Chapter 2 Bound by Blood, Not Choice

Raven didn't sleep.

Not because she wasn't tired, but because the room seemed to pulse with something more alive than air. The shadows on the walls moved when she wasn't looking. Sometimes, she thought she heard whispering, even though she was alone.

At least, she thought she was.

Time stretched like smoke. Minutes felt like hours. Hours bled into nothing. There was no clock, no window, no sky-just velvet walls, cold stone, and her thoughts.

And the scent of him.

Lucien Drax.

It lingered on her skin, wrapped around her like invisible chains. Alpha. Dangerous. All-consuming. And somehow, her body reacted to it with the kind of heat that scared her more than his threats ever could.

She didn't understand it. She didn't want to.

The door opened without a sound.

She flinched.

He walked in like the devil visiting a church-slow, calm, confident. Wearing all black again, a button undone just low enough to show the intricate tattoo curling along his collarbone. His eyes glowed gold in the dim light.

"I brought food," he said, setting a tray on the velvet chair.

"I'm not hungry."

"You are. You just don't want to eat what I bring you."

He wasn't wrong.

She folded her arms, backing against the far wall. "Why am I still alive?"

He smiled. "Because I don't like wasting things I own."

"I'm not yours."

His smile faded. "Not yet."

Something cold and electric passed between them.

She tightened her jaw. "If you're going to kill me, do it. If not, let me go."

Lucien stepped closer, eyes locked with hers. "You're bold for someone marked by a pack you don't even understand."

"I don't know what that mark is."

"But your blood does," he said, lifting his hand. "I can smell it. Taste it in the air."

"Then what am I?" she asked, her voice a little less steady. "A werewolf? A hybrid? A mistake?"

Lucien's expression shifted. Not softer-stranger. As if something inside him recognized something in her that even he couldn't explain.

"You're not a mistake," he murmured. "But you are dangerous."

He reached out.

She slapped his hand away.

He didn't react-not with anger. With interest. As if her defiance pleased him.

"There's something else in you," he said. "Something old. Something wild."

"Spare me the prophecy crap."

He chuckled, deep and low. "If this were a prophecy, I'd be less annoyed. But no. This-" he stepped even closer, crowding her space, "-this is worse. You're not written in some ancient scroll. You're a glitch in bloodlines. A question that shouldn't exist."

"Sounds like your problem."

"It is," he growled, backing her against the wall. "Because I can't kill you."

"Why not?"

"Because the moment I try," he whispered, his breath brushing her jaw, "every instinct I have starts screaming that I'm killing something that belongs to me."

Raven froze.

She looked up at him, really looked.

This close, she could see the war behind his golden eyes. Rage. Hunger. Lust. Something primal. Something broken.

"You're insane," she said.

He nodded slightly. "Maybe. But so are the things hunting you now."

"Hunting me?"

He didn't answer.

Instead, he opened the door and motioned her out.

"I'm not your prisoner anymore?"

"You were never a prisoner," he said. "You're an anomaly."

She didn't trust him. Not even a little. But staying in that room felt worse.

She followed him down a narrow hall, passing guards dressed in black and red, each one giving her a look like they weren't sure whether to salute or snap her neck.

Lucien opened another door.

This room was massive. Candlelight flickered against dark stone walls. A long table sat in the center, surrounded by figures cloaked in velvet. Wolves. Mafia. Monsters.

Lucien's inner circle.

At the head of the table sat the woman from before-the one in the red suit.

She stood as Raven entered, eyeing her like a scientist studying a bomb.

"I'm Helena," she said. "Beta of the Drax pack. Bloodline enforcer. And your worst nightmare if you lie to me."

"Charmed," Raven muttered.

Lucien walked to the head of the table and sat beside Helena.

"You brought her to the council?" one of the men asked.

"She deserves to hear the truth," Lucien said.

"What truth?" Raven asked.

Lucien met her eyes. "The one your blood forgot."

Helena opened a black folder and slid it across the table. Inside were images-medical scans, blood charts, genetic markers.

"We traced your lineage," she said. "Your mother was part of a rogue bloodline. Not quite wolf. Not quite human. Something older. Something that predates even the first Alphas."

"Is this a joke?"

"No," Helena said. "You've inherited something neither side understands. And now, every pack wants to control you-or kill you."

"I don't want to be part of your war."

"It's not a war," Lucien said. "It's a kingdom. And you're the key to who gets the throne next."

Raven laughed-bitter and short. "You think I care about your crown? I came here to steal data. That's it."

"Then you stole something else," Lucien said darkly. "Because every time I look at you, my wolf wants to kneel."

The room went silent.

The others stared.

Helena looked furious. "You can't mean-"

"She's mine," Lucien said. "The bond has already begun."

Raven backed away, heart thudding. "No. No, that's not how this works. I didn't choose-"

"Neither did I," Lucien said. "But fate doesn't ask. It takes."

The doors burst open.

A figure stumbled in-bloodied, gasping, eyes wild.

"They found her," he said. "The Nightfangs. They know she's here."

Lucien stood. So did the others.

Helena's eyes turned bright silver. "We need to move her."

"To where?" Raven asked.

Lucien walked over, grabbed her wrist, and pulled her to his side.

"To the last place they'll think to look," he said.

"Where's that?"

He leaned down, lips brushing her ear.

"My bed."

Raven's breath caught.

Lucien looked at the council.

"Anyone who touches her dies."

He turned to Raven, eyes burning.

"You're not just mine now. You're under my protection. My name. My blood."

She opened her mouth to argue-but the world tilted.

She had no idea what was coming.

But one thing was certain.

She was no longer just a thief.

She was now the Alpha's claimed.

And the whole underworld was about to burn.