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All Chapters of Bound By His Protection : Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

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THE MARKED NAME

For several seconds, I could not breathe. Kaelen's name remained on the screen between us, stark and merciless beneath mine, followed by a single word that seemed to burn itself into my vision.*TARGET.*I reached for the device, but Kaelen caught my wrist before my fingers touched it. His grip was firm, not painful, though the heat of his palm travelled straight through my skin. “Don't.” His voice was low. “Why?” “Because I don't know whether the file is genuine.” I looked up at him. “It has your name.” “That's exactly why you shouldn't trust it.” His thumb shifted against the inside of my wrist, right over my pulse. The contact was small, almost accidental, but my heart reacted as though he had pressed a blade against it. “Someone has been watching me for three months,” I whispered. “And they marked you as a target.” Kaelen's eyes hardened. “That doesn't mean they want to kill me.” “What else does target mean?” “It means someone has assigned significance to me.” “Because of me?” He

Last Updated : 2026-09-29

THE CHOICE

The darkness swallowed us whole. For several seconds, I could hear nothing except my own breathing and the hard beat of my heart beneath Kaelen's fingers. His hand was still wrapped around mine, warm and firm, while his other hand moved somewhere near his waist. I heard the faint metallic click of a weapon being released from its holster. My stomach twisted. Kaelen leaned closer until his chest brushed my shoulder. “Stay behind me.” His voice was barely more than a breath. “Someone is here.” I wanted to ask how he knew, but then I heard it too. A soft movement somewhere down the corridor. Not footsteps exactly. More like someone shifting their weight against the wall. I held my breath. Kaelen slowly pulled me backward. One step. Then another. His body remained between me and the darkness ahead. I could barely see the outline of his shoulders, but I knew every part of him was tense. “Kaelen,” I whispered. “Quiet.” There was something different in his voice now. Not anger. Not even

Last Updated : 2026-09-30

THE PRICE OF CHOOSING

The footsteps behind us grew louder as Kaelen pulled me down the emergency stairs, his hand locked around mine so tightly that my fingers began to ache. I stumbled on the second step, and his arm immediately went around my waist, catching me before I could fall. For one brief second, my back pressed against his chest. I felt the hard rise and fall of his breathing against my shoulder, felt the heat of him even through my clothes, and then he pushed me forward again. “Keep moving.” “I'm trying.” “Try faster.” “You could sound a little less terrifying when you say that.” “Julian.” The warning in his voice made me shut up. We reached the next landing. Kaelen stopped so suddenly that I nearly crashed into him. He raised one hand. I listened. Nothing. The footsteps had disappeared. “Where did they go?” I whispered. Kaelen stared upward. “They stopped following us.” “Why?” “Because they want us here.” I looked around the narrow concrete landing. There was one steel door ahead of us

Last Updated : 2026-10-02

THE MAN IN THE PHOTOGRAPH

The locked door behind us gave a heavy mechanical click, and I stared at Kaelen instead of the dead monitors. The photograph was still burned into my mind, the younger version of me standing beside Arthur, smiling for some event I barely remembered, while a stranger stood behind me with the casual posture of someone who had never needed permission to be there. Kaelen had recognized him. That was the part I could not ignore. He had looked at that photograph as though someone had reached through years of buried memories and wrapped a hand around his throat. “Who is he?” I asked. Kaelen didn't answer. I stepped closer. “You said you thought he was dead.” His jaw tightened. “I did.” “That isn't an answer.” “It's the only one I have right now.” I gave a bitter laugh. “You're locked in a security room with me, surrounded by evidence that someone has been stalking us, and you're still deciding what I deserve to know.” His eyes snapped toward mine. “Because knowing everything doesn't make you

Last Updated : 2026-10-03

WHAT I WAS MADE TO FORGET

“I was beginning to wonder when you would finally remember me.”The words moved through me slowly, colder than the air surrounding us. I stared at the man at the end of the corridor, searching his face for anything that might unlock the memory he claimed I had buried. Nothing came. Only the strange certainty that I had seen him before. Somewhere. Somehow. My mind reached for the memory and found only darkness. “Who are you?” I asked. The man smiled faintly. “That's disappointing.” Kaelen stepped completely in front of me. “You shouldn't be here.” The man's eyes shifted toward him. “Neither should you.” Something in Kaelen's posture changed. His hand tightened around mine, pulling me closer behind him. “How are you alive?” The man's smile disappeared. “So you do remember me.” “I remember what I was told.” “Then you remember a lie.” My heart began pounding. I looked at Kaelen. “You know him.” “Yes.” “You said he was dead.” Kaelen's jaw tightened. “I said I believed he was dead.” The man

