All Chapters of The Freak Is The Mate Of The Lycan: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

​I didn't have to wait long.Ten minutes after Livia stormed out, the door opened again. It was Wendy, her face the color of old parchment. She was trembling so hard the ornate wooden box in her hands was rattling.​"Miss," she whispered, her voice cracking."Tell me," I said. My own voice was calm. It felt distant, like it was coming from someone else."Physician Elias... he... he was furious." She set the box on the table, but she scrambled back from it, as if it were a coiled snake."He said..." she swallowed, her eyes wide with terror. "He said it's called White Briar. It's... it's a poison.""To kill me?" I asked, my tone conversational."No!" she burst out, then clapped a hand over her mouth. "No," she whispered, "worse. He said... he said it wouldn't kill you. Not quickly. It just... it stops... it...""Spit it out, Wendy.""It stops a she-wolf from ever bearing pups, miss. He said it burns the womb. Makes you... barren."​Barren.​The word hung in the air.A sudden, icy cold,

Four days.Four days of a new, grueling routine. My world had shrunk to the four walls of my room, but my mind had expanded.The pain in my back was no longer a fire. It was a dull, angry pulling. The stitches were gone, I’d taken them out myself on the second day, using the mirror and the tip of the new dagger. The skin beneath was a puckered, ugly, violent-red map of my weakness. A reminder.I no longer just walked the perimeter of my room. I stalked it.I'd spent hours with the dagger. The weight of it felt good in my hand. Natural. I practiced flicks of the wrist, quick, stabbing motions, transferring my weight from foot to foot. I was clumsy. I was weak. But I was learning.I was healing, too. The "unnatural" speed was alarming, even to me. Every meal Wendy brought, I devoured. Every foul-tasting draught, I downed. My body was a furnace, burning fuel to rebuild itself. The bruises on my neck were gone. The cut on my shoulder was just a silvery-pink line.The only thing that hadn'

The door of the Council Chamber closed behind me with a soft, heavy thud, but the silence of the room I stepped into was just as loud.It was nothing like the hallway. This chamber was built to intimidate.The air was cold, still, and heavy with the scent of old parchment, beeswax, and something else... something dry and ancient, like dust and power. The walls weren't stone; they were dark, polished wood, lined with books that looked a thousand years old. The light came from a high, slitted window that did nothing to warm the space.They were already there.Five of them.Four males and one female, seated behind a long, crescent-shaped table on a raised dais. They were all ancient, their faces less like skin and more like carved granite. They wore simple, dark robes, but their combined presence was an oppressive, physical weight.And they were all staring at me.They weren't just looking. They were dissecting. Their eyes raked over my severe grey tunic, the dark trousers, the practical

​I didn't walk out of the Council Chamber. I was escorted.​Kael’s hand was a firm, grounding weight on my arm. He wasn't just touching me; he was holding me up. The second the door to the chamber thudded shut behind us, the last bit of manufactured, spite-fueled strength I'd used to stand before the Elders evaporated.​My legs buckled.​Kael caught me before I could fall, his grip like a steel band. He didn't say a word, just adjusted, taking more of my weight. I leaned into him, my body a dead weight, my head hanging. The fight was over, and the adrenaline was gone, leaving nothing but a vast, hollow, screaming agony.​I was a wreck. A shivering, broken, nauseous thing."It's... over," I mumbled, the words thick on my tongue."It's over, Miss," Kael's voice rumbled, close to my ear. He was all business, but there was a new... something... in his voice. It wasn't pity. It was... deeper. The shared knowledge of what we'd both seen. The truth on my back. The madness in Quinn's eyes."T

​My hand was frozen, clutching the dark green wool.The fabric was soft. Heavy. Expensive. It was the tunic of a high-born woman, not a prisoner.And it was a costume."Miss...?" Wendy’s voice was a thin, terrified thread in the silence. "You… you don't have to go. You're not… you're not well. The Alpha said… he said you weren't to be disturbed."I let go of the tunic, my hand dropping to my side. "That was an order for before, Wendy. Before I was healed."I turned, my new, silvered scars hidden beneath the bandages. "This… this is a summons.""But… it's… it's a savage thing, Miss! A public… you shouldn't… you shouldn't have to see it!"A cold, bitter laugh, so dry it hurt my throat, escaped me. "He saved me from it, Wendy. He didn't save me from it. He just… changed the target."I was the guest of honor at the execution I was supposed to star in. The sickness of it, the cold, brutal transaction, rose in my throat. I was healed, fed, and now, I was being dressed.I pulled off the simp