🌙𝐋𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐡
I couldn’t speak. Couldn’t process the way my chest was cracking open, the bond screaming in protest at the wrongness of that scent on him.
He moved past toward the sink, not eting my eyes, and began washing his hands with chanical precision.
"Where were you?" The words ca out before I could stop them. Quiet. Breaking.
He stilled. Didn’t turn around. "Go back to bed, Lilith. Sleep off the hangover."
"Where were you?" I repeated, louder this ti. My hands were shaking. "It’s—" I glanced at the clock. "It’s almost dawn. You’ve been gone all night."
"That’s none of your concern."
The dismissal sliced through . "None of my—" I laughed, the sound bitter and sharp. "You had your mouth on my throat in front of half the Empire last night. You—we—" I couldn’t finish. Couldn’t voice what I thought had happened between us.
"You were drunk," he said, still not looking at . "You don’t rember half of what you said."
"I rember enough." I took a step toward him. "I rember you holding . I rember—" I rember asking you not to leave. "Where did you go, Vladimir?"
He finally turned, and the look in his eyes made step back.
Cold. Distant. Nothing like the male who’d danced with , who’d bitten , who’d whispered moya against my skin.
"You have no right to ask that."
The words hit like a physical blow.
"No right?" I repeated, my voice shaking. "After last night—"
"Last night was a performance," he cut off. "For the council. For the Empire. Don’t confuse politics with sothing personal."
Lies. I could feel them through the bond, taste them in the air between us.
But he kept going, each word carefully chosen to cut.
"This is my ho. I co and go as I please. What I do and who I do it with is none of your business."
Who I do it with.
The implication hung in the air, devastating.
That perfu. His rumpled clothes. The stubble. The hours he’d been gone.
He fucked soone else.
"I don’t get you. I just don’t. I try—"
"Don’t." He cut off, sharp as a blade, and began to walk away again.
But sothing in snapped.
"No." I moved, blocking his path. "You don’t get to do this. You don’t get to—to claim in front of everyone, bite , hold , and then act like I’m nothing. Like last night ant nothing."
He stopped. His jaw clenched so tight I could see the muscle jumping beneath his skin.
"Move, Lilith."
"Where did you go?" I demanded, my voice cracking. "Just tell . That’s all I’m asking. Where—"
"Stop talking." The words ca out strangled, desperate.
I blinked, startled by the raw edge in his voice.
For a mont—just a flash—I saw sothing break across his face. Agonizing regret. Pain so deep it made my chest ache in response.
Then it was gone, buried under ice.
"Can you just—" He ran a hand through his hair, the gesture violent and frustrated. "Can you just not speak? For once? Can you not see what the fuck you’re doing to ?"
The words hit like a slap.
I stepped back, the bread forgotten, everything forgotten except the way he was looking at now. Like I was a weapon aid at his chest.
"I’m—I’m sorry, I didn’t an—"
"I am so close to falling apart because of you." Each word was forced out through gritted teeth. "So fucking close, and you keep—you keep pushing—"
"?" The word ca out small, broken.
"Yes, you." He laughed, but there was no humor in it. Only sothing dark and desperate. "Nothing has been the sa since that day. Everything is upside down. I’m holding on by a single thread and I just want to rest. I just want to forget—"
He cut himself off, jaw clenching again, and I could see it—the way he was holding back. Restraining sothing massive and violent inside him.
More cruel words, I thought. More ways to tell I ant nothing.
"It’s the bond," he said finally, his voice flat again. Controlled. "Making you feel anything like... care. For the man who bought you. Who dragged you screaming, flailing into this world without listening to you begging. Because of his own affairs. His own realm. Problems that were never yours to deal with."
Each word was carefully chosen. Deliberately cutting.
"I’m selfish. Disgusting. Callous." He looked at then, really looked at , and sothing in his eyes made my breath catch. "You don’t know half of what I am. What I’m willing to sacrifice. Who I’m willing to hurt."
"Vladimir—"
"Even now, with you standing there—my brain is splitting. The rut, the bond, you—" He shook his head. "You just have to listen and stop—"
"Speaking," I finished for him, my voice hollow.
He flinched. Actually flinched, like I’d struck him.
But he didn’t correct .
I nodded slowly, sothing cold and final settling in my chest. "I understand."
"Lilith—"
"No, you’re right." I forced the words out, keeping my voice steady even as everything inside was screaming. "I’ll respect your wishes. If it will give you so reprieve from... from whatever I’m doing to you."
I grabbed the bread from the counter, holding it against my chest like a shield.
"I’m sorry," I said quietly. "For pushing. For speaking. For—" For existing in your space. For making you bite . For being the bond you never wanted.
I couldn’t finish.
