Bound to the Alpha Twins

Roses in the Garden

The palace garden was a masterpiece. King Aldric had designed it himself, a circular wonder of concentric rings, each row bursting with flowers of a different color; crimson roses, white lilies, purple violets, golden marigolds. They spiraled inward toward a grand fountain at the center, where a marble statue of the Luna, Queen Selene, stood draped in flowing stone robes, her face lifted toward the sky.

It was said the King had commissioned it in the first year of their marriage, obsessed with capturing her beauty. The garden was his gift to her. And his warning to everyone else: She is mine.

Kaelan did not care about the flowers or the fountain. His eyes found Lucian at once.

His brother stood near a small table draped in white linen, a decanter of wine and two glasses glinting in the afternoon light. Beside him, laughing at something he had said, was Marielle Darkholme.

She was beautiful in a way that made Kaelan's teeth ache. Brunette, thick and curvy, with a smile that had probably ruined better men. She was the granddaughter of the chief judge on the Council, and she had held Lucian's heart since they were young.

Lucian was not the type to show emotion. But Kaelan saw it. The way his brother's hand rested on her lower back. The way he leaned in when she spoke. The way his eyes softened, just a fraction.

Enthralled. That was the word.

Kaelan strode toward them.

Lucian noticed him first. His expression flickered - surprise, then something guarded. He nudged Marielle gently.

"Go," he murmured. "I will find you later."

Marielle looked at Kaelan, her smile still in place. "Your brother looks fierce today. Try not to kill each other."

She walked away toward a shaded bench where her maid waited, her hips swaying.

Kaelan stopped in front of Lucian. "You are a hypocrite."

Lucian raised an eyebrow. He plucked a glass of wine from the table and held it out. "How so, brother?"

Kaelan did not take the glass. "You speak of being tame and quiet about our mate. You lecture me on patience and restraint. Yet here you are, in the middle of the garden, showing the whole palace your affair with the Darkholme woman."

Lucian's smirk did not waver. He took a slow sip of wine. "Marielle is not an affair. She is home. She is my all. She is where I belong." His voice dropped. "Heavens know I would have married her if you were not so set on finding your mate before you settled down."

Kaelan stepped closer, close enough to smell the wine on his brother's breath. "You dare speak of home while our mate walks the streets of Ashen Ridge, alone, frightened, wondering why her Alphas have not come for her?"

Lucian's smirk faded. "She is not alone. She has her mother. She has that friend of hers."

"Her mother is an omega. Her friend is a dressmaker's daughter. Neither of them can protect her from what is coming." Kaelan's voice was a blade. "You know this. You simply do not care."

"I care about the pack. I care about the Council. I care about not starting a war because you could not keep your wolf leashed."

"My wolf is not the problem." Kaelan jabbed a finger at Lucian's chest. "Your cold heart is the problem. You feel nothing for her. You would let her wither while you warm your bed with Darkholme's granddaughter."

Lucian's face went still. Too still. "You do not know what I feel."

"Then tell me. What do you feel for Ophelia?"

Lucian was silent for a long moment. Then he laughed, a short, bitter sound. "I feel the bond. I cannot escape it. Every night I lie awake, and I smell her. I taste her. I imagine what it would be like to have her beneath me, crying out my name." His voice dropped to a whisper. "Is that what you want to hear, brother? That I am just as starved as you? That I have to bury myself in Marielle just to keep from storming into Ashen Ridge and taking that girl like an animal?"

Kaelan's breath caught. He had not expected honesty.

Lucian straightened his jacket, smoothing the fabric, as if the outburst had never happened. When he looked up again, his eyes were cold. "But I am not an animal. I am a prince. And I will not let a bond, any bond, destroy everything our family has built."

"You would sacrifice her for your pride."

"I would sacrifice my own happiness for this pack. Something you have never understood."

Kaelan's hands curled into fists. "And Marielle? Do you sacrifice her too? Or do you simply use her?"

Lucian's jaw tightened. "Marielle is none of your concern."

"She is a distraction. A warm body to keep you from facing the truth." Kaelan's voice rose. "You are afraid. Afraid of the Council. Afraid of Father. Afraid of what people will say when they see you with an Omega."

"I am not afraid."

"Then why do you hide? Why do you preach patience while your wolf howls for her? I see it, Lucian. I see the way you clench your jaw when her name is spoken. I see the way your hands shake when you pour your wine." Kaelan stepped even closer, his face inches from his brother's. "You want her. You want her so badly it terrifies you. Because if you admit that, then you have to admit that everything you have planned, every calculation, every careful step, means nothing."

Lucian's mask cracked. His grey eyes flashed.

"You think I do not know that?" he snarled. "You think I have not laid awake, imagining her, wanting her, hating myself for it? She is an Omega. She is nothing. And yet she has more power over me than any army, any council, any king."

"Then stop fighting it."

"I cannot." Lucian's voice broke, just a fraction. "If I stop fighting, I lose control. And if I lose control, I become you."

Kaelan went very still.

