Semua Bab FORBIDDEN BOND: The Alpha's Desire : Bab 161 - Bab 170

The night stretched long and merciless.Selvane’s outpost burned from one end of the ridge to the other, fires climbing the dark rock faces like serpents. The screams of the dying echoed in the mountain passes, mingling with the pounding of hooves and the clash of steel. The red cloaks of Eldoria and Veridia carved through the chaos, grim reapers in the smoke.Alaric and Aaron rode at the front, their blades cutting arcs of silver in the firelight. Together they moved like twin shadows — Aaron’s spear thrusting, Alaric’s sword slashing, his bow loosing arrows with unerring precision. Men fell before them in heaps, their blood soaking into the mountain dirt.No hesitation. No mercy.The soldiers followed their princes without falter, roaring their names, their boots drumming in unison as they pressed Selvane’s warriors back step by step.Hours bled away. The battle rolled deeper into the outpost until the last of Selvane’s banners were trampled in the dirt. What had begun as an ambush

(Kael’s POV)The first thing I knew was sound.Muffled voices, not sharp enough to pierce the fog in my head. Words tumbling over one another, blurred, but heavy… too heavy.“…can’t save it…”“…before he wakes…”“…not alive…”I tried to pull the pieces together, but they slid like water through my mind. The air smelled of iron and smoke, thick, clinging to my tongue. My body felt… wrong. Heavy. But something inside me—something missing—made my heart start pounding.No.The voices sharpened as I blinked, lids dragging open like they were weighed down with stone. The chamber swam into view. Shadows. Faces. My mother’s, streaked with tears. Theron standing rigid, shoulders taut like he could break apart if he let himself move. My grandmother bent over herbs and blood-stained cloths, her voice hoarse as she murmured something low.And Silas. Silas was watching me, eyes blazing, fixed and burning.It the memory hit me. The fire in my veins. The poison. The screaming. The baby.My baby.I

The morning light had no warmth.It spilled across the chamber in thin, sharp lines, touching Kael where he sat curled on the edge of the bed. He hadn’t moved since the night before.The baby was still in his arms.Kael’s lips had gone pale, almost bloodless. His eyes, once bright, burned an unnatural red, the veins spiderwebbing through them from hours of tears that would no longer fall. His body had withered in the space of a single night. The softness of pregnancy, the fullness of his cheeks, the gentle swell that had made him glow… all of it had collapsed inward. He looked carved out, hollow, a ghost of the boy he had been just days ago.And the baby… the tiny bundle wrapped so carefully… had darkened. The skin no longer soft, but dusky purple, the stillness undeniable.No one in the room spoke.No one dared.Theron stood like a stone at the far wall, fists locked at his sides, jaw iron tight. Elara sat near the bed, her hands clasped so hard her knuckles had gone white, eyes swol

The crown felt heavier than a huge portion of oak wood, even though it wasn’t on Aaron’s head yet.“All hail King Aaron.”The words still echoed in his skull as he stood in the great hall, his body rooted like stone while the world swirled around him. Advisors whispered. Servants bustled. Guards shifted. And still he stood, silent, sick with grief, as if his father’s death had carved a hole straight through him.He wanted to drink again. To drown. To run back to the battlefield and scream into the cliffs until his lungs burst. Anything but this. Anything but kingship.But he didn’t move. He couldn’t. Not when so many eyes watched him, weighing his every breath, his every silence.It was Alaric who stirred him. A hand — bruised, cut, unsteady — pressed briefly to his shoulder, grounding him. Aaron blinked and looked at him, the Veridian prince as battered as the war itself, but still standing. Still here.And then word reached them.“The king’s body rests in his chamber. The queen awai

Silas rose slowly, his chair scraping softly against the stone. He pressed a trembling hand to Alaric’s shoulder, gave it a firm, lingering pat, and when Alaric looked up, Silas’s eyes were wet. The man’s throat bobbed with words he didn’t speak, then he turned and walked out, shutting the door behind him, leaving them alone.For a long moment, Alaric just stared at Kael, his mate, his anchor, and yet now a ghost of himself. Every breath Alaric tried to take felt like it splintered his ribs. Finally, he leaned forward, cupping Kael’s pale face between his hands. His thumbs brushed along cold, hollowed cheeks. His voice broke low, raw, but steady enough to reach Kael.“I missed you,” he whispered. Just three words, though a storm of others fought to claw out of him; ‘I thought I lost you.’ ‘I would’ve torn the world apart to find you.’ ‘What happened to you?’ ‘What happened to our child?’ ‘I can’t stand seeing you like this.’ But none of it found his tongue— only I missed you.Alaric s