Chapter <b>171 </b>
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Francesco stilled, ck eyes sharp.
“How about your father?”
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Sofia swallowed hard, her voice breaking. “Alpha Dorian knows. My father knew the moment I told him. The bond pulled at me, and I couldn’t keep it secret. I thought he would understand. But…” She shook her head, trembling. “He denied it. He called it filth. Said I was cursed. He tried to force me away from Lucien–to mate me with a warrior from across the mountains. A man I didn’t love. A man I didn’t choose.”
The vampire, Lucien’s crimson eyes burned, his voice low but fierce. “He would have ripped her from me. Broken her. I couldn’t allow it. So we ran. Here. To this forsaken ce where no Alpha ruled, or so I thought…”
Whispers rose among the wolves, sharp and horrified.
“A vampire mate…”
“Alpha Dorian knew?”
“He tried to force her away from him?”
Francesco’s growl silenced them all.
He rose to his feet, his aura crashing over the hall like a storm. “Dorian dares deny the Moon Goddess‘ will? Dares to call her mate cursed and force her into another bond?” His voice thundered. “Does he mock fate
itself?”
Sofia flinched but lifted her chin, pride shing through her tears. “He would rather see me broken than ept the truth. That’s why we’re here. Not because we wanted to defy you, but because we had nowhere else to go thinking this is the safest ce…”
My heart twisted at her words.
I remembered what it felt like–the fear of being rejected, the agony of almost losing Francesco to choices not our own. I was rejected once. So, I stepped forward, my hand brushing his arm. “They’re not lying,” I said softly. “Look at them.”
Francesco’s jaw clenched, his eyes narrowing on the pair before him. Sofia’s trembling defiance, Lucien’s unwavering protectiveness–it was too familiar. Too close to what we had been.
Marlow crossed his arms, his sharp eyes assessing. “Three months. That’s no passing fling. If Alpha Dorian denied her bond, this isn’t just love—it’s survival.”
Audrey’s lip curled, but there was no heat in her words. “And if we kill them, we’re no better than Alpha Dorian.”
The room stilled at that.
Francesco’s aura burned hotter, but this time it wasn’t only fury–it was conflict.
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I could feel it through the bond, the weight of a King trying to bnce justice with mercy, politics with truth.
Finally, his voice broke the silence. “Lucien.”
The vampire’s crimson eyes snapped to him.
“Tell me everything,” Francescomanded. “How you found her. Why the bond pulled you. What Alpha Dorian knows. If you lie, I’ll know–and you’ll burn for it.”
Lucien straightened against his chains, his voice sharp as flint. “If you want my truth, I will not give it bound like an animal.”
Gasps rippled again. Warriors shifted, growls rumbling low.
“Unchain a vampire?” one whispered.
“He’ll ughter us all,” another muttered.
But Sofia’s voice rose above them, strong despite her tears. “Please. He won’t harm you. I swear it. He’s my mate.”
All eyes turned to Francesco.
Dark eyes burned in his gaze, fury and curiosity colliding like storms.
He looked at me, and through the bond I felt his unspoken question.
Do we risk it?
I held his gaze, my voice quiet but certain. “If fate tied them, we can’t deny it. Let him speak.”
Francesco growled low, the sound vibrating through the hall.
Then, finally, he gave a sharp nod.
“Marlow,” hemanded, “remove the chains.”
The hall erupted in chaos–gasps, protests, growls.
But Marlow obeyed, stepping forward with two warriors at his side, Iron locks clicked, chains fell, and Lucien rose slowly to his full height.
He didn’t attack. He didn’t run.
Instead, he reached for Sofia’s hand. Their fingers entwined, their bond humming with a raw, undeniable truth that silenced even the loudest protest.
“Now,” Francesco growled, his ck eyes narrowing like fire through the dark. “Tell us everything.”
Lucien stood free of his chains, though a dozen warriors still surrounded him, their des thirsty for the smallest excuse.
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His crimson gaze flickered across the room before settling on Francesco, then on me.
Sofia squeezed his hand, urging him to speak.
His voice, when it came, was low but steady. “My name is Lucien Vale. I am older than you think–but not as old as the legends say. My kind are nearly gone, almost like the Lycan. We don’t rule castles in shadows anymore. We hide. We wander. We survive.”
