Mated To The Crippled Alpha

Chapter 464: The Bond That Held

I looked up at the figure standing before me. Sharp suit, perfect fit, striking in every way , but it wasn’t Lewis.It was Julian.

He was wearing the same suit from our first bonding ceremony, and even though his presence was unexpected, something deep in me recognized him instantly , the way you always recognize your pack.

He stepped forward and placed himself between me and Wisteria. She had already swung the knife, and the blade caught his hand clean, splitting it open. Blood poured down his wrist in a dark, steady stream. I stood there frozen, unable to process what I was seeing.

Julian looked at me, and he smiled , soft, steady, certain.

"Elena, this time, I made it."

Not Riley. Elena. The name only he ever said like it meant something.

Wisteria sucked in a sharp breath, clearly shaken. "Julian , is that really you?" She yanked the knife free from his hand without hesitation, sending another spray of blood into the air.

Julian didn’t even flinch. He straightened and kept himself firmly between us. "Elena, don’t be afraid."

"How did you get here? Did you contact Lewis?" I asked, fighting to keep my voice level.

"I had a feeling someone would try to disrupt everything, so I’ve been watching. When I saw you get in the car with her, I followed. Lewis and the others are coming from the hotel , five, maybe ten minutes out."

I exhaled, and relief moved through me like something physical. Wisteria had been so sure she’d accounted for everything, had Eleanor quietly redirecting Lewis’s people. She hadn’t counted on Julian. He didn’t answer to Eleanor. He never had.

The only other person in the room besides Wisteria was the maid , the same one who had already shown me exactly what she was capable of. The moment Julian appeared, she drew a gun and leveled it straight at him.

"Ms. Blackwell, step back," she said flatly.

My pulse spiked. "Julian, move!"

He didn’t. Instead, his injured hand shot out and locked around Wisteria’s wrist, twisting until the knife dropped from her grip. He pulled her against him in one fluid motion, his other hand closing around her throat. The maid went still, weapon raised but useless , she wasn’t going to risk it.

Wisteria shifted tactics immediately. Her voice dropped into something soft and pained. "Julian... it hurts..."

It moved through me like cold water , that voice. I had heard it before, in another life, and it had worked every single time. It had unraveled everything.

Not anymore. Julian’s grip didn’t loosen even slightly. Her wrist was locked. Her throat was held.

"You really think that still works on me?" His voice was quiet but hard as stone. "After everything , I finally have you."

"Let her go!" the maid snapped, panic breaking through her composure.

"Put the gun down first," Julian said. "All the way down. Or I finish this right now."

A beat of silence. Then the maid slowly lowered the weapon and kicked it across the floor toward him.

Wisteria, done pretending, looked up at Julian with a slow, cold smile. "Look at you. You’ve actually grown up this past year."

His jaw tightened. "I had good motivation. You took everything from me, Wisteria. My peace. My happiness. Every single piece of it."

Her eyes glittered with something ugly and satisfied. "Don’t put that on me. You got bored. You treated her like she was disposable. You earned every bit of this misery." A laugh climbed out of her, sharp and fractured. "I never planned on surviving anyway. So let’s all burn together."

I forced myself upright on unsteady legs, moved toward her, and grabbed her by the collar. Everything in me was shaking. "Where are my children? What did you do to them?"

The smile she gave me then was the worst thing I had ever seen on a human face.

"I made them pay for my baby’s life. This is what you owe me, Elena."

The words landed and the whole world went cold.

I couldn’t breathe. My chest locked up, and my mind refused to catch up with what I’d just heard. "Wh , what did you just say?"

"Your children are dead." She said it so easily, like it cost her nothing. "They’d be about six months old now, yes? Don’t worry , I made arrangements. Their bodies will go to a medical school. Students will learn from them."

The image hit me before I could stop it. My babies , those tiny, warm, impossibly soft little lives , reduced to something cold on a table. The night before, they had fallen asleep in my arms, making those small sounds that babies make when they feel completely safe. I had held them and thought I would never let go.

Gone.

The pain came out of nowhere and everywhere at once , a tearing, searing pressure in my chest like something had been physically ripped out of me. I coughed, and blood filled my mouth, spilled over my lips before I could stop it.

"Elena!" Julian caught me before I hit the floor, his voice fracturing with panic.

The room tilted. My vision went soft at the edges, blurred by tears I couldn’t hold back. My body had already been through too much, and this , this broke something that hadn’t finished healing.

A hollow, bottomless emptiness opened up inside me.

"Why?" I choked out, my voice barely mine. "They were children. If you wanted revenge, take it out on me , take it out on me, Wisteria!"

Something primal and furious rose up through the grief, hot and savage, burning through my bloodstream. I was shaking so hard I could barely stay upright. My voice climbed from a broken whisper into something raw and unrecognizable, tearing itself free from deep inside me.

But the blood kept coming, warm and copper on my tongue, and I couldn’t stop it.

Julian’s arms closed tighter around me. "Elena, please , your body can’t take this, you have to ,"

He never finished.

Wisteria moved. She snatched the knife off the ground and came at me while his attention was fractured, while he was still focused on holding me together.

"Die, Elena."

Julian didn’t think. He didn’t hesitate for even a single breath.

He pulled me into him and took the blade himself.

The knife drove deep.

"Julian!"

His name tore out of me like something wild, like it came from a part of me that had no language left , only sound, only horro