32. Pushed To Limit.

LUCY’S POV

I stormed out of Adrian’s room, slamming the heavy double doors behind me. My pulse hammered against my ribs like something alive and furious. My cheeks were burning, my breathing frantic, and my robe....goddess....my robe was barely hanging onto one shoulder, the thin silk sticking to my skin where sweat had gathered.

I didn’t even realize until the night air hit me that the robe was practically transparent under the hallway lanterns. The palace corridor lights were always soft, warm, gold ...but in this moment, they felt like spotlights exposing every inch of me.

I clutched the robe quickly, crossing my arms over my chest, trying to hide myself, trying not to look like a woman who had just begged.

Begged.

I hated that word.

I hated what I had just done.

I hated how he had looked at me....like I was something fragile, breakable, and worse… pitiful.

I swallowed hard, forcing back the lump in my throat. I refused to cry. Crying was weakness. Crying made you small. Crying made you someone to walk away from.

And he walked away.

I had kissed him, pressed my body against him, reminded him of everything we were both raised to believe.....duty, strength, leadership, bond. And he had pushed me. Not in rage. Not in disgust.

But with pity.

I felt it.

The worst emotion a person could look at another with.

Pity.

I kept walking, fast, too fast....just trying to find air.....when a figure stepped out from one of the side halls.

Caleb.

Of course.

Because embarrassment was never allowed to travel alone.

He leaned against a pillar, arms folded, relaxed in that annoying way only someone with too much confidence and too few worries could be. His silver hair looked like moonlight given shape, and his expression was unreadable, which made it worse.

His gaze slid over me....slow, observing....but not lustful. No. Caleb was too smart to lust where there was damage.

He was studying me.... studying my exposed body.

And that was somehow more humiliating.

I swallowed, tightening the robe again.

His voice broke the silence. Calm. Bored. Almost lazy.

"She tried again?," he said.

I froze.

My jaw clenched so hard I thought my teeth might crack.

He didn’t even say my name.

Just she.

Just some nuisance. Some foolish girl chasing what she could never have.

I kept walking.

I didn’t have the strength to answer him, not without breaking.

But Caleb didn’t stop.

His tone shifted, softer.....but that somehow made it worse.

"Lucy… Adrian will come around."

I slowed, but I didn’t turn. His voice followed me down the long corridor.

"Just… don’t push yourself too far. You’ll only hurt yourself."

Something inside me snapped.

Not gently. Not quietly.

It tore.

I turned sharply, the silk robe flowing like water behind me. My feet moved before thought could catch up. My wolf surged inside me, claws of emotion ripping against my ribs.

He hadn’t raised his voice.

He hadn’t insulted me.

But what he said....

you’ll only hurt yourself.....

felt like an execution.

Like he was confirming the one thing I refused to accept:

That this was hopeless.

Without thinking, I launched myself at him, letting the wolf strength inside me pour into the strike. My palms hit air.....the wind of my movement rushing past.....and he stepped aside with a clean, effortless shift of his weight.

He didn’t even flinch.

The fact that dodging me hadn’t taken any effort was another humiliation.

He stood where I had been aiming a heartbeat earlier, calm, composed, hands still loose at his sides. Not a single thread of his shirt had shifted.

My chest heaved.

My throat burned.

Caleb looked at me.....not smug, not mocking.

Just… steady.

Like someone looking at a storm they’ve already seen a hundred times.

"Lucy," he said quietly, "stop."

Stop?

Stop?

His word echoed, and something primal and furious in me broke free.

I took a slow breath, ensuring my voice didn’t tremble.

"If you ever speak to me like that again," I said, each word sharp as bone, "I will fight you to death."

His eyes lifted.....finally reacting. A flicker....just a flicker....of respect. But respect could mean many things. Respect could still taste like pity.

I stepped closer, my voice low, controlled, deadly.

"I am not something to be ‘handled.’ I am not a situation. I am not a burden to be managed."

The hallway fell silent except for our breathing.

"I am not a thing."

His jaw tightened.

Good.

Let him feel something.

"Do you think I don’t know what everyone whispers?" I continued. "Do you think I don’t see the looks? The pity? The amusement? The waiting?"

Caleb said nothing.

Because there was nothing to deny.

"I was chosen," I said, my voice trembling but strong, "because the Council wanted peace. Because they needed balance. Because My pack would have burned the world rather than bow."

My throat tightened.

But I forced the words anyway.

"And you all.....every one of you....pretend that makes me strong. But I see it. The truth. You all think I am the wrong piece on the board. The one that doesn’t fit. The one that needs to be trimmed, shaped, forced, fixed....."

My voice cracked.

I hated that.

I took a slow, shaking breath.

"I am tired."

"I am tired of being something that needs to be endured."

"I am tired of loving someone who cannot even look at me without guilt."

"I am tired of trying to be enough for a destiny I did not choose."

Something flickered behind Caleb’s gaze. . something like grief.

I stepped back.

Not retreating.

Reclaiming space.

"Do not tell me to be patient," I whispered.

"Do not tell me he will come around."

"Do not tell me to stay gentle with my pain."

My voice hardened to steel.

"Because if I am going to bleed for this bond....then I will bleed on my own terms."

I turned.

And this time, Caleb didn’t stop me.

---

CALEB’S POV

She walked away.

But the echo of her words stayed, thick and heavy in the corridor.

I exhaled slowly, rubbing the back of my neck.

Lucy had always been fire. Beautiful, unstoppable, blinding. But fire that is contained too tightly doesn’t just flicker out.

It explodes.

I leaned back against the pillar again, though my heartbeat was still steady....as steady as it always was. But something inside me shifted, just slightly. A thread of sympathy. Or maybe understanding.

She wasn’t wrong.

She just wasn’t safe.....with herself, or with what she wanted.

Adrian would break her.

And she would break him back.

And somehow, all of us were supposed to survive the fallout.

I sighed.

"Not a thing," I repeated under my breath.

No.

She wasn’t.

And that was the problem.

She was someone who felt too deeply.

Someone who loved too fiercely.

Someone who believed love guaranteed return.

And Adrian....

Adrian had stopped believing in return a long time ago.

I pushed off the pillar, glancing down the path where Lucy had disappeared, and murmured to no one:

"This is going to ruin all of us."

And I knew it was true.