RUTHLESSLY MINE

Bloodlines and Betrayals

HELLO LOVELIES!!! ✨🤍 HAPPY MID-WEEK🤌🏼

I don’t even know how to warn you about this chapter.

Everything you thought you understood?

Shift it.

Everything you thought was truth?

Question it.

Because now… both sides of Aara’s past have shown up in the same room, and trust me, that’s not a coincidence, also the bond between Aara and Arjun? It’s about to get dangerously intense.

Let’s go.

Phase – I

★★★

AARA

Arjun’s Safehouse 2:19 AM

For a moment, I couldn’t breathe not because of the smoke filling the room, not because of the dozens of armed men surrounding us, but because of her.

My mother was standing there like she had never died.

Like the last eight years of grief, confusion, and emptiness inside me had meant absolutely nothing.

Her hair was longer than I remembered.

Darker. Her face was sharper, there was something colder in her eyes too, something unfamiliar, but it was still her. It had to be.

“Mum…?”

The word slipped out before I could stop it. She didn’t smile, didn’t run to me, she didn’t even look emotional.

Instead, her gaze moved quickly around the room assessing, calculating.

Danger first feelings later I guess.

“Aara,” she said, her voice steady, “come here.”

That was it. No apology, no explanation, just an order.

Something inside me cracked slightly. “I’m not moving,” I said.

Her eyes snapped back to mine and for a split second, something flickered there.

Annoyance.

Then it disappeared. “We don’t have time for this.”

I laughed softly, but it sounded wrong even to my own ears. “Time? You disappeared for eight years and now you’re worried about time?”

Behind me, I felt Arjun step closer.

Not touching me, but close enough that I could feel the heat from his body.

A silent presence, a shield. My mother noticed.

Her gaze shifted to him.

“So this is the one.”

Arjun didn’t respond immediately, but I felt the tension in him from the way his body went slightly rigid.

“You don’t get to talk about me like I’m not standing here,” I snapped.

She ignored that. “Arjun Rathore.”

He finally spoke. “And you’re supposed to be dead.”

“Clearly not.”

“Clearly.”

Their eyes locked and something passed between them. It's Recognition or maybe history.

Not personal but inherited. Family wars echoing through generations.

My father suddenly spoke from the side. “You shouldn’t have come here.”

My mother didn’t even look at him. “I didn’t come for you.”

That stung more than it should have. “You came for her,” he said.

“Yes.”

“And then what?”

Her answer came calmly.

“We leave.”

“Not happening,” Arjun said instantly.

The temperature in the room dropped. My mother finally turned her full attention to him.

“You don’t have a choice.”

“I always have a choice.”

“Not this time.”

Arjun’s lips curved slightly.

“Try me.”

And just like that, it became something else.

Not just tension but a challenge. A quiet war between two people who understood power too well. Raghav, of course, decided to ruin the moment.

“Wow. This is getting dramatic. Family reunion and power struggle all in one night. Should I grab popcorn?”

“Not helping,” Arjun muttered.

“Never do,” Raghav replied cheerfully.

I ignored both of them, my focus was still on her.

“You owe me an explanation.”

She looked at me again.

“You’ll get one. Not here.”

“No,” I said firmly. “Now.”

Gunfire echoed faintly outside. Another explosion somewhere in the distance.

The war hadn’t stopped, it was getting closer.

Still, I didn’t move I also didn’t break eye contact.

“Start talking,” I said.

For a moment, I thought she would refuse, then she exhaled slowly.

“Fine.”

She stepped forward slightly and the men behind her shifted with her.

Disciplined and well-trained. Not random soldiers.

Her soldiers.

“Eight years ago,” she began, “your father and I found something we weren’t supposed to.”

My father scoffed.

“You mean you stole something.”

She ignored him.

“Aara, do you remember the old house in Jaipur?”

I blinked.

“Yes.”

“The study room?”

“Yes.”

“There was a hidden compartment behind the bookshelf.”

My heart skipped.

“I thought that was just… storage.”

“It wasn’t.”

She held my gaze.

“That’s where the first half of the key was hidden.”

Silence filled the room again. Arjun’s voice cut through it.

“The vault key.”

“Yes.”

Raghav leaned forward slightly. “And you just… found it by accident?”

My mother’s lips curved faintly.

“Nothing about that discovery was accidental.”

My father stepped forward.

“That’s a lie.”

“No,” she said calmly. “You just didn’t understand what we had found.”

Their eyes clashed. Old arguments, old resentment, still very much alive, I stepped between them slightly.

“Stop. Both of you.”

They didn’t Of course, they didn’t.

“You wanted to sell it,” my father snapped.

“And you wanted to hide it forever,” she shot back.

“Because it’s dangerous!”

“Because you were afraid!”

“I was being smart!”

“You were being weak!”

“Enough!” I shouted.

Finally, Silence. Both of them looked at me, and for the first time since they walked into this room… I felt like I was in control.

