All Chapters of Cherish Me, Daddy: Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

78 Chapters

CHAPTER 40: LATE REALIZATIONS?

LUCEN'S POVThe sea had been calm when I excused myself from the Alpha of the southern ridge. Calm enough to deceive. The music from the ballroom spilled out onto the open deck in waves... laughter, crystal clinking, the low hum of satisfied alphas congratulating one another. Lanterns cast golden reflections over the dark ocean, and for a fleeting second, everything looked serene.“I’ll have my people finalize the winter trade routes before the frost sets in,” the southern Alpha said, gripping my forearm in a firm warrior’s clasp. “It’s been too long, Lucen.”“Likewise,” I replied, my tone steady, expression composed. Control had always been my armor. I wore it well. I had to.When I turned away, another familiar presence intercepted me.“Still standing like a spear rammed into the ground,” Alpha Osen laughed, clapping my shoulder with brotherly force.For the first time that evening, a faint hint of ease touched me. The warmth in my chest was real. We’d trained together at the Alpha

CHAPTER 41: SEARCH AND RESCUE

LUCEN'S POVThe ocean answered me with nothing but roaring wind and crashing waves. For a fraction of a second, I was frozen on my knees, palms braced against the slick deck, saltwater soaking through the fabric of my trousers. The shattered glass glittered beside me like fragments of a bad omen. My own reflection stared back in broken pieces.”Move." I said, the command snapped through me like a whip.I surged to my feet.“Alpha!” Drew’s voice cut through the wind as he and three of my men rushed onto the stern deck. “We’ve secured the surrounding corridors. No one saw him fall.”“Because no one was here,” I said hoarsely.My throat burned from the howl I had ripped into the night. I forced myself to think. The powder in the glass. The blind spot. The broken railing. The ocean.“Lower the emergency ladders!” I barked. “Deploy lifebuoys. Floodlights on full power. I want thermal scopes and sonar activated immediately.”“Yes, Alpha!”Men scattered with precision. The celebration music

CHAPTER 42: NOOM

ELI'S POVThe water was a black curtain, the pressure a cold hand that pressed against my ribs. I could feel the world shrinking to the dim glow of the ship’s hull far above, a distant lantern I would never reach. My thoughts were a tangled skein of regret... Lucen’s icy stare, Liam’s cruel laughter, the endless contracts that had turned my life into a ledger of debts. I was about to sign my name on the final page when the world went white.It wasn’t the white of death. It was the white of a star that had been waiting for me all my life.The darkness dissolved in a burst of phosphorescent light that seemed to come from inside me. My skin, my bones, the very marrow of my limbs glowed a soft, almost ethereal blue. I could feel the light seeping outward, curling around my heart like a living thing. My breath... if it could still be called that, stopped and then resumed, deeper, slower, as though the air itself had become a viscous liquid I could sip.A voice, not in my ears but in the ho

CHAPTER 43: ONLY ASTERHAVEN

LUCEN'S POVI had never known the ocean to be a liar. When the tide rose, it revealed only what it wanted—sun‑kissed foam, drifting kelp, the occasional flash of a dolphin’s dorsal fin. But in the weeks since Eli vanished, the sea had become a silent conspirator, swallowing his scent, his heartbeat, his very existence.Every night I lay on the deck of the private cutter we’d hired, staring up at a sky that seemed to stare back, indifferent. My mind replayed Osen’s last words, the way his eyes had cut through the gloom, “We owe our conscience something.”I thought of the promise I all made when i first bound myself to the pack—protect the weak, hunt the strong, trust the pack. Somewhere along the way, I had broken that oath, and the weight of it pressed against my ribs like a stone.The ocean did not answer my vow. It only kept moving.Two weeks. Fourteen days since the night Eli slipped beneath the surface and vanished into black water. Fourteen days of waking before dawn and returnin

CHAPTER 44: THE RISK

ELI'S POVWhen Marin pulled the boat free of the tide and dragged it onto that jagged stretch of rock, the moon was a thin sickle hovering behind a veil of clouds. It is already midnight. I could still taste the brine on my tongue, the cold that had gnawed at my ribs the moment the sea tried to claim me. The waves muttered against the cliffs in a rhythm that felt like a summons; each slap of surf against stone was a reminder that the ocean never truly lets go.“Can you walk?” Marin asked, his voice a rasp that blended with the wind.“I can,” I said, but the words stumbled out thin‑skinned and cracked. My legs, still raw from the night’s frantic rescue, shook the moment the soles of my boots met the uneven ground. Something thrummed beneath my skin—an unfamiliar strength that felt like a second heartbeat, low and steady. I didn’t have the luxury of questioning it; I only had the need to stay upright.He didn’t linger on my answer. Without a word, he slipped a dark, weather‑worn cloak o

