Chapter 174 Chapter 174
Erlan
One day she was at school, the next she wasn’t. Reed didn’t know anything. Nobody knew anything.
And I panicked.
I drove to the shelter myself. Walked through the front door, dead-eyed and shaking with barely restrained violence.
I demanded answers.
They fed me polite bullshit at first. “She left.” “She moved on.” “She transferred.” All lies. All useless.
But they didn’t realize who they were dealing with.
I wasn’t just another concerned friend—I was Erlan fucking Lark.
And when I turned up the pressure; when I let my voice drop, my eyes go cold and my money talk, they finally cracked.
“She was pregnant,” the head Omega whispered.
I couldn’t breathe.
“We had to ask her to leave. We don’t house pregnant Omegas. It was… policy.”
Pregnant.
Amber was pregnant.
It felt like the air had been sucked out of the room. Like my bones were shattering, one by one. I staggered outside in a daze, eyes burning, throat clenched so tight I couldn’t even scream.
Not only had Rayne touched her.
Not only had he marked her.
He’d bred her.
He’d planted his seed in her and left her with a child that should’ve been mine.
That moment… it broke me.
I went home. Didn’t even think. Just packed a bag. Grabbed my passport. Booked the next flight out.
And I ran.
Flew across the fucking world.
Tried to lose myself in foreign streets and hotel bars and nameless cities that didn’t carry the scent of her. But no matter how far I ran, she was still there.
In every crowd. In every dream.
Every flash of red hair made my chest seize.
Every echo of laughter made my head snap around.
I’d wake up in the middle of the night, heart racing, whispering her name to the ceiling like a prayer.
Amber.
Amber.
Amber.
I told myself it would pass. That time would dull it.
But it didn’t.
The ache just got worse. Sharper. More constant.
So eventually… I gave up trying to forget.
I decided to find her.
I called in favors. Hired the best private investigators I could find. Paid them double. Triple. Told them to track her like prey.
And they did.
They found her.
They found everything.
I was informed she’d had a baby girl.
A daughter.
Amber had given birth to a fucking child and it wasn’t mine.
The thought nearly destroyed me.
She’d left the baby with a doctor named Ichika Kirishima while she completed her medical degree overseas. In China, of all places. Half a world away. Alone. Brilliant. Determined. My beautiful Amber, always fighting for a future she deserved, and always slipping further out of my reach.
I should have let her go.
I should have walked away.
But I couldn’t.
Instead, I fed the fire.
I hired the best private investigators money could buy. Not once. Not twice. Continuously. Over the years, I kept eyes on her like a fucking satellite orbiting its sun. I had pictures. Videos. Daily reports. I knew when she caught the flu. When she aced an exam. When she broke down crying on the phone whenever she talked to her daughter.
And then I crossed the line and didn’t look back.
I had cameras installed in her dorm. Hidden. Discreet. Invisible.
And through those feeds, I watched her. For years. In real time.
I watched her sleep. Watched her brush her teeth. Watched her cry into her pillow. Watched her eat alone at her desk, watched her study throughout the night for exams, eyes glazed over with exhaustion. I knew the exact way she twirled her hair when she was deep in thought. I memorized the rhythm of her breathing when she dreamed.
I’d wanted her. Needed her. Craved her like an addict starved of oxygen.
But I never approached. Never showed my face.
Because I wasn’t ready. I told myself it wasn’t the right time.
Coward.
The truth was, I was terrified. The idea of her looking at me and not wanting me back? Of her rejecting me again?
It would have annihilated me.
So I watched. Always watched.
Until recently.
Until the perfect opportunity came crashing into my hands like a divine gift straight from fate itself.
Rayne had made his move.
The bastard was trying to weasel his way back into her life. Back into her heart.
I saw it clearly. In his eyes. In his posture. In the way he looked at her like she still belonged to him.
Like she wasn’t mine.
No. No.
I wasn’t going to let that happen again.
I had lost her once; watched her slip through my fingers like smoke while he put his filthy fucking mark on her and filled her womb with his child.
Not this time.
This time, I took control.
Our reunion…it wasn’t some accidental miracle. It was planned. Orchestrated. Executed to perfection.
I tracked her movements. Her return to the country. Her transfer to the hospital. Her every step. I timed everything. Calculated every breath. Every possible chance encounter.
And when I caught her that day at the boutique—when I physically caught her falling and our eyes met—I swear my heart stopped beating for an entire second.
Everything around us blurred into nothing.
Just her.
Amber.
And me.
The moment her body hit mine, I thought I’d freeze up again like I had all those years ago. Like every time I’d tried to speak to her in high school and failed miserably, choking on air like some pathetic, useless fool.
But not this time.
This time, the words flowed like honey.
I had her in my arms.
I saw those eyes, those soft lips, and something inside me snapped into place.
I had my voice again.
And I didn’t stop there. Somehow—I don’t know how—I’d kept my charm. She laughed. She looked at me. She saw me. We were talking. Smiling. Existing in the same world. Breathing the same air.
And then… Rayne showed up.
The fucking bastard.
Of course he did.
Of course he had to ruin it. Again.
He ripped her away. Just like before. Always taking what wasn’t his to take. Always stealing the one thing that ever mattered to me.
But not anymore.
Not anymore.
I’m done playing the good guy. The patient one. The background character in my own fucking story.
No more watching from the sidelines.
No more pretending.
I’m ready to go full villain mode. If that’s what it takes, so be it.
I’ll burn the whole goddamn world down if it means Amber ends up mine.
Rules? Gone.
Morality? Dead.
Consequences? Irrelevant.
All that’s left is her.
She’s all I want. All I need. All I’ve ever needed.
And tonight… tonight is the night everything changes.
Reed is on his way.
And with his arrival, the final piece of the puzzle will fall into place.
It’s all or nothing now.
Because Amber isn’t just the girl I love.
She’s everything.
The air I breathe. The blood in my veins. The rhythm in my pulse.
Without her, I don’t exist.
Just then, I heard the sound of a car pulling up the driveway. Headlights cutting through the blinds. Tires crunching against gravel.
Finally.
I stood, heart hammering like a living thing trying to break out of my chest.
I walked to the window, eyes fixed on the door like a predator waiting to pounce.
And under my breath, I whispered the promise that had kept me alive all these years:
“We’ll be together soon, my love. Just wait. No matter what it takes, no matter who I have to remove… you’ll be mine. Just as I am yours.”
And I meant it.
With every fiber of my being.