Chapter 006

Chapter 6

Camilla’s POV

I stood frozen, my fingers still curled around the doorknob. My heart pounded in my chest as I stared at the person in front of me.

It felt like I had been punched in the stomach.

The last person I ever expected to see was standing on my doorstep.

“Jax?” My voice came out barely above a whisper.

Jax, my childhood friend—the one I had lost years ago. The one I thought was dead.

He looked different now. Older, rougher. His dark hair was longer, his face sharper, his eyes harder. There was no trace of the boy I used to know, the one who always made me laugh when the world felt too heavy.

“Hey, Millie,” he said, his voice low.

Hearing my old nickname from his lips sent a shiver down my spine.

I took a step back, gripping the door tightly. “How are you here?” My voice was sharp, demanding.

Jax didn’t answer right away. He just looked at me, his eyes flickering to my neck. I knew what he was staring at. The mark.

I clenched my jaw. “Say something.”

He sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. “I need to talk to you. Can I come in?”

I hesitated. Every instinct told me to slam the door in his face. I didn’t trust easily, and someone coming back from the dead didn’t exactly put me at ease. But this was Jax. And deep down, I needed answers.

I stepped aside. “Five minutes.”

He walked past me, his presence filling the room like a storm cloud. I shut the door and turned to face him, my arms crossed.

“Talk.”

Jax looked around before his gaze settled back on me. “You’re in danger, Millie. More than you realize.”

I let out a bitter laugh. “Tell me something I don’t know.”

His jaw tightened. “I’m serious. That mark—” he pointed at my neck, his voice hard— “it changes everything. Do you even understand what he did to you?”

Anger bubbled inside me. “Of course, I do! He marked me, Jax! He claimed me like I’m some possession!”

Jax took a deep breath, like he was trying to stay calm. “It’s more than that. This isn’t just about you being mates. Luciano isn’t an ordinary Alpha.”

I frowned. “What do you mean?”

Jax hesitated, and for the first time, I saw something in his eyes—fear.

“There’s a reason I disappeared, Camilla,” he said. “I’ve spent the last four years hunting the truth. Luciano isn’t just an Alpha. He’s cursed. The bond he forced on you? It’s dangerous.”

A cold chill ran down my spine, but I refused to show my fear. “What kind of curse?”

Jax looked me dead in the eyes. “Anyone he marks… doesn’t survive.”

Silence filled the room. I felt like the air had been sucked out of my lungs.

I forced myself to laugh, but it sounded hollow. “That’s ridiculous.”

Jax’s expression didn’t change. “Is it?”

I swallowed.

No. It wasn’t.

I had felt the mark’s power from the moment his fangs sank into me. The burning heat, the pull toward him, the strange dizziness. And now Jax was saying it was more than just a mate bond—it was a death sentence?

I shook my head. “You’re wrong. If that were true, why would he do this to me?”

“Because he needs you,” Jax said darkly. “The bond ties you to him, but it also ties him to you. And when the time comes…” His voice trailed off, his fists clenching.

I felt sick. “You’re saying he’s going to kill me?”

Jax’s silence was answer enough.

I turned away, my hands gripping the edge of the table so hard my knuckles turned white. My head was spinning.

I thought Luciano had marked me out of possessiveness, maybe even cruelty. But if Jax was right, if this was something worse—

I took a shaky breath. “Tell me how to break it.”

Jax hesitated. “It won’t be easy.”

“I don’t care,” I snapped, turning back to him. “Tell me.”

His eyes darkened. “There’s only one way to sever a mark like this.” He took a step closer. “You have to kill him before he kills you.”

The words hit me like a slap.

I had trained for years to be strong. To fight. But could I really kill someone?

Could I really kill him?

Luciano, the man who made my blood boil with rage. The man who forced this bond on me. The man who—

I pushed the thought away.

Yes. I had to.

Jax watched me closely. “You hesitated just now.”

I lifted my chin. “I didn’t.”

He studied me for a long moment before nodding. “Then you need to move fast. The longer the bond stays, the stronger it gets. Soon, you won’t be able to fight it at all.”

I swallowed hard. “Then we need a plan.”

Jax gave me a grim smile. “That’s why I’m here.”

*

That night, after Jax left, I couldn’t sleep.

I sat on my bed, staring at the ceiling, my mind a whirlwind of thoughts.

Luciano had marked me.

Jax said I was going to die because of it.

And the only way to stop it… was to kill Luciano first.

I let out a shaky breath and touched the mark on my neck. It still burned.

Would I even have the strength to fight him? To end him?

I had no choice.

I had survived too much to let some cursed Alpha be the end of me.

As I sat in the darkness, the mark throbbed again, but this time, it wasn’t just heat.

I felt something else.

A presence.

My chest tightened, my heartbeat quickening.

And then—

A voice.

“You’re mine, Camilla.”

My breath hitched.

It wasn’t a whisper. It wasn’t in my head.

It was him.

Luciano.

Somehow, he was here.

I shot to my feet, scanning the room, but there was no one. Just the shadows.

But I felt him.

I could sense him.

And then—

A knock at my window.

I froze, my entire body going rigid.

Slowly, I turned my head.

The curtains shifted as the wind blew through the slightly open window.

Another knock.

It wasn’t the wind.

Someone was there.

I reached for the dagger hidden under my pillow, my grip tightening.

Another knock.

Slow. Deliberate.

I stepped closer, my breath shallow.

And then—

A shadow moved.

My pulse slammed against my ribs.

I yanked the curtain back—

And my blood ran cold.

Luciano stood on the other side of the window, his piercing eyes locked onto mine.

He smiled.

Not cruel. Not smug.

Just calm.

Like he had expected me to be here.

Like he knew I had been thinking about him.

I gripped the dagger tighter, my knuckles turning white.

“Let me in, Bee,” he murmured.

I didn’t move. I didn’t breathe.

His eyes darkened, his smirk fading. “We need to talk.”

The bond pulsed between us, making my body betray me with a pull toward him.

I clenched my teeth, fighting it.

I would not be his.

I lifted the dagger, pointing it at him through the glass. “Go to hell.”

His smirk returned, but there was something else in his eyes now. Something unreadable.

“Already there, darling.”

And then—

The window shattered.