All Chapters of Mated to the Alpha King: Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

"I'll come back tomorrow," Winter said eventually. "Check the wound. Bring more food if I can steal it without getting caught." She paused, studying Vex's intelligent eyes. "Levi said you were bonded to my grandmother. Morwenna." Vex's ears pricked forward at the name. "I never met her. she died before I was born. During the massacre." Winter's throat felt tight. "Everyone here talks about her like she was a hero. But she also cursed someone who was barely older than a child, and that curse destroyed him. Made him into something cold and cruel. So I don't know what to think about her." Vex made a sound that might have been agreement or disagreement or just acknowledgment. Hard to tell with a beast. "You probably think I'm a traitor," Winter continued, the words spilling out before she could stop them. "For being mated to a Crescent. For not hating him the way everyone else does. My mother definitely thinks I'm under some kind of magical influence, that the bond is controlling me.

Ezekiel's hands clenched. The bleeding knuckles cracked wider. "Doesn't matter." "It absolutely fucking matters." Jax moved closer, and he was one of maybe three people in the pack who could do that safely. Who could stand in Ezekiel's space without triggering the violent instincts the curse had sharpened into weapons. "You told her she could leave because you expected her to choose to stay. And when she didn't, you took it as rejection instead of considering that maybe she had no idea what you actually wanted. Because you never told her." the words hit like blows. Ezekiel wanted to destroy something else (the table, the wall, Jax's face for being right). But the curse dampened even that rage, turning it cold and distant. Everything was cold and distant. Had been for seventeen years. Except when Winter was here. When she'd looked at him with those pale eyes like she was trying to figure him out. When she'd touched his hand in the garden and said she'd stay and he'd believed her lik

The bond pulsed in his chest. Distant but there. Constant. She was alive. Not in immediate danger. The awareness should bring relief (pragmatic, she was his mate, her death would hurt). But what he felt was more complicated. He wanted her alive because of course he did. But also he wanted her here. Wanted to see her. Wanted to know if she was okay. Wanted impossible things the curse had trained him not to want. Ezekiel's hands clenched. Blood from his torn knuckles dripped onto stone. Red on grey. Vivid and wrong. seventeen years ago, a dying witch had cursed him. Locked his heart in ice and made feeling nearly impossible. He'd thought it was a punishment. A torture. Making him powerful but hollow, capable of ruling but incapable of connection. Maybe it had been mercy. Because this (the ache, the loss, the wanting) was worse than the cold had ever been. (She touched your hand. Said she'd stay. Looked at you like you were a person instead of a monster. And you let her get taken b

"You don't care about witch politics," Winter said, reaching out carefully to touch Vex's shoulder. He allowed it. "You just miss her. Morwenna. That's why you're down here alone." Vex's eyes closed. Confirmation or exhaustion, hard to tell Winter kept her hand on his shoulder, feeling the rise and fall of his breathing. The mate bond pulsed its steady rhythm in her chest, cold and distant. Two connections she didn't understand. One to a beast who'd belonged to her dead grandmother. One to a cursed king who'd kept her caged "I should check your bandages," Winter said eventually. Vex's eyes opened but he didn't move, just watched as she carefully unwrapped the spider silk. The wound looked better. The angry red inflammation had faded to pink, and the translucent membrane from the wound sealant had thickened. No fresh blood, no oozing infection. Just healthy healing tissue. "This is good," Winter said, surprised and relieved. "Really good. Another day or two and you won't even ne

Levi's eyebrows rose. Alice made a small surprised sound. Olivia's expression flickered between impressed and resentful. Winter focused harder. The shadow sphere elongated, stretching into a tendril that wound around her arm like a living thingIt felt cold but not unpleasant. Like winter air against skin. She guided it across the space between her and the pool, letting it touch the black water and send ripples spreading outward. "Shadow manipulation takes most witches years to learn," Levi said quietly. His voice held genuine awe. "You're doing it after a week." "Maybe it's genetic," Alice offered. "Morwenna was legendary with shadows. It makes sense her granddaughter would have natural affinity." "Or maybe she's been training longer than she claims," Olivia said. But the accusation sounded weaker now. Winter pulled the shadow tendril back and let it dissolve. Her head ached slightly but she felt steadier. More confident. "Believe what you want," Winter said to Olivia. "I can't