Lahat ng Kabanata ng Rejected by the lycan king: Kabanata 11 - Kabanata 20

Ophelia’s POVThe dreams began the next night.Not nightmares. Not exactly.But visionsvivid, searing things that clung to my waking thoughts like shadows behind curtains. I stood beneath a blood moon, my hands covered in ash. A silver wolf knelt at my feet, and around me, the world burned.I woke gasping, drenched in sweat.The air in the room felt colder than it should have.And the whisper in my mind faint, feminine, ancient still echoed.“You were born from silence, but your voice will break kingdoms.”I wrapped the blanket tighter around my shoulders and stared into the dark until the sky began to gray.By sunrise, I couldn’t bear the confinement of my chambers.I found my way to the training grounds just outside the eastern wall. The field was filled with warriors sparring in their shifted forms, instructors barking orders, the scent of sweat and steel rising into the cool morning air.General Caelia stood at the far end, her arms crossed as she surveyed the drills.I wasn’t sur

Ophelia’s POVWe left Duskfall before dawn.Xander said nothing as we mounted our horses and rode into the shadowed north. He’d selected four of Rafael’s most trusted guards silent, alert, and unflinching and they formed a protective arc around me as we crossed the frost-covered plains.I should have been cold.But I wasn’t.Not since the sigils.They burned softly beneath my skin now, a quiet thrum like a second heartbeat. Not painful. Not dangerous. Just… there. Constant. Like a reminder of what I was becoming.Or what I’d always been.The forest changed the farther north we rode.The trees grew darker. Taller. Less alive. The wind didn’t howl here it whispered. Strange things. Names I didn’t know. Songs I hadn’t heard.It made the horses skittish. The men uneasy.But I felt pulled.Like something someone was waiting.By the third night, we reached the edge of a wide, silver-glass lake. Mist hung low across the surface, and jagged mountain peaks rose in the distance like the teeth o

Ophelia’s POVWe returned to Duskfall at dusk.I rode at the front of the party now. Not behind Xander, not shielded by guards. My silver cloak billowed in the wind, the hood down, my face bare for all to see.Let them look.Let them know.The Hollow-Blooded Mate had arrived.Rafael was waiting for me on the front steps of the citadel.The moment he saw me, his eyes locked on mine and whatever he’d prepared to say disappeared. His gaze dropped to the faint shimmer of sigils still glowing at my collarbone. I saw it all in his face:Shock. Awe. Something that almost looked like fear.“You shifted,” he said.“Yes.”“When?”“Three days ago. In fire. In blood.”He took a slow step forward. “And how do you feel?”I looked him in the eyes. “Alive.”Something shifted in him then. He reached out and placed his palm against my cheek. Not to claim. Not to comfort. To connect.And I let him.“I knew there was power in you,” he whispered. “But this… I never imagined.”“You should have,” I said, bu

Ophelia’s POVI didn’t sleep.I sat at my window, eyes locked on the trees beyond the walls, waiting for the figure to vanish, to move to prove he was real.But he didn’t move.He didn’t have to.Because deep in my bones, I knew: he was waiting for me.By morning, the figure was gone, and a blood-red haze stained the sky.The Moon hadn’t yet risen.But it was already bleeding.I found Rafael in the war room, surrounded by his advisors. Maps. Reports. Noise.But when he saw me, everything else disappeared.“I need to speak to you,” I said.The tension in my voice cut through the murmurs.He nodded and dismissed the room with a wave.“Something happened last night,” I said once we were alone. “Something… impossible.”His shoulders tensed. “The vision?”“No. Worse.” I took a breath. “He came.”Rafael stiffened. “Who?”“The Shadow King.”He didn’t laugh. He didn’t dismiss it.He went still the kind of still that only came from fear so deep it became instinct.“Describe him,” Rafael said

Ophelia’s POVI didn’t show Rafael the letter.Not yet.There were too many questions in it too many fears I hadn’t yet learned to name.But I told him about the dream.I told him what the Shadow King said.“You or the kingdom.”“And when he chooses the kingdom… you will burn.”Rafael stood by the fire, hands clenched behind his back. He didn’t look at me.When he finally spoke, his voice was steady. Too steady.“He wants to divide us.”I stepped closer. “What if he doesn’t have to?”That made him turn.His eyes burned. “You think I’d betray you?”“I think if it comes down to your crown or your mate” I paused. “I don’t know what you’ll choose. And that terrifies me.”We stood in silence.The crackle of fire.The distant echo of footsteps in the hall.“I love you, Rafael,” I said softly. “But if you let them take your power, you’re not the only one who falls.”He came to me then, cupping my face in both hands. His eyes searched mine not like a king. Like a man who knew he was one deci