Claimed By My Husband's Enemy novel Chapter 176

Chapter 176

(Aidan)

No. Not again.

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I had already lost her once. I would not survive another loss. If I were to lose Ari for the second time, it would destroy me. As soon as I received the report from Bradley’s assistant, I summoned a royal mage to send me to his mansion as soon as possible.

I wanted to kill him. I wanted to tear him piece by piece. But that could wait.

Our mate would always come first before my desires, before anyone, before anything else in this world.

I caught Bradley in his room, feeding Ari his blood only for her to end up vomiting it. She was unconscious. I pushed him off her. He landed onto the marbled floor.

“Stop it! Can’t you see that she does not want your blood?”

His dragon roared. “What do you want me to do then? Let her die? I gathered the healers and none of them helped!”

Instead of answering, I took Ari in my arms and tried opening her mouth before biting my palm and letting my blood pour down her throat as I called and prayed to all the gods and goddesses that she took it, that her system would not reject it.

I did not believe in gods. I stopped when I was young. But I was willing to believe in anyone and anything if it meant it would help her, if it meant they would revive her. I would even offer my life to the deities above.

I leaned closer and whispered to her ear. “I told you I can’t live without you. Come back to me, Ari. Please? Don’t leave me again. Don’t break me again like this.”

Five seconds passed by. Ten. Fifteen. The whole time, my heart was on edge. And then it turned into a full minute. She did not reject my blood. This time, I could do something for her. I could revive her.

A grateful smile lit my face as I pressed my forehead against hers. “Thank you, love.”

“Even in her sleep, Ari is rejecting my help,” Bradley whispered, looking both relieved and miserable. “She is rejecting me.”

I glared at him while feeding more of my blood to my mate. “Why wouldn’t she?”

If only I was not holding Ari, Bradley would not be standing right now. He would be on the floor, drowning in his misery and his own blood. I would have offered his crumbling body at Ari’s feet. I would gladly forget our years of friendship and pummel his bones.

If he could not take care of our mate, the least he could do was not hurt her.

Was it that hard that a professor like him kept failing to do it?

“Have you known all along?” He took my silence as yes. His voice was barely audible when he added, “Why… didn’t you tell

me?”

My eyes swept over him. He looked away upon seeing the accusation in my face. I was wrong to believe that I only needed to hunt Ari’s abusers, that I only needed to protect her from them. I had no idea that I also had to protect her from my friend. from my bond brother, and from her own mate.

“Why? Do you think you are worthy of the truth? Did you ever try to get to know her? When I wanted to talk to you about Ari, what did you do? You turned your back on me, Bradley. Ari was right, you know. You don’t deserve to know anything

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Chapter 176

about her.”

He ran his fingers over his muddled hair. “I thought her father was August-“

“That was all you cared about?”

“But Sienna-”

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“Who gives a damn about Sienna?!” My chest rose and fell from too much rage inside me. “Certainly not me. And not you too! You did not even love the woman, Bradley!”

“You don’t know that!”

“But I do! You didn’t look like this when you lost her. I met Ari when we were young. I’ve been with her and I lost her. That’s why I know love, Bradley. And what you looked like back then? That wasn’t it. What you felt was just you being a dragon, a damn hoarder. You treated your ex like a part of your hoard that you didn’t want to let go. She must have felt that. That must have been why’she left.”

Bradley looked stunned. I took a long look at my friend. There were dark circles under his eyes. He had not been sleeping well. His wings were not as shiny as before. It was clear that he and his beast were suffering from being away from his mate.

But he would not admit that. He was one stubborn and arrogant son of a gun.

Bradley spent most of his life in the dragon realm. For many decades, he lived as a dragon, as a supernatural being who believed that their race was superior to anyone. Dragons did not let their hearts rule over them. Either they were too egocentric for that, or they had not met their match yet. I heard that he and Sienna were childhood friends. She loved him. I saw it in their wedding photo.

He did not.

Bradley did not have the same light in his eyes. I did my own digging and learned that the poor woman found someone who could love her back in the form of August Gray. But since their race belonged to greedy bastards, that was probably the reason why it was difficult for Bradley to let her and her memories go, why he could not accept that his possession was taken away from him, and why he still harbored this much resentment in his heart.

I glanced around and smiled bitterly. He did not even realize that this was my first time in his place. Dragons kept things to themselves, especially their hoard. The prettier the hoard, the more they refused to let anyone see it.

And this mansion held all of his hoard. Even Sebastian and I had not been here before. He never invited us in. We also did not know where his place was. Had it not been for the access spell that he gave the mage a while ago, we would not have reached this place.

Like many of the dragons, his house was located on top of the mountain. This was also not the one he lived in with his ex Today was his first time bringing someone here. And of all people, he brought Ari. He could have brought her to the

treatment room for the instructors in BMB.

But no, he brought her here.

He flew her here with his dragon.

That itself spoke volumes.

“Take a look in the mirror, Bradley. There, you will see the same look I had when I lost Ari many years ago.”

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