CHAPTER 45: LEVERAGE

ELI'S POV"Open the door.” The voice that followed was unmistakable. It cut through the night air with the sharpness of a blade.An Alpha’s voice.It held authority, honed by suspicion. I could almost see the ridge of his jaw, the cold steel in his gaze. My skin prickled as the scent of his pheromones brushed the edge of my nostrils.From the outside, I heard another voice—low, a warrior’s whisper. ”Alpha, the house is dark. They might not be home."Through the small window, I saw them. The Alpha who answered was a towering figure, shoulders as broad as the doors he was about to break. His eyes flickered over the dark interior like storm clouds searching for a flash of lightning. ”I can smell someone inside,” he said, his tone calm, ”a faint scent.”My blood ran cold. The scent was no longer just his; it was a mix... Alpha Cody’s iron, the metallic tang of fear, and my own scent rising, leaking despite my attempts to hold it down. Noom surged, a white flash of panic."Control," I hear

CHAPTER 46: WHO'S MARIN?

LUCEN'S POVSleep became a stranger to me.Not the kind that drifts lightly and disappears at dawn... but the kind that stands at the edge of my bed and refuses to come closer. Every night I dismissed the servants, barred the doors, and sat across from Drew in my private study with maps sprawled between us like open wounds. The ink‑stained coastlines were more than paper; they were the edges of a promise I could no longer keep.Asterhaven.The name felt like a splinter lodged beneath my skin.“We’ve confirmed again,” Drew said quietly, tapping the marked coastline. “Every other territory responded. Some allowed our scouts limited access. Some sent written confirmations. Only Asterhaven remains silent.”“Not silent,” I muttered. “Deliberate.”Drew studied me carefully. “You believe he’s there.”“Yes.” My voice sounded thin, as if it were traveling through a long tunnel. It wasn’t a guess anymore. It was instinct.Vulk stirred restlessly at the back of my mind, claws scraping against bo

CHAPTER 47: THE PLAN

LUCEN'S POVEverything StoppedThe iron taste on my tongue never left. It lingered, I could still feel the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end, as if some invisible wind were still howling against the stone walls of the council hall.“Eli,” I said, my voice lower than intended, dangerous. A single syllable that seemed to echo off the granite and bounce back at me, thick with accusations. “How do you know that name?”Marin didn’t look away. His eyes were the colour of the sea at dusk...gray, restless, unwilling to surrender. “I found him,” he said.My fists clenched automatically, knuckles whitening. “Where?”“In the sea,” he answered. “About four weeks ago.”Four weeks. The words hit my chest like a weight of stone. My breath caught, shallow and frantic. “He was weak,” Marin continued, “barely breathing. I pulled him out near my nets.”My mind raced violently. Alive. He was alive.“Did he drift to Asterhaven’s coast?” Drew asked sharply, his voice a blade sliding across the

CHAPTER 48: THE INFILTRATION

LUCEN'S POV I looked back at Marin. “You’re going to tell me everything you know about Asterhaven’s estate layout. Guard rotations. Cody’s habits.” Marin exhaled shakily. “I will.” The words seemed to settle a storm inside him, but the tremor remained. My gaze drifted toward the dark window overlooking the estate. Four weeks. He had been there four weeks, trapped behind gilded doors while the world pretended the tide would wash him away. The image of his beautiful face, eyes hollow, stitched into the memory of the storm that had brought him to me, surged through my mind. I felt something cold and precise set inside my chest, a blade of purpose sharpening with each breath. The pack members shifted, their murmurs a low tide beneath the surface. I knew the politics of Asterhaven well enough to read the ripple on each face: fear, curiosity, the thin veneer of loyalty that could crack at any moment. I could feel Vulk’s twin‑headed roar in my veins, a promise of violence I could unleash

CHAPTER 49: PLAYED WELL

ELI'S POV The banquet hall shimmered with gold.Light from a hundred suspended lanterns spilled across polished stone floors, catching on goblets of wine and plates of roasted meat glazed in honey and herbs. Laughter rose in measured waves... too loud, too deliberate. The scent of celebration hung thick in the air: spiced fish, aged oak from the wine barrels, and beneath it all, the layered pheromones of a powerful pack secure in its territory.And threaded through everything... inescapable... was Alpha Cody.I stood half a step behind him, precisely where he had positioned me before the doors opened.“Remember,” he had murmured earlier while adjusting the cuffs of his dark coat, “you smile when I smile. You stand when I stand. You speak only if I allow it.”His fingers had brushed my chin as if I were porcelain he had purchased and wished to inspect. “And you will not embarrass me.”Not embarrass him. As though I had ever had the power to do so. Now I kept my posture straight, shoul

...

3 4 5 6 7 8

SCAN CODE TO READ ON APP