Todos los capítulos de Bound to the Enemy Alpha: Capítulo 81 - Capítulo 86

Chapter 82Rohan POVI began the withdrawal deliberately. It was not as a punishment or as avoidance. Certainly, it was not a retreat.I framed it as recalibration, the kind that follows any prolonged engagement when proximity begins to distort perspective. Distance restores clarity. It always had. I had lived by that principle long before Ella entered my life, long before her presence began to rearrange the rhythms of my days without asking permission.For weeks, she and I had existed in a pattern that was too fluid, too seamless. Our routines overlapped naturally and corridors converged without intention. Meals aligned without discussion and presence became default instead of decision.I knew default states were dangerous. So I adjusted. I altered my schedule by minutes at first—subtle enough not to be noticed, deliberate enough to matter. No more “coincidental” meetings in the east corridor where morning light pooled across the marble floors. No more shared breakfasts disguised as

Chapter 84Ella POVRohan did not act out of impulse. Now I thought about it, that should have been my first warning.We were standing near the tall windows overlooking the east wing gardens, the late afternoon light spilling in at a shallow angle, when he said it. It was not a casual conversation or an afterthought the moment he cleared his throat. He waited until our conversation reached a natural pause, until silence settled between us comfortably, and only then did he turn to me.“I’d like to take you out tonight,” he said. His tone was even, measured. “Properly. I’ll like to take you somewhere nice.”I couldn’t sense any qualifiers or teasing in between. There was in fact no implication that this was just convenience or obligation. He was really asking for a date night. I felt it register in my body before my mind caught up. My first instinct was not excitement, but containment. My years of reflex and experience told me that anything offered this cleanly came with gravity, and

Chapter 86Rohan POVThe silence in my office feels different this morning. It is not the kind of silence I curate or the kind that follows after staff retreat, after doors close, after the house settles into its disciplined rhythm. This silence presses in on me and waits.I sit at my desk with my hands folded over the surface, staring at the files I arranged before I slept last night. The stack is neat, precise, ordered by urgency and consequence. Names, accounts, influence chains, leverage points. This is my world reduced to paper and ink, a sort of power translated into something I can hold, rearrange, and control.This is supposed to steady me. Instead, my attention keeps drifting to the empty chair across from me. Ella sat there once. She did not ask permission. She walked in like the room belonged to her, looked at the shelves behind me, and asked if I owned anything in this house that did not taste like discipline. I remember the way her mouth curved when she said it, half-smil