All Chapters of A Different Kind of Alpha: Blood Oath: Chapter 181 - Chapter 190

200 Chapters

Chapter 181 – Possession

AlexeiThe room is still freezing, but under the heavy blanket, the heat is stifling. It’s a cocoon of sweat, tangled limbs, and the heavy, ragged sound of our breathing trying to sync up again.Kieran is sprawled across my chest, his weight negligible in a way that makes my stomach turn over with guilt. He feels brittle. Bird-boned. I have one arm wrapped around his waist, my hand splayed wide over the dip of his spine, terrified that if I let go, even for a second, he’ll dissolve into mist and I’ll wake up back in the Wild Lands, hugging a tree root.We drift in the silence. It’s not the heavy, suffocating silence he talked about. It’s the silence of a battlefield after the cannon smoke clears and you realize you’re still alive.A hesitant knock startles me out of my reverie."Alpha?" A muffled voice. One of the guards I bypassed in the hallway earlier. "We heard... noises. Things breaking. Are you safe?"Kieran stiffens against me.For a second, I think he’s going to panic. I think

Chapter 182 – Breath

KieranIt’s the finest meal I’ve ever eaten.I sit propped up against the headboard, wrapped in the blanket, while Alexei tears chunks of bread off the loaf and hands them to me. He eats the crusts. He eats the rinds of the cheese. He eats like a man who’s forgotten what fullness feels like, but every third bite, he stops to offer the best piece to me."You're watching me like a hawk," he says, pausing with a piece of cheese halfway to his mouth."I’m checking for poison," I lie. "You did steal this from the kitchen. The cook has a vendetta against thieves."Alexei smiles. It reaches his eyes this time, crinkling the corners where dirt and exhaustion have etched new lines. "The cook was asleep. I was very stealthy. I was a shadow. A culinary ninja."He hands me the wine skin and I take a drink. The tart liquid warms my chest, chasing away the last lingering chill of the stone room.When the food is gone, he pulls me out of bed."Bath," he announces."I’m perfectly capable of washing m

Chapter 183 – The Reveal

AlexeiI wake up to the sensation of being poked in the ribs. "Wake up you lummox," a voice commands. "You’re hogging the blankets."I groan, cracking one eye open. The room is dim, the heavy curtains still drawn against the morning sun, but I can make out Kieran sitting up beside me. He looks disheveled, his hair is sticking up in six different directions, his lips are still swollen from all the kissing we did, and there’s a bruise blooming on his neck where I bit him.He looks magnificent."Five more minutes," I mumble, reaching for him. "Come back down here. It’s warm.""It’s not warm for everyone, because you took all the blankets and rolled yourself into a cocoon," Kieran says, batting my hand away. "It’s well past dawn, I have to get up. My terrifying competence is driving Vorlag crazy, I can’t let up now."He rubs his face with his hands, then freezes. He lowers his hands slowly, looking at me with a sudden, sharp intensity."The prisoners," he says.I blink, waking up a littl

Chapter 184 – Family

TarekThe summons comes while I’m trying to bludgeon a training dummy into submission.I’ve been at it for two hours. My shirt is soaked through, my knuckles are raw inside my gloves, and my arms burn with a lactic fire that usually clears my head. But today, the physical pain isn't enough to drown out the noise in the Keep.The whispers are everywhere.He’s back. The Redmaw warrior returned. The Alpha put him in the stables.I strike the dummy’s wooden head with a savage right hook and the wood splinters.I haven't seen him yet. Alexei. My mentor. The man who taught me that fighting isn't just about strength, it’s about leverage and, more importantly, knowing when to cheat.I missed him. It feels childish to admit, but I did. The last three weeks have been a nightmare. The Keep felt entombed in its own silence.I shudder, dropping my hands. The Alpha has become something half-present, all threat. He drifts through the keep in dead silence, frost trailing in his wake. Every step we ta

Chapter 185 – Midnight Assembly

KieranThe Great Bell of Silvercrest has not rung for an emergency meeting in the middle of the night for as long as I’ve been alive.It’s a sound reserved for catastrophe. It’s the sound of invasion, of fire, of the death of an Alpha. It’s a deep, resonant boom that vibrates through the stone floor, shaking the dust from the rafters and waking every living soul within a five-mile radius.I stand on the dais at the head of the Great Hall, watching the chaos unfold below me.Torches are flaring to life along the walls, casting long, jumping shadows. The heavy oak doors are thrown open, and the pack pours in like a tide of confused, terrified water.Most are half-dressed. Men in sleep pants, women clutching shawls over their nightgowns, children rubbing sleep from their eyes. They’re carrying hastily grabbed weapons. Swords, axes, kitchen knives. "What is it?" someone shouts. "Is it Redmaw?""Is the wall breached?""No," I say succinctly.There’s no need to shout. The acoustics of thi