The words hung between them like a blade.

Kaelan's wolf surged. Vyre howled for blood. But Kaelan held him back. Not here. Not with servants watching. Not with Marielle under that shade, her maid whispering in her ear.

He lowered his voice to a razor's edge. "You think I am the one without control? I have not touched her. I have not claimed her. I have not done a single thing to dishonor her or this family. While you-" He glanced toward Marielle. "You spread your seed in a woman who is not your mate and call it control."

Lucian's face went pale.

"You see yourself as the wise one," Kaelan continued. "The strategist. The one who holds everything together. But you are the weakest of us. Because you cannot even be honest with yourself."

Lucian said nothing.

Kaelan stepped back. "You may reject her if you wish. I will keep her. But in doing so, you will hurt her. And I would rather see you hurt than let that happen."

Lucian's eyes widened. For once, his composure cracked completely.

"You would sever our relationship for her? You would send Silver Fang into chaos just to bed her?" He paused, a cruel smile curling his lips. "You know what, brother? Why do we not make her our mistress? That way our wolves have her, but she will never be Luna. She will never sit at our side. She will never bear our heirs. She will be a secret. A dirty little secret we visit when the moon is high."

The bottle shattered across Lucian's head.

Wine and glass exploded. Lucian stumbled back, his hand flying to his temple. Blood dripped between his fingers. The garden went silent. Servants froze. Marielle shrieked.

Then she began to cry; loud, ugly sobs that echoed off the marble fountain. Her maid rushed to her side, but Marielle pushed her away, wailing for Lucian to come to her, to hold her, to tell her everything would be alright.

Lucian did not look at her. He did not slow. He walked toward the patio, his footsteps steady on the stone path, leaving her there with her tears and the fragments of glass glittering on the grass.

No one else had heard their words. The garden was too sprawling, the fountain too loud, the rings of flowers too thick. What the servants and guards saw was a sudden burst of violence, a bottle breaking, a prince bleeding, his brother screaming. But the conversation itself remained between the twins, locked in the hedges and the roses, never to leave.

"Monster!" Kaelan screamed, his voice raw. "I will have your head! I will rip your throat out with my teeth before I let you speak of her like that again!"

Lucian straightened slowly. He did not wipe the blood from his face. He looked at his brother with something like pity. "There he is. The beast. The man who cannot control his rage."

Kaelan lunged.

Two guards grabbed him. A third stepped between the brothers. Lucian did not move.

"You prove my point," Lucian said softly. "You cannot lead with that temper. You cannot protect her with that temper. You will only destroy her."

Kaelan struggled against the guards, his eyes wild. "Let me go! Let me go, or I swear-"

"You will do nothing." Lucian turned away. "Clean yourself up. You are bleeding on the roses."

He walked toward the patio, his footsteps steady on the stone path.

Behind him, Kaelan stood shaking, his chest heaving, Vyre still raging in his veins.

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Lucian stepped onto the patio, leaving the garden behind. His temple throbbed. His mind raced faster than his heart.

Kaelan would tear the palace apart if his needs were not met.

The thought settled over him like a weight. He had seen it in his brother's eyes. The madness. The hunger. The wolf barely leashed.

He stopped walking.

"Guard!" he called.

A young soldier hurried over, snapping to attention. "Your Highness?"

"Bring Ophelia. The omega." Lucian's voice was flat. "Tell her the royal crown demands her presence tomorrow night."

The guard blinked. "Tomorrow night, sire?"

"Did I stutter?"

"No, sire." The guard ran.

Lucian did not know why he had said it. The words had come from somewhere deep, somewhere he did not want to examine. He only knew that if Kaelan did not see her soon, the kingdom would burn.

Marielle's shrieks still echoed from the garden. He did not turn around. He had no patience for her drama today.

"Rufus," he called.

His manservant appeared from the shadows, silent as always. "Yes, my lord?"

"I am heading to the Iron Circle. I need to clear my head."

Rufus bowed. "Shall I inform the training master?"

"Do not inform anyone. I will not be sparring. I simply need the quiet." Lucian paused. "And Rufus. Tell Niverna to prepare to attend to me tonight. I will need her."

Rufus's expression did not change. "As you wish, my lord."

Lucian walked toward the Iron Circle, his bloody hand still pressed to his temple. His thoughts drifted to Ophelia. Not as a problem to be solved. Not as an Omega to be managed.

He thought of her neck. The pale curve of it, exposed when she had tilted her head back in the private chamber. He thought of her scent, still clinging to his jacket. He imagined pressing his mouth to that spot, feeling her pulse leap beneath his tongue. He imagined her hands in his hair, her legs wrapped around his waist, her voice breaking as she said his name.

His body tightened.

He wanted her. He wanted her so badly it made him hate himself.

But he would not become Kaelan, he would not lose control.

He would summon Niverna tonight, bury himself in her warmth, and pretend she was someone else. Someone he could never have.

The Iron Circle loomed ahead, dark and empty.

Lucian stepped inside and closed the door behind him.