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CHAPTER TEN
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2025-08-28 01:59:58
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THE SUBSTITUTE MATE FOR THE ALPHA KING CHAPTER 82
The air, once filled with the gentle sounds of a waking village, snapped taut with the tension of a drawn bowstring. The serene valley was now a bowl of impending violence. My personal tragedy was instantly dwarfed by the threat on the ridge. The riders began their descent, a slow, deliberate tide of armed men picking their way down the scree slope. They weren't Cresendo. Their armor was a mismatched collection of leather and scavenged plate, and they moved with the loose, predatory grace of mercenaries or bandits.I was frozen, trapped between the village that held my lost daughter and the army that threatened to consume it. Every instinct screamed at me to run to Elisse, to throw my body over hers. But what good was a mother with a hunting knife against a wall of steel?The stern woman—I heard someone call her Anya—barked orders, her voice cutting through the panic. Children were being herded into the largest longhouse. My eyes locked onto Elisse, her small face pale with a fear she
THE SUBSTITUTE MATE FOR THE ALPHA KING CHAPTER 81
"The first rule of hunting is to know your prey, little wolf. But the first rule of survival is to know your ground."Kairi's voice was a ghost in my ear, a memory from a lifetime ago, as I picked my way down the treacherous scree slope into the Serpent's Tail Valley. The official maps were useless here, showing only blank space and the lazy curl of the river. The real map was written in the land itself—the way the wind twisted through a particular canyon, the type of lichen clinging to the sun-facing rocks, the subtle, almost imperceptible game trails used by creatures far wiser than any mapmaker. I was no scout, but I was a creature of instinct, and every fiber of my being was tuned to a single, desperate frequency: Find her.The journey was a brutal lesson in my own fragility. I, who had spent months in palaces and fortresses, was soft. My feet blistered in my worn boots. My muscles, used to council tables and throne rooms, screamed in protest at the relentless climb and descent. H
THE SUBSTITUTE MATE FOR THE ALPHA KING CHAPTER 80
"Her name is Elisse."My voice, though steady, felt too small for the vast, vaulted chamber of the Ironpeak Citadel's war room. Before me, spread across a massive oak table carved with the topography of the entire region, were maps. Not the clean, inked charts of strategists, but living documents, scarred with charcoal marks, wax droplets, and the grim annotations of Commander Valerius's failed campaign. My finger, trembling slightly, rested on a point where a blue thread, representing the Under-River, vanished into the uncharted mountains. "She would have emerged here, in the Serpent's Tail Valley, roughly ten days ago."The men and women gathered around the table were the new, raw backbone of Cresendo. Seasoned warriors who had followed Kelra, village elders who had survived Gideon's purges, their faces etched with a wary hope. They looked from the map to me, the Omega regent, the widow holding a shattered pack together with little more than willpower and a dead man's name."The Val
THE SUBSTITUTE MATE FOR THE ALPHA KING CHAPTER 79
The silence in the great hall was a living entity, fed by grief and the metallic scent of blood. It was broken by the rough, practical sounds of the victorious warriors securing the Citadel, but those sounds felt distant, muffled by the sheer, suffocating weight of the loss that held me pinned to the floor between Kairi and Kelra. I was a statue of sorrow, one hand still clasping Kairi’s cooling fingers, the other resting on the crushed chest plate of the Beta who had given everything.Time lost all meaning. I didn’t know if minutes or hours had passed when a gentle but firm hand touched my shoulder.“My lady.”I looked up, my vision blurred. It was one of Kelra’s warriors, a man with a gash across his brow, his eyes shadowed with his own exhaustion and the pain of losing his commander.“We must… we must see to them,” he said softly, his voice thick. “And to you.”I nodded numbly, allowing him to help me to my feet. My legs were weak, my body trembling with a cold that had nothing to
THE SUBSTITUTE MATE FOR THE ALPHA KING CHAPTER 78
The silence shattered. The dozen warriors at Kelra’s back surged into the hall with a unified roar, their loyalty no longer to the tyrant but to the fallen prince at his feet. Gideon, snapped from his shock by the sudden assault, bellowed in rage, swinging his mace in a wide, deadly arc that forced the first wave back. The great hall, a moment ago a stage for psychological torture, erupted into a maelstrom of clashing steel and furious shouts.I didn’t hesitate. While the warriors engaged Gideon and his remaining guards, I dropped to my knees beside Kairi. His eyes were closed, his breathing shallow and rapid. The effort of his final, defiant act had drained the last of his strength.“Kairi,” I whispered, my hands fluttering over his broken body, unsure where to touch without causing more pain. “We’re here. Kelra’s here.”His eyelids fluttered open. The clarity was gone, replaced by a haze of agony, but a faint light of recognition remained. His bloodied hand twitched, seeking mine. I
THE SUBSTITUTE MATE FOR THE ALPHA KING CHAPTER 77
The silence in the great hall was thicker than the mountain itself, broken only by the ragged breaths of the wounded and the drip of blood on stone. Gideon’s smile did not falter at my words; it widened, a predator amused by the squeak of its prey.“My curse?” he chuckled, a dry, rasping sound. “You are a cornered rabbit, spitting at a wolf. Your defiance is the last flicker of a snuffed-out flame.”He took another step, his armored boots crashing against the flagstones. The few remaining Citadel guards tightened their grip on their weapons, a futile, brave gesture.“But you are correct about one thing,” he mused, his cold eyes sweeping over me. “This is a beginning. The beginning of a new era, unified under my banner. And every new era requires a foundation.” He raised his mace, pointing the bloodied head directly at my heart. “A foundation built on the crushed bones of the old.”This was it. There was no miracle coming. No Vaelen, no bear, no army. There was only the cold, final rea
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