All Chapters of BRED FOR DUTY: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

40 Chapters

The Shadow at the Gates

Adalia’s JournalDay 2,418.A ghost from my past stands on the balcony with drawn steel, reminding me that every choice carries a price paid in blood.Adalia swallowed hard, her pulse spiking as she stepped back from Archer. “Why are you here, Xander?” she asked evasively, trying to keep her voice steady.“I am here for a wedding,” Xander winked, pushing himself off the stone wall with a slow, predatory movement. “Plus, I am tasked with escorting your brother and his new bride back to the South.”“Then go do that,” Archer said firmly, stepping directly in front of Adalia and shielding her entire frame with his broad body.Archer knew Xander wouldn't dare strike Adalia, but he was equally certain that given half a chance, the Southern commander would drive his blade through Archer’s chest without a second thought.“Yes, Your Highness,” Xander bowed low, the words grating through his clenched teeth like grinding stones. He flashed one final, lingering look at Adalia before turning on his

The Gathering Storm

Adalia’s JournalDay 2,418. Memories of who we used to be cannot alter who we are now. The past is a tether I must cut, for in his arms, I have finally found a sky where I can fly freely.Up on the high terrace, the cool night air rustled the heavy silk of Adalia’s gown, but she felt no cold. Standing beside Archer, wrapped in the protective span of his warmth, the heavy ghost of her past with Xander finally began to lose its grip.“Are you alright?” Archer asked softly.He didn't wait for a verbal answer. With practiced tenderness, he wrapped his broad arm around her waist, pulling her frame flush against his chest.Adalia let out a long, shuddering breath, resting her cheek directly over his heart. Listening to its steady, powerful beat, she felt an overwhelming sense of belonging wash over her—a profound, quiet joy that she had never once experienced during all her dutiful years with Xander.“I am,” Adalia murmured, tilting her face up to meet his gaze. “Just... tired of ghosts.”Ar

The Viper’s Ambition

Adalia’s JournalDay 2,419. Courtiers compliment my gown while measuring my weakness. They do not see the blade beneath the silk, nor do they understand the quiet rage of a princess forced to play the ornament. But some eyes watch too closely, seeking the exact seam where my armor splits.Xander couldn’t believe she had dismissed him like that.He stood at a quiet, shadowed corner in the grand hall, his hand wrapped tightly around a silver goblet he had no intention of drinking from. Through the haze of flickering candlelight and swirling silk, his cold silver eyes locked onto Adalia. He watched the precise way she interacted with the other noblemen at the party. Lord Vane, the Duke’s son, the young commanders—she was just as dismissive with them as she had been with him, if not more so.A sharp, dark wave of relief washed over Xander. At least he wasn’t the sole recipient of her icy cold demeanor. It was glaringly obvious she didn’t want to be in this stifling room. It became even mor

The Web of Devotion

Adalia’s JournalDay 2,420.Affection can be a subtle trap. When a man offers you the freedom your own blood denies you, it is easy to mistake his ambition for devotion. I thought I was choosing my own path, unaware of the cage being built around me.Following that night, Xander and Adalia began meeting up in secret.At first, all they did was talk about past battles, tactics, and weapons. Xander spent hours at the edge of the palace grounds teaching Adalia new sword techniques, showing her maneuvers her father’s rigid guard instructors had never permitted her to learn.But soon, their quiet meetings grew into something else entirely. Xander recognized her hunger for validation and took full advantage of it. Step by step, he carefully turned her naive affection into a forbidden desire that he made her feel she needed to have.The first time he kissed her, he took her breath entirely away. He had plenty of experience, having practiced extensively with the wenches down at the pub, and

The Sound of the Trumpet

Adalia’s JournalDay 2,421.Truth is a weight carried in the chest. I made promises in the dark when I felt alone, but light demands clarity. I cannot live a lie with the man who holds my heart, even if the past still tries to drag me backward.“Don’t do that.”Archer was slowly getting irritated by Adalia’s guilty expression each time their path crossed with Xander’s former post or when his name was spoken by the guards. It made Archer feel as if she didn't truly believe what they were doing together was right. However, to him, holding her felt completely perfect.“Do what?” She squeezed back the warm tears threatening to spill over her lashes.“I don’t like it when you make that expression,” Archer said gently, pressing both of his broad palms against her cool cheeks, forcing her to look straight into his hazel eyes. “Like what we are doing is wrong?”She reached up and pulled his hands down to her chest, holding them tight. “What we are doing isn’t wrong. But what I did was. I sho

