MasukShe married the crippled king for revenge. He married her for political survival. Neither of them expected that she was the only thing in the world capable of healing him — or that the enemies who destroyed her family were the same ones who broke him.
Lihat lebih banyakDrake's POVI had been riding for six hours when Lucien found me.I did not know who he was at first, just a rider pulling alongside on the eastern road, keeping pace without speaking, which was the kind of thing that either meant nothing or meant something and you did not know which until they opened their mouth."Drake," he said. "Future Alpha of Blackthorn Pack."I looked at him. He was well-dressed for someone on a road at midday, unhurried, with the face of a man who was not used to being the one who had to explain himself and was adjusting his approach accordingly."Who are you?" I said."Someone with a proposition," he said. "And a common problem.""I do not know you," I said."You know of me," he said. "Everyone does, at this point." He held my gaze. "Lucien Draven."I pulled my horse up.He stopped beside me without urgency, like he had expected this reaction and was prepared to wait through it."You are the man who tried to take the Lycan Kingdom," I said. "Who had the counc
Chapter 63: The Hunt BeginsKael's POVThorne found me two minutes after Lucien said it was over."He is moving," Thorne said quietly, close to my ear. "Eastern edge, on foot, using the freed wolves as cover. If we move now we can cut him off before the tree line."I looked at Selena. She was still at the center of the formation, the white fires burning lower now, the ritual fully inverted and releasing. She caught my eye and I gave her one look, stay — and she gave me one back that said she understood and also that she was not happy about it."Dave," I said. "Stay with her.""Alpha—" Dave started."Stay with her," I said again, and turned to Thorne. "How many?""Ten," Thorne said. "Fast ones. He is not running yet, he is walking, trying not to draw attention. The moment he realizes we are moving he will run.""Then we do not let him realize," I said. "Go."We moved along the eastern edge of the formation in the shadow of the outer ring, keeping the freed wolves and the surrendering p
Kael's POVWe heard the fires change before we saw them.Not the sound of them — the quality. The particular shift in the air that happens when something burning stops burning the way it is supposed to. Thorne registered it at the same moment I did and his hand went to his sword without him deciding to."She is in," I said."Alpha—" Thorne started."Faster," I said. We rode harder.The perimeter came into view two minutes later, wolves stationed at the outer line, but they were not looking outward at us. They were looking inward, toward the fires, toward the center of the formation, toward whatever was happening inside it that had made every one of them abandon their post facing outward and turn."They are not fighting us," Thorne said, pulling up beside me."No," I said. "They are watching her."We broke through the outer line unopposed, the perimeter wolves stepping aside without a command, their eyes still on the center. Not hostile. Not suppressed. Alert. Present. The specific al
Selena's POVThe fires were visible from a mile out.Six of them, arranged in a pattern I recognized from the archive records, the hexagonal formation of a binding ritual, designed to create a contained field that would amplify whatever was placed at its center. They burned high and steady despite the wind, which told me practitioners had been at work before the fires were even lit, layering protections into the ground itself.I rode in alone.No one stopped me at the perimeter. I had expected guards, expected to have to push through something — but the outer line parted when they saw me coming, the wolves stationed there stepping back in the specific way of people who have been told to let someone through. Lucien had prepared for exactly this. He had known I would come ahead of the army.He was standing at the center of the formation when I dismounted, ten feet from the largest fire, dressed for ceremony in a way I had never seen him dressed before — dark formal, no smile yet, watch






Welcome to GoodNovel world of fiction. If you like this novel, or you are an idealist hoping to explore a perfect world, and also want to become an original novel author online to increase income, you can join our family to read or create various types of books, such as romance novel, epic reading, werewolf novel, fantasy novel, history novel and so on. If you are a reader, high quality novels can be selected here. If you are an author, you can obtain more inspiration from others to create more brilliant works, what's more, your works on our platform will catch more attention and win more admiration from readers.