Semua Bab Rejected by the lycan king: Bab 21 - Bab 30

The Shadow King had declared war. Not with armies. Not yet.But with a single line: He chooses the kingdom. Now, you will be mine.The words seared into my mind like a second brand. They didn’t come with fanfare. No horns, no banners. Just a cold truth Rafael was being tested. And so was I.I watched him from across the room. He stood beside the shattered war table, his hand still wrapped around the missive, jaw clenched hard enough to crack bone. Outside the hall, the scent of burned magic and broken glass lingered like fog.“I didn’t choose anything,” he muttered, finally breaking the silence.“But he thinks you did,” I said, stepping closer. “And maybe the court does too.”He looked at me then his eyes darker than usual, haunted, exhausted. “You think I betrayed you?”“No,” I said. “But I think it’s going to look like that from every direction now. And that makes me dangerous. To them. To him. Maybe even to you.”Rafael moved to me in three steps, his hands cupping my face with tha

By the time the second moon reached its highest point, I was no longer just Rafael’s mate.I was the one they looked to for orders.And that terrified me more than the Shadow King’s whispers.Rafael was healing, but slowly. He refused to be bedridden, of course stubborn as ever but every time he rose, blood stained his tunic. The blade that hit him in the southern ambush had been laced with something old. Something dark.Not poison.Shadow-touched steel.He hadn’t said it aloud, but I could see it in his eyes he could feel it under his skin. It moved like sickness. And it wasn’t healing with wolf blood alone.“I’m fine,” he growled when I tried to call the healers again.“You’re not,” I snapped. “And I won’t risk losing you to pride.”That silenced him.He leaned back, jaw clenched, and gave me a look I knew well: submission, laced with unspoken rage.“Rest,” I told him. “I’ll handle the court.”The High Council met that afternoon without Rafael.At my order.Xander stood to my rig

The forest was too quiet.I’d grown used to the sounds of Duskfall boots on stone, the distant clang of steel, the whisper of wolves moving through trees. But here, in the heart of the old lands, the silence was not peaceful.It was absolute.Like the world had been told to hold its breath until I passed.I moved through it slowly, my senses sharp. My wolf stayed half-shifted beneath my skin, claws itching at the surface. The sigils on my arms glowed faintly in the moonlight a map of who I had been, and who I was becoming.I reached the edge of the clearing at dawn.The Shadow King’s stronghold wasn’t a fortress.It was a ruin.Half-buried stone columns, split and blackened by age. An altar at the center, scorched and cracked. And hanging above itMy stepmother, Lucretia.She dangled from black cords, unconscious but breathing.At the far end, Alpha Kieran lay chained to a broken throne, blood dried along his jawline. His eyes opened slowly when I stepped forward.“…Ophelia?” he ras

They bowed when I returned to Duskfall.Not because they loved me.Not because they feared me.Because they no longer knew what I was.The Hollow-Blooded had no mask anymore. I walked through the gates of the inner keep with light pulsing through my skin, my sigils silver and black and gold all at once, shifting with each breath like living flame.The magic I took from the temple hadn’t faded.It had simply… settled.Inside me.Around me.Through me.And I didn’t need to speak to be heard now.Even the stone listened.Rafael stood on the steps of the throne room, arms crossed, brow shadowed beneath his crown. He didn’t move as I approached. He didn’t smile.He just watched me.As if uncertain whether the woman before him was the same one he’d once pulled from a shallow grave of rejection and ruin.“Are you going to say something?” I asked softly.He looked at me for a long moment.Then: “Are you still her?”I blinked. “Her who?”“My mate.”The words cut deeper than I expected.“I don’

The Hollow Crown rested in a velvet-lined box beside my bed, its bone carved from the remains of something ancient a creature or a woman or a god, no one knew for certain. Each curve of the twisted crown seemed to move when I wasn’t looking. It whispered. It pulsed. And I hadn't touched it since the moment I carried it into the tower.But it was touching me.Every day since, the air had grown thinner. The light dimmer. Duskfall’s wolves began to dream in tongues. Infants born in the outer villages were said to come into the world silent, with eyes clouded in silver. My people had once feared me for what I carried. Now they feared what I had become.And still, I hadn’t worn it.I sat in silence on the high tower ledge, staring down at the courtyard far below. A patrol of guards passed through, flanked by a caravan carrying wounded from the forest border. Shadow creatures had returned to the outer woods, more aggressive this time. Smarter. They didn’t kill. They whispered. And those who