Chapter 4 Sparks, Chains, and the Hero’s Bruised Ego

4: Sparks, Chains, and the Hero’s Bruised Ego

If ever make it back to my world alive, I’m sending the Moon Goddess an invoice. Therapy bills? Covered. Pizza deliveries? Lifelong subscription. Maybe even a free spa membership, because at this rate I’ll need holy water facials to wash the trauma off my pores.

Because, dear cosmic diary, being dragged back into the Tyrant Alpha’s lair like some discount prize after witnessing him body-slam the story’s golden boy was not on my five-year plan. I wanted to publish a book, maybe adopt a cat, occasionally flirt with the barista who spelled my name wrong on my latte. Not… this.

Lucian’s hand was still clamped around my wrist, unrelenting. Every step he pulled me forward, sparks jolted through my skin like I’d licked an electric fence. Spoiler: it wasn’t sexy. Or at least, it shouldn’t have been. My nerve endings clearly hadn’t gotten the memo.

“Let me go!” I snapped, twisting like a fish on a hook. But his grip didn’t budge. His fingers were a steel vice, veins etched under his skin like molten silver.

Behind us came the shuffle-drag of someone refusing to quit: Rowan Hale, the tragic-hero alpha himself, limping after us. His blue eyes still burned, his mouth set in grim determination. The sword in his hand scraped across the stone—skrrt, skrrt—like nails on a chalkboard.

“Lucian!” he growled, voice torn between exhaustion and fury. “Stop this madness. She’s not yours.”

Lucian didn’t even glance at him. His silver gaze stayed fixed ahead, jaw hard as granite. “She is marked.”

I stumbled, nearly tripping on my own bunny slippers. “Yeah, well, I’m also annoyed,” I barked, jerking against him. “Mark that down in your little alpha agenda, buddy.”

Lucian stopped so suddenly I nearly faceplanted into his chest. He turned, cloak swishing, wolves flanking him like shadows with teeth.

“Stay,” he commanded.

One word. Just one. And every wolf froze.

That was the first time I realized his authority wasn’t just scary—it was absolute.

Then his gaze shifted to Rowan, voice dropping to something colder than steel. “Come further, and I will kill you.”

The air thickened until breathing felt optional. Rowan’s jaw clenched, fury carved into every line of his face. “If you harm her—”

Lucian moved faster than I could blink. He tilted my chin up with his free hand, his thumb brushing the corner of my jaw. Not rough. Not violent. Gentle. Intentionally gentle.

“She is mine,” he said again, but softer this time. Not a claim. A vow.

And gods help me—that softness was worse.

My breath caught, because his eyes weren’t just violence now. They were fire, yes, but threaded with something else. Something that whispered stay, that curled around my ribs and pressed against my lungs until I couldn’t breathe properly.

Rowan’s voice cut through, desperate, raw. “Aria! Don’t listen to him. The bond is poison.”

The bond.

Oh no.

This was it, wasn’t it? The cursed trope. The infamous mate-bond plot twist. The one where fate just slaps two characters together and says, surprise, now you’re soulmates, deal with it.

I shoved at Lucian’s chest, hysteria bubbling in my throat. “Listen here, wolf-boy, I am not your mate, your toy, or your chew toy! So let’s stop with the Moon-chosen nonsense and—”

Lucian didn’t budge. He didn’t even blink. His grip slid back down to my wrist, his voice a low growl. “You feel it.”

“No,” I snapped, squirming. “What I feel is impending carpal tunnel.”

But damn it, he wasn’t wrong. The sparks were there. Real. Alive. My pulse was a frantic mess, every nerve lit up like a neon sign screaming complicated feelings ahead.

Rowan took another step, sword raised despite his shaking arms. “Release her.”

Lucian bared his fangs in something that wasn’t a smile. “She would die without me.”

Excuse me, what?

I blinked up at him. "I'm sorry-what now? I've managed twenty-four years without a wolf bodyguard-slash-possessive stalker. Pretty sure I can handle breathing on my own."

His grip tightened. Not painful, but firm. Anchoring. His voice dropped lower, almost guttural. “The bond already ties you. You stray too far, you weaken. You stay, you live.”

My stomach dropped through the floor. I turned to Rowan, silently begging him to call bullshit, to tell me Lucian was bluffing.

But Rowan’s eyes flickered. His jaw clenched. And that flicker was enough.

It wasn’t a lie.

“Don’t believe him,” Rowan said, but his tone cracked at the edges. His certainty wasn’t there.

Lucian yanked me forward again. “She is mine. And nothing breaks the Moon’s will.”

Rowan lunged, ignoring the wolves’ growls. His sword raised, his body battered but unyielding.

But Lucian was faster. Always faster.

With one shove, he sent me stumbling into the arms of two waiting guards. Cold iron shackles snapped around my wrists before I could even scream.

“Hey!” I yelped, writhing. “This is not the kind of jewelry I asked for! My aesthetic is minimalist chic, not medieval dungeon.”

Rowan roared, charging, but Lucian slammed him back with bone-shaking force. The clash of steel and claws rang through the fortress, a brutal symphony of violence.

And me? I got dragged like a misbehaving toddler back into the belly of Dravenmoor.

The den was quieter this time. Too quiet.

The torches burned low, shadows stretching long and hungry across the stone. I sat shackled to the wall, knees hugged to my chest, every sound amplified by silence. My wrists ached, my skin still buzzing from sparks that wouldn’t fade.

Footsteps echoed. Slow. Heavy. Purposeful.

Lucian entered.

No leather jacket now. Just a dark tunic, sleeves rolled to his elbows, silver rings banding his fingers. Less tyrant king, more nightmare boyfriend who’d show up at your apartment with “we need to talk” energy.

He crouched in front of me, silver eyes sharp, unreadable.

“You run,” he said flatly.

“Oh, what gave it away?” I snapped. “The cardio or the screaming?”

His lips twitched. Not a smile, but dangerously close. “You think I hurt you.”

“Oh no, of course not,” I shot back. “I just think you kidnapped me, manhandled me, chained me to a wall, and declared me your property like we’re in some medieval clearance sale.”

He didn’t flinch. Didn’t argue. His hand lifted slowly, deliberately, giving me time to flinch if I wanted. His fingers brushed a strand of hair from my face, grazing my temple. Gentle. Too gentle.

“You feel it,” he murmured.

That cursed spark flared again where his skin touched mine, heat threading into my veins like wildfire. I hated it. I hated that a part of me leaned into it, even as the rest of me screamed stranger danger.

“You are bound,” he said softly. “As I am bound.”

I swallowed hard, forcing words past the lump in my throat. “You don’t even know me. I’m not from here. I don’t belong here.”

Lucian’s eyes softened—just a flicker, but enough to make my chest ache in ways I didn’t want to admit.

And that was the worst part. He believed it. Completely.

He wasn’t obsessed in the way villains usually were. He wasn’t plotting or lusting for power. No, this was something deeper. Twisted. Intimate.

He thought I was his destiny.

Which meant he wasn’t going to stop.

Ever.

Later, when he finally left, I exhaled like I’d been holding my breath for hours. My wrists ached from the shackles, my head spun from sparks that wouldn’t fade.

And across the fortress, I imagined Rowan—wounded but not broken—plotting, planning, trying to find a way to save me.

Part of me clung to that hope.

The other part whispered that maybe, just maybe… it was already too late.

Because the Tyrant Alpha wasn’t just my captor.

He was my bond.

And bonds don’t break.