Semua Bab Beast Billionaire Claim : Bab 131 - Bab 140

The air still tasted of ash. The battlefield had not moved on from the ruin of Ruby’s fall; it lay smoldering, broken, and thick with the scent of iron. Every stone seemed to hum with the memory of Hollow fire. But the silence that followed was worse. It pressed on the survivors, a silence that did not feel like peace, but like the pause before something greater.Maxim stood in the center of it, breath ragged, shoulders bowed under the weight of the crown that no longer existed. The ground around him bore claw marks—his own. His hands trembled, talons half-formed, refusing to retreat. The Beast inside him had tasted too much power, too much freedom, and now it paced at the edge of his skin, restless.The men who had followed him in blood and bond kept their distance. Even his most loyal hesitated to come close. The smell of fear leaked from them, sharp as copper. Yet their eyes glowed with awe, too, as though they had seen not just their Alpha, but something older—something unchained.

The night pressed in heavy, sky torn by restless clouds that dragged the moonlight in and out of shadow. The warband huddled near the ruins of the old outpost, their banners limp in the wind, their blades still streaked with the blood of the last skirmish. What had once been an unbreakable brotherhood now felt splintered—each man’s silence sharper than steel.Maxim felt it in the air, the kind of silence that came before men decided whether to follow or betray. He stood at the edge of the campfire, shoulders squared, his beast just beneath the surface, daring anyone to break. Yet even he could taste it—their oath to him was fraying.Ronan, scarred and broad-shouldered, spat into the dirt and broke the silence first. “We bled for your name, Vale. For your curse, for your throne. And what did it bring us? A trail of corpses, half our brothers rotting in fields, and no end in sight.” His voice cut through the night, and heads turned.A few men grunted agreement. One slammed his fist agai

The ruins of the Vale smoked like a corpse still smoldering. Columns that once held banners of silver and crimson now jutted jagged and black against the sky, as if the earth itself had sprouted broken fangs. Survivors picked through the rubble with haunted eyes, scavenging not for treasure but for bodies, for proof that some part of their lives remained. The wind carried ash and something heavier—an echo of the Hollow that refused to vanish, a taste of shadow on every breath.And at the center of it all stood Maxim.The Beast within him prowled restless, no longer content with the chains he had forced around it. After the crown of Hollow shadow had scorched his soul, there was no leash that could fully bind what it had tasted. The warband—those bound to him by blood, fang, and the ritual carved into stone—lingered at a distance, their gazes caught between awe and fear. He had given them power. He had given them survival. But the price of that power was his ruin, and every one of them

The Vale smelled of smoke and blood. Dawn crawled across the blackened ruins, a weak light that revealed more loss than hope. Maxim stood among the wreckage, his chest heaving, his claws half-formed and dripping with the dark glow of the Beast. Every breath tasted of iron and ash.The Hollow’s flame had been ripped from Ruby, but the echoes of its power still clung to the air like an invisible fog. It whispered to Maxim in a hundred broken voices—tempting, promising, laughing. Wear the crown. Take the ruin. Rule what is left.The Beast inside him shivered with hunger. Its eyes were his eyes now: molten gold shot through with shadow. He felt its will surge against his skin, urging him to finish what Ruby had begun. With one command he could make the survivors kneel. The crown was gone, but the hunger for it pulsed like a second heartbeat.“Maxim.”Her voice cut through the haze. Zara stood at the edge of the cracked courtyard, her dark hair tangled, her clothes streaked with soot. Her

The Vale no longer had a heart. Where the palace once towered in arrogant splendor, only a crater of blackened stone remained. Ash drifted across the dawn like tired snow, soft enough to make the ruins seem peaceful if one didn’t look too closely at the splintered bones beneath. Maxim Vale stood at the rim of the hollow and breathed in the smoke of a kingdom’s ending.The wind carried faint sparks from dying fires. Each ember burned his lungs with the memory of Ruby’s last scream, the Hollow’s poison burning out of her in a spiral of crimson flame. She was gone—truly gone—but her ruin lingered in the air, in the cracks of the earth, in the eyes of those who had survived. Victory had no taste except ash.Behind him, the survivors gathered in hesitant clusters. Blood-bound warriors, witches, merchants, children who had hidden through the night—they looked to him as if he were both savior and threat. Some had swords drawn though the battle was finished, their fear sharper than steel. Oth