Last Updated : 2026-10-05

THE MEMORY THEY BURIED

For several seconds, I couldn't move. The man's final words remained inside my head, repeating themselves with a cruelty that made my skin feel too tight. **He made sure you forgot it.** I looked at Kaelen, but his face had become unreadable. The black drive rested in his palm between us, so small it was almost insulting. Something that tiny was apparently capable of tearing apart everything I thought I knew about my own life. “What does that mean?” I asked. Kaelen didn't answer. “Kaelen.” His fingers closed around the drive. “It means we need to leave this corridor.” “No.” My voice came out sharper than I expected. “It means you know something.” “Julian.” “Don't.” I stepped closer. “Not this time. You don't get to tell me that I'm safer without the truth. I have spent my entire life being told what I am allowed to know about myself. My father did it. You did it. I'm done.” Something flickered in his eyes. He looked as though I had struck him. “I never wanted to become another person

Last Updated : 2026-10-07

TOMORROW

The word **Tomorrow** remained on the screen long after the rest of the file had stopped moving, its white letters burning against the black monitor until they seemed less like information and more like a sentence passed down by someone who had been waiting years to deliver it. I stared at it without blinking, aware of Kaelen beside me only through the heat of his body and the slow, controlled rhythm of his breathing. My fingers were still resting against the edge of the desk, but I could no longer feel the cold metal beneath them. Somewhere inside me, something had gone completely still. Tomorrow. Not someday. Not eventually. Tomorrow. Whoever had created that protocol had known I would find it. They had known I would reach this room, open this drive, read those files, and stand here with Kaelen beside me. That meant the discovery itself might have been part of the plan.Kaelen leaned closer to the screen. His shoulder brushed mine, barely touching, yet the contact sent a sharp aware

Last Updated : 2026-10-08

THE MEMORY BENETH THE SKIN

The first thing I noticed was the sound. A low electrical hum crept through the security room, rising from somewhere beneath the floor until the vibration settled behind my teeth. The monitor flashed white, and a sharp pressure bloomed behind my eyes. I gripped the edge of the desk, struggling to keep my balance as the words *RECOVERY BEGINS NOW* flickered across the screen. Beside me, Kaelen moved so quickly that his shoulder struck mine. His arm came around my waist, holding me upright while his other hand reached for the keyboard. The warmth of his palm seeped through my shirt, but I barely registered it. Something was happening inside my head. Not a thought. Not a memory. A sensation, sudden and brutal, like fingers pressing against a locked door from the other side.“Turn it off,” I whispered.Kaelen pulled the power cable from the terminal.The screen stayed on.He tried the switch beneath the desk, then tore open the equipment panel with a force that sent a screw skittering acr

Last Updated : 2026-10-12

THE MAN IN MY MISSING MEMORIES

For several seconds, I couldn't look at Kaelen. His name remained on the monitor, beneath the words *ASSIGNED GUARDIAN*, while the door behind us stood unlocked and Elena called from the corridor. The room smelled of overheated circuits and dust, but beneath it I could still taste the hospital in my memory, the sharp bitterness of antiseptic and something metallic at the back of my throat. I had spent years believing my missing memories were ordinary gaps, fragments lost to time or buried beneath the weight of my father's expectations. Now I was looking at evidence that someone had deliberately taken them from me, and Kaelen's name was attached to the man who had authorized the procedure. My fingers slipped from his. He didn't try to catch them again.“Tell me what it means,” I said.Kaelen stared at the screen. The muscles in his neck tightened beneath his collar, and for the first time since I'd known him, he looked as though he had no idea where to place his hands. “I don't know wh

Last Updated : 2026-10-12

THE PROMISE HE DENIED

I watched the screen until the message disappeared completely, waiting for another line to appear, another clue that might explain why someone had spent ten years turning my life into a locked room. Nothing came. The monitor returned to its dark reflection, showing my pale face and Kaelen standing behind me, his expression unreadable. *Do not trust the man who promised to come back.* The words had been meant for me, not for him, yet they had settled between us with the weight of an accusation. I could still feel the memory in my bones, the small hand gripping mine, the desperate certainty of a voice promising to return. I didn't know whether the person in that corridor had been Kaelen. I didn't know whether the promise belonged to a stranger or someone I had loved enough to remember even after my mind had been altered. But I knew one thing. Someone wanted me to believe Kaelen had abandoned me, and they had chosen this moment to make sure I never looked at him the same way again.“Copy

Last Updated : 2026-10-12

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