So I just walked past him, careful not to touch, not to get too close, not to make whatever this was any worse.
His scent followed . That wrongness. That perfu that wasn’t mine.
Evidence of where he’d been. What he’d done. Who he’d—
I shoved the thought away and kept walking.
Up the stairs. Down the hall. Back to my room.
The door closed behind with a soft click, and only then did I let the tears co.
Silent. Bitter. Ashad.
Just like everything in my life, I thought, sliding down the door to sit on the floor, bread forgotten beside . I crossed a line. Stepped on a landmine.
I’d thought last night ant sothing. Thought the way he’d held , danced with , claid ant sothing beyond politics.
But I was wrong.
I was always wrong about these things. Like I had been wrong about Caesar.
From now on, I promised myself, wiping at my eyes with shaking hands, no matter how bad this incomplete bond gets, I’ll tow the line. I’ll do what I’m here to do.
Politics. Performance. Playing the role of his marked mate.
Nothing more.
Even if it killed .
Even if the bond scread in protest every second of every day.
I’d be what he needed to be.
And I’d stop speaking.
—
💠Dmitri
She moved like a force of nature, ducking, hitting and dodging. Catching her movent turned into a challenge as soon as training started. She progressed exponentially more than the days before.
Those ones had already been record-breaking in their own right. But now, today, it was as if she had been possessed, though her eyes remained mostly... dull.
The gold in her gaze did not glimr like it normally did when she aced any part of her training. The passion that lit her gaze had fizzled out and I could tell that it had sothing to do with the High Alpha watching from above.
Normally, she would sneak glances even on days when he was not present and they both knew it. I would still catch her eyes wandering away, hoping to catch his ice-cold gaze.
But today, there was nothing of such with Lilith.
It was as though he did not exist.
And each ti I shifted my sights onto Vladimir, he was watching Lilith, his gaze keen on her, burning with a convoluted tangle of emotions where none could be deciphered from the rest.
I had known that Lilith taking the moon wine would not bring anything good, but I could have never foreseen such a fallout. Still, despite the distance, the tension between them was static electricity.
Two souls in a dance both denied but fell into step too easily to be a coincidence.
It had to be fate.
The vision flared to life behind my eye. Lilith with eyes dead, far more than they were now, unraveling—everything.
I shook my head to pull out of the vacuum of my gifted, yet cursed mind.
When I gazed up, I found Vladimir’s eyes already on .
Like he knew—
"Training is over for the day," he announced.
Lilith offered a strained smile before walking off without allowing Vladimir to reach us. She was out the door before Vladimir reached .
"She will be fine," I said, though I wasn’t sure if I was trying to convince him or myself.
"Are you sure, High Alpha?"
Vladimir was quiet for a long mont, his eyes still fixed on the door Lilith had disappeared through. When he finally spoke, his voice was carefully controlled.
"Distance is needed. After what happened at the gala." He paused, jaw tightening. "So as not to give her the wrong impression."
I watched him carefully, cataloging the tension in his shoulders, the way his bionic hand flexed at his side.
"The ssage has been sent," he continued, his tone flat, clinical. "There’s no use pretending at ho with no caras rolling. It’s for the best, considering what will co next."
The ominous weight of those last words settled between us.
What will co next.
I understood well enough without asking questions. The trials. The political maneuvering. The dangers that ca with being the High Alpha’s chosen mate—real or perford and the final phase.
I nodded slowly. "I understand."
"Good."
But even as I agreed, I didn’t believe him.
Not about the relationship between Lilith and Vladimir being purely political. Not about distance being "for the best." Not about any of it.
I’d seen the way he watched her when he thought no one was looking. Seen the way frost crept across the floor at the gala when Veronique threw her. Seen the muscle jumping in his jaw just now when she’d walked away without acknowledging him.
That wasn’t a performance.
That was sothing far more dangerous.
And Vladimir knew that I didn’t believe him. I could see it in the slight tightening around his eyes, the way he didn’t quite et my gaze.
But neither of us spoke further about it.
Because so truths were too dangerous to voice aloud.
Even between an Alpha and a beta.
"Keep training her," Vladimir said finally, turning to leave. "She’s progressing faster than expected. Don’t let her lose montum."
"Of course, High Alpha."
He paused at the doorway, his hand on the fra. For a mont, I thought he might say sothing else—sothing real, sothing honest.
But he didn’t.
He just walked out, following the sa path Lilith had taken minutes before.
Chasing sothing he’d convinced himself he needed to push away.
I stood alone in the training room, the vision still lingering at the edges of my mind.
Lilith. Unraveling. Eyes dead.
Distance won’t save her, I thought. It might be what destroys her. The emptiness in her eyes was worrying.
But that wasn’t my place to say.
So I said nothing.
And hoped I was wrong.
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