks he thought I hadn’t noticed. His fingers trembled slightly against the fabric, careful... too careful, like he was afraid it would disappear if he held it too tightly. Like everything else in his life. My chest tightened. Annoying. Unnecessary. Dangerous.“Change,” I said, my tone steady, controlled. “We’re not finished yet.”That was easier. Command. Structure. Distance. It was how I kept everything in place.Eli blinked, pulling his gaze away from the suit to look at me. His eyelashes were wet, clumping together in small, dark fans, and his lower lip quivered... a flicker of vulnerability that sent a jolt of alarm through my system. There was something in his eyes… something softer now.
ELI'S POV The marble of the fountain’s edge was an icy, unforgiving anchor, biting into my thighs through the layers of my sodden, soaked trousers. I didn’t move. I didn’t want to. The ballroom behind me...a cavernous space of gold leaf, crystal chandeliers, and the stifling fragrance of expensive perfumes—felt like a reality I had been evicted from. Everything had dulled. The music, a frantic, swirling waltz, had bled into a rhythmic thrum that pulsed behind my eyes, distorted and distant. I felt like I'm underwater, trapped in the freezing depths of my own quiet misery, while the world above danced on, oblivious. My fingers, pale and trembling, traced the surface of the fountain water. Ripples. They were small, pathetic things that vanished as quickly as they were born. Just like my time here. Just like the phantom status I’d been granted. "Three months," I whispered, the words catching on the jagged edges of a sob. The count was a death sentence I had signed the moment I stepp
LUCEN'S POVI had chosen black for Eli tonight, a stark, obsidian void that swallowed the natural radiance of his skin. I told myself it was for the aesthetic of the gala, a requirement of the high-society Alphas who prowled these marble floors. But that was a lie.I dressed him in black because white made him look like something that could be saved. White made him look like a dawn I wasn’t allowed to own. Black was the color of our reality: a three-year contract with only three months remaining on effectivity, a convenient arrangement signed in ink and sealed with cold indifference. Or so I kept telling myself."Focus, Lucen," I thought, my eyes tracking the movement of the elites around me. He’s a tool. A shield against the elders. Nothing more.But every time he moved, the scent of him... jasmine and gardenia—cut through the heavy perfumes of the ballroom. It irritated me. It drew me in. When he excused himself, claiming he needed a moment, I didn't look at him. I simply nodded, my
ELI'S POV. The black wool of my tuxedo jacket felt like a shroud. I had spent my life gravitating toward white and the reliable comfort of linen—fabrics that let you breathe, that didn't demand a certain kind of posture. But Lucen was a man of contrasts, a man who saw the world in high-definition ink. To be his partner was to be painted in his colors, whether or not they suited the canvas. "Elion wears black," he had commanded, his voice a low, gravelly vibration that left no room for negotiation. It wasn't a suggestion; it was an instruction on how to exist within his orbit... within the shadow of his true mate... my brother I adjusted the cuff for the tenth time, staring at my reflection in the floor-to-ceiling mirror of our foyer. My face looked less joyful, or perhaps just hollowed out by the artificial light. I was two years into a life that had become increasingly performative, and yet, staring at the man in the mirror, I felt like a stranger. I was a prop in the Blackthorne n
LUCEN’S POVThe eastern border was silent when we arrived.Too silent.The kind of silence that was followed by the storm... by something big.The forest stretched for miles, a wall of ancient pines whose branches knotted together so tightly that even moonlight struggled to slip through. The air sm
ELI'S POVThe heavy fog that clung to the stone walls of Blackthorne never seemed to lift. Inside the estate time moved like syrup... slow, thick, and stubborn.Days slipped into weeks unnoticed, weeks folded into months, and the world outside turned from winter to spring to summer while I still wo
ELI'S POVMy legs felt like gelatin as I stepped out of the shadows, the heavy book forgotten at my feet. The words I’d just overheard looped like a broken record in my head... Lucen’s arrangements, the terrified omegas, the bruises, the payments. The floorboards creaked beneath me, and Lucen’s hea
ELI'S POVThe car that brought me to Lucen’s estate was silent. The driver sat rigid in the front seat, a man carved from stone, his eyes fixed forward, his scent muted to the point of deliberate erasure. He didn’t speak. He didn’t acknowledge me. I wasn’t a passenger; I was cargo.I wore black for







