All Chapters of His Bride By Force: Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

SERAPHINA The IV pole slipped from my fingers with a clatter, but I barely heard it. The man lay crumpled on the floor, blood pooling around his head like a crimson halo. My pulse thundered in my ears, drowning out everything but the rising static in my skull.Then the door jerked open. I didn't need to turn to know that it was him because it was easy to sense the hurricane of his presence.The love of my life.Killian.My heart lurched, crashing hard against my ribs.He stood in the doorway with his gun drawn, his eyes blazing intensely. And what undid me wasn't the power in his stance or the threat rippling beneath his tailored suit.It was the look in his eyes.Those impossibly blue eyes. Eyes that I had memorized once. They were locked onto mine.And for a breathless second, the entire world went still.We just... stared.His gaze dragged over me, down my trembling body, the blood splattered on my hospital gown, the bruise blooming on my jaw, and the tension in my fists. He

SERA The room didn't feel real anymore. My vision warped and blurred. I could almost taste blood in my mouth. If this wasn't a low blow, I didn't know what else it was.The photo lay on the table, almost innocently. Except it wasn't. It was a bloody grenade, and I hadn't seen the pin drop until it was too late.A baby.Tiny fists. Wrinkled skin. A hospital tag curled around its ankle.I couldn't move or breathe. My throat was dry. Because right then, I was reminded of the precious treasure I'd lost. The child I could’ve had with Killian."Say something, Killian," I breathed shakily. He stood still, barely breathing.And that's what made my knees wobble.Because I'd seen this man walk through gunfire. I'd watched him slit throats without flinching.But right now?He looked like a man who'd been shot in the fucking head."Killian," I whispered. "Tell me it's fake. Please."He didn't speak or even look at me. A second passed. Then another."Did you know?" My voice cracked. "Did you

KILLIAN She said it so quietly, I almost didn't hear her."They tortured me."My lungs suddenly forgot to function. I turned to look at her, really look at her, but Seraphina's gaze wasn't on me. It was somewhere far away, deep in a memory she didn't want to touch but couldn't escape. Her fingers were clenched on her thighs, her knuckles white. Her lips trembled, and she swallowed hard."They tried to chemically rewire my mind. Hypnosis. Drugs. Electric recalibration. Anything to make me give up the vault code and the ledger."Her voice cracked, and something inside me pulled taut like a wire ready to snap."They said... they said if I didn't give it up, they'd make sure I forgot everything I loved until I didn't remember why I ever resisted."I didn't breathe. I couldn't. My fingers had dug into the edge of the bench. The water bottle I'd been holding rolled to the floor, forgotten."They didn't even give me time to recover after the mission. I was five months pregnant, Killian.

SERA The room was dim, lit only by the soft amber glow of the bedside lamp. Killian lay on the bed, the white sheets tangled around his waist. He'd taken a shower earlier, but the color still hadn't returned to his face. His skin was flushed, and his chest rose with shallow, uneven breaths.I sat on the edge of the bed, carefully holding the ice pack to his forehead. The cold had already soaked through the towel I'd wrapped around it, and droplets slid down my fingers. His eyes were closed, his damp lashes resting against his cheekbones, but I couldn't tell if he was asleep.He hadn't said a word in almost half an hour.I touched his cheek with the back of my hand. He was burning. I swallowed tightly and reached for my phone on the nightstand. Raf was the only person I trusted enough to call, and I just prayed he wasn't elbows-deep in surgery right now.The phone rang twice.Then he responded, "Alexa?"His voice was alert but not annoyed. Relief swelled in my chest."Raf. Thank

RAFAEL The second I saw him curled up on the floor, I panicked. Killian could push through his pain if he wanted to, to be honest. There was this one time he got in an accident. He dislocated his shoulder, had a mountain-sized concussion, fractured his ankle, broke two ribs, and got a crazy black eye. But the idiot was still barking orders and walking around when he should have been resting.But right now, I realized my brother was a mess because he wasn't just physically sick. His walls were down. And every time it happened, he always ended up in the ER."Jesus, Killian—" I dropped to my knees beside him, my fingers already at his wrist, checking his pulse. It was there, but it was weak.I glanced up, barely registering the voice that had called me in.Arabella.Of course.She stood there like she'd just realized she broke her favorite toy and didn't know how to fix it. Her lipstick was too perfect for someone who was “worried," and the way she hovered, careful not to touch him