cx14 (Lucian’s POV) Sudden Intrusion
Lucian
The banging came hard and fast-violent knocks that shattered the silence.
Mara! Mara!
I jolted upright.
She stirred too, clearly dazed, hair tousled, eyes foggy with sleep. She moved toward the door, still trying to process the
noise.
“Don’t,” I said, stepping into her room just as she reached for the handle.
She turned, surprised to see me there. She hadn’t expected me to be home. That much was obvious.
“It’s Darian,” she said.
And just like that, I frowned.
What the hell was Darian doing here? And why at my wing of the house?
Mara, please! Open the door!
Her hand froze on the handle. I didn’t stop her. Maybe I should have.
She opened the door.
Darian burst in like a man unhinged-shirtless, drenched in sweat, breathing like he’d sprinted across the entire estate.
“Mara… Mara…” he choked, pulling her into his arms.
I watched, stunned.
He kissed her head. Cradled her face.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I tried to come back. I tried. But there were too many assignments. I couldn’t return in time…”
His voice cracked. Actually cracked.
He was crying.
Mara stood frozen in his arms, not saying a word.
And me?
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Darian, the golden boy, the self-serving heir who never gave a damn about anyone- now falling apart in the arms of the woman he never claimed?
He looked up at me with red, furious eyes. And before I could even blink, he let go of her and punched me.
“Darian!” Mara screamed.
I staggered back a step. Then hit him back. Hard. He dropped to the floor, growling, but sprung up like nothing hurt.
“You didn’t have to marry her, Lucian!” he shouted, launching at me again.
We clashed-blows exchanged in rage and confusion. Mara was screaming at us to stop, her voice drowned in the chaos.
I pulled back to strike again, but she stepped in the way-her eyes wide with panic-and I barely stopped my fist in time.
“Get out of my room, Darian,” I growled.
$14 (Lucians POV) Sudden Intrusion
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You didn’t have to marry her!” he roared. “Father would’ve still given you the estate! You didn’t have to take her from me,
Lucian!”
Mara’s head whipped toward me, shock flickering in her eyes.
Take her?
My blood chilled.
“I didn’t know,” I said slowly, staring at him. “I didn’t know he was giving me anything. I was following orders. Just trying to survive Martha’s games.”
“You took her,” he spat.
“You weren’t even dating her!” I snapped. “You told your friends she was making passes at you. You said you weren’t interested. So what the hell is this now? You liked the attention? Is that it?”
His mouth opened-but our father’s voice cut through the tension before he could answer.
“What the hell is going on here?” my father barked as he stepped into the room.
The weight of his authority silenced us. Even Darian, red-faced and breathing hard, lowered his eyes. I looked at him, waiting for him to explain himself.
But he said nothing.
Coward.
My father turned to me, demanding an answer with just his eyes.
“Mara and I were asleep when Darian started banging on the door,” I said calmly. “She let him in. One thing led to another,
and he attacked me.”
My father’s gaze snapped to Darian. “Why would you attack your brother? And what the hell are you doing in his wing?”
Darian didn’t answer right away. He was still catching his breath-either from the fight or the guilt that seemed to be choking him.
Then finally, in a broken, shaking voice, he said, “Please annul the wedding, Father. Please.”
The room fell silent. My father looked at him like he’d lost his mind.
“Are you alright, Darian?” he asked, genuinely stunned. “You told me, yourself, that you weren’t interested in Mara in that
sense.”
I glanced at Mara, who had retreated to the foot of the bed. She sat still, motionless, like she didn’t belong in her own skin anymore. I couldn’t tell if she was stunned, angry, or just… broken.
“Yes,” Darian said quietly. “I said that to protect her from Mother.”
My father blinked. “What?”
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“I thought if I told you I didn’t want Mara, she’d leave her alone,” Darian said, his voice thick with tears. “I thought Mother would back off if she believed there was no threat.”
My chest tightened. I’d known Martha was manipulative, but this?
“You should have come to me,” our father snapped. “You should have been a damn grown-up and told me the truth.”
“You always do what she says,” Darian replied bitterly. “I didn’t think you’d listen. I thought… if I stayed quiet long enough, kept Mara close but out of reach… I’d become Alpha, and then I could name her as my Luna.”
