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CHAPTER 61: The House That Ran
publish date:
2026-04-12 23:46:10
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BOUGHT BY THE BEAST CHAPTER 61: The House That Ran
The name hits me before Ezra finishes his sentence."Which house?" Caspian asks, already moving, already the King rather than the man who was holding me thirty seconds ago.Ezra pushes the door open without being invited, which tells me everything about how seriously he is taking this, and stands in the doorway with a face that has not slept and does not intend to. "House Maren," he says. "Lord Aldric's people confirmed the departure at the eastern gate checkpoint around the third hour. The gate guards logged it as a pre-approved trade delegation, but when I cross-referenced the exit roster against the approved departures list this morning, no such approval exists."Aldric. Who sat in that Council chamber yesterday and called the genealogical investigation political suicide with the practiced ease of someone who had already decided it was a line he would not cross. Who protested noble house dignity so forcefully that I had noted it and filed it under suspicion but had not yet acted on
BOUGHT BY THE BEAST CHAPTER 60: No More Thinking Tonight
The documents are still spread across the table when I wake before dawn, and for a long moment I lie still in the darkness listening to Caspian breathe and trying to convince myself that the cabin he described last night is real, that it exists somewhere beyond the Council chambers and breeding charts and the image of Keira's smile dissolving into smoke and falling stone.It does not work. My brain is already cataloguing threats before I am fully conscious, sorting through genealogical patterns and prototype capabilities and the particular expression on Lady Lyra's face when Ezra described the hybrid warriors, the way her eyes had gone not shocked but calculating, the way she had asked her question about civil war a little too smoothly, like someone who had already considered the answer."You are thinking so loudly I can feel it through the bond," Caspian says without opening his eyes."Lyra," I say. "Something was off about her yesterday and I cannot stop turning it over."He opens h
BOUGHT BY THE BEAST CHAPTER 59: Council Revelations
The Council chamber felt different three days after our return from Blackstone Keep.Colder somehow, or maybe that was just my paranoia talking after everything we had discovered about Shadow Court infiltration and bloodline manipulation.I sat in my white stone throne beside Caspian's obsidian one, watching the Council members file in with new suspicion coloring my perception of each familiar face.Seraphine took her seat with the same ice-blue calm she always projected, but now I wondered whether her ancient age and intimate knowledge of First Moon history made her complicit in Shadow Court schemes or simply aware of them.Lady Isolde arranged her skirts with meticulous precision that could be nervous habit or could be calculated performance, while the remaining Council members settled into their chairs with varying degrees of interest and concern."This session is called to brief the Council on discoveries made during the Blackstone Keep assault," Ezra announced formally, standing
BOUGHT BY THE BEAST CHAPTER 58: Coincidence?
The thought hit me like physical blow because I had been trying so hard not to consider that possibility, trying so hard to believe my sister was genuine in her desire to help rather than another Shadow Court manipulation."She destroyed the power source like she said she would," I protested weakly. "She risked her life to complete the mission.""Or she destroyed the power source because the Shadow Court wanted it destroyed," Caspian said gently through the bond. "Because this facility was already compromised by our discovery of it, and destroying the evidence here while seeming to help us serves their purposes better than defending it would."I wanted to argue, wanted to insist he was wrong and paranoid and too suspicious of everyone, but the documents we had just found made it impossible to dismiss the possibility.If the Shadow Court had been manipulating bloodlines for centuries, planting agents and arranging circumstances to achieve their goals, then Keira appearing at the perfec
BOUGHT BY THE BEAST CHAPTER 57: Ezra's Discovery
We found stairs that led upward toward where I could sense Ezra's presence through our connection.The facility was chaos now with alarms blaring and emergency lights casting everything in hellish red illumination. Shadow Court personnel ran past us in panic, too focused on escape to notice or care about the enemy queen in their midst.Caspian was barely conscious against my shoulder, his weight increasing with every step as exhaustion and injury took their toll. Through the bond, I could feel him trying to rally his strength and failing, could feel his frustration at being weak when I needed him strong."Save your energy," I told him quietly. "Let me be strong enough for both of us right now, and you can return the favor next time I am the one half-dead and useless."He made a sound that might have been a laugh or might have been a groan of pain.We reached the level where Ezra's team had been assigned to destroy research materials, and I found them gathered in a large laboratory tha
BOUGHT BY THE BEAST CHAPTER 57: Rot
She was probably right about that, which meant I needed a different approach to this problem. I looked at the two new prototypes flanking her and noticed that unlike the white-haired one who bore scorch marks from my previous attack, these two appeared completely undamaged and fresh, which suggested they had not been in the courtyard fight and therefore did not know what I was capable of when pushed to my limits."You made a mistake bringing him here," I said, letting rage build in my voice and in my power. "You made a mistake hurting what is mine, and you made an even bigger mistake thinking I would surrender to save him when the option exists to simply kill all of you and take him back by force."I did not give them time to recalculate their tactical models or adjust their combat algorithms.I just attacked with everything the Awakening had given me, channeling pure essence through the bond to draw on Caspian's lycan strength even as those cursed chains drained him, creating a feedb
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