Semua Bab Bound For 365: Bab 21 - Bab 29

~ Alessandro ~The phone buzzed on my desk. I’d been staring at it for hours, waiting, knowing Jorge or Loci would break sooner or later. It had been a week and I got was their proof of life, no update about Sera.Finally, the message came.Jorge: Boss, forgive me. It took long. She banned us from speaking to you. Said no calls, no messages. But I had to sneak to tell you.My jaw locked. She banned them? Sera. My Sera. Banned thugs and they obeyed? My thugs?I typed back fast.Me: Talk. Now.The dots blinked.Jorge: It started the same day we were dispatched. She bought a house. Brought the women there. Made Dino’s thugs and us stay together. No fights, boss. She forced it. They call each other brothers now.I pushed back in my chair, the word forced pounding in my head. Sera making my men and Dino’s live together? That was a war I’d never allow. Although I wanted her to be safe, I had expected altercations. Fuck!Marco’s voice carried from across the study. “Who are you cursing at no

~ Seraphina ~I couldn’t sleep.The antique building creaked around me, the old wood breathing with every gust of night wind, but my mind was louder than the walls. I lay on the bed staring at the cracked ceiling, thoughts darting like knives. Thinking…The Volkov alphas. Seven days. I had thrown the dare in their faces, but now the question clawed at me: what will I ask of them? What if they proved it? What if they tore down Veridia in those seven days? What if they came for me first?Options tangled in my head like barbed wire. Ambush them? But where? In the open streets, their men outnumbered everyone. In their den, I’d be a lamb in a slaughterhouse. Maybe lure them into Elysium—but then my women, my thugs, we're outnumbered and they’d be the first to bleed.Damn it. Every plan folded in on itself.I sat up, fingers digging into my knees. My chest tightened. My cursed heart reminded me of its weakness, a dull pressure under the bone. But hate steadied it. Duty steadied it. Hate fo

~ Seraphina ~I had never heard silence so loud.Two days with the Volkov, and the warehouse felt more like a fortress of smoke and shadows than a place of men. The air was thick with vodka and iron, and the sound of wolves howling from the lower cages had become the rhythm of my nights.They hadn’t locked me up. No, they had treated me like… one of them. Not their prisoner, not their toy. A guest. Maybe even more.That was more frightening than chains.I sat on the edge of the narrow bed they’d given me, knees pressed together, hands folded. My chest rose and fell in careful breaths. Sometimes I thought the hate and fire inside me had healed my weakness, but no—the old heart still betrayed me, pulsing wrong, waiting for the moment it would collapse.“Boss lady.”I turned. Miranda—the one with the soft eyes, the one whose mother had been sick—slipped into the room and shut the door quickly. Her face was pale, and her hands were wringing together.“What is it?” I asked.She leaned clos

~ Seraphina ~Jorge’s message came, urgent, as it always was. “Boss lady, it's done. Estate is yours.”I stared at the glowing screen, my thumb hovering. The location I’d given Dino and Sandro. “How much?” I typed back.“Enough to make me feel like a thief,” Jorge answered. “But it’s done. Papers won’t trace. No one will know.”A small smile tugged at my lips. “Good. Don’t contact me again until I say.”“Yes, boss lady.”I killed the line, tossed the phone aside, and stared at my reflection in the cracked mirror.Time to play the fox.I chose the gown like a soldier chooses a blade. Black silk, so thin it clung like water, short enough that every step risked scandal. No panties. That was deliberate. My breasts pressed hard against the neckline, with the flesh peeking by the sides. My hair swept up but loose enough to fall when I wanted it to, lips painted a red as dangerous as blood.Every thread screamed invitation. Every glance would scream surrender. But inside, my chest burned

~ Seraphina ~The morning after smelled like smoke and metal.I stayed up all night. I killed them. I orchestrated their death. But the reason I did was the main reason I was worried.I did it for Dino and Alessandro.The hallway had been cleared of blood, though the faint streaks on the floorboards whispered what had happened here last night. My feet carried me slowly, each step echoing like a verdict.At the end of the corridor, they waited.Dino.Alessandro.Both seated in silence, shadows folded around them, as though the room itself feared them. But when I appeared, they both stood, their chairs scraping back.Their eyes found me and held me, unblinking. Not with hunger. Not with relief. With recognition.They knew.I wasn’t Sera anymore—the soft girl with trembling hands and a heart that failed her. Not the woman who needed saving. Not theirs to shield, to hold, to claim.I was something else now. And Veridia knew it too.I stopped in front of them, heart steady despite the a