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He’s perfect. He’s impossible. He’s poison.

And I hate that he’s the only thing I want right now.

"You did this," I say.

No preamble. No pleasantries. Just war.

His jaw tightens. That’s all I get.

And it’s not enough.

"You bonded me. You branded me like I’m your property. And then what - ran off to go mope in your panic room while the rest of us figured out what the hell to do with the emotional nuclear fallout?"

He blinks.Blinks. Like I’m a fucking presentation he’s refusing to engage with.

"Say something," I bark. "Own it."

Lucian tilts his head, slow and measured. The flick of his gaze across my body isn’t lustful - it’s cold. Analytical.

"You’re here," he says.

Oh no.No. We are not doing the sexy-monotone-riddle bullshit right now.

"I didn’t come because Iwanted to," I snap. "I came because your stupid alpha magnet activated and my body decided we have to listen. I came because I had no choice. Because you -"

My voice breaks again. I swallow it down.

"You called me."

He stares. Cold. Still. Calculating.

"I didn’t say a word."

"You didn’t have to."

My whole body is shaking, not from heat - but from rage. From betrayal.

From the sick, suffocating bond dragging me toward a man who said he didn’t want me.

“You said I was unstable.” The words burn on the way out. “You said you don’t take what others have already touched.”

His jaw flexes.

“You called meused.”

“I said I don’tshare,”he corrects, voice like ice through my spine.

“And youbonded meanyway.” I speak at full volume now, the sound bouncing off the walls like glass about to shatter.

He flinches. Just a flicker, but I see it.

And I go in for the kill.

"You tied yourself to me, Lucian.Youmade that choice. You let me feel you - feeleverything- and then you walked. Like it meant nothing."

"I didn’t choose it," he says.

"Then why the fuck did it feel like youdid?"

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