At that, Mara bowed her head and began to cry silently. Her shoulders shook, and I hated how small she looked-this girl
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< 14 (Lucian’s POV) Sudden Intrusion
who had walked into a nightmare trying to survive it with dignity.
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I had never seen my father look so pale. He backed away from us like the walls themselves were closing in, stopping only when his back hit the cold marble.
Then came her voice.
“Darian, what is the meaning of this?” Martha said.
She stood in the doorway, draped in her usual silk arrogance, trying to take control before she understood what room she
was walking into.
Darian turned to her, and I swear, I saw murder in his eyes.
“You’ve ruined people’s lives,” my father said, voice tight and low. “That’s what this is.”
My father stepped forward slowly. His voice wasn’t raised this time-it was quiet. Cold.
“You destroyed Lucian’s relationship. You ruined Darian’s chance at love. All because you wanted to play god with
everyone’s future.”
Martha’s face fell, but she said nothing.
My father continued. “Darian has been in love with Mara this whole time. He hid it from all of us because he feared what y ou’d do to her. And he was right. You forced Lucian to marry her just to get her out of Darian’s path. And now here we are. Both my sons miserable. One woman crying on her wedding bed. And you-you still think you did the right thing.”
The silence afterward was unbearable.
I looked at Mara.
She hadn’t lifted her head once. Her shoulders shook with every sob, like she was unraveling from the inside out.
All I wanted was to steady her, just for a second. To offer something-comfort, presence, anything-but when I knelt
beside her and reached out, she flinched.
She didn’t want me near her.
And who could blame her?
This girl had walked through fire for Darian. She’d given up her dream, entered the academy, matched him stride for stride -all because of him. They’d grown together. Trained together. And now?
Now she was crumbling under the weight of his cowardice and his mother’s manipulation.
Martha’s voice cut through the silence like a blade.
“You cannot be with Mara, Darian,” she said coldly.
We all turned to her.
She stood in the doorway, expression unreadable.
“Even if Lucian annuls the marriage,” she continued, “you still can’t have her.”
Darian looked up at her, his face a battlefield of pain and disbelief.
“Tiffany is pregnant.”
For a moment, no one moved.
And then I almost laughed. Bitterly. Of course.
Suddenly pregnancy mattered to Martha?
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< 14 (Lucian’s POV) Sudden Intrusion
What about all the abortions she had arranged for Darian? How many lives had she erased to preserve his image, to keep his future “clean”? And now, conveniently, Tiffany Northwood was the one who had to be kept?
It made perfect sense.
Tiffany’s family was rich-that’s all this was. She’d found out the Nighthorn money was no longer going to Darian, so now she needed to secure his future another way.
With the Northwoods.
And a baby.
Darian blinked at her, stunned, broken.
“I don’t want-” he began, the same tired line we’d all heard a hundred times. He didn’t want this. He didn’t mean for it to
happen.
Martha shut him down with venom.
“I have cleaned up after your messes for the last time,” she snapped. “You will take responsibility for this one. You willmar ry her. And I advise you to leave Lucian’s wife alone.”
She didn’t wait for a reply. She turned and left the room like she hadn’t just detonated a bomb in the middle of it.
Darian collapsed to his knees in front of Mara, his voice cracking.
“I’ll find a way, Mara… I promise.”
But even he knew how hollow it sounded.
My father stepped forward, exhausted, furious, and heartbreakingly calm.
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep, son,” he said. “If you really loved her, you would’ve acted on it. You wouldn’t have let your mother dictate your heart. You would’ve told me the truth when I asked, before she ever became your brother’s wife.”
Darian looked like a boy again-small, ashamed, powerless.
“Now listen to your mother, and leave your brother’s wife alone,” my father finished. His voice didn’t rise, but it carried enough weight to end the discussion.
He turned and practically dragged Darian out of the room.
And then there was silence.
Mara sat at the edge of the bed like a ghost of herself, her face buried in her hands.
And I stood there, still, utterly dumbfounded.
What the f**k had just happened?
My brother had just confessed his love for my wife.
My wife had just broken apart in front of me.
And the only person who got exactly what they wanted… was Martha.
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