“Explain it properly,” I said. “No more half stories.”

My mother studied me for a second.

Then nodded. “The key we found wasn’t complete,” she said. “It needed two bloodlines to activate.”

“The Rathores and…” I started.

“And us,” she finished.

My stomach tightened.

“So you knew… all this time?”

“Yes.”

“And you didn’t tell me?”

“You were a child.”

“I’m not a child anymore.”

“No,” she agreed quietly. “You’re not.”

Something in her tone shifted slightly, not softer, but acknowledging.

Then she continued. “The night of the accident, everything went wrong.”

My chest tightened. “You were supposed to stay home.”

“I didn’t.”

“No.”

My father spoke again.

“She followed me.”

“I was worried!” I snapped.

“You should have stayed out of it.”

“Well I didn’t!”

Silence again. Then my mother said something that made my blood run cold.

“That accident wasn’t an accident.”

My heart skipped.

“What?”

Arjun’s eyes sharpened.

“Explain.”

She looked at him briefly.

“Your family found out.”

Raghav frowned.

“How?”

“You tell me,” she said. That shut him up, then she continued.

“They sent someone to intercept us that night.”

My mind spun.

“Intercept?”

“Kill,” my father corrected. My chest tightened painfully.

“So… the crash…”

“Was meant to happen,” my mother said.

“And the person driving the other car?” I asked.

“Rathore operative.”

Arjun’s jaw clenched. “I never ordered that.”

“You wouldn’t have,” she said calmly.

“Then who did?”

She held his gaze. “Your mother.”

Silence exploded inside the room, Raghav muttered under his breath.

“Well… that tracks.”

Arjun didn’t react immediately but I saw it.

The shift, the anger, and the realization.

“She wanted the key,” he said quietly.

“Yes.”

“And killing them was easier than negotiating.”

“Yes.”

My stomach twisted violently. “So… I almost died because of that?”

My father shook his head.

“No.”

“What do you mean?”

He looked at me.

“You weren’t supposed to be in that car.”

The words hit differently. Worse. “So I survived by accident.”

“Yes.”

My chest felt tight again, too tight, everything felt too heavy.

Too much and yet… One question still burned in my mind.

“Then why did you both fake your deaths?”

My mother answered this time. “Because once they realized you survived…”

Pause. “…you became the most valuable piece on the board.”

A chill ran down my spine. “And the safest way to protect you…”

“Was to disappear,” I finished.

“Yes.”

I laughed softly.

“Protect me?”

“Yes.”

“You left me alone for eight years.”

Her expression didn’t change.

“You were safer that way.”

“I was alone!”

“You were alive.”

The words hit hard. Cold logic, it was brutal but not wrong and I hated that, before I could respond Arjun suddenly moved fast.

His hand grabbed my wrist, and he then pulled me slightly toward him.

That was protective and possessive.

My breath caught.

“Aara,” he said quietly, his voice low near my ear, “we’re leaving.”

“What?”

“Now.”

“Why?”

He didn’t answer immediately, instead his gaze shifted toward the far wall.

Then toward the ceiling, then back to my mother. “You didn’t come alone.”

She smiled faintly.

“No.”

“Who else is here?”

Her answer came softly.

“The real owners of the vault.”

The ground beneath us suddenly shook, a deep rumble, like something massive had just moved underground. Everyone froze.

Raghav looked around.

“Okay… I officially don’t like that sound.”

Another rumble, closer this time.

Cracks started forming along the floor and my heart started racing. “What is happening?”

My mother’s voice came out calm. “They’ve arrived.”

“Who?” I asked.

But before she could answer, the floor beneath the center of the room split open, the concrete shattered. Dust exploded upward l, and from the darkness below, figures began climbing up all dressed in black with their faces covered. Weapons unlike anything I had seen before.

Silent.

Precise.

Deadly.

Arjun’s grip on my wrist tightened and for the first time since I met him… I saw something dangerous in his eyes.

Not fear.

Not panic.

But something close to recognition.

“They’re not mercenaries,” he said quietly.

“Then what are they?” I whispered.

My mother answered. “The Keepers.”

The name echoed in the room. Raghav blinked.

“I was really hoping that was just a myth.”

One of the masked figures stepped forward.

Slow.

Controlled.

Their gaze moved across everyone in the room then stopped on me, my heart slammed against my ribs.

And when they spoke… Their voice was distorted, mechanical.

Cold.

“Bloodline confirmed.”

Arjun pulled me closer.

“Don’t move.”

Too late because the next words changed everything.“Secondary key located.

Pause.

“Initiating retrieval.

Every single masked figure raised their weapons at the same time, not at Arjun, not at my parents but At me and Arjun stepped directly in front of me. Gun raised.

Eyes deadly. “Over my dead body.”

The leader tilted their head slightly then said something that made my blood freeze.

“That can be arranged.”