Chapter 186 – The Alarm

Kieran"I do not plead..." Vorlag begins, his eyes darting around the hall, looking for an exit, looking for a savior. "I am innocent! This Alpha is unfit to rule! Open your eyes and see the truth!"I tighten my grip on the hilt of my sword. It hums against my palm, hungry for justice. It feels heavy and right, an extension of my own will."That is not a legal plea, Vorlag," I say coldly. "And you are running out of time. Unless someone present wants to speak on your behalf?"I raise the sword. The steel catches the flickering torchlight, casting a long, thin shadow across Vorlag’s throat. The crowd holds its breath. The silence in the Great Hall is so absolute that the snap of a log sounds like a bone breaking.Then, the world explodes.It isn't an explosion of fire, but of sound. A deep, guttural braying tears through the night air. It’s the warning horn, letting us know with a frantic, rhythmic blast that a full breach of our defenses is imminent.The sound shatters the tension in t

Chapter 187 – The Siege

AlexeiBattle is not glorious. It is not a tapestry of waving flags and polished steel. It’s the smell of bowels loosening, the sound of bone snapping under a boot heel, and the copper taste of blood spray on your lips.And yet, right now, it’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.I hit the Redmaw line like a battering ram. I don’t have a weapon aside from the dagger I always have on me. There was no time to grab one from the armory. But I don't need steel. I am a weapon.The first man I meet is a giant, draped in mangy furs and smelling of rancid fat. He swings a huge axe at my head. I duck under the arc, stepping into his guard to drive the heel of my palm into his chin, snapping his head back, and follow it with a knee to the gut that folds him in half. Before he hits the ground, I grab the axe from his slack grip."Thanks," I grunt.I spin, burying the axe blade in the shoulder of the man behind him. I recognize most of them and feel no love for any. They’re attacking my pack.

Chapter 188 – The Execution

KieranThe steps of the Great Hall are slick with blood.I stand at the top, sword heavy in my hand, my chest heaving as I survey the carnage below. It’s a nightmare brought to life. The courtyard, usually the site of drills and festivals, is a churning sea of violence.Tonight was supposed to be an easy victory over Vorlag, but he seems to have thrown up one final, nearly insurmountable, stumbling block.But the tide is turning. I can feel it. The initial shock of the betrayal has worn off, replaced by the cold, hard fury of the pack. The veterans from the Southern Wall have crushed the Redmaw rear guard and are now pressing into the square, squeezing the invaders against the Keep."Hold!" Marcus roars beside me, shoving a Redmaw berserker back down the stairs with his shield before driving a dagger into the man’s neck. "They’re breaking! Push them back!"He’s right. The Redmaw ferocity is intimidating, but brittle. They’re fighting for plunder, we’re fighting for survival. In the e

Chapter 189 – The Dust Settles

AlexeiThe sun is up. It’s a pale, watery thing, climbing over the eastern wall as if it’s hesitant to illuminate the mess we’ve made.Kieran and I spent the past few hours curled around each other, too tired and sad to do more than offer each other comfort. Even that, edged with tragedy as it is, is precious to me.Marcus assigned teams to work in shifts to start clearing the mess. He argued when Kieran told him to get some rest, that he’d take over.Kieran simply stared at him until he dropped his eyes and muttered, “Yes, Alpha,” before trudging to his room.The courtyard is eerily quiet. There’s no more screaming, or clashing of steel. All that’s left is the low murmur of the healers moving among the wounded and the wet, slapping sound of mops on stone.I lift a beam of wood that fell from the stable roof during the fighting. It weighs as much as a horse, but I hoist it easily, setting it aside so two younger guards can reach the water trough beneath it.They froze in place when the

Chapter 190 – The Ultimatum

KieranThe sun is too bright. It cuts through the gap in the curtains, a relentless, golden intruder demanding that the day begin.I squeeze my eyes shut and burrow deeper into the warmth beside me."You're awake," a rough voice rumbles.I feel the vibration of the words against my chest and open one eye blearily. Alexei is watching me. He’s propped up on one elbow, his hair a chaotic halo of honeyed waves, his face scrubbed clean. The bruise on his jaw is blooming into a spectacular shade of purple, but his eyes are clear."I’m not awake," I mutter, turning my face into his neck. "I’m in a coma. Wake me next spring."Alexei chuckles. He runs a large, warm hand down my spine, his calloused fingertips snagging slightly on the silk of my skin. It anchors me. It reminds me that I’m here, in my bed, and not in the cold, empty void of the last month."The pack is waiting, Alpha," he says softly. "They’re nervous. They think you're going to come out breathing fire and start hanging people.

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