Semua Bab The Mate Games: Bab 151 - Bab 160

ASHERI don’t say anything for a while after she leaves. The door clicks shut, and I’m left staring at the empty space where Elise had just stood. My thoughts are a mess. The silence in the room is loud, pressing in from every corner, but it’s still not enough to drown out what she said.Caroline.She lied.She faked a pregnancy.With my child.I drag a hand down my face, exhaling slowly, trying to keep the fury locked inside. It claws at my chest, hot and wild, and it takes everything in me not to let it tear its way out. I’d been grieving something that was never real. Mourning a life that never existed. I’d allowed guilt to dig its roots into my spine because I thought I had failed someone.And all this time, it was just a ploy.A trap.A desperate attempt to manipulate my name, my title, me, into submission.I want to scream. Throw something. Shatter the mirror in the corner, or maybe the walls themselves. Instead, I just breathe. In. Out. Slow. Controlled. Barely.It’s not just t

Many decades ago… I don’t know how much longer I can keep doing this. No matter what I tried, no matter what I took or prayed for or begged the goddess in the dark to allow, this thing inside me refused to go. I tried everything. I followed the seer’s old instructions. The roots. The teas. Even the ritual with the silver water and black ash under the full moon. But nothing worked. It wouldn’t leave. And then, before I knew it, I’d run out of time. The physicians said it was too late. That removing it now would end my life faster than letting it grow. I pretended to listen, nodded when they said to rest and eat and stay calm. But inside, I’d already made up my mind. I’ll let it come. But I’ll never let it stay. As soon as I birth it, I will make sure it’s gone. The mark on my neck has turned blacker than before. It itches and burns like it’s alive, like something’s crawling under the skin trying to get out. There are nights I wake up clawing at it until I bleed. My wolf,

ASHERDarkness clings to me like a second skin.My head feels heavy, my limbs weighed down by something thicker than sleep. I try to lift my hand, but it barely twitches. A groan escapes my throat as my eyes flutter open to a blurry ceiling. The air smells strange, too clean, too quiet. There’s a ringing in my ears, a dull throb pulsing at the base of my skull. I blink again, and this time, the blur sharpens into stone walls and flickering candlelight.Where the hell am I?The last thing I remember is standing on the stage, the weight of the crown pressing on me like always, the crowd stretching out before me, faceless and loud. I remember speaking. I remember saying her name. Elise. Then… nothing. Just a sudden, sharp wave of dizziness, like the floor tilted beneath me, and the world slipped sideways.And now I’m here.My body aches as I shift slightly, a sharp coldness biting into my wrist. I glance down and feel my breath hitch, metal cuffs, thick and iron, tight around both wrists

ASHERDarkness drags me under.It’s heavy and sticky, like oil clinging to my skin, my thoughts, my lungs. I can’t breathe right, can’t move. And I don’t know where I am, only that I’m not alone.The dream doesn’t feel like a dream. It’s more like being pulled through a memory I didn’t ask to remember. One I didn’t even know I had.I see trees first. Tall and endless, the kind that stretch up so far the light barely breaks through. I’m running through them, my paws brushing across dried leaves, my breath fogging the cold air. There’s a laugh beside me—sharp and wild, full of joy. I know that voice.“Come on, Ash!”It’s Cale.My cousin. My… brother in everything but blood. I haven’t thought about him in years, and now here he is, racing beside me in the shape of a jet-black wolf, our paws thudding in sync.I forgot how close we used to be.The scene shifts.We’re younger now. Human. Small limbs, big grins, both of us sitting on the kitchen counter while Martha huffs and mutters under h

ALTHEAShe’s been pretending this whole time.My breath catches again, but this time for an entirely different reason.I stare down at the book in my hands—still turned the way it fell, still wrong on the outside but right on the inside. The edges are soft, the spine worn. The pages smell faintly of lavender and something older, something like dust and memory.I don’t know how long I sit like this.My fingers frozen around the cover. My heart hammering.She’s not mad. Not broken. Not lost.She’s hiding.But hiding from who? From what?Her voice echoes in my mind now—not the wild, trembling one from moments ago, but the one that slipped through, sharp as glass.“She tricked him. Told him he was cursed. But it was all her. HER.”Who? Who was she talking about?The king?The fake queen?Or someone else?I rise slowly, the book still pressed to my chest. My legs feel shaky, like they’ve been asked to hold more weight than they can bear. I place the book back on the table, trying not to le