Lahat ng Kabanata ng The Hybrid, The Prince, & I: Kabanata 11 - Kabanata 14

“I said… My mother told me Valkyrie would protect me,” I repeated, slower this time. “So when the sun rose, I crawled out of the den. There was nothing left. No bodies... No blood. Just... silence. I thought… maybe Valkyrie was a person. So I went to the nearest pack.”My nails dug crescent moons into my wrist, sharp enough to pierce. Pain was better than drowning in memory. Pain meant I was still here.“When I reached Oceana Pack, I asked. I begged. I searched for anyone who could tell me who Valkyrie was. The guards found me, and they didn’t answer. They just dragged me to their dungeon before I could finish the sentence.”Silence clawed at the room. No one dared breathe. Maybe they already knew the punchline. “They whipped me. They whipped an eleven-year-old kid for speaking one word—‘Valkyrie.’”My throat closed. Still, I pushed.“I didn’t even know what it meant. I thought it was my aunt’s name. That was the funny part. I smiled when I said it, like a fool. I thought they’d reco

The beast beneath my skin surged, every instinct burning with the need to claim what was mine.He didn’t fight back. He never did when I was like this. Instead, his eyes softened. The gold in them brightened, swirling like sunlight cutting through storm clouds. His hand slid to my waist, grounding me, taming me the way only he could.“It’s not sharing. I’m yours, Zaqriel. As you are mine.”My chest ached. The words hit something deep, something I’d locked away long ago. I wanted to believe him. I wanted to let that be enough. “But?” He hesitated, his thumb brushing the edge of my belt, barely there, but enough to undo me. “But I’m an Alpha. And I have to think of our pack’s safety too.”Our pack.Every time he said it that way, something in me softened—an ache buried so deep I’d forgotten it could still bleed. It started as nothing more than tolerance for his wolves. But over time, those wolves stopped being his. They’d become ours. MINE to protect. MINE to bleed for.And I’d kill—o