I blinked, surprised. There was no smugness in his voice, no challenge. Just…an offer.
I don’t know why I said yes. Maybe I wanted to feel like I still had some kind of control.
Maybe I wanted to size him up.
Or maybe I just didn’t want to go home-back to my thoughts.
We ended up at Luna Noire again, seated at a private booth at the back, reserved for Alphas. The crowd was thin today, the atmosphere subdued in a way that perfectly reflected this unorthodox meeting.
I nursed my single malt scotch the same way he did his vodka on the rocks. Neither of us took a single sip, and I suspect it was for the same reason-neither of us was willing to let our guard down around the other.
“You don’t like me,” Lucian said plainly, leaning back in his seat, surveying me with dark, calculating eyes.
I snorted. “No shit.”
He smirked, but his eyes held no mirth. “I don’t like you much either. But I respect what you meant to Sera.”
Meant. The tense of that word unsettled something inside me.
Without another word, Lucian brought out his phone, tapped on the screen, and pushed it towards me.
I looked down at the footage playing-grainy at first, then clearer.
Sera. Training.
Sparring, running drills, practicing strikes. Her form improved with every clip. And the way she moved-focused, determined-it caught me off guard.
She looked… confident. Powerful. Nothing like the timid, fragile woman I’d convinced myself she was.
“You all made her feel like she was broken,” Lucian said quietly. I couldn’t tear my gaze away from the woman-the stranger-I was watching. “Like she was weak and worthless. You punished her for a mistake she didn’t make alone.”
Something clenched in my chest. “That’s none of your business.”
“Oh, but it is,” he said smoothly. “Everything that concerns Sera is my business now.”
I stared at him, fury coiling low in my gut. Did this bastard really think he had any claim over her? I hadn’t forgotten his declaration-his intent to pursue her. But from what I’d seen, Sera hadn’t fully accepted him yet.
Though I wasn’t sure how long that would last.
I took a sharp swallow of whiskey, letting the burn down my throat smother the violent thoughts rising in me. I had Celeste. Why the hell should I care which man Sera chose?
“Get to the point.”
Lucian leaned forward, his voice dropping. “If you still care about her, Kieran-and I suspect you do-let her go. Stop reopening her wounds just because you don’t know what to do with your own guilt.”
My hand clenched around my glass. I wished he wouldn’t talk to me like that-so patronizingly. It made me want to shatter my glass against his temple.
More than that, I wished his words didn’t…make sense.
I glanced at the footage that was still playing on Lucian’s phone as tension coiled in my body.
Everything I’d discovered about Sera since we got divorced-her successful writing career, the backbone she’d apparently always had, this…strength-led to one crushing conclusion.
I’d held her back all these years.
I was more than her ex-husband and the father of her son, more than a part of her past. I was an anchor that had only ever dragged her down.
And now that I was out of her life, she was flourishing.
LUCIAN’S POV
I could see it in his shoulders-the way they tensed like drawn wire. Kieran was barely holding himself together.
The infamous Alpha of NightFang, known for power that could shake battlefields, was now one step from breaking my neck in this very room.
But I didn’t flinch. I couldn’t afford to-not with Sera’s future on the line.
“I’m not here to provoke you,” I said evenly, eyeing the glass he had in a vice-like grip. “But there are truths you need to hear, whether you like them or not. This isn’t even about you to begin with.”
His eyes flared, sharp and wild like a cornered animal. “Careful, Lucian.”
I nodded once. “For Sera’s sake, I will be.”
I wasn’t rash or brute like Kieran; I knew how to play the long game, and that meant picking my fights wisely. “But I won’t be silent.”
I swiped across my phone screen, switching from the training footage to Sera’s performance breakdown.
Her metrics were impressive. More than impressive-they were exceptional. She had raw talent, and she was relentless and determined. She took everything I and Maya threw at her, and she came back stronger. No matter how many times she went down, she always got back up.
And yet, I knew that this wasn’t even her full potential.
There was still a burden she carried around-pain and guilt and shame knotted deep inside her. Weighing her down. Holding her back.
A burden given to her by the very people who claimed to be her ‘family’
They had clipped her wings before they ever had the chance to spread, dulled her instincts, ruined her self-worth, and punished her for mistakes she should never have borne alone.
I would not let them do it again. Not on my watch. eyes off
“She’s thriving,” I said quietly, not taking my eyes off Kieran, who couldn’t take his the screen. “But she could be so much more. If she’s ever going to reach her full potential, you need to stop dragging her back into the muck of your indecision.”
He bristled, and his eyes snapped to me. “Indecision?”
I shrugged. “Even a blind person would see that you’re swinging between Sera and her sister like a pendulum.”
A muscle flexed in his jaw. “That’s-“
“None of my business, yes, you’ve mentioned.” I leaned in. “But as I’ve also mentioned, anything concerning Sera is my business.”
Kieran scoffed, shaking his head like he didn’t want to hear it. “You think you know her better than I do? You met her, what-a month ago? Two?”
“And you were married to her for ten years, and yet, I see her more clearly than you ever did,” I replied, voice calm but firm.
“I don’t know the dynamics of your relationship, but if any part of you ever loved her, if any part of you respects her, you’d stop making her relive the same wound over and over again.
You’d let her heal.”
He stood then, jaw clenched. I remained seated. Let him tower over me if that made him feel better.
“I don’t care who you think you are or what you think you know,” he hissed. “But my business with Sera is-“
“And what about Celeste?” I asked.
A vertical line formed between his brows. “What about Celeste?”
I flicked the display again, this time pulling up the two-month evaluation from our compound-Celeste’s.
“It just seems to me like you’re focusing on the wrong woman.”
I let him read the data in silence. Celeste’s numbers-despite having equal access to training, gear, and personnel-were abysmally low.
She was barely keeping pace with an average Omega recruit. Her form lacked discipline.
Her drive lacked consistency. And her instincts? Nearly nonexistent.
“Maybe if you weren’t so concerned about her sister-who isn’t yours to be concerned with anymore-you would be able to help Celeste.”
A low growl rolled through him. “That’s my future Luna. Show her some damn respect,” he said through gritted teeth.
“I’m not here to insult or disrespect her,” I said, before he could erupt. “But facts are facts, and numbers don’t lie.”
Celeste and Sera were evidently not cut from the same cloth. Sera had what it took to be something great, something formidable.
Celeste did not.
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