All Chapters of Fated To The Dark Alphas: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

~ ~ ASTRID ~ ~The air crackled, not just with magic, but with the suffocating audacity of Rhys’s touch. My breath hitched, a ragged sound tearing through the silence. Heat bloomed between my legs, a traitorous response to his invasive fingers. Shame, hot and immediate, flooded me, but beneath it, a wild tremor—a spark of defiance, a flicker of understanding.Kieran’s body went rigid. His growl was a low, guttural rumble that vibrated through my bones, a sound of pure, unadulterated fury. His golden eyes, usually so possessive, were now wide with shock and disbelief, fixed on Rhys’s hand. He looked like he wanted to tear his brother limb from limb, but he was frozen, trapped by the Alpha’s command and the public gaze.Rhys, damn him, simply watched Kieran, a slow, predatory smile spreading across his lips. His fingers, still pressing intimately against me, moved just slightly, a subtle shift that sent another jolt through my core. It was a silent challenge, a blatant disregard for Kie

~ ~ ASTRID ~ ~Darkness. Then a dull ache , throbbing. My chest felt hollowed out, a raw, gaping wound. My throat was on fire. I tried to swallow, but it felt like sandpaper scraping against bone. It wasn't just dry; it was a deep, burning thirst that clawed at my insides, a hunger unlike anything I’d ever known. Every cell in my body screamed for moisture, for relief.A faint light pierced the black behind my eyelids. I forced them open.Stone. Glowing crystals. A strange, earthy smell mixed with something sweet, like herbs. Shapes moved in the periphery, tall and shadowed. My mind was a fog, but one sensation cut through it all, sharp and undeniable.My mouth was dry. So dry it hurt.“Thirsty!” I gasped, the word tearing from my throat. My voice was raw, desperate. “Water!”A figure moved into my blurry vision. Tall, dark, with eyes like polished obsidian. He held something. A goblet. My eyes fixed on it, desperate. I didn't care who he was, or where I was. Only the thirst mattered.

~ ~ ASTRID ~ ~The word hung in the cavern air. Third.My knees gave out. It wasn't just shock. It was a violent, physical yank in my soul, like a hook had been sunk into my sternum and Caius held the line. He hadn't moved, hadn't touched me, but I felt him everywhere.The new bond thrummed with a dark, possessive energy that made what I’d felt for Rhys seem like a ghost.“No,” I choked out, my hands hitting the cold stone floor. The room spun. “That’s not… it’s not possible. I would have felt it.”“You did,” Caius said. He closed the distance in two silent strides, his shadow falling over me as he crouched, bringing his face level with mine. His scent was ozone and ancient stone. “You felt it in the hall. A pull. A recognition. You just didn’t have a name for it. Your wolf was screaming too loudly for you to hear anything else.”He was right. I had felt his eyes on me, felt a shift in the air around him. I’d told myself it was just fear.“I reject it,” I spat, forcing myself to meet

CHAPTER 28~ ~ KIERAN ~ ~The office stank of my father.Old leather and the cheap cigars he smoked when he thought no one was looking. But the scent that was missing was the one driving me up the wall. Astrid’s. That faint trace of lavender soap that always seemed to linger here, a constant reminder of what was supposed to be mine.Now, there was just stale air and the smell of a dead man.I shoved the pack ledger away from me, the heavy book sliding across the polished wood. Three days. For three fucking days, I’d been trapped in this office, listening to the panicked whispers filter through the walls.A restless energy thrummed under my skin, making it impossible to sit still. My wolf wanted to hunt, to tear something apart. Anything. The trackers had come back with their tails between their legs. Her scent, they’d said, just stopped. Vanished at the edge of the Forbidden Forest like she’d been plucked out of the sky. All they found was a scrap of her dress.Useless.A knock at the

I stared at him. He didn’t just say that. He couldn’t have.“You’re coming?” I whispered, the words catching in my throat.He paused at the large, dark wood armoire, a slow smile spreading across his face as he turned to face me. "Of course, I am," he purred, his voice a low, dangerous rumble. "We have to greet them."And something about the way he said it sent a shiver crawling down my spine. It wasn’t a shiver of fear, not exactly. It was more like a jolt of electricity, a recognition that whatever was coming, it wouldn’t be a fair fight. Lyra, who had been standing silent and still, shifted her weight. "My Lord, with all due respect, sending the entire war party into the forest is a dangerous move. They could be baiting us into a trap."Caius simply scoffed, not even bothering to look at her. "Let them. A trap for them, perhaps. Not for us. We'll meet them on their own terms. And we'll show them what happens when they dare to challenge the new order."He said the last part with a