Bound By The Past Novels & Stories

"You carry our dynasty now. Your life is no longer your own to risk." "I am fine, Ethan," I panted, my fingers automatically clenching the fabric of his wet shirt, my analytical mind still trying to map the tactical retreat. "We need to re-route the manifests before Dominic coordinates with the central fleet—" "The manifests can burn," Asher growled, stepping up behind the divan, his massive hands clamping onto my shoulders with a sudden, bruising force that dragged my back flush against his hot, bare chest. "My brother is right, doll. You’re our incubator now. Every single drop of your blood belongs to this house."

"When it’s a wrap on this year, when the contract is over and you flit away … I’m not going to hold you back." "Why are you telling me now?" "Because I want you to know, that you are not trapped. This is a deal with an end date. You get your freedom back." "And what do you get?" He looked away. "My inheritance. My grandmother's legacy is preserved. What I paid for." It should've been reassuring. Would have made me feel better that I had an out. But it didn’t bring relief, just a pang in my chest.

So that maybe, I’d never look at him without pity in my eyes again. The male who’d exiled himself to protect the pack, but who never left, who ranged the foothills protecting us despite everything—he could have sat eighteen-year-old me down and explained to the girl knee-deep in daydreams and her own unresolved grief that sometimes we cannot be other than what we are, even when it breaks our hearts. That the past has claws. That it casts a long shadow. That its shackles feel unbreakable. Would he have been able to make me understand?

That I would eventually be repeating history, even though the present day has proven itself to be anything like that. “Looks like you are still tied down to the past,” Pularis then said, snapping me out of my thoughts. “I… thought I had gotten over it. That I was free from it all,” I admitted in shame. "It's not that you 'thought' you were free. It is more that it has not completely sunk into you that you are no longer under their control. That your past experience with them has been so deeply rooted into you, it still affects you like this."

He stayed quiet after that. When we finished, Lucian stood. He took the final record—slim now, intentional—and sealed it with a simple charm. Not a lock. Not a ward. A boundary. “This legacy no longer controls us,” he said evenly. “It supports us. And it ends here.” The words settled deep in my chest. I felt something inside me finally rest. Not because everything was perfect. Not because the world was suddenly safe. But because we had made a choice. We had stopped letting the past dictate the shape of our future.

Zacharias mutters. My eyes widen as a jolt of pain pangs in my head, and I furrowed my brows as I looked at him. "What past?" I asked in a chilly tone. Silence. "I don't have one." It's because it's forbidden knowledge. "You know what, Allura." Zacharias sighed as he inched closer to me. "You can't escape us anymore. You can't even go back to the past... or into the future." He added as convincingly as he can, a tone that forces me to deliberately surrender to his will.

It unsettled me, amplifying the dilemma I couldn't escape. I couldn't let him get close so easily, not when I had buried the past so deep in my heart. That painful memory had cost me far more than I ever expected. I had thought I'd be free of him, that I'd never again be haunted by what we once were. But now, standing before him once again, it felt like everything had come full circle. That indescribable pull, always tethering me to the past, was still there, and I couldn't escape it.

I asked carefully. "The one the First put on me. Three thousand years ago when she destroyed everything I loved." His voice remained perfectly controlled. But underneath—Marcus was right. The grief. Vast and ancient and terrible. "She bound me to the memory. Made it impossible to forget. To heal. To move past." His eyes never wavered from mine. "I've carried it for three millennia. Every moment." "And you want me to sever it." "I want you to free me." He paused. "There's a difference."

Claude sighed and looked away for a moment before meeting her gaze again, then replied, “The doctors say there’s a possibility he might never fully recover the use of his legs. It’s uncertain, but the injury is severe.” Silence hung heavily between them. “I… I’m sorry” Tammy whispered, her throat tight. “Please dear, no need to apologize for anything" Mr Claude said, stepping closer. “This is not your fault, nor Ryan’s. Life has taken an unexpected turn and we have to adapt.” Tammy swallowed hard, the magnitude of it all threatening to overwhelm her. She glanced down at her hands, fingers twisting nervously. “There’s another thing though" Mr Claude said, lowering his voice. “With Ryan’s cond

Now I hope we can live life out of the past and without boundaries ourselves. At least the boundaries of Judy and other past demons. Am I expecting too much?