All Chapters of The Rogue's Reluctant Mate: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

The morning after Morwen had ripped the magical chains off my wolf, I woke up feelin different. Sore, yes. Every muscle in my body felt like it had been torn apart and stitched back together with barbed wire. But underneath the pain, there was a thrumming energy, a wildness that hadn’t been there before.My wolf was awake, alive, and pacing just under my skin. It was exhilarating and terrifying all at once.Jaron was waiting for me in the training grounds Austin had —a massive, open field behind the mansion that stretched towards the woods. I’d gotten used to Jaron’s brand of brutal instruction. He was all about brute force and endurance. But today, something was different. Austin was there too, leaning against a sturdy oak tree at the edge of the field, arms crossed, watching. He hadn’t been present for Jaron’s sessions since the first few.“Alright, Omega,” Jaron grunted as I approached, his usual charming greeting. “Let’s see if that little ritual of yours actually did anything.

The next day, we met in the same vast field. The air was crisp, the sun bright. Austin was already there, waiting. He didn’t say anything, just gave me a look. A silent commandI took a deep breath and let my wolf surge forward. The change was easier this time, quicker, though still accompanied by a residual ache, a memory of the agony Morwen had put me through. When I opened my eyes, the world was sharper, scents more vivid. I was wolf. Sleek, mahogany fur, agile limbs. Ready.Austin shifted then. It was.. breathtaking. And terrifying. One moment he was the man, the next, a colossal black wolf stood in his place, golden eyes blazing with an ancient, untamed power. He was at least twice my size, all rippling muscle and barely contained ferocity. My wolf whined low in her throat, a sound of respect and undeniable submission to his sheer Alpha presence.{So, you’re finally ready to play little one?} His voice wasn’t spoken, but it filled my mind, a telepathic rumble that vibrated thr

AUSTIN_____I watched her sometimes. More often than I intended. Selena. Freckles. My unwanted mate, my burgeoning weapon. She was changing. The Omega skittishness was still there, buried deep, but Jaron’s brutality and my… refinements… were layering something else on top. A hardness. A resilience. The fire I’d glimpsed was being stoked, not extinguished. Good.She’d taken to the physical training with a grim determination that surprised even me. The sessions in wolf form, especially. Her mahogany wolf was lean, fast, and possessed a surprising ferocity. She still hesitated, still thought too much like prey, but the raw material was undeniably potent. The bond, that godsdamned invisible leash, thrummed with her progress, a strange mix of her pain, her exhaustion, and a fierce, almost desperate will to succeed.It was distracting.Tonight, she was in the library, curled up in one of the oversized armchairs, a book on military strategy open in her lap. Her brow was furrowed in conce

“He feared you,” she said softly. “Just like Henry fears you now.”“Fear is a currency I’ve learned to trade in,” I said, my voice carefully neutral. The momentary openness, the sharing of these old poisons, it left me feeling exposed in a way I didn’t like. It was a vulnerability, however slight, and I instinctively moved to armor myself against it.“So your father..he was the monster who ruined my mother’s life, who created the circumstances that led to my parents’ murder,” she said, her voice trembling with a raw, new layer of grief and rage. “And Henry....Henry is just continuing his legacy.”“In a less sophisticated, more overtly brutal fashion, yes.”She stood up, her hands clenched into fists at her sides. “They all need to pay. Vorlag is dead, but Henry, Rhys, Valerius… all of them.” Her eyes, when she looked at me, blazed with a fire that was almost terrifying in its intensity. “You were right. I didn’t understand. But I do now. This isn’t just about my parents. It’s about e

SELENA _____The aftermath of that night in the library...it left me shattered and raw, but also strangely..altered. Austin had taken something from me, something more than just my virginity. He’d peeled back another layer, exposing a vulnerability I hadn’t known existed, and then filled that void with his own dark, undeniable power. The shame was still there, a constant, dull ache, but it was now tangled with a confusing thread of something else. A reluctant awareness. A terrifying pull to him.He didn’t mention it again. Of course he didn’t. For Austin, it had been just another lesson, another assertion of his dominance. For me, it was a brutal, terrifying, and shamefully electrifying rite of passage. My body still hummed with the memory of his touch, his possession. I tried to push it down, to focus on my training, on the revenge that was supposed to be my only driving force. But his scent, his voice, the way his eyes sometimes lingered on me.... it all had a new, dangerous