Step Brother's Obsession: Our Forced Marriage [M×M]

[NIGHT AT ROYAL HALL]

The chandeliers above burned with a blinding brilliance, glittering across the opulence of the ballroom, but everything around Raphael blurred......fading into a haze of sound and movement he couldn’t hold onto. Something was wrong.

His hands trembled as he lifted a champagne flute to his lips. It slipped from his fingers, shattering near his feet.

"Raphael?" someone him called distantly, but their voice warped like it came from underwater.

Today is His engagement party. That much he knew. He was dressed in tight silk—corseted cruelly around his waist, sheer sleeves clinging to his flushed skin—felt both heavy and unbearably light. The cold stone floor beneath his heels was the only anchor as his legs buckled slightly.

His vision pulsed, everything glowing and warped, and then—he knew something is wrong today...

His Eyes blurry as he tried to find a spot to hide, To regain, His control.

Then He saw him.

Xavier Rhéon Valerian.

His stepbrother. His enemy. His ruin.

Xavier Also came to attend his So called engagement like a good brother he is.

Far away, near a column, standing beside one of his guards, a vision of intimidation and cold command. The heavy black military coat on his shoulders gleamed with badges and medals, epaulettes like thorns, shoulders broad enough to cast shadows on lesser men. His black gloves tucked beneath his arm, hands clasped behind his back like a king who never had to speak to be obeyed.

He wasn’t supposed to be here.

Raphael’s breath hitched. A thousand reasons flashed through his mind to call out to him. But he didn’t. Couldn’t. His pride wrapped around his throat like a chain. His lips trembled. His lashes fluttered.

Instead, he stood frozen.....until he noticed the two guards on the opposite side of the ballroom watching him.

No—leering at him.

"Pathetic"

Their eyes slid over his thighs, his narrow waist, the sinful way the fabric clung to his ass. Their gaze was hungry. Predatory. The kind of stare that made your skin itch and your soul curl inward.

His skin crawled under their gaze. Their intentions were loud. Disgusting and Filthy.

Still, Raphael didn’t move. Cause he couldn't.

His legs shivering he knows even if someone see him struggle, No one will come to help him.

But Xavier did. He move towards Raphel.

The moment his cold eyes met Raphael’s across the hall, the noise of the party fell away. A war ignited silently between their locked gazes. Xavier’s icy expression didn’t waver, nor did Raphael’s.....both looked at each other like they wanted to tear the other apart, ruin them, worship them, bury them under the weight of hate and want.

But something flickered in the sharpness of Xavier’s gaze. His eyes dipped.....he saw the tremble in Raphael’s knees, the way his thighs clenched tight, his mouth open and wet with desperate, drugged need. His face flushed. He was watching Raphel every expression carefully.

He mumbled under his breath, “Drugs? Fuck.”

And then Xavier’s jaw tightened.

Without another word, he dismissed his guard with a cold nod and began walking through the crowd. Every step deliberate. Regal. Predatory.

He reached Raphael like a storm cloud, towering above him. Even in Raphael’s heels, Xavier felt like a mountain—broad chest, hard jaw, arms that could crush him, or worse, hold him down and make him beg.

“Why are you standing here like a drowned kitten?” Xavier asked, his voice is low and clipped, sharp enough to cut.

Raphael blinked, forcing himself upright despite the buckling of his knees.

"Why don’t you just crawl back to your shadowy corners, General," Raphael spat back, lips curling with venom. “This isn’t your war We don't need you here.”

Xavier’s cold gaze flicked to the two guards who was still watching. His voice dropped into steel. “What are you doing here? OUT.”

The men scrambled, vanishing into the shadows.

Then, without asking, Xavier dropped his coat over Raphael’s bare shoulders..... The coat is warm, heavy, smelling of cedar, smoke, blood, and power. Raphael flinched beneath it, his body shuddering.

"You look like bait," Xavier growled. "Tight dress, flushed face, trembling legs. Is this how nowadays people dress? Then with a pause he again asked . "Hey Are you drugged?"

"I’m not" Raphael began, but Xavier didn’t let him finish he saw all the eyes on Raphael. He gripped his wrist, pulling him away from the crowd and down the corridor.