Housebound with the Blackridge Heirs novel Chapter 78

Chapter 78

Maya

The clearing went still, so still I felt my pulse echo in my fingertips.

The man stepped closer, slow and unhurried, like he knew none of us could touch him even if we tried.

His eyes were a startling gray… colder and somehow sharper than Tylon’s, and when they landed on me again, something inside my ribcage twisted in a way that didn’t make sense.

Caden moved first.

He shifted his stance, stepping in front of me so fast the wind stirred around us.

“Take one more step toward her,” he said quietly, “and I’ll rip your throat out before you finish your next breath.”

Tylon mirrored him on the other side, blade already drawn and shoulders tensed as his gaze locked onto the stranger with murderous precision.

Leo didn’t speak. He didn’t need to. A low growl rumbled from him in warning… the kind that lived too deep to be human.

The stranger smiled wider, amused. “Protective. All of you.”

His

gaze flicked over each of them before returning to me, warm in a way that made my stomach twist.

I took a step back on instinct.

“Who are you?” I asked. “How do you know my name?”

He lifted his brows, almost disappointed. “You don’t recognize me?”

“No,” I whispered.

“You will,” he said softly. “Soon.”

Caden’s growl was instant. “She asked who

you

are.”

The stranger ignored him completely.

“My name is Rohan,” he said, bowing slightly as if we were meeting at a formal event instead of a creepy grove filled with rogue wolves. “Alpha heir of the Ashfall bloodline… what you lot call the rogues. Leader of the Black Ordinance. And…” His eyes held mine. “Something much more important to you.”

A cold ripple rolled down my spine. So they weren’t just rogues. The men suspected it, but now it’s confirmed. It seemed like they were some unsolicited wolf pack.

“I don’t know you,” I said. “And I don’t want to.”

He laughed, a quiet, delighted sound. “Oh, but I know you. I’ve known you long before you stepped into this grove. I’ve watched you navigate your fate with such… stubborn innocence.”

Caden moved again, teeth flashing. “One more word to her and-”

Rohan held up a lazy hand. “I truly don’t care to speak with you, Nightshade. This conversation has very little to do with you. Unfortunately.” He paused, eyes gleaming with mischief. “Though it does involve your mate.”

Caden stiffened.

Tylon’s attention sharpened instantly, and Leo’s growl deepened.

My throat tightened. “What do you want with me?”

“The same thing they want,” he said easily. “You.”

Caden snapped, and I felt the rage turn a deep, bloody red in our bond.

“Like hell!” he spat. “She’s mated. She’s mine.”

Rohan’s smile turned slow and indulgent. “Is she?”

A sick heat crawled through my stomach.

“Yes,” I said quickly, stepping forward. “We are.”

Rohan tilted his head, studying me like I was the punchline to a joke only he understood. “And you believe choosing is enough to rewrite fate?”

Caden snarled, “Stop talking in riddles-”

“You only have one mate,” Rohan continued calmly, eyes still on me. “Is that what they told you?”

My heart slammed painfully once.

“Yes,” I said firmly. “That’s how it works.”

Rohan exhaled through his nose, almost sympathetically. “Poor girl.”

My breath hitched. “What does that mean?”.

“It means you didn’t tell him,” Rohan said gently. “Because you haven’t admitted it yet. Not to him… not to yourself.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Don’t you?” His eyes softened almost affectionately. “You feel the pull every day. You feel the split. You feel the truth scratching under your skin. But you keep pretending it’s only one voice calling your name.”

My chest tightened painfully.

“She feels nothing but me,” Caden snapped. “She has one mate. One. So cut the shit.”

Rohan laughed then with a warmth that felt far more dangerous than humor.

“Oh, Caden,” he said, shaking his head, “you really don’t know.”

His gaze shifted… to Tylon.

Tylon didn’t move. Not even a blink. Not a breath. But something in his eyes-something fierce, something ancient-shifted like a secret rattling loose.

Rohan smiled knowingly. “But you do, don’t you, Blackridge?”

Tylon’s jaw tightened.

That was his only reaction.

But it was enough. Something inside me stirred in recognition. Familiar, wrong and right.

Rohan turned, eyes settling on Leo last.

“And you’re the one who refuses it,” he murmured. “You feel the bond stirring too… but you’re too afraid to embrace what it means.”

Leo didn’t answer, but the pain in his eyes was enough to make my heart drop.

I knew Tylon said it, and I didn’t know what it meant. But Leo?

Before I could give it more thought, Caden’s roar shook the clearing.

“What the hell are you talking about!”

Rohan sighed dramatically. “All this anger… all this denial. Pathetic.” His gaze flicked back to me. “She was never meant to belong to only one of you. She was meant to lead you. To command you. To choose you as you choose her.”

Caden took a step forward, shaking with fury. “You’re lying. She is mine.”

“Mine,” Rohan corrected softly, and the word turned my blood cold.

Caden lunged before I even processed the motion, but Tylon caught his arm, yanking him back.

Rohan didn’t flinch. He didn’t even blink.

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