He paused, his jaw tightening. “Most vampires keep to ruins, old forests, or beneath the cities of men. We rarely surface. Those who do… don’t survive long. Wolves, witches, even human–they all hunt us. Your people think we are extinct. Perhaps that is easier than admitting you killed us into silence.”
Whispers rippled through the wolves gathered in the hall.
Francesco’s eyes narrowed. “And yet here you are. On mynd. With my enemy’s daughter.”
Lucien’s lips curved bitterly. “I didn’t seek her. Fate brought her to me.”
He looked at Sofia then, his crimson eyes softening in a way that startled me. “Three months ago, in the woods beyond Valmont, I was hunting deer. Not blood of humans–not blood of wolves. I don’t feed that way anymore. And then… I scented her. I thought she was prey.” His mouth twisted with irony. “She was not.”
Sofia smiled faintly, despite the tension.
“I felt it instantly,” Lucien continued. “The bond. It mmed into me like fire in my veins. She saw me—and instead of running, she froze. We both knew. We couldn’t deny it.”
Audrey muttered under her breath, “Moon Goddess has a strange sense of humor.”
Lucien ignored her. “We met in secret. At first, just to speak. To try to understand why. But the bond grew stronger. I couldn’t stay away. Neither could she. It was… peace. After centuries of silence, she gave me peace.”
Sofia squeezed his hand tighter, her voice trembling. “I told my father. I thought he’d ept it, even if it was hard. But he-” She broke off, tears spilling. “He called it an abomination. He said no daughter of Valois would be mated to a monster. He locked me in my chambers for weeks. When he finally let me out, it was only to tell me he’d found me a mate<b>–</b>a warrior from the northern ranges. A man I’d never met. He wanted the ceremony within the month.”
Lucien’s growl rumbled low in his chest. “She begged him. I begged him. He didn’t listen.”
Sofia’s eyes burned with defiance through her tears. “So we ran. Better to be hunted together than broken apart.”
Silence stretched, heavy and sharp.
Francesco’s fists clenched at his sides. “Dorian knew,” he hissed, fury darkening his face. “He knew, and he
denied it.”
Marlow shook his head slowly, a grim smile twisting his lips. “The hypocrite. He stood at Valmont, mocking you, calling you a thief of fates–when all the while he was spitting on the Goddess‘ choice for his own daughter.”
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Monica’s voice was low, thoughtful. “It exins why Alpha Dorian was so sharp about conquest. He feared you’d expose him. That the truth would reach ears outside hisnd.”
Audrey crossed her arms. “And now it has.”
Francesco paced forward, ck eyes locked on Lucien and Sofia. “You understand the danger you’ve brought here. Alpha Dorian will not let this stand. He’ll paint me as the viin again–im I stole his daughter, corrupted her with a vampire, used this union as an excuse to expand my reach.” His growl shook the hall. “Damn him. He’s already sharpened his lies, and now fate gives him the de.”
Sofia bowed her head, voice breaking. “I know. And I’m sorry. But I couldn’t-”
“You don’t apologize,” I interrupted gently, stepping forward. All eyes turned to me, but I kept my gaze on Sofia. “Fate is cruel sometimes, but it is not wrong. If Lucien is your mate, then no force–Alpha or King–has the right to sever that bond. Not even your father.”
Her eyes widened, glistening with gratitude.
I turned then to Francesco, cing a hand on his arm.
Through the bond, I felt the storm raging in him—anger at Dorian, fear for what this meant, the weight of another war pressing down on his shoulders.
But I also felt his heart, steady beneath it all.
“They came here because they had nowhere else to go,” I whispered. “We were once almost broken too. Don’t let Alpha Dorian’s cruelty decide their fate.”
Francesco’s jaw worked, his golden gaze locked on mine.
Then slowly, he exhaled, his power settling like a storm pulling back from the shore.
He turned to the hall, his voice strong and sharp. “They will stay. Under my watch. In mynd. Protected.”
Gasps rippled through the wolves.
Francesco’s gaze hardened, his voice a vow. “If Dorian wants them, he’ll have to go through me.”
AD
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