บททั้งหมดของ THE SUBSTITUTE MATE FOR THE ALPHA KING: บทที่ 21 - บทที่ 30

The world narrowed to the three of us standing in the moonlit garden: Riri with her glowing communicator, a smirk of vile triumph on her face; Renejay, his hand still outstretched, his expression shifting from anticipation to cold, calculating assessment; and me, trapped between them, the bundled file feeling like a live bomb in my arms.Riri’s words hung in the air, a death knell. A death sentence. She wasn’t wrong. This footage, in her hands, was incontrovertible proof. My life was over.Renejay’s outstretched hand slowly lowered. He didn’t look panicked. He looked… intrigued, as if observing a fascinating, unexpected variable in his equation.“A death sentence requires a trial, little viper,” Renejay said, his voice a low, dangerous rumble that seemed to vibrate through the night. He took a slow, deliberate step toward Riri, his Alpha aura beginning to press against the air. “And trials require evidence to be presented.”Riri’s confidence flickered for a fraction of a second, but s

I stared at her, my mind reeling. The confirmation of Renejay’s truth should have felt like a victory. Instead, it felt like a trap snapping shut. The enemy princess was on my doorstep, begging me for help. The irony was so bitter it choked me.“He might listen to me?” I echoed, a hollow laugh escaping my raw throat. I opened the door wider, gesturing to the dark, empty apartment behind me. “Did you not just witness what happened? He called me a traitor. He’s confining me here. He’s taking my daughter away. He wouldn’t listen to me if I told him the sky was blue right now.”Bianca flinched but didn’t retreat. “That’s because Riri poisoned him against you! But this… this is different. This is about the security of the entire pack! If you tell him what you know, what Renejay told you… if you warn him…”“And why would I do that?” I shot back, the anger and hurt of the night finally finding a target. “You’re the reason he’s doing this! You and this… this farce of an alliance! You think I

The world stopped. The air, thick with the promise of my humiliation, seemed to freeze solid. Every eye on the training ground was locked on Renejay. The guards holding me loosened their grip in their shock.Kairi slowly turned, the leather strap hanging forgotten at his side. His expression was one of pure, unadulterated fury, but beneath it, I saw a flicker of something else—shock, and a dawning, terrible understanding. Renejay’s audacity, showing up here, in the heart of his territory, was a declaration of war far more potent than any border attack.“You,” Kairi breathed, the word a low, venomous sound. “You dare set foot on my lands?”Renejay spread his hands, a gesture of mocking peace. “I go where I please, pup. Especially when my property is being threatened.”Property. The word was a slap. I was just a pawn being fought over by two opposing kings. Any fleeting hope that Renejay was here as some kind of savior died a quick death.Riri shot to her feet, her face pale with a fear

The elderly woman’s words were a bucket of ice water dumped over my head. *Moonrise Pack.* The world tilted, the fragile sense of safety shattering into a million pieces. My arms tightened around Elisse, a purely instinctual reaction. She whimpered in protest, squirming against my sudden, viselike grip.“What?” The word was a choked whisper. I stared at the woman, my eyes wide with dawning horror. “What did you say?”She gave me a patient, pitying smile, as if I were a slow child. “The Moonrise Pack, dear. They’re our allies. They sent these trucks to evacuate us to their territory for our own safety. We’ll be perfectly safe there until Alpha Kairi deals with this nasty business.” She leaned closer, her voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. “Between us, I think it’s that dreadful Renejay character causing all this trouble. The Alpha was right to cast his little traitor out.”Her words were a poison-tipped dagger. She had no idea who I was. She was just repeating the gossip, the

The world narrowed to the sliver of paper in my hand, the elegant script a lifeline in the suffocating dark. The real one is alive. Held in the mountain cells. The words burned themselves into my mind. Bianca was here. In this very mountain. And the impostor knew. She was risking everything to tell me.We can help each other.Hope, sharp and dangerous and terrifying, lanced through the despair Gideon had poured into me. This changed everything. It wasn’t just my life and Elisse’s on the line anymore. It was the fate of a real princess, the legitimacy of Kairi’s alliance, the entire truth of this war.But it was also an impossible risk. The impostor was still the impostor. This could be a trap. A trick orchestrated by Gideon to test my loyalty, to give him the excuse he needed to cut me off. My eyes darted to Elisse, sleeping peacefully, trustingly. Could I gamble her life on the word of a woman who had been pretending to be someone else for years?The sound of a key turning in the lo