Chapter 58 58
Chapter 58 58
Earlier that day, once the servants had finished restoring order to the office, Lucian turned his attention to the sleek new desk before him.
He meticulously reorganized his important documents, discarding anything unnecessary into the trash.
It was a futile attempt to regain a sense of control over his surroundings, a distraction from the chaos still raging inside his mind.
And no matter how he tried, his thoughts refused to leave Amelia.
The confrontation they had shared replayed over and over in his head. It had been more than a heated exchange of words; it had been a clash of emotions, something entirely foreign to him.
He had never experienced feelings like these before.
The overwhelming need to protect her.
The instinctive urge to keep her safe.
And the violent impulse to wrap his hands around Kevin’s throat simply to keep the man away from her.
He hated the bond between them.
Hated how powerless it made him feel.
The emotions eating away at him were unfamiliar and relentless. Jealousy. Possessiveness. Insecurity. They had rooted themselves deep within him, refusing to let go, forcing him to confront parts of himself he had never known existed.
Whether Amelia accepted it or not, she would listen to him.
He refused to let things continue this way.
It wasn’t merely because he was the Alpha. At least, that was what he kept telling himself.
It was because he genuinely feared for her.
He knew he had played a role in provoking her anger. He had seen a side of her that neither of them had expected, a mysterious glimpse of her vampire nature that still refused to leave his thoughts.
Yet despite that revelation, he could not tolerate defiance.
She was his mate.
The woman who had somehow become indispensable to him.
Love and protectiveness coursed through him with a frightening intensity, but that did not change one undeniable truth.
This was his pack.
His kingdom.
His responsibility.
And as its Alpha, she had to trust his judgment and respect his authority.
He would not allow anyone to take her away from him.
The mere thought of losing her sent an icy shiver through his body while igniting a furious blaze inside his chest. Kevin, especially, was treading dangerous ground.
If Kevin believed he could grow close to Lucian’s mate while Lucian simply stood by and watched, then he was gravely mistaken.
There would be consequences.
Severe ones.
Slipping both hands into his pockets, Lucian stepped away from his desk.
The burden of countless decisions rested heavily on his shoulders as he walked toward the towering bookshelf lining the wall.
He pulled out a book almost absentmindedly, flipping through its pages before another thought interrupted him.
Brennan still hadn’t reported back.
Lucian had tasked him with uncovering everything there was to know about Amelia, yet there had been nothing.
And that frustrated him more than he cared to admit.
There was something unusual about her.
He could feel it.
What he hated most was not knowing what it was.
When they had first met, her eyes had briefly shimmered with an impossible golden hue, a mystery he still couldn’t explain.
Now they had changed again.
This time, they had burned a brilliant crimson.
The question refused to leave his mind.
Were her eyes reacting to her emotions?
It seemed too consistent to be coincidence.
Could her feelings truly alter the color of her eyes?
No matter how many times he turned the possibility over in his mind, he still couldn’t make sense of it.
Her abilities reached far beyond what should have been possible for an ordinary vampire.
Her heightened senses.
Her uncanny ability to detect danger before it arrived.
None of it aligned with what Lucian knew.
He had studied countless books detailing the strengths and weaknesses of vampires over the years, yet none of them had ever described abilities like Amelia’s.
Every supernatural creature possessed some instinct for sensing danger, but hers was different, far sharper, almost unnatural.
Then there was the matter of the silver bullets.
According to both vampire and werewolf lore, silver was one of the deadliest substances in existence. It inflicted excruciating pain and devastating injuries upon their kind.
Lucian knew that pain firsthand.
Yet Amelia had walked away from silver without so much as a scratch.
It was impossible.
She had displayed an unsettling immunity to the very element that should have left her writhing in agony.
That wasn’t something he could simply overlook.
The more he thought about it, the more his mind drifted to Mikael Moore.
The man had to know something.
It was the only explanation.
Why else would he have kept Amelia locked away for most of her life?
His warnings had been too deliberate, too desperate. They suggested that he knew his daughter was different, perhaps even far more dangerous than anyone realized.
Lucian had always believed appearances could be deceiving.
And beneath Amelia’s gentle demeanor…
There was something he couldn’t understand.
Something hidden.
Something powerful.
He needed answers.
As soon as possible.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t an option.
Brennan had yet to uncover anything about Amelia’s past, and to make matters worse, he was currently occupied with another assignment, tracking down Nadia.
With a quiet sigh, Lucian carried the book to the plush couch and lowered himself onto it.
He opened the worn pages, though the words before him struggled to hold his attention.
Part of him wanted to seek Amelia out immediately.
Another part knew it would only make things worse.
His emotions were still too volatile, his thoughts too tangled for him to know what he would even say to her.
The only thing he was absolutely certain of…
Was that she needed to stay away from Kevin.
That conviction hadn’t changed.
If anything, it had only grown stronger.
He refused to accept their growing closeness.
Not now.
Not ever.
A long, weary breath escaped him, followed by a low groan.
Just then, his attention shifted toward the office door.
His expression flattened into one of weary annoyance.
“What now?” he muttered under his breath.
Twice in one day?