Bound To The Broken Alpha (Amy and Daniel) novel Chapter 374

Chapter 374 Settlement

CLARA

Finished

I agreed to meet Selene because refusing would have been worse. She didn’t frame it as a request. She never did.

The message was brief, precise, and timed to make it clear she already knew where I would be. Southern- controlled territory, wrapped in glass, steel, and corporate branding.

A place that pretended neutrality while reminding everyone who owned the ground underneath.

I arrived early. Not because I was eager, but because arriving late would have looked careless. I reviewed the lies I was prepared to tell, not word for word, but by shape. I needed them to be flexible. Selene didn’t listen for statements. She listened for gaps.

She came in without apology, dressed like she was stepping into a board meeting rather than a private confrontation. She didn’t hug me.

She didn’t smile. She sat across from me and placed her phone on the table, screen down, like she wanted me to notice she wasn’t recording. Or like she wanted me to wonder if she already had.

“You look settled,” she said. “That’s new.”

“I’ve been busy,” I replied. It was true enough.

She studied me for a moment, not my face exactly, but the way I held myself. Selene always looked for changes first. She leaned back slightly.

“Elias doesn’t trust easily,” she said. “So tell me how you managed that.”

I kept my expression neutral. “I didn’t manage anything. He needed someone.”

“That’s not an answer.”

“It’s the only one you’re getting.”

She nodded, like she had expected that. Then she shifted.

“Amy,” Selene said casually. “She was unreachable for months. Suddenly, she’s not. Interesting timing.”

I said nothing. Silence annoyed Selene more than denial.

“And Mark,” she continued. “Being positioned as a bridge. That one surprised me. He’s always been emotional. Sloppy. Not Elias’s style.”

“You’re making assumptions,” I said.

She smiled faintly. “No. I’m confirming patterns.”

dub

That was when I knew this meeting wasn’t about discovery. Selene already had her conclusions. This was about pressure. About seeing how I reacted when she laid everything out without naming it directly.

36 pm P WH

Chapter 374 Settlement

Finished

She leaned forward. “You’re standing too close to too many moving parts. That wally means someone thinks you’re disposable”

I met her gaze. “You didn’t ask me here to warn the

“No,” she said. “I asked you here to see if you knew

There it was. The part she always enjoyed. Watching realization settle.

She brought up our father next. Not his name, just the idea of him. The way he divided his attention. The way he decided who mattered and who didn’t. Selene spoke without bitterness, which somehow made it

worse.

“You were never meant to be here,” she said. “Not in this position. Not this visible. You were supposed to stay small”

“I didn’t choose where I was born.” I said.

“No,” she replied. “But you keep choosing where you stand.”

I didn’t rase my voice. I never did with her. “I’m standing because I’m useful.”

“That’s the problem,” Selene said. “Usefulness expires.”

She paused, letting that settle before delivering what she really came to say.

“When this collapses,” she said, “the Southern Alpha won’t protect you.”

I didn’t react. I didn’t allow myself to.

“You were never meant to survive the endgame,” she continued. “You were chosen because you’re close enough to burn convincingly. Close enough to take the blame.”

“That’s your theory,” I said.

She shook her head slightly. “That’s the plan.”

For a brief moment, I wondered if she was lying to destabilize me. Selene enjoyed control. Fear was one of her tools. But this didn’t feel like manipulation. It felt like confirmation of something I’d been avoiding

She stood, signaling the meeting was over. “You’re smarter than this, Clara. Don’t mistake attention for protection.”

I remained seated until she left. Only then did I allow myself to process what she’d said. I replayer the last few months, Elias’s instructions, the way responsibility kept funneling toward me while authority stayed just out of reach.

By the time I left the building, my face was calm. Anyone watching would have seen confidence, beside, doubt had already taken root

I told myself Selene could be wrong. She had her own motives. She always did. But I couldn’t ignore the logic. Elias positioned people like chess pieces. And I had moved forward too casily

9:36 pm P W M

Chapter 374 Settlement

Finished

If I continued following him blindly, I wouldn’t just be complicit. It would be convenient. When things. went wrong, they wouldn’t look for the mastermind. They would look for the closest visible hand.

And that hand would be mine.

By the time I reached my car, I understood one thing clearly. Survival meant more than obedience now. It meant shifting the board itself.

I didn’t drive away right away. I sat there longer than necessary, hands resting on the steering wheel, eyes forward.

I needed the space to think without performing for anyone. Selene’s words stayed with me because they fit too well with what I’d already seen but refused to name.

Elias hadn’t threatened me. He didn’t need to. He gave instructions, not reassurance. Each task came with more exposure and less cover.

I had told myself that meant trust. Now I wasn’t so sure. Trust shared weight. What he gave me was risk.

I thought about Amy. About how she had never directly confronted me, never asked questions the way Selene had.

Amy watched instead. Left room for mistakes. That was worse. It meant she might already know more than she let on and was choosing not to act yet.

Mark, too, had changed. Not in distance, but in attention. He listened more carefully now. Asked fewer follow–up questions. That kind of restraint didn’t come from ignorance. It came from awareness.

I realized something then that made my chest tighten, not with panic, but with clarity. Everyone around me was adapting. Everyone except me. I had been reacting, not shaping outcomes. That was dangerous.

Selene hadn’t offered help. She hadn’t asked for loyalty. That was deliberate. She wanted me unsettled, yes, but she also wanted me aware. Because awareness forced choice. And choice created fractures.

By the time I finally started the car, I understood there was no safe alignment left. Not with Elias. Not with Amy. Not even with Selene. Each path ended with someone deciding my value had run out.

The only option left was to stop being a piece others moved without resistance.

I didn’t know yet how I would do that. I only knew this: the next mistake could not be accidental. If I was going to fall, it wouldn’t be quietly, and it wouldn’t be alone.

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