Chapter 9: Alliance bride

Lucian’s POV

​"Who?" I asked, staring at Mother. "And why are you so pale?"

​She didn’t answer right away. Her face had gone completely drained, her breath coming in short, uneven gasps. For a second, her lips trembled. Then, as if pulling a mask over her face, she forced a small, strained breath and shook her head.

​"No... no one," she said quickly, avoiding my eyes.

​My eyes narrowed. A few seconds ago, she had looked at Annabel like she had seen a ghost.

​"You said, ’It’s her.’"

​"It was a mistake." She looked at Annabel again before releasing a soft sigh. "I mistook her for someone else. That’s all."

​I didn’t believe a single word coming out of her mouth. My mother wasn’t easily shaken. I had watched her receive news of attacks, deaths, and betrayals without losing control of herself. Yet one look at Annabel had drained the color from her face.

​Before I could question her again, she gestured toward Annabel. "Lucian, this can wait. She needs a healer. Call for help."

​My jaw tightened, but I let it go. For now.

​I turned toward the end of the corridor where two guards were standing. "Take her to her room. Get the Grand Healer. Now."

​"Yes, Alpha."

​One of them carefully lifted Annabel from the floor while the other hurried ahead. Mother watched them go with a deeply troubled expression, then turned to follow them toward the guest rooms.

​I didn’t follow right away. I folded my arms across my chest and stood fixed to the spot, staring at the broken wooden door of the old storage room.

​Someone had locked her inside. That much was obvious. She couldn’t have locked the door from the outside herself, which meant someone had brought her here and deliberately left her inside.

​A dark, bitter scoff escaped my lips. She was the daughter of the man responsible for the war that had filled my territory with graves. Did she truly believe my people would welcome her because a piece of paper now called her my wife? If anything, this was only the beginning of what my people would do to her.

​She needed to understand where she was. She had signed up for an eternity of misery, but still, locking her inside a room until she collapsed was extreme.

My expression hardened. No one in this mansion had the right to take matters into their own hands without my permission.

"Lucian." Lucas’s voice pulled me from my thoughts. "Aren’t you coming?"

I looked at the broken door one last time before turning away. "I’m coming."

We followed the guards through the mansion, and by the time we reached Annabel’s room, they had already placed her on the bed. Mother stood near the foot of the mattress, unusually quiet, her attention still fixed on Annabel.

The Grand Healer arrived moments later and immediately walked toward the bed to examine her while the rest of us waited.

​I stayed near the door with my arms folded across my chest.

​After checking her pulse and breathing, the healer lifted one of her eyelids before placing his fingers against the side of her neck again.

​"She’ll be fine," the Grand Healer replied, looking up at us. "Physically, she sustained no injuries."

​"What happened to her?" the healer asked.

​"We found her locked inside one of the old storage rooms," Lucas explained. "The door was locked from the outside."

​The healer frowned. "How long was she inside?"

​"We don’t know."

​"Was she conscious when you found her?"

​"No," Lucas replied.

​The healer was quiet for a moment before turning his attention back to her. "Her breathing was probably affected by panic. From what you’re describing, she may be claustrophobic."

​My brows pulled together. "Claustrophobic?"

​"She has an extreme fear of enclosed spaces," he explained. "For some people, being trapped in a dark, confined room can cause a severe panic response. Their breathing becomes too fast, their heart races, they become dizzy, and in some cases, they can lose consciousness."

​I stared at the quiet figure lying on the bed. Her face was still unnaturally pale, her dark hair spread across the white pillows. I didn’t know what to make of that. Nothing about the woman made sense to me. First, there was the strange absence of her wolf. Then there was the way she behaved nothing like the spoiled princess I had expected. And now this—a small part of me felt a flicker of annoyance that something as simple as a dark room could break her so easily.

​"Will she wake up?" Mother asked.

​"Yes. She needs rest. She should wake soon." The healer picked up his things. "When she does, give her some water and make sure she doesn’t stand too quickly." He bowed his head toward me. "Alpha."

​I gave a slight nod, and he left. Silence settled over the room.

​My gaze moved to Mother. She was staring at Annabel again. Not casually, and not with simple concern for an unconscious woman. She was studying her face with the same strange, intense expression from the hallway.

​Something wasn’t right. I knew my mother; she knew something. But if she wasn’t ready to tell me, standing here questioning her wasn’t going to change that.

​I turned on my heel, ready to leave the room.

​"Where are you going?" Lucas asked.

​"Somewhere else."

​"Lucian." I stopped. Lucas looked toward the woman on the bed before turning back to me. "She is your wife."

​My face hardened instantly. "She is not my wife. She is an alliance bride. Nothing more."

​Lucas gave me a long look. "If you don’t want her, then why did you agree to marry her?"

​My jaw tightened so hard I felt the bone ache. He knew what the Blood Moon Pack had done. He knew what had happened to Lillian. But he didn’t know why I had agreed to Kenneth’s offer.

​"To make her suffer," I spat.

​Lucas frowned, his brows pulling together. "And what exactly do you plan to do to her?"

​"Nothing." I looked toward Annabel. "I don’t need to touch her. She will live here. She will walk through this territory every day and see how much she is hated."

​Without waiting for Lucas to respond, I turned and walked out of the room, my heavy boots echoing down the quiet corridor.

​The moment I reached the hallway, I mind-linked my Beta.

​"Levi."

​"Yes, Alpha?"

​"Assemble all the mansion staff in the living room immediately," I commanded. "I want every maid, guard, and servant lined up in five minutes."

​There was a brief pause. "All of them?"

​"Did I stutter?"

​"Understood, Alpha."

​I ended the link and made my way to my private quarters. It would take Levi a few minutes to gather everyone. Five minutes was enough time to be alone with my thoughts.

​I entered my bedroom and shut the door behind me. For a moment, I simply stood there, allowing the silence to settle around me. My thoughts should have been on Annabel, on whoever had locked her inside that room, or even on Mother’s strange reaction to seeing her. Instead, as I walked toward the couch and sat down, my mind returned to the one person it always seemed to find when I was alone.

​Four years had passed, and I still hadn’t found her. I had sent trackers across territories, paid informants for information, and followed every possible lead, only for each one to end the same way. Nothing. It was as though she had disappeared from the world without leaving a single trace behind.

​I leaned back against the couch and closed my eyes, my jaw tightening. Four years was a long time to search for someone whose name I didn’t even know, but giving up had never crossed my mind.

​Where are you?

​The question had haunted me for years, and today, just like every other day, there was still no answer.

​Why can’t I find you?

Before I could think any further, the door opened, and Lucas walked in.

"I know you have the best trackers," he said. "I need your help finding someone."

I looked at him, surprised by the seriousness in his voice. "Who?"

Lucas hesitated for a moment. "A woman."

My brows pulled together. "A woman?"

"It’s a long story."

"Tell me."

He went quiet, his expression changing as though he was deciding how much he wanted to say. Finally, he looked away.

"Remember the attack four years ago?" He paused, his jaw tightening slightly. "She..."

He suddenly stopped and shook his head.

"Forget it. Just help me with your trackers."