LOGINShare
In the halls
Last Updated:
2025-10-13 17:07:50
Latest chapter
Mated to the Alpha King The blade or the cup (Part one)
EsmeMarek’s orders carry me from the scullery to the sideboard without pause the next day. Cloths stacked, goblets lined in rows and pitchers tilted to test the pour. I wipe each rim and set each cup with the base straight to the table’s grain. My hands know this work but they won’t stop shaking.The dagger rests against my thigh under the skirt, leather sheath tied to the garter at mid-leg. I adjusted the knot twice before coming in. The steel sits where my fingers can find it through the fabric. I keep counting the steps from here to the dais in case numbers can steady me.The vial rides in the pocket of my apron. Glass against skin. The liquid inside moves when I breathe. It warmed under my palm on the walk from the kitchen and left a faint bitter scent on my fingers that soap did not clear. I rub my thumb to my forefinger and the trace returns. Father’s last line runs through me without effort. Kill him, or she screams your name.“Esme,” Marek says, standing at my shoulder. “Oute
Mated to the Alpha King The hallway
ArdonThe corridor runs straight from the councilwing toward the service doors. Stone underfoot, torch brackets at steadyintervals, the carved screen that marks where the light shifts. I walk it atodd hours because the city’s work can wait and the house’s quiet is easier tohear. Tonight I move with the kind of slowness that keeps muscles ready butdoes not announce it. It’s been a long day. Especially when Darian came backjust after the kitchen’s evening rush to tell me about Lady Selene’s latestscheme to get Esme into trouble. Her scent is the first thing out of place.Soap and rosemary sit at the edge of it, the result of stair-side work. Underthat is a sharper note I don’t like, bitter, close and aged against skin. Itthreads into the air and tells me someone was here and carried something theyshouldn’t have. I follow it with my head before I see her.She is small in the space, only a stepinside the band where torchlight pools. Storm-grey eyes catch mine. They widenin a way that almos
Mated to the Alpha King The threat
Esme The pillow isn’t smooth after I return from a privy visit. Something flat and stiff sits under the seam near the center. I slide my hand in and find paper. My fingers know the texture even before I see the ink. I draw it out a little at a time so it won’t rasp against the fabric and disturb anyone else.His handwriting crosses the page in hard, even strokes.Kill him, or I’ll carve the truth into her flesh until she screams your name.My throat tightens. The air moves in and stops halfway as I press the paper to my knees to steady my hands and read the line again because I don’t want to believe I saw it right the first time. The letters don’t change and the bottom edge cuts my skin where my grip is too hard. I let go before I tear it, then grip again because my fingers won’t be still.Mother’s face rises in my mind without effort, the basement floor, cold and damp. Her cheek, swollen and mottled, her mouth trying to smile for me when I was small and trying again last spring when
Mated to the Alpha King In the halls
EsmeNight strips the palace down to stone, light, and the sound of work that never stops. Torches burn in steady intervals. The floor holds the day’s warmth in some stretches and gives up cold in others. I step where the boards won’t complain and keep to the band of flooring that hasn’t been polished thin by traffic. My lungs pull air in slow even draws. The rhythm keeps my hands steady.I count the turns between the kitchens and the north foyer. I place the watch points that matter; the carved screen, the herb yard threshold, the stair above laundry where the guard on rotation tends to shift his weight at the same place every round. I’m here to build a clean path, the kind father wants. The letter under my mattress might as well be inside my ribs.I pass the scullery door. The troughs sit quiet under the faint smell of soap. A bucket ticks as the last drops find the bottom. Someone left a cloth folded in a neat square on the edge but I keep moving.At the corner before the council w
Mated to the Alpha King The festival
SeleneMusic swells from the gallery and rolls through the ballroom in clean layers. Chandeliers burn bright as gold on the walls answers with a hard shine. Women step in silk and jewels while men shift through ranks and titles with faces trained for court. The steward placed me at Ardon’s right and I hold that ground in sapphire that turns heads without effort. He looks over the room once, then lets his gaze move where he wants it. It doesn’t stop on me.It finds the servant girl at the edge of the floor.Plain linen, sleeves rolled and the tray held flat against her body. She stands at the entry to the refreshment line, waiting for an opening between a minor lord and his son. She has learned how to belong to the background and somehow draw attention anyway. It puts heat under my ribs.I keep my smile set to the angle that photographs itself on other people’s eyes. “Majesty,” I say, low, for him alone. “The court is pleased to see the city in light again.”“The city pleases itself,”
Mated to the Alpha King The king's suspicion
ArdonThe last petitioner leaves the dais with his papers clutched tight. The herald lowers his staff as chairs scrape and robes shift. I stand and let the chamber empty along its usual lines, but I don’t release the service door. A small tilt of my head and Darian moves to hold that threshold with his body.Esme stops mid-step, tray balanced against her hip. Her gaze drops to the floor at once. Marek turns from the sideboard, measuring the distance between us, then returns to counting cups so his staff doesn’t break cadence and I don’t want to disrupt his room more than I must so I bring her into mine.“Esme,” I say.She sets the tray down on the nearest stand, fingers careful, then comes forward to the foot of the dais. When I don’t speak again, she kneels. Her hands clasp tight enough that the skin across her knuckles blanches. The tendons in her wrists stand out under thin skin. Her breathing stays even because she forces it to.Korrath presses at my ribs. 'She hides more than a k
You may also like
Accidental Surrogate for Alpha
Caroline Above Story1.6M viewsMine - The Alpha's Possession
Kylie513.7K viewsShifted Fate
Alicia S. Rivers993.2K viewsAlpha Gray
C.J. Primer1.2M viewsWhen The Moon Hides Her Crown
POOJA69.7K viewsAlpha Xavier
Crystal L900 viewsThe Supreme’s Alpha's Slave
E. A. Deveraux 118 viewsBound By the Moon
Presh143 views
