A Different Kind of Alpha: Blood Oath의 모든 챕터: 챕터 181 - 챕터 190

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

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

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

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.

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