CHAPTER seven

The room smelled of rain again.

I woke to it the soft rhythm of drops against the window and that low hum of wind that made the Nightshade compound feel alive.

My body felt heavy, but the air… different. Lighter somehow. Like the storm inside me had eased without my permission.

Lily stirred in the back of my mind. You’re awake again.

“Barely,” I murmured. My throat ached, and my skin prickled with awareness. Someone had changed my bandages. Someone who smelled like smoke and pine and something else that didn’t belong in my world comfort.

The door creaked open.

Lucien stepped in.

No words at first. Just silence the kind that said too much. His golden eyes flicked from my face to the faint glow of the runes above my bed.

“You’re awake,” he said quietly.

I managed a nod. “You brought me back.”

“You keep making that sound like an accusation.”

“Because it feels like one,” I whispered.

He didn’t smile. He never did. But there was something softer in his voice this time. “You wouldn’t have made it another hour.”

“I didn’t ask to be saved.”

“I didn’t ask to care,” he replied.

That shut me up.

For a heartbeat, I forgot how to breathe. His tone wasn’t harsh, not like Nathan’s had been when he wanted control. This was quieter. Raw. Honest.

Lily murmured inside me, uneasy. He’s changing. Or you are.

I swallowed. “You should’ve let me rest in the woods. I wasn’t your problem.”

Lucien moved closer, his footsteps barely audible on the wooden floor. “You crossed my border. That makes you my responsibility.”

“Or your curse,” I shot back before I could stop myself.

His eyes flickered with something unreadable. “You heard about that.”

“Everyone has. They say no woman survives your touch.”

“Until you,” he said simply.

The words hung between us like a storm about to break.

I looked away. “Don’t make me an exception you’ll regret.”

He exhaled slowly, and for the first time, I saw the exhaustion in him, the quiet, weary kind that went beyond battles and blood. “You think this is about regret? Serena, I’ve been cursed for years. Every healer, every witch, every Luna who tried to help me… died. You didn’t. You think I can ignore that?”

I didn’t answer. I couldn’t.

Because part of me understood.

The night he’d touched me, something had changed. The pain that had lived inside me since rejecting Nathan had dulled. I’d felt… safe.

Lily whispered, That’s not safe. That’s a bond.

“No,” I breathed, too softly for him to hear. “It can’t be.”

But Lucien did hear. Of course he did.

He studied me, his gaze steady. “You feel it too, don’t you?”

I looked away, my pulse loud in my ears. “Whatever you think this is, it's not real.”

“Then why can’t you lie without trembling?” he asked quietly.

I froze. He was right. My fingers were shaking against the blanket.

“I won’t claim something that doesn’t belong to me,” he continued, voice low. “You’re still bound to another. Even if that bond is dying, it’s not gone. But something happened the night you crossed into my lands. I felt it.”

“What did you feel?” I asked, even though I didn’t want the answer.

He hesitated, then said softly, “Peace.”

The word shattered me.

No Alpha spoke like that. Not even Nathan in his gentler days. It wasn’t dominance. It wasn’t power. It was something else entirely true.

I tried to steady my breathing. “Why are you telling me this?”

“Because you deserve to know what you’ve done.”

“What have I done?”

He nodded. “The curse my curse it’s weakening. When I touch you, it fades. When you sleep here, it stops burning me. You shouldn’t be able to do that.”

I laughed weakly. “Maybe I’m just too broken to burn.”

Something flickered across his face. Pity. Pain. Maybe both.

“Broken doesn’t mean worthless,” he said.

The silence that followed was unbearable.

I had to look away before I drowned in it. “Did your men find the woman?” I asked suddenly.

His expression darkened. “What woman?”

“The one who claimed to be your… partner. The one they said carried your child.”

He stiffened. “Who told you that?”

“The guards. The night I first woke up here, I heard them talking.”

Lucien’s eyes flashed gold, Rheon’s presence bleeding into his voice. “She was an impostor. A spy from Silvercrest. We caught her near the northern ridge. Said she had my scent because of a spell.”

My chest tightened. “Nathan sent her?”

Lucien’s jaw flexed. “Clara did.”

The name hit like ice. “Clara?”

He nodded slowly. “Your friend. Or so she called herself.”

