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Semua Bab Ravished By The Alphas (Reverse-Harem Paranormal Romance): Bab 111
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Chapter 111 Concealment
CAESAR Xavier’s response might have been prompt. And perhaps I had underestimated him. But I was a man who liked to stay ahead of the curb. Two-steps ahead, if I was being honest. I had arranged a safe haven for the wizard—an old family home of mine. It was once known as the House of Murphy before I married the Alpha’s daughter and took my crown. But now the grand mansion stood there lonely and decaying. It had once been a beautiful marvel among the city, and now it was beginning to crumble, overtaken by vines and shrubbery. No one was left to use it after all. Besides me. Occasionally—at any usual time—the maids would be sent to keep the house in order. The rooms would need dusting in the case of once-yearly visit, and any vermin would need to be eradicated. But apart from them, it was entirely abandoned, and therefor…the perfect place to stow away a fugitive. In addition, the mating season was still in full effect. Every ounce of attention in Oreheroad was on the mating season,
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Chapter 112 Conspiracy
XAVIERThe end of the festival was fast approaching, and Ares was a wild, insatiable thing within me.Are you really going to do it? he was asking, pleading, snarling. Are you really going to let her go? We will never see her again. The others will not be like her. Keep her. Keep her. I can not.Then you should have never brought that poor human girl back. You should have never fulfilled your mission. Our mate leaves us now. Our mate leaves us. There is nothing I can do. It is her freedom to leave.Mark her, Ares howled. Mark her so you may find her and take her back.I pressed Ares’s voice to the back of my mind, bringing myself into focus. I was already distracted enough with thoughts of Valerie. He was making it twice as difficult to be productive in my search for the wizard.A handful of councilors were gathered in front of me, their heads bowed. Their body language was tense, their expressions wrought with fear.They did not ease. And they should not have. They were all in a gr
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Chapter 113 Her friend was strange
VALERIEAva’s recovery was surprisingly fast.I was relieved to see her in full health when she awoke that morning. She greeted me with her usual glowing face and her cheerful voice. A peppy, “Hello, Valerie!” touched my ears like music.I had been so worried that she’d had the potion. That she’d wound up like a mindless, soulless shell, just as the others had. But she seemed…relatively normal. Perhaps not the Ava I knew, but a fragment of her.We sat over breakfast and I recanted everything to her. Every single little event that had led up to this moment. From that miraculous day in the shop when Xavier stumbled upon me. From the moment he took me to the castle and every event that transpired after.I left out some details, of course. The romance between Xavier and I, my moment with Lucas. All of the fine, gritty details that brought a warmth to my cheeks. Another time, perhaps, I would tell her. After the dust settled and things went back to normal.Ava was strangely quiet as I spok
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Chapter 114 Sleepwalking
VALERIE The longer I stayed with Ava, the more obvious it became that she wasn’t the same as she used to be. Every time we spoke, she was becoming more of a stranger. Less of Ava. She seemed to have forgotten most of the time we’d spent together in the shop. Vague things came back to her now and then—the day her master purchased her. The view of the market district from the pane glass windows. But not much else. And though she remembered who I was, she didn’t remember Aunt Louise and Aunt Rita. She couldn’t name a single girl from the shop, and she didn’t seem to recall the talks we used to have, either. I didn’t sleep well that night. I dreamed instead…the strangest dreams. I dreamed of wild, vivid forests and the air billowing against my skin. I dreamed of running and running until my feet lost all feeling. I did not know why I dreamed such strange things, but I didn’t mind it either. I could taste the earthy scent of the forest around me. I could feel my heart thundering in my ch
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Chapter 115 Take her to leave
XAVIER I stared at the phone for much too long. The small device—one of only a few left in the entire world—sitting in inanimate silence, and somehow still mocking me. It took all I had to reach for it, and even once I’d done that, I could not bring myself to pick it up. After several beats of hesitation, I lifted it in my hands and dialed the number to Saelmere Castle. It rang once. Twice. Three times. Then he answered. “Well, well, well. If it isn’t the long lost prince. What is it? Did you miss me too terribly?” At first, Lucas sounded joyful—maybe even a little humorous. And then suddenly, his tone dropped. All the smile fell from his voice and he grumbled lowly into the line, “I must say, It is about damned time.” I frowned at the sound of Lucas’s droll, irritable tone. After the security over the city was reinforced, no one had been able to call in or out. I wasn’t sure how many times Lucas had made the attempt, but by the sound of his hard-edged voice, he was angry. Whic
