Bonds at War: The Untouched is Mine novel Chapter 380

380 The Golden Boy

JAXON

I watched her with quiet fascination. This little angel in front of me was so tempting to corrupt. She really was.

She sat there like she believed she could save the world with words. It was laughable. Yet the longer I stared, the less I wanted to laugh.

Luna Lincoln. The infamous human who’d somehow captured the cursed Alpha’s heart.

She didn’t look like much of a threat. Her skin was pale, and her hands were clenched against her sides. Her scent was faint but distinct. She was already carrying that bastard’s baby.

Abel’s heir. Abel’s salvation.

And I hated it.

It wasn’t too late, though.

We could still get rid of it.

I could erase every trace of him inside her.

I could already imagine what she would look like, heavy with my child instead, marked by my scent, my blood.

“You’re seriously asking me to step down?” I asked, breaking the silence. A smirk tugged at my lips before I even realized it. “You really are courageous.”

Her chin lifted a fraction, eyes flashing stubbornly.

“And you’re a coward,” she spat.

I leaned forward in my chair, elbows resting on the desk, hands clasped loosely together.

“How so?” I asked, genuinely curious. I wanted to see how far her courage went. I wanted to hear the version of me she’d built in1/4 that clever little mind of hers.

I tilted my head, watching her.

“Your parents gave you everything you have,” she continued, every word hitting its mark. “Your life is perfect. But you were never satisfied, because in the end, I knew that your concept of perfect can never be satisfied.”

A humorless laugh escaped me. “Go on,” I murmured, because there was something almost beautiful about the way she kept going.

“You are weak,” she said.

That one earned my full attention.

She leaned closer, breathing harder. I could hear her heartbeat thundering beneath her skin.

“You hide behind your big frame to hide your insecurities,” she said. “You go from one person to another, toying with them just so you could feel like you have a sense of control.”

The longer she spoke, the smaller the room began to feel.

“You lost everything once,” she went on, voice softening not with pity but with understanding. “When you tried to take away Arden, because she was your anchor after all. However, you wasted that, too.

Her words pulled something buried deep in me–something I didn’t like to touch. Memories flickered behind my eyes. I could vividly remember Arden’s eyes when she told me she would never love a man like me.

Luna’s voice dragged me back to the present.

“In that moment, you felt it,” she said. “You felt how everything was probably tied to your title. Isn’t it?”

She looked straight into my eyes.

I should have been furious.

I should have ripped her apart for even daring to speak my name in that tone. For digging her tiny, trembling hands into the wounds I’d buried under years of silence and pride.

But instead, I smiled.

Because for the first time in years, I felt understood.

I leaned back in my chair, studying her in a way I hadn’t studied anyone in a long time.

No one had ever spoken to me like this.

Not my parents.

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Not even Abel.

Luna saw the man beneath the monster and still dared to call me weak.

At that moment, more memories began to flood my mind.

It was my fifth birthday. The Trevane estate was filled with music and laughter. The banners of our bloodline hung from the balcony, declaring the future that was already written for me.

They called it a celebration, but it was more of a premature coronation. I was the heir. The golden son. The one who would carry the Trevane name to glory.

My babysitter was a kind woman–too kind, perhaps. I don’t remember her name anymore, only the scent of lavender that clung to her hands as she buttoned my vest and combed my hair into something that looked painfully proper.

She knelt to my level, her eyes soft.

“What is your wish, young master?” she asked.

It was the first time anyone had asked me that. I was always given everything before I could even think to want it. Wishes were for those who lacked, and I lacked nothing.

I looked at her and smirked. “I want you to act like a dog.”

Her eyes widened, horror washing over her features. She laughed nervously, thinking I was joking, but I didn’t laugh with her.

That was the first time I pushed something just to see how far they would go for me.

The room fell silent after that. I remember the way her hands froze, the brush still tangled in my hair. I remember the cold creeping into her eyes when she realized I wasn’t kidding.

I was five, and already they called me Alpha.

I was the True Alpha. The one destined to inherit the West. The golden son of the Trevanes. Everyone looked up to me, and rightfully so. That’s what they told me. That’s what I believed.

I tested it throughout the years..

When I went to high school, I made it a game. How far could I push before they broke? How long before they gave me what I wanted without question? I dated around, not because I cared, but because I wanted to see if anyone would dare say no.

None of my sitters ever made it far. None of the girls I dated lasted long, either. They all tried to please the Alpha. They all failed in the end. But what could they do? I was the heir, the chosen one, the untouchable.

Yet beneath the titles and the arrogance, I knew there was something hollow. A void that no praise or conquest could fill. Because deep down, I knew that everyone already saw me as the Alpha. It wasn’t something I had to earn–it was something I was born into.

And that was the problem.

3/4

I didn’t fight for my crown. I didn’t bleed for it. I simply existed, and the world bowed. That kind of perfection rots a man from the inside out.

The only thing that kept me from falling apart completely was the thought of taking the throne sooner. If I could just become Alpha, maybe the emptiness would stop echoing. Maybe the noise in my head would quiet down.

But then I met Arden.

She wasn’t like the others. She didn’t flinch when I walked by. She didn’t stutter when she spoke to me.

And for a moment, that emptiness vanished.

Suddenly, I had something else to chase. Someone who didn’t already belong to me. Someone who didn’t care that I was the golden son.

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