Semua Bab Moaning For The Enemy: Her Sister's Betrothed Alpha : Bab 111 - Bab 120

DARIUS’S POVThe silence in the Calder estate was not quiet. It felt heavy, like dust pressing down on everything. It made every breath thick and slow. I sat on the edge of the big unmade bed and watched Iris in the middle of it. She looked smaller here than she did in the city. The dark wood headboard towered over her like a shadow.My shoulders felt tight. The muscles were still knotted from last night, when I tried to hold everything together. Being human was tiring. My body hurt in dull places, and heat lingered in spots. Every time Iris moved behind me, the sheets rustled and sent a sharp jolt down my spine. It had nothing to do with the wolf I used to be."You are brooding again," she said. Her voice was low and rough from sleep. It brushed the back of my neck like a soft touch."I am thinking," I said."Same thing," she muttered. The mattress dipped as she crawled over. She pressed her bare chest to my back. Her skin felt cool and soft against my heat. Her arms wrapped around my

DARIUS’S POVThe silence in the Calder library felt rough. Now that the silver hum was gone from my blood, the house seemed more like a tomb than a safe place. I stood by the broken display case. My knuckles were raw. My head throbbed with a dull human ache that did not heal fast anymore.Iris stood by the heavy oak desk. Her fingers shook as she went through a stack of yellowed papers. She looked tired. The charcoal silk of her gown was torn at the hem and covered in gray ash from the rooftop. But her eyes were sharp and dangerous."Stop hovering, Darius," she snapped without looking up. "The wolf is gone, but the brooding is still using too much air in the room.""I am not hovering. I am making sure you do not fall over," I said. My voice sounded rough. I walked over. The floorboards creaked under my boots. I reached out. My hand hovered over the small of her back before I let it rest there. Even through the silk, her skin felt hot. "You are running on adrenaline and spite, Iris. So

DARIUS’S POVThe silver mist did not just hang in the air. It crawled. It moved with sick purpose, swirling around my boots and clinging to the hem of Iris’s torn gown. The smell was sharp. Metal and old blood. The same scent that haunted my family for years. But here in the rotting library, it felt like an attack.I tightened my hold on Iris. My arm pressed hard across her waist. I felt her heart beat fast and shallow against my side. Without the wolf, I could not hear her thoughts. But I did not need to. Her skin turned cold where the mist touched her."Darius," she choked out. Her fingers dug into my forearm. "It is not just smoke.""I know," I rasped. My lungs burned. Every breath felt like swallowing broken glass.Eleanor stood in the doorway. A cold shadow of greed. She watched us like we were a failed test. The two men behind her stayed still. Their eyes stayed on Iris like she was a bill they wanted to close."The Bond is a biological need, Darius," Eleanor said. Her voice cut

DARIUS’S POVThe stairs to the third floor didn't just creak; they screamed under my weight, the wood splintering like dry bone. The sound echoed through the ribcage of the empty house, making it feel hollow, as if the building itself had been gutted and left to rot. Every step was a fresh agony. My lungs felt coated in thick, grey ash, and the empty space in my chest—the jagged hole where the wolf used to live—ached with a cold that went deeper than my marrow. I was just a man now. A hollowed-out shell. Left with a shattered jaw, a body that felt like lead, and a burning, singular need to claw Iris back from the dark.I reached the nursery door, and the sight of it felt like a slap in the face. It was the only part of the house that wasn't rotting. Dark oak, polished to a mirror shine, with a brass handle that glowed like it had been buffed by a ghost only seconds ago. It felt like an insult, a beautiful lie told in a house full of ugly truths.I had no key. I had no strength left to

DARIUS’S POVThe wind howled around us as I cleared the perimeter fence in one massive leap that nearly burst my lungs. Every muscle in my body felt like it was being sewn back together with live wires, sharp and electric, barely holding me in one piece. The raw serum Silas had given me wasn't any kind of gift; it was a wildfire tearing through my veins, eating away at whatever was left of the human side of me. It blurred the edges of my thoughts until nothing existed except the scent of Iris in my arms and the desperate, crushing need to keep her safe and keep moving forward.Iris clung to me tightly, her face buried in the thick fur at my neck. I could feel her heart pounding, that quick frantic Calder rhythm falling perfectly in step with the heavy thundering beat of my own. The Bond was back, but it returned jagged and wild, a raw surge of heat that made my skin crawl and my vision bleed crimson at the edges.I landed hard on the forest floor about a mile from the facility, claws