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Chapter 116 Hell awaited them
XAVIER After my conversation with Lucas, I sat in silence for a long while. I was in an agonizing pull of pressure—one side mulling over the idea of telling Valerie the truth, the other considering a world where I ran away with her. Of course, this couldn’t happen. But it did bring me a moment of ease to imagine. No more chaos. No more responsibility. Just the two of us, running from this face as fast as our legs would take us. But that was a dream. Not the reality that spilled out in front of me. The truth was, I was casting her out of Orheroad, whether she liked it or not. I had no other option. And she would not be happy about this. But she would be okay. And that was enough. Eventually, my silent thinking came to an end when a knock rapped on the door. Before I would rise to answer it, Ralph entered with the injured guard from yesterday. As most wolves do, he had recovered quickly. “Sir,” the guard said, drawing down in a slight, pained bow. I waved a hand to ward off the f
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Chapter 117 New laws announced
VALERIE It was late into the evening when the guests began to make their way to the palace in hordes. I had been watching out the window when a gentle rapping came at my door. A guard stepped inside and bowed. “I have been instructed by Princess Alyssa to retrieve you for the banquet. Might you dress in something…a little more appropriate for the occasion?” I felt something light inside of me at the invitation. It wasn’t that I was necessarily excited for the banquet, but it gave me an opportunity to see Alyssa. And Xavier. I had been locked in my chamber for days now, waiting for Ava to recover from her…recent events. But I did not want to leave her be. Especially after what had occurred with the guards. I turned to look at her. She seemed…relatively normal today. Perhaps it wasn’t hurting anyone if I escaped for an hour or two. “Go ahead,” Ava said with a smile. “I’ll be here waiting for you.” I nodded to her and dressed quickly in the finest thing I owned—a gown gifted to m
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Chapter 118 Blood and Death
VALERIE The room was suddenly electric. The look Caeser had given me did not settle. Rather, it curdled in my stomach like bad food. Suddenly, I was no longer hungry. The music had stopped playing, and the crowd had gone quiet, confused by the confrontation between son and father. But Xavier looked as composed as always. “If you would not mind taking a seat, father,” Xavier began. “I have more details to—“ Suddenly, a sound like thunder rolled through the entrance of the banquet hall. The tables turned their attention to the entrance door, where a guard stumbled inside. Something was terribly wrong with him, by the look of it. His eyes were glazed and distant, his lips turning blue. He stumbled in on weak legs and collapsed to the floor, veins scrawling up the side of his neck. Several guests leapt from their seats in fear. “What is going on?” a woman exclaimed. The man beside her stepped closer, crouching as if preparing to shift. Others joined him, taking a defensive stance am
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Chapter 119 He had to stay
VALERIE I woke in a faint mist. There was nothing around me but white. And in the distance, four shapes were coming closer, breaking through the tiffany clouds. Somehow, I knew I was meant to be with them. I trudged through the fog, my feet taking into a run as the shapes of them began to appear in the mist. My parents. Mathilda. Ava. They smiled, their arms extended, waiting for me to walk right into them. But I could not reach. It seemed no matter how far I ran, I could not get any closer to them. They grew further and further away, and then they disappeared entirely. They disappeared into the fog, like shapes erased from paper. “Wait!” I cried out. “Wait for me!” But they were gone. And I was alone, in that white, empty world. I crumbled to my knees and cried. “I don’t want to be alone. Don’t leave me alone.” Then I felt something with in me. A warmth. You are not alone, that familiar voice said. I ignored her, sobbing into my knees instead. I had been so close to them
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Chapter 120 There's only one way to find you
VALERIE “What do you mean?” The fear and anger clenched so tightly in my chest, it felt like a rib would break. Stay? He was all I had and now we were being separated? I had just lost Ava. I was going to lose Xavier, too? “You can’t stay! I don’t want to leave you!” Tears pricked at my eyes—tears of rage this time. Not anger, not pain. Rage. Because it was just so unfair. After everything, it was just so unfair to lose them both. “No! I just lost Ava, I won’t lose you too!” Again, he kissed me, and again I could do nothing but kiss him back. It was the feeling of air in your lungs after a long time under water, and I loved breathing Xavier in. I loved the sweet warmth of his kiss, the softness of his lips. But I hated the way it quenched the fire in me. The way I felt…a little less angry. “Lucas will protect you,” he said as we broke apart, gently leaning his forehead against mine. I could hardly breathe. The tears burned like acid on my cheeks. I shook my head, pulling away f
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