Chapter 13 Chapter 13
LUCIAN'S POV
The morning air had a bite to it sharp, brisk, laced with dew but I barely felt it. I stood on the terrace overlooking the training grounds, arms folded across my chest, eyes fixed on her.
The rogue.
'She's not a rogue. She's our...' my wolf grunted in my head but I cut him off.
She moved like someone not yet molded by discipline. Her stance was off. Her footwork is slow. Her punches lacked precision. But still, she got up. Every damn time. I clenched my jaw tight.
It had been a mistake, maybe, assigning her to the warriors. But watching her now, blood staining the side of her mouth, shoulders trembling, I couldn't bring myself to regret it. She needed fire to sharpen her edges and I needed distance. I didn't trust her.
Couldn't trust her.
And yet, my eyes found her every time she fell. Every time she was forced back on her knees, my wolf stirred, restless beneath his skin. Not from pity. From possession.
'Mine' he growled silently.
The word was uninvited, unwelcome. But it echoed in my bones like a truth I had tried too long to deny.
I looked away.
From this angle, the courtyard was a battlefield of movement. The female warriors, his best trained with precision. They'd been raised in the pack, taught to fight before they could speak properly. I was proud of them. But they didn't know what it meant to claw their way out of feral survival.
I had seen it in her eyes that first night. When she'd been tied with silver by the guards, bloodied, snarling, terrified but she didn't beg. Not then. Not until she looked at me.
That moment... her voice shaking, eyes wide with something that wasn't quite fear, haunted him more than it should. I hadn't touched her since. I hadn't spoken to her, save for orders. I had given her space, given himself distance.
And yet, here I was watching her, and I couldn't bring myself to stop. Cira lunged, knocking her back again. She hit the dirt hard and didn't move for a second. My hand curled into a fist on the railing.
She was slower than the first time I had tested her. That worried me more than it should've.
"What do you see in her?" I didn't turn. I didn't need to. I knew the voice too well.
Dahlia.
She stood behind me now, arms crossed, eyes narrowed toward the field. Her tone was syrupy sweet, but I could taste the bitterness beneath it.
"Nothing," I said.
"That's not what your eyes say."
"She's a rogue. She's untrained. She's barely surviving."
"And yet, you brought her into my ranks." I turned my gaze to her.
"You wanted to prove you're the best. Now's your chance." Her lips curled.
"She'll break."
"She's still standing."
"For now."
"What is it, Dahlia? Why are you being nosy? Are you not supposed to be training" I said trying to hold my anger in.
"You know I can fight even with my eyes closed. I've missed you, you haven't sent for me in a while" she said touching my chest and I let her.
"I'm busy. You know that"
"It didn't matter before but ever since that rogue girl came into this pack you've changed. Is something going on that I should know?"
"You have no right to question me. I am still your alpha. Just because I've fucked you a couple times doesn't make you important. Do you understand that?" I growled and she bent her neck in submission. Fear was evident in her eyes.
She hurried past me, her scent too strong, too familiar, it suffocated me.
I didn't stop her from going down to the field. Didn't stop her when she called the rogue out in front of everyone. The taunts. The smirks. The way she made the girl flinch. My wolf didn't like it.
I stayed where I was, watching. Measuring, trying to smother the irrational heat rising inside me at every mocking word Dahlia threw. The rogue didn't speak back.
Smart.
But her eyes... I inhaled sharply. I'd seen defiance before. But this was different. Hers was bruised and bloodied, but burning. Like even defeat couldn't bury her. That kind of fire could be dangerous. Or it could change everything.
When the training ended, she limped off the field alone. Not a single warrior offered her help. Dahlia gave a final sneer and turned her back. I didn't follow the girl but he wanted to. My wolf was urging me to be I found a way to resist.
Adrian found me later in the study. My Beta didn't knock. He never did. Only when he knew I was in a bad mood or I was in my room.
"She's pushing herself too hard," he said without preamble. I didn't look up from the reports on his desk.
"That's the point."
"She'll break at this pace."
"She hasn't yet."
"Why her?" He came closer, his voice dripping with something like curiosity. I exhaled slowly and leaned back in his chair.
"Because I want to know who she is. What she's hiding."
"You're not just curious, Lucian. You're drawn."
"Careful." My gaze snapped to his. He didn't flinch.
"You can lie to the pack, to her but not to me. I saw you watching." He kept pushing.
"I watch everyone," I said lightly.
"She's not like them." He crossed his arms with an arched brow.
"That's exactly why I'm watching."
"What are you not telling me, Lucian? You know I've known you since we were kids. Is there something between the both of you? I've seen the way you look at her and it's not the way you look at everyone. Is she...." There was no need to deny it anymore. He already knew.
"Yes," I said in defeat and he looked surprised.
"How? What of...." I cut him off because I didn't want to hear that name.
"I don't know either"
"You know at some point, you'll have to accept it. It's okay to move on. She's gone so stop sulking about her"
"I'm not sulking about her. I don't want a second chance. I just want to be alone"
"Are you sure about that? If you're really sure then you should reject her so someone else can court her. Someone like me" he said with a smirk. My wolf and I didn't like the sound of that so I growled loudly. I saw the grin on his face. He did that on purpose.
"She's afraid of you."
"She should be. That's what I want. I can't have another slip-up like the last time" Adrian shook his head.
"No. She's afraid of what she feels around you. You're just too stubborn to admit you feel it too." I stood.
My movement was slow. Controlled. But the silence between us thickened.
"You think I don't know what this is?" I said, voice low. "You think I haven't felt it clawing at me since the moment she stepped past the border?" He didn't answer.
"She's a rogue. We don't even know her name."
"She gave it," he said. "You just never use it." He accused me and my jaw ticked.
"Because the moment I say it, it becomes harder to pretend she's not getting under my skin," I said defeatedly. His silence was answer enough.
I turned toward the window. Dusk had begun to settle, painting the sky in bruised oranges and purples. Somewhere below, I knew she was licking her wounds, alone.
Good, I told myself. It'll make her break and she'll tell us everything. She needed to be alone. So did I.
But the truth twisted like a blade in my ribs. I didn't want her broken. I wanted her standing. Fighting.
Watching her rise from the dirt, day after day, made me believe if only for a second that maybe there was something pure left in me too.
Later that night, I found himself walking the halls near her quarters. I told myself it was a coincidence. I was just checking patrols. That I wasn't listening for the soft shuffle of her steps or the heartbeat I'd come to know too well.
Then I heard a muffled sound. A sob? I paused outside her door. Silence followed. Then a quiet voice—another girl's. Lina.
"She'll be fine," he heard Lina whisper.
"No," came the rogue's voice. "She won't. I'm not her. I'm not like them."
"Good," Lina said. "We have enough of them." My chest tightened. I should walk away. Instead, I leaned closer.
"I can't let him see me like this again," the rogue murmured. "Weak. Broken."
"You're not broken," Lina said. "You're bruised. There's a difference."
I didn't hear the rest. I didn't need to. I walked away but the sound of her voice, the ache in it, followed me down every corridor.
That night, I dreamed of fire. Not the kind that destroyed but the kind that consumed slowly, starting from within, and her eyes were in the flames. My chest tightened whenever I thought of her.