My heart twisted so hard it hurt to breathe. “No. That can’t ”

“She made contact with one of my scouts, pretending to be my mate,” he said. “We found proof of communication with Silvercrest before she vanished.”

Lily’s voice was sharp now. She’s the one. The reason he turned on you.

I pressed a shaking hand to my mouth. “Nathan wouldn’t ”

But I couldn’t even finish the lie. Not after what I’d seen.

Lucien watched me carefully, the harshness in his eyes softening. “You don’t have to believe me. But you should see the truth for yourself before you go defending people who left you bleeding in the woods.”

I blinked back tears. “And what truth is that, Lucien?”

He hesitated, then said quietly, “That not all monsters look like me.”

For a long time, neither of us spoke. The fire crackled. Rain whispered against the glass. Somewhere deep inside me, Lily whimpered not in fear, but in mourning.

Finally, Lucien turned to leave.

“Rest,” he said over his shoulder. “You need your strength.”

“Why?” I asked. “You said the curse fades when I’m near. Shouldn’t you want me to stay weak?”

He paused at the door, and for the first time, his voice held something dangerously close to tenderness. “I don’t want you weak, Serena. I want you to stop running.”

And then he was gone.

The next morning, I tried to walk.

Lyra nearly dropped her herbs when she saw me upright. “You shouldn’t be on your feet yet!”

“I’m fine.”

“You’re not. The Alpha said ”

“I don’t care what he said,” I cut in, my voice sharper than I meant. “I need air.”

Lyra frowned but stepped aside. “Stay within the main yard. Please.”

The Nightshade pack house was quiet at dawn. Wolves trained in the distance, their howls echoing faintly across the hills. None of them looked at me directly, but I felt their eyes. The cursed Alpha’s guest. The forbidden Luna.

I walked toward the gardens behind the infirmary, where the fog curled low around the stones. The scent of wet earth and pine filled the air.

Lily was silent for once.

“You think he’s right,” I whispered to her. “About the bond.”

She hesitated. It feels different with him.

“That doesn’t mean anything.”

Doesn’t it?

I gripped my coat tighter. “He’s cursed, Lily. Everyone who touches him dies.”

And yet you didn’t.

Her voice sent a shiver down my spine.

I stopped near the edge of the clearing. Beyond the fog, I could just make out Lucien, sparring with two of his guards. Even from here, the sight of him made the air thicken. His movements were effortless every strike, every block precise. Power radiated off him in waves, but there was control in it too.

When his eyes flicked up and found mine across the distance, something inside me stuttered.

He didn’t call out. Didn’t move. It just looked like he already knew what I was thinking.

I turned away first.

Lily huffed quietly. He’s not Nathan.

“I know,” I whispered. “That’s what scares me.”

That night, I couldn’t sleep.

The storm returned, soft at first, then furious. Lightning flickered against the windows.

I lay awake listening to it, hand resting over my stomach. The pup kicked once, faint but strong.

A knock sounded at the door.

Before I could answer, Lucien’s scent drifted through the air, rain and smoke and something electric.

He stepped inside, still damp from the storm.

“You should be resting,” I said softly.

“So should you.”

He hesitated near the doorway, then said, “We found Clara.”

My heart stopped. “What?”

“She was caught near the border again. Said she was looking for you.”

I sat up too fast. “What did you do to her?”

“Nothing. Yet.”

“Lucien ”

He cut me off gently. “If you want her spared, talk to her yourself. Tomorrow morning. I’ll bring her here.”

I stared at him, searching for any trace of cruelty, but found none. Only that same strange calm.

“Why?” I asked.

“Because I want to know the truth as much as you do.”

The silence stretched. The storm raged outside, thunder rumbling like the heartbeat of something ancient.

When he finally turned to leave, I whispered, “Lucien… what happens if your curse breaks completely?”

He paused. “Then I’ll finally know if it was ever real.”

“And if it was?”

He looked back at me, eyes glowing faint gold in the dark. “Then the Moon Goddess has a cruel sense of humor.”

He left before I could say another word.

When the door shut, Lily’s voice came softly. Tomorrow changes everything.

I closed my eyes. “I know.”

Outside, the rain fell harder.

And somewhere deep in my chest, the faint, impossible bond pulsed once like the start of a heartbeat that wasn’t entirely mine.