Chapter 4

Nadia's POV

I stared at Lucian, watching the terrifying rage flicker in his amber eyes. He was speechless, yet he wouldn't let go.

At that moment, the sick, obsessive need for control that a high-ranking Alpha felt over his "objects" was on full display.

I didn't want to engage in this pointless standoff any longer.

Every second I stayed, the aggressive scent of cedar clinging to him eroded another shard of my sanity. I straightened my back, intending to brush past him and head upstairs, but the moment our shoulders crossed, a hand like an iron vise clamped around my wrist.

"Nadia, are you trying to tell me what to do?" His voice was low and dangerous, vibrating with the violence as if just been insulted.

I didn't look back. Ignoring the crushing pain in my wrist. I answered coldly, "I just wish you'd stop with the double standards. Since you chose Abbie, then, I'm nobody to you anymore, and maybe you should let me free".

"Is this all for him?" He jerked me in front of him so hard I nearly lost my footing. "The tenderness, the submission you showed me this past year... Was it all just a cover for that guy Kaleb?"

I struggled, trying to break his grip, but an Omega without spiritual energy was nothing against an angry Alpha.

Seeing me resisting him, he gave a sharp tug. I gasped, falling defenselessly against his broad, hard chest.

That cold cedar scent enveloped me instantly—the scent of my "ex" mate. Even though the bond was severed, my body still retained its instinctive submission to him. I froze in his arms, paralyzed as if by a spell.

"Nadia, answer me. Is it because of him?" He leaned down, his hot breath ghosting over the side of my neck, the very spot where he used to mark me repeatedly.

The intimacy of the position made me uncomfortable. I pressed my lips together, trying to use silence to fight off this dangerous pull.

But Lucian was never a man to be dismissed by silence; his Alpha aura was seeping into my skin, forcing me to speak.

"No, it has nothing to do with him... We're just friends," I said, my voice so low that I could barely hear myself.

"Just friends?" He scoffed, his voice dropping to a cold, predatory level. "You and Kaleb are not from the same world. He has restless blood boiling in his veins. You'd better stay far away from him".

Something inside me finally snapped. I looked up into his arrogant eyes.

"Lucian, you chose to break the mate bond. So, I'm free now, and I have the right to choose my own friends and...

My mate," I said with a small voice, gathering my courage.

My defiance seemed to push him over the edge. He stared at my trembling lips, and the amber in his eyes darkened into a turbulent storm. The strange agitation stripped away his usual coldness. He suddenly leaned down and slammed his lips onto mine.

My eyes flew open, my mind going completely blank.

During our year as "temporary mates," we had been intimate countless times under the full moon. He had bitten my nape with a primal hunger to claim me, but he had never kissed me like this. A kiss, almost with a hint of a desperate tremble. For a werewolf, a bite was possession, but a kiss... A kiss was a test of the soul.

It was new to me, yet fatally tempting.

I tried to push him away, but the resistance was like pouring gasoline on a fire. He wrapped his hand around my waist, his palm burning hot as he aggressively stole the breath from my lungs. For a second, it felt like the bond was still there; my heart raced so fast that it threatened to shatter my ribs.

Tears welled up in my eyes. I lost all my strength and could only lean helplessly against him. Just as the kiss was about to cross a forbidden line into something more, a faint mental ripple shivered through the air.

Someone was trying to open a Mind Link.

Lucian froze. His lips slid to the corner of my mouth, and he leaned his forehead against mine, breathing heavily. His eyes searched mine, filled with struggle and a raw, unspent desire.

He took a sharp breath and picked up the link.

"Lucian, where are you? I'm so scared..." Abbie's weak, panicked voice echoed through the Mind Link.

It was an open link from Abbie. Yeah, why should I be surprised?

At that moment, reality hit me like a bucket of ice water. I snapped out of it and shoved the man who had just been kissing me away.

What were we doing?

Since the mate bond was gone and he had already chosen his "true mate," what was the point of this? Did he take pity on me? Or was it just his possessiveness?

I didn't look at his clouded amber eyes again. My face turned to stone.

Taking advantage of his momentary daze, I turned and fled down the suffocating hallway, rushing toward the stairs.

Lucian stood there, his hand still reaching out as he watched my retreating figure.

"Abbie, what's wrong?" he finally said, his voice returning to restrained calm as he followed behind me. "Isn't the nurse with you?"

"Lucian, I'm scared... I feel like someone is pacing outside my door," Abbie's voice sounded like she was on the verge of a breakdown. "Are the rogues coming for me again? Can you come stay with me?"

Lucian went silent. His gaze flickered toward me, his fingertips still held in the air.

As he hesitated, Abbie's voice became urgent and frantic, "Lucian, I... I think I'm starting to remember that night. I think I remember what the man looked like..."

Those words made Lucian's gaze turn sharp as a blade. The truth of that night wasn't just Abbie's trauma; it was also a shadow that shrouded the entire Silver Stone Pack.

I pressed my palm against my belly and thought, though he stood not far from me, our worlds were starting to tear apart.