All Chapters of The Mate Games: Chapter 181 - Chapter 190

Many decades ago…It was after midnight when the knock came.Not loud. Not hurried. Just… a sound.Three gentle taps. Like the wind brushing bone.And I knew.I don’t get many visitors.None, actually.Lira hasn’t come in two weeks. I told her not to. She didn’t argue. She never does when she knows I’m on the edge of something. And tonight—tonight was the edge.I didn’t move at first. I sat by the hearth, hands buried in the old blanket again, heart thudding like war drums beneath my ribs.Another knock. Softer this time.Not impatient. Not angry. Just… present.And still, I didn’t rise.I kept thinking, What if it isn’t him?But worse—What if it is?For all my writing, my dreaming, my hoping… I was not ready.Not truly.I thought I would be.But when the moment came, my body remembered every reason I had once run.The visions. The screams. The prophecies. The blood.I stared at the door like it might speak first.It didn’t.But something beyond it breathed.I rose slowly, every muscl

Many decade ago…I heard it again today.His name.Carried on the wind.Not spoken aloud, not by Lira or the villagers or the trees, but in that strange way the world sometimes speaks when no one else is listening. A whisper, delicate and cold, brushing the back of my neck while I stood by the cliff’s edge watching the sea.I turned, half-expecting to see him standing there again, silent as ever. But the path behind me was empty. Just the trees, and the sound of distant wings overhead.And still, I felt it.His name.Like breath caught in a throat. Like a secret too heavy to carry.I don’t say it aloud. Not here. Not yet. It’s a tether I’m not ready to pull.Maybe because I fear what answering it might summon.Or maybe because saying it feels like permission. And I still don’t know what I’m giving permission for.Lira says there are rumors now. Whispers threading through the mountain towns and riverside camps. A boy—no, a young man—who walks alone beneath the moonlight. Who doesn’t sp

ALTHEAAsher’s hand comes up suddenly, rough and unyielding, closing around my face. His long fingers press into my cheeks, forcing my jaw open as he tilts my head at the angle he wants. His mouth crashes against mine, nothing gentle about it. His tongue thrusts past my lips, invading, claiming, owning. The pressure makes my nipples tighten against the thin lace still covering me, a sharp ache of need racing down my spine.He tastes like my undoing, like mint, sharp and clean, mixed with something darker, something that stirs memory deep inside me. A taste I once thought I would never forget, a taste that calls up echoes of laughter stolen in the shadows, of whispers pressed against my skin when the world wasn’t watching. That part of me, the girl who had loved him so easily, rises like a ghost.But there’s no room for thought. Not when his mouth is taking everything from me. I fall into him, my mind blank, drowning in the heat of his kiss. His grip is bruising, his tongue relentless,

ALTHEAI wake up flat on my stomach, the sheets twisted around my legs, clinging to damp skin. For a moment I don’t move, too heavy, too warm, too sore to even think. My eyes pry open, only to immediately slam shut again when light floods them. It’s sharp, unkind, stabbing through my skull like a blade. I groan into the pillow, trying to bury myself away from it, but the truth comes faster than I’m ready for.This isn’t my room.Oh goddess.The realization cuts through the fog of sleep, shoving me upright in a jolt. My breath catches in my chest as I glance around, the unfamiliar walls, the bed, the faint scent of smoke and cedar that clings to every corner. Memories of earlier crash back into me like a wave, the heat, the fury, the way my body betrayed me again and again until there was nothing left to give.My stomach twists.I turn quickly, almost afraid to look, and there he is.Asher.He lies on his side, one arm bent under the pillow, the sheets pooling low across his hips. His

ALTHEAThe day drags like chains tied to my ankles. Every hour feels stretched too thin, every sound sharper than it should be. My nerves buzz under my skin, restless, like they know what’s at stake. Everything has to go perfectly tonight. One mistake, one wrong move, and it isn’t just my life that ends, it’s Theo’s, it’s Asher’s, maybe even the kingdom’s.Theo’s words from yesterday cling to me like burrs I can’t shake off. The king… awake. The thought still unsettles me. For so long, I thought he was little more than a shell, a ghost breathing but not truly alive. And yet, he’s been awake, hidden away by Madeline’s lies. Kept silent, not for protection, but because they’re waiting. Waiting for the Red Moon. Waiting for the moment to crown Aaron and twist me into their weapon, using me to unleash powers I don’t even fully understand.I shudder, remembering the cold knot of dread in my stomach when Theo told me. Once, not so long ago, the thought of eternity with Aaron would have made