Bound to my Rival

Chapter Nine

I spent the next morning behaving exactly as I always had.

I had breakfast prepared before Adrian came downstairs, asked whether he wanted his usual coffee and listened while he complained about a council dispute that apparently required his attention. I even laughed when he made a joke about one of the older Alphas being impossible to negotiate with.

He seemed completely at ease.

That was useful.

Whatever Adrian was planning, he still believed I was safely outside of it. He thought of me as his wife first and the daughter of the late Alpha King second. He had never needed me to understand the details of council politics because he had always been the one handling them. As long as I continued playing the woman who trusted him with everything, there was no reason for him to change the way he treated me.

So I gave him exactly what he expected.

When he left, I waited until his car disappeared from the driveway before going upstairs. The original family archives were kept in a locked room that had belonged to my father. I had rarely entered it after his death. Adrian had encouraged me to leave those matters to him, and for years I had considered that a kindness rather than a warning.

Now I understood how convenient my ignorance had been.

The key was still where my father had always kept it, inside an old wooden box in the back of his desk. My hands shook slightly as I unlocked the archive room and stepped inside.

The shelves were crowded with records dating back decades. Territory agreements, succession documents, council decisions, financial charters and old treaties filled the cabinets. Dust covered the corners, but everything had been carefully organized.

It took me nearly an hour to find what I needed.

The original eastern territory agreement was tucked between two older succession documents. I opened it carefully and read every page.

My father’s seal was at the bottom.

So was mine.

The agreement was clear. The eastern territory could not be transferred, sold or placed under another Alpha’s authority without my direct approval as the sole hereditary heir.

Adrian could not legally do what he had been preparing to do.

My relief lasted only a few seconds.

Because if he knew that, then the forged transfer wasn’t an attempt to make the sale happen immediately. It was evidence of something more deliberate. He was preparing a false legal trail that could eventually make it appear as though I had willingly surrendered the territory.

I photographed every page with my phone before returning the agreement exactly where I had found it.

Then I noticed something tucked behind the original document.

A thin envelope.

My father’s handwriting was on the front.

I stared at my name for several seconds before opening it.

Inside was a single page.

Elara, if you are reading this, then something has gone wrong. Remember what I told you. Your greatest weakness will never be the people who oppose you. It will be the person you trust enough to stop protecting yourself from.

I read the words twice.

Then I folded the letter and slipped it into my pocket.

For years, I had believed my father’s warning was about strangers who might want our family’s power. I was beginning to understand that he had been warning me about something much closer.

That evening, Adrian came home earlier than expected.

I was sitting in the bedroom when he walked in, loosening his tie as he crossed the room. His expression softened when he saw me.

“You’re quiet tonight.”

“I’ve had a lot on my mind.”

He came closer. “Is something wrong?”

I looked up at him and smiled.

“No. I missed you.”

The lie came easily now.

He sat beside me and reached for my hand. I let him pull me closer, resting against his chest as his fingers moved gently through my hair.

For a brief moment, the familiarity of it almost hurt more than the betrayal.

This was the man I had once trusted without hesitation. The same man who had held me when I cried after my father’s death, who had promised that I would never have to carry everything alone. If I closed my eyes, I could almost remember what it felt like to believe him.

I opened them again.

Adrian kissed my forehead.

“You’ve been distant lately.”

I lifted my face toward his. “Have I?”

“A little.”

I smiled and brushed my fingers along his collar.

“Then maybe I should make it up to you.”

The change in his expression was immediate.

He kissed me again, slower this time, and I allowed myself to respond. His hands settled around my waist as he drew me closer, and I let the moment become intimate enough to satisfy the husband who still believed he possessed my complete trust.

His lips moved from mine to my cheek, then along my jaw, while I held onto his shoulders. He traced a path down my neck, his mouth warm against my skin, and I felt him harden against me as I pressed closer.

I knew exactly what he expected from me.

Affection. Reassurance. The familiar softness of the wife who had always made him feel secure.

So I gave it to him.

When he carried me toward the bed, I didn't resist. I kissed him again and let my fingers curl into his shirt, listening as his breathing changed and feeling the warmth of his body against mine. He laid me down and moved between my legs, his c**k already straining against his trousers. I reached down and freed him, stroking him deliberately as he groaned into my neck. His attention was completely on me, and for the first time, I understood how dangerous that could be.

He pushed inside me with a low moan, and I wrapped my legs around him, meeting his thrusts with practiced precision. My body responded to him the way it always did—muscle memory and years of marriage—while my mind remained perfectly clear and detached. I arched my back when he expected it, gasped his name when he needed to hear it, and felt him drive deeper, faster, his hands gripping my hips as he lost himself in the rhythm.

He didn't see the woman sitting across from him at breakfast that morning.

He didn't know she had entered her father's archive.

He didn't know she had found the original agreement.

He didn't know I now had proof that his plans for my territory could never have been legitimate.

And most importantly, he had no idea that the woman beneath him, the one meeting his thrusts and crying out his name, was performing every second of it.

He finished with a final deep thrust, his body tensing as he came inside me, and I held him close, stroking his back as if I felt nothing but devotion.

Afterward, Adrian lay beside me with his arm around my waist, his breathing slow and content, his softening c**k still resting against my thigh.

"I've missed this," he murmured.

I turned my face toward him and gave him the smile he wanted.

"So have I."

He kissed my shoulder before closing his eyes.

I waited until his breathing deepened before carefully slipping from the bed.

In the bathroom, I locked the door and leaned against it for a moment, staring at my reflection.

My cheeks were flushed. My hair was tangled from his hands. To anyone looking at me, I would still appear to be his wife.

That was exactly what I needed.

I washed my face, returned to bed and settled beside him without waking him. Adrian shifted closer in his sleep, completely unaware of what had happened beneath the surface of the evening.

My father’s letter pressed against my skin beneath my nightclothes.

I reached beneath the pillow and touched my phone.

There was one photograph on the screen.

The original territory agreement.

Tomorrow, I would find out exactly who had prepared the forged version and why Darius was involved.

Because Adrian thought he was still holding the reins of my life.

I was going to let him believe that for as long as it took.