All Chapters of The Alpha king and the Hunt: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

Aria’s POV) The kitchens were a cave of warmth at that hour, a place of steady, honest labor where night swallowed the rest of the keep and only the hearth remained witness. We’d finished the last of the evening pots; the clatter of serving had faded hours ago. I liked the quiet the way heat thinned the edges of grief and left only work. It made thinking manageable—if thinking ever was. Tonight, only three of us remained: my mother with a basket of herbs, a tired girl named Mara finishing the last loaves, and me. Word had gone out for the others to sleep; Kaelen’s orders for strict quiet after the day’s alarms kept most to their rooms. It meant we were alone, just the three of us. Then Serena came in. I should have heard her before she entered. Her footsteps were always too confident; her presence a blade that found its mark. But the kitchen’s steam smothered noise into softness, and I was bent over a table when she leaned in like a shadow, the scent of her perfume sharp

Aria’s POV.... The council chamber smelled like smoke and steel. Torches flickered along the carved stone walls, throwing tall shadows across the circular hall where Kaelen’s council gathered. I had never stood in this place before, never felt the heavy weight of so many eyes on me at once. Kaelen sat at the head, his chair more throne than seat, crafted of blackwood and iron. Varric stood at his shoulder, calm but watchful, while Lyra and Kael—his shadows—remained near the walls, silent as statues. Around the room, Kaelen’s high-ranking wolves filled the benches: commanders, elders, women with sharp eyes and sharper tongues. And then there was Damien. The Alpha sat with his Beta at his side, both stiff-backed, both radiating disapproval. He was still bandaged the wound on his chest healing slowly but his pride had not suffered at all. His eyes glittered when they fell on me, and the curl of his lips said he had been waiting for this moment. Kaelen’s voice rolled across the c

Kaelen….. Aria was infuriating. And beautiful And strong And feisty And I knew she was my mate I felt the pull during the hunt and it wasn't just because of her heat. But she doesn't know that and she is the mate to Damien Storm Moon goddess hardly gives second mates, hardly. So what could be going on My door opened and I saw Varric “We found something in the woods” he said I got up and followed him out, lyra and kael were there already I saw a dead pup “We found bite marks___from a fang” Lyra said My wolf growled “Did you see anything else?“ I asked “We looked around and saw three different footprints” Kael said “Two belonged to men and one was tiny and a footprint of a woman” Lyra said “Aria was in this woods with Damien” I said “We need to have this investigated,” Varric said “That's not all, the heart of the pup was ripped out” Lyra said I looked at the corpse and saw his heart was ripped out of its ribcage “What could b

Aria…By the time I stumbled into the house, every bone in my body felt like it was made of stone. Training with Father and Elias had wrung me dry. My arms trembled, my legs shook, and my stomach growled like a wild beast.“Food first,” I muttered, collapsing at the kitchen table.Mother had left a pot of stew on the hearth. I didn’t even bother with manners—I ladled a bowl, dipped bread into it, and ate as if I hadn’t seen food in weeks. The warmth filled me, heavy and soothing, dragging my eyelids lower with each bite.I barely remembered crawling into bed. The last thing I felt was the cool linen against my cheek… and then I slipped away.---The dream came suddenly.I stood in the middle of a moonlit field. The grass shimmered like silver, and the air carried a quiet hum, as if the world itself was holding its breath. Ahead of me stood a woman cloaked in light—her hair spilling down her back like liquid starlight, her eyes glowing silver.I froze. “Who are you?”Her voice was like

Aria......I stared at the parchment until the black ink seemed to blur and twist like it was mocking me. My pulse hammered in my ears, drowning out the shuffle of feet and the soft murmurs of the crowd watching us from the gallery above and below, everyone was looking excited while my chest was in knots.The words were simple enough, and yet they clawed at me.“I am taken from a mine, locked in a wooden case, never released, and yet almost every soul uses me. What am I?”It was the first of three riddles, written in curling script across the parchment, each line more cryptic than the last.My throat tightened. I wasn’t supposed to be here. Serena’s words rang in my head, sharp and venomous. She chooses toys. Giselle’s delicate smirk lingered in my memory, her spear glinting like a promise. Matilda had looked like a warrior born, her axe resting against her shoulder as if she’d been raised with it in her hand.And me? I was sitting cross-legged on the floor with parchment in my lap, t