30. What We Refuse.

Adrian’s POV

Nights in the mansion always carried silence that was too loud. The walls were large, the ceilings high, the windows tall enough to see entire miles of land… but none of it ever felt like home. Not since things started to fall out of place. Not since she began occupying my thoughts in ways that weren’t safe.

And tonight was one of those nights again.

I closed the door to my room and tugged off my shirt, wanting just one moment. One breath. One second to exist without someone needing something from me.

But fate didn’t care for peace.

Because the moment I turned toward my bed

She was there.

Lucy.... Dresses sexily.. Damn!... She's sexy

Sitting at the edge of the mattress, draped in a silk robe that looked like smoke on skin... revealing her pointy boobs. Her legs crossed, neckline low, hair falling around her shoulders like temptation carved into a statue.... Her robe.... So transparent.

My jaw tightened.

“Lucy,” I breathed. “Not now.”

She didn’t flinch. Didn’t blink. Her expression was a mixture of frustration and something very close to desperation.

“I waited,” she said softly. “I waited for you to come to me. For weeks.”

I closed my eyes for a slow second and drew in a breath that didn’t ease anything.

“Lucy,” I repeated, firmer this time. “Go. Please.”

She rose slowly and walked toward me ...steps controlled, elegant, almost painfully practiced. The robe parted slightly as she moved, revealing curves, skin, her pulse.

The part of me that was wolf reacted instinctively.

The Alpha did not like being approached this way.

But the man part of me....the tired, exhausted part....understood the loneliness behind her eyes.

“Don’t push me away,” she whispered. “We are both trapped. You know that.”

I shook my head. “You don’t deserve to be trapped.”

“But I am. And so are you,” she said, her voice small now, fragile in a way she never allowed others to hear. “We are forced into this because of the council. Because of fate. Because of duties we didn’t choose.”

Her hands moved slowly, reaching into my trousers.

I caught her wrist before she made contact.

Her eyes flickered.

“Lucy,” I said quietly, “I don’t want to hurt you. You need to leave.”

Her voice broke.

“So you’d rather keep hurting yourself instead?”

My chest tightened.

She wasn’t wrong.

But she also wasn’t right.

She stepped closer anyway, pushing past my hand, and this time she did touch me....fingers trailing inside my trousers... Feeling her soft touch, down my neck, lingering over my heartbeat.

Her voice trembled.

“Let me be useful to you,” she whispered. “Let me be something. Anything. I don’t want to be unwanted.”

Her vulnerability hit hard. Harder than any attack I’d fought.

And then... before I could speak....she pushed me back.

Her strength wasn’t human, but mine was greater. Still....she caught me off guard enough that I fell back onto the bed.

She came over me immediately, sat directly in the middle of my leg.... Damn!!! She's fire.

Her hands pressed to my chest.

Her body close.

Her scent overwhelming.

Temptation, pain, longing, duty....everything tangled into one moment.

“Lucy,” I warned, breath uneven. “Stop.”

“Why?” she demanded, voice cracking.

My eyes snapped open.

She leaned down, lips brushing against mine- caressing her lips with mine, hovering....waiting for even the slightest sign.

And I....

I kissed her.... My hands on her body, almost tearing her transparent robe.

Because I was tired.

Because I was lonely.

Because I was breaking.

I grabbed her bum, she was already removing my trousers.

Soft. Warm. Pleading.

Something inside me pulled, the Alpha instinct rising, the part of me built to dominate, to take, to claim.

Then we were naked.... My lips still in her mouth ... Trying to take this to the next level...

But then a flash....

Rose.

Her laugh.

Her terrified eyes in the street.

Her voice whispering my name in the dark.

Her hand against my chest.

Her trembling.

Her innocence.

Her heartbreak.

Her slap.

My entire body went still.

And the wolf inside me reacted....not with craving....

But with clarity.

I grabbed Lucy’s bum and lifted her off me with strength that pushed her back across the bed....violently.... forcefully.

She gasped as she landed on the mattress.

I stood quickly.

Shaking.

Breathing too hard.

“Lucy.” My voice broke through the silence like steel. “Do not ever do that again.”

Her expression shattered. Tears filled her eyes, but not the weak kind. The angry kind. The wounded kind. The kind born from humiliation.

She stood up slowly, shoulders trembling.

“So that’s it?” she asked. “You will throw everything away....your duty...this kingdom...because of what???. Am I that bad???... We were just enjoying ourselves just now!”

I didn’t respond.

Silence answered for me.

Her voice rose, emotional, ragged:

“You think I want this?! You think I want you?!” She laughed....broken. “We are both puppets in this! You want freedom? I want freedom! But we don’t get to have that!”

I looked away.

Because looking at her hurt.

“Stay away from me, Lucy,” I said quietly. “I am asking you. Not as Alpha. As Adrian.”

She took one step toward me... still naked....and then froze.

Then laughed again, but it was hollow.

“You think being noble will save you?”

No answer.

“You think pushing me away makes you good?” she continued. “No. It makes you weak. And it will destroy you.”

I closed my eyes. Just for one second.

Then I turned and walked toward the door.

But her final words stopped me.

“BE A LEADER!” she shouted after me. “If we’re going to suffer....then suffer with PURPOSE! Be selfish! Take what you need!”

I paused.

My hand on the door.

Her voice softened then.

Almost pleading.

“We are both being forced, Adrian. Stop pretending your heart is clean.”

I didn’t turn around.

Not even when my wolf twisted painfully inside me.

I opened the door.

And walked out.

Because if I stayed one more second....

I would break.

---

Lucy’s POV

The moment the door closed, the silence hit.

Loud.

Violent.

Humiliating.

My knees nearly buckled, but I refused to fall. I refused to cry. I refused to be the weak one.

But my throat burned.

My chest ached.

And the bed sheets carried the warmth of where he had been.

I hated him.

I hated myself for humiliating myself.

I was a general. Trained. Skilled. Respected. Built for war and for leadership.

Yet here I was.....

Reduced to begging for scraps of affection from a man who didn’t want me.

Not because I wasn’t enough.

But because of some "duty".

I pressed a hand to my chest, breathing in slowly, trying to force composure back into my body.

I whispered into the empty room:

“I wish I never came here.”

But fate didn’t care.

And tomorrow, everyone would expect me to keep trying.

To keep seducing.

To keep forcing what would never be real.

I sat on the bed and closed my eyes.

One silent tear fell.

Just one.

But that was all it took to break something inside me.

Not into emptiness.

But into purpose.

If I was going to be trapped in this....

Then I would not be trapped alone.

He would feel this too.

One way or another.