Chapter 79

Chapter 79
I could hear moans from inside, muffled but unmistakable, followed by a sound that made my blood run cold: Sarah’s voice. My hand stalled on the door as my mind tried and failed to process what I was hearing. I reached for the handle, heart racing, and when it gave way, I pushed the door open and stepped inside.

The sight made my stomach drop.

Sarah was straddling Jacob, her fingers tangled in his hair as she moved against him. His shirt lay discarded nearby, while her short violet strapless dress clung loosely to her frame, leaving little to the imagination. Her expression was unguarded, almost blissful, as though nothing outside that moment existed.

“What the fuck is going on here?” The words left me in a stunned breath, barely audible even to myself, shock rooting me in place as heat and disbelief crawled up my skin.

Jacob reacted first, shoving Sarah away as though burned. He stumbled upright from the chair, eyes wide with panic, while Sarah, in contrast, took her time adjusting her dress. Her expression slowly shifted from surprise into something colder.

“I can explain,” Jacob began, but Sarah cut him off immediately.

“You have nothing to explain. She’s not your girlfriend, and she’s with someone else,” she spat.

The bitterness in her voice struck harder than the scene itself. It wasn’t just anger. It was resentment, long-standing and deeply buried, and it unsettled something in me I couldn’t name.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Sarah continued sharply, her eyes narrowing on me. “He’s not yours, is he? You want everyone, but what about me?”

Confusion tightened in my chest as I struggled to steady my breathing. “You have men too, Sarah,” I said, my voice rising despite myself. “What is your problem?”

“You,” she snapped instantly. “You are my problem. I’m done being your sidekick, your minion, the one who always stands behind you while you take everything. I’m tired of being Allison’s best friend to everyone.”

My breath caught at the accusation, disbelief crashing through me. “What the fuck, Sarah,” I whispered, my voice shaking. “You were never my sidekick. You were my friend.”

“And you still couldn’t let me have Lucien?”

“Because Lucien loves me, not you,” I shot back, anger breaking through the shock. “He was at the club for me, not you. Don’t twist this into something it isn’t. What happened to you that night. This isn’t you.”

“He doesn’t love you,” Sarah said coldly, turning toward Jacob with a slow, wicked smile that made my skin crawl. “He’s just using you. Tell her what you told me, Jacob. Go on. Maybe then she’ll finally come down from that little pedestal she’s standing on.”

Jacob hesitated, cornered, but before he could speak, a deep guttural howl rolled through the apartment.

It vibrated through the walls and settled into my bones. The glass trembled faintly, and the air itself seemed to tighten, as though the space had begun to react to something approaching.

My body moved before my thoughts caught up. “I have to get out of here,” I whispered, already stepping back. A colder certainty formed in my mind. Nala. If she was coming, it would not be for them. It would be for me.

But Jacob moved faster.

In an instant, he crossed the space and pinned me against the door with a strength I hadn’t expected, stealing the air from my lungs. “You can’t leave,” he said lowly, urgency tightening his voice. “Your life is in danger.”

Panic flared through me. “Get off me,” I struggled, but his grip held firm.

Sarah’s voice cut in sharply. “You have to sedate her,” she said. “He’s coming.”

The room shook again, the pressure in the air growing heavier, as though something unseen was pressing in from all sides.

“We are not the bad guys here, Allison,” Jacob insisted, urgency breaking through his strained control. “Please, just listen.”

“To hell you aren’t,” I snapped, fear sharpening into defiance. “Let me go.”

Then the air changed completely.

Footsteps began to approach, slow at first, then heavier, more certain, each one carrying a presence that made the entire room feel smaller.

I didn’t understand why no one else in the building reacted, why the world outside continued as though nothing was coming.

“Get away from me,” I shouted as I struggled harder against Jacob’s grip, but even he seemed unsettled now, his control slipping as the footsteps drew closer.

Sarah’s voice broke slightly as she stepped back. “She cannot be saved. We need to leave now.”

The footsteps stopped at the door.

Then his voice came.

Low. Controlled. Absolute.

“Let her out.”

My heart stuttered.

If Lucien truly belonged to me, then why was I afraid?

The thought barely formed before Jacob tightened his grip again, but it was already too late.

The door exploded inward with devastating force, sending Jacob and me crashing to the floor.

Lucien stepped inside.

The air in the living room shifted at once, turning heavy and suffocating, as though the atmosphere itself had been forced to make room for him and the storm burning behind his eyes.

I tried to move toward him, but Jacob lifted his hands.

Light fractured into existence in an instant, spilling outward as a shimmering force that expanded rapidly through the room. It sealed us within a glowing dome, its surface pulsing faintly like a living heartbeat as it separated us from Lucien.

And yet, even through it, I could feel him.