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CHAPTER 31
Last Updated:
2025-09-07 13:08:50
Latest chapter
THE SUBSTITUTE MATE FOR THE ALPHA KING CHAPTER 75
The Citadel, once a place of oppressive silence, now thrummed with the grim energy of impending war. The unified roar of the assembled lords after my speech still echoed in the stones, but for me, the air was thick with a different, more private tension. I had become the heart of a lie. Every time a soldier looked at me with respectful pity, every time a lord bowed his head in condolence, a fresh wave of guilt and fear washed over me. I was the grieving widow, the symbol of their cause, and the knowledge of the truth was a corrosive secret in my chest.The official departure of the Ironpeak army was a spectacle of chilling precision. Rank upon rank of soldiers in grey and silver marched out through the gates, their banners flying, their faces set with determination. Commander Valerius rode at their head, a figure of unyielding stone. He did not look back at me. Our agreement was sealed, and we were both bound to our roles.But as the last of the army vanished down the mountain pass, a
THE SUBSTITUTE MATE FOR THE ALPHA KING CHAPTER 74
The world tilted, the solid stone of the Citadel floor feeling suddenly insubstantial. The air vanished from my lungs. Alive. The word was a thunderclap in the silent chamber, so immense it was soundless. It wasn't a hope; it was a fact, delivered in elegant script, and it was the most terrifying thing I had ever read.Kelra caught my arm as my legs buckled, guiding me to the edge of the bed before I collapsed. "Sze? What is it?"I couldn't speak. I could only point a trembling finger at the parchment on the floor. He snatched it up, his eyes scanning the words. I watched his face pale, his jaw tightening into a knot of stone."By the gods," he breathed, the paper crumpling in his fist. "Alive."Alive. But in the hands of Renejay and Gideon. The image that seared my mind was not one of rescue, but of a cage. They hadn't saved him out of mercy. A living son, broken and captive, was a far more potent tool than a dead martyr. He would be a puppet, a symbol of their "victory," used to dem
THE SUBSTITUTE MATE FOR THE ALPHA KING CHAPTER 73
The days that followed were a strange, suspended reality. The Citadel was a world of regimented order and echoing stone, a stark contrast to the chaotic wilderness we had escaped. Elisse, slowly emerging from her shell of shock, found a fragile sense of wonder in the towering, torch-lit halls and the kind, if reserved, attentions of the Citadel’s women. They brought her warm clothes and simple toys carved from mountain wood. They were careful, respectful, but their eyes held a knowing pity that made my skin crawl. They knew our story. They knew the role we were to play.I was given a new, dark grey dress of simple but sturdy wool, the color of the Citadel’s walls. It felt like a uniform. My recovery was supervised with detached efficiency by the Citadel’s healers, who tended to my scrapes and the deep, invisible bruises on my spirit with the same clinical precision. I ate, I slept, I walked the prescribed routes through the inner courtyards, all under the watchful eyes of Valerius’s g
THE SUBSTITUTE MATE FOR THE ALPHA KING CHAPTER 72
The gate commander’s jaw went slack. “Commander Valerius? You… you were expecting them, sir?”Commander Valerius did not take his eyes off me. They were ancient eyes, eyes that had seen centuries of mountain winters and the fleeting lives of those who tried to conquer them. They held no warmth, but a deep, unsettling knowledge.“The stones have been restless for days,” he said, his voice low, as if sharing a secret the wind might steal. “The mountain dreams, and in its dreams, it sees what approaches. A shattered Alpha. A mother’s grief. A child of two worlds.” His gaze flickered over my worn clothes, the bloodstain on my sleeve that was Kairi’s, the utter exhaustion in Kelra’s stance. “And the shadow of a great bear’s judgment. You have passed a test few survive.”He gestured, a sharp, fluid motion. “Open the gate. They are under the Citadel’s protection.”The massive, iron-banded gates, which looked as if they hadn’t moved in a generation, groaned inward on hinges that screamed in p
THE SUBSTITUTE MATE FOR THE ALPHA KING CHAPTER 71
The world had lost its color. The majestic, snow-capped peaks of the Ironpeak range were just grey shapes against a washed-out sky. The wind, which had once felt bracing, now held only a biting, cruel edge. Every step I took was a mechanical act, my body moving while my soul remained trapped in that dark fissure, listening to the fading echo of Kairi’s breath.Elisse’s small hand was a cold, limp weight in mine. She hadn’t spoken since we’d left the chimney, her silence a deeper wound than any cry. She just walked, her eyes vacant, staring at the ground. She had seen the terror on my face. She had heard the finality in Kelra’s silence. She knew.Kelra walked ahead, a solitary, grim sentinel. His shoulders were set in a rigid line, his usual confident stride replaced by a heavy, plodding gait. He had lost two of his best fighters, and now he had helped leave his Alpha to die in the dark. The weight of it was crushing him, too.We walked for hours, the silence between us a third, grievi
THE SUBSTITUTE MATE FOR THE ALPHA KING CHAPTER 70
The world stopped. The vast, blue sky, the clear path to the Citadel, the very air in my lungs—it all ceased to exist. There was only the dark, jagged mouth of the fissure and the echo of that single, pain-wracked word."Kairi!" My scream was raw, tearing from a place deeper than my soul. I scrambled to the edge, peering down into the impenetrable blackness. "Kairi, answer me!"Kelra was already moving, his face a mask of grim purpose. "Jax's rope! In my pack!" he barked, shrugging it off. We had kept the dead warrior's climbing rope, a final, morbid inheritance. Kelra fastened one end around a sturdy rock pinnacle, testing the knot with a brutal yank."I'm going down," he said, his voice leaving no room for argument. He looked at me, his eyes hard. "You stay with the child."He disappeared into the fissure, the rope going taut. Elisse was sobbing, clutching my legs, her small body wracked with tremors. I held her, my own body shaking, my eyes glued to that hole in the world. The minu
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