My Alpha Stepbrother is My Bully (Nevaeh) novel Chapter 129

Chapter 129

Camden

Eli steps toward me-not with the liquid grace of a predator stalking prey, but like gravity itself bends toward me now. Her fingers twitch at her sides as smoke curls from them-Julius’ stolen magic roiling under her skin. Our bond thrums not with warmth but a jagged current that scrapes raw against my ribs.

Come closer, it hums-a command not mine nor hers-it comes from something that’s still stabilizing, still being created. It’s as if Eli’s new hybrid form first weakened our mate bond, but now, it’s coming alive again- stronger.

“Eli,” I rasp, holding my human palms open between us even as every instinct howls to shift and defend myself from whatever she’s become.

The mate bond isn’t there to protect me. Not yet. It needs time and the vampire side of Eli knows this. It’s hungry and coming for me, probably to kill me before the bond can remind her of who I am.

Her pupils swallow the red and brown of her irises until her gaze is pure void edged in black. The vampire within her definitely doesn’t want me.

It’s proven by her running towards me faster than I can track-a vampire’s speed threaded through with lupine muscle-and then she grips my jaw hard enough to bruise bone.

“You smell like mine,” she murmurs against my throat, words distorted as her canines lengthen further than any vampire’s should-than any wolf’s can.

I could push her away-I have the strength of an Alpha, but I don’t want to hurt her. I can’t. My only weapon is the mate bond, and so when her teeth pierce my shoulder, it’s not pain that floods me through our fractured bond.

It’s grief.

Not hers-mine.

She flinches back as if scalded, blood streaking down her chin like war paint. Her lips part, trembling as she tries to make sense of what she is feeling through the bond.

I calmly stare down at her. “You calming down yet?”

She blinks as though my voice is enough to wake her up from her vampiric hunger, “Cam…?” Her voice is soft and uncertain as if she’s worried I might consider her a monstrosity.

I don’t. I can’t. She is mine, regardless of her shape or form.

Her breath hitches as recognition flickers in her eyes-swirling hues of brown smothering the crimson flare- and for half a heartbeat, I see her again. The woman who carved laughter into my ribs like armor. But then static claws at our bond once more as smoke seeps from her pores like ink in water. Her fingers dig into my arms hard enough to draw blood this time.

“It’s too much,” she gashes out between gritted teeth. “Cam….I can’t hold-”

A low growl rips free from my chest as I grip her waist and yank her against me. There’s no strategy here except instinct as old as moonlight as I bury my face in her hair where sweat and ash cling like phantom hands. Her skin pulses hot then cold beneath my palms-wolf, and vampire warring for dominance inside flesh not meant to cage both.

“You hold it by letting go,” I snarl into her ear before sinking my teeth into my own wrist until iron floods my tongue a gamble worse than facing Julius unarmed-but when I press bleeding flesh to her lips and feel her hesitantly drink away I know I’ve made the right decision.

Eli needs to accept her vampire side, and her vampire side needs to know I trust it. My blood is hers to drink. And its rewards. I can almost hear her vampire blood whispering through the bond that I’ve become her anchor in the storm-the only reason she won’t lose control.

That same blood then snarls MINE loud enough for me to know her vampiric side has decided I’m worthy of it, Successfully unlocked!

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Chapter 129

and that’s when the mate bond stabilizes. Eli is mine again.

After she is done drinking, I lift my hand and mess up her hair before turning around. The few pack members that came here with me are all dead from the magic Eli unleashed. Their bones are the only thing left of them.

That’s some scary magic right there…

I turn my head when I feel Eli tugging my arm. “Cam… I did something bad…”

“You didn’t mean to kill them. Don’t overthink it.”

“…they aren’t the only people I killed.”

“No?”

“No…there wasn’t a scientist. He… He was the first one to die when I turned. I…I don’t even think he was a bad person, but my vampire side didn’t like him.”

Her confession hangs between us like a blade waiting to drop. I don’t flinch-not even as the scent of scorched earth and blood thickens in my throat. Her fingers tighten around my arm, claws retracted but trembling, as if she expects me to recoil now that she’s whispered her truth into the open air.

“You think I care about a scientist?” My voice is rougher than I mean it to be, but too much gentleness might break whatever grip she has left on herself. “Or anyone else?”

She stares at me, unblinking, smoke still coiling faintly from her shoulders-a residue of whatever dark magic burned through her when she lost control. The void-black of her eyes flickers back to fractured hues of amber and red. A dangerous seesaw between predator and penitent.

“They’re still dead,” she whispers hoarsely. “Because of me.”

I step closer until our shadows merge into something jagged and monstrous on the ground behind her. “And how many would’ve died if Julius had his way? If you hadn’t ripped him apart?” My lips curl just enough to bare teeth-not a threat but a reminder that neither of us gets to tally sins without counting survival first.

She flinches at his name. Julius’s shadow still clings to her, even in death-the vampire lord who turned her against her will still haunts her veins like poison. Her breath stutters as crimson resurges in her gaze, but before it can swallow her whole again, my palm slams against her chest, where the mate bond thrums like a war drum under scorched skin.

“You kill so the pack survives,” I grind out, feeling the uneven gallop of her heart beneath my hand, “and sometimes that means losing a few pack members. but that’s the deal now, Luna Elmyra. The pack warriors knew what they signed up for, and they will be buried.”

“B-but it was me-”

“Shh,” I place my finger against her lip, my eyes serious as sin as I stare down at her. “It wasn’t your fault and nobody will know. This is our secret now, however dark it may be we won’t tell anyone.”

Old Eli would never accept this, but hybrid Eli has a darker side and although she would never wish for death I can see that keeping this a secret causes her relief.

“Okay, Cam,” she whispers. “I trust you.”

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