Blood in the Forest

Adalia’s JournalDay 2,422.We paint war in glorious colors when we dream of it in quiet rooms. But on the field, glory is just the coppery smell of open veins and the cold reality that love cannot shield a man from iron.Archer wasn’t sure how he was going to find his sister in the vast, dense woods, but he silently thanked the heavens that he had insisted on her learning how to defend herself before she ever left the North.Every couple of seconds, as they rode, his eyes would drift sideways toward Adalia. He needed to know she was still right beside him. He didn’t know how he was going to fight knowing that she was in equal, deadly danger, but he would simply have to divide his attention and stay absolutely sharp. In a way, they were riding straight towards death in the cooling twilight.It only took them minutes, after riding their horses sour, to reach the ambush site.The battle was still raging in the dirt. Men were shouting, steel was clashing, but there was no immediate sign

The Shadow's Strike

Adalia’s JournalDay 2,423.A single heartbeat separates life from the abyss. I watched the shadow move, trapped in the ice of my own terror, and in that silent second, the world shattered into pieces I can never fit back together.The minutes that ticked by in the quiet woods seemed like absolute hours. But finally, a scout was sent into the brush to retrieve them.Adalia and Novia helped Randi walk when he felt too weak from blood loss to keep his feet. Adalia watched as her brother and his young bride whispered incomprehensible, comforting things to each other in quiet gasps. Watching them, Adalia’s heart thrummed—she couldn’t wait to do the exact same thing with her Archer the moment they were clear of this nightmare.They finally emerged into the main clearing, where the once-green grass was now littered with bodies and painted dark red.Archer stood right in the middle of the field, waiting for them. His once-clean white tunic was heavily soiled, and his iron armor was smeared w

The Silence in the Hall

Adalia’s JournalDay 2,424.They dragged me away from his body, but they could not drag my soul from his side. They tell me he is dead because his blood was on the ground. But a bond like ours does not break just because men are too cowardly to search the dark.King Lionell reluctantly turned his horse away from the red clearing, his heart remaining entirely behind with his son’s lifeless body. The retreat was forced; the remaining rebel archers were calling from the treeline, and to stay was to invite the total slaughter of both royal lines.Adalia fought violently against Xander’s tight, crushing hold the entire way back. She twisted, kicked, and clawed, but in her weakened, hysterical state, she was no match for his strength. She didn’t stop screaming—screaming Archer's name until her throat was raw and bleeding—even as the surviving garrison pulled away from the clearing and rode furiously back toward the kingdom borders.When they finally passed through the iron gates of the Sou

The Phantom Breath

Archer’s JournalDay 2,425.They say the dead cross into light, but I know the threshold is made of leaves and dark earth. I drag air into lungs that refuse to expand. If this is death, it is cold; if it is life, it is a punishment because she is not here.A brutal pull yanked at his spine, dragging his upper body through weightless fog, but Archer could not discern where the current was carrying him. His mind floated detached from his limbs, suspended in a thick, numbing daze. Every nerve in his frame throbbed with a dull, persistent ache, as though his flesh had been crushed and pieced back together by unsympathetic hands.When his eyelids finally fluttered open, the sudden, violent glare of unfiltered light pierced his retinas. He blinked against the searing white, expecting the vaulted stone arches of his royal bedchamber or the blood-soaked soil of the border clearing. Instead, the blinding glare resolved into a jagged canopy of vibrant green leaves swaying gently against an uny

The Frozen Chamber

Adalia’s JournalDay 2,450.A month has died outside my window. The sun rises and sets, indifferent to the carcass of the life I built. They ask me to open the door, as if daylight would not burn what little of him remains inside this shadow.Adalia stood motionless before the leaded glass of her bedroom window, her cold forehead resting against the icy pane.She had not crossed the threshold of her chambers since the night they dragged her back from the Northern border. She refused official audiences, ignored the king’s repeated summons, and threatened to strike down any well-meaning servant who dared attempt to clean the room or draw back the drapes.For weeks, the heavy velvet curtains had remained drawn tight, suffocating the vast space in absolute, oppressive gloom. No ray of golden sunlight was permitted to touch the dark stone floor; no fresh mountain breeze was allowed to stir the heavy, stagnant air. The room was a tomb, preserved in the exact cold state of her broken heart.

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