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Silence.
And I swear, I see it - under the hard lines and cold control -
Guilt.
Real, awful, bone-deep guilt.
“I was trying to protect you.”
The words fall like lead.Final. Meant to end the conversation.
But they don’t, because my blood ishowling.
Because He. Did.This. To. Me.
“Bullshit.” I don’t shout. Ihiss- words like venom.“You think that gives you the right to abandon me? Leave me choking on your bond while you play dead?”
He continues to watch me, all silent and calculating, like I’m some omega problem he needs to contain.
“You can’t control it,” I spit, stalking closer. “So you walked away. You didn’t want to feel, you didn’t want to be vulnerable - so you made me do it all alone."
Still no words. Still him, watching me bleed.
“Does itburn, Lucian?” I whisper, all teeth. “Feeling them inside me? Feeling me tighten around someone else’s knot while your bond still thrums through my fuckingsoul?”
Lucian’s jaw ticks.
“You think I don’t know what this is?” I press. “I felt it. When I was with Kai - I felt you twitch through the bond. You wanted to stop it. And youdidn’t.”
His breathing is jagged now. His shoulders are tight.
“I didn’t trust myself.”
“No,” I growl. “You just didn’t want toshare.”
Silence.
“You didn’t back away because of me,” I press, voice sharper now. “You backed away because you couldn’t stand the idea of someone else touching what you thought youowned. Because I’m not a person to you, am I? Not anything in your eyes exceptproperty.”
Lucian moves - too fast.
His hand slams to my waist, dragging me in like he can’t hold back.
Our bodies crash flush. Every inch of me buzzes.
“Don’t test me, Rhea.”
“Too late.”
I push at his chest.
He doesn’t so much as budge.
“Youdid this!” I say to him, furious and frustrated and so fuckingangry. “You tied me to you and then acted like I wasn’t enough. What the fuck is your problem?!”
“You think I don’t want you?” he snaps. “You think this hasn’t eaten me alive since the second it happened?”
“Then what is it?!”
