All Chapters of After Betrayal, I Married The Cursed Alpha King: Chapter 161 - Chapter 170

The underground hall was still burning when Ferald dragged Selene into the ruined corridor by her arm.She stumbled to her knees with a cry, her once-perfect hair disheveled, her dress torn, ash smeared across her face. For the first time since Violetta had known her, Selene didn’t look polished or untouchable.She looked afraid.Good.Violetta stood beside Draven, her hand still trapped in his bloodstained one. His grip was not painful, but it was firm. Unyielding. Possessive.As if now that he had found her again, the world would have to rip her from his corpse before he let her go.And somehow…that terrified her almost as much as it comforted her.Selene’s eyes lifted.The moment she saw Violetta standing in Draven’s arms, alive, bruised, and trembling—her face drained of color.“No…” she whispered.Draven’s expression turned glacial.“Start talking.”Selene swallowed hard, trying to push herself up, but Gerald shoved her back down with the tip of his boot.“I said kneel,” he mut

Violetta didn’t let the babies leave her arms for nearly an hour.Even when the healer checked them.Even when the nanny softly offered to take one so she could rest.Even when her own body swayed from exhaustion.She clung to them like the world would steal them again if she loosened her grip for even a second.Draven watched every second of it.And when Elara finally fell asleep against Violetta’s chest while Kael quieted in the nanny’s arms after a feeding, he stepped forward carefully.“Violetta.”His voice was low.Gentle.So gentle it almost hurt.She looked up at him with swollen eyes and tear-streaked cheeks.Draven’s chest tightened painfully.God.She looked destroyed.Beautiful. Fragile. Shattered.And his.Still his.His gaze dropped to the bruises on her collarbone, to the scrape along her shoulder, to the dried blood on her knee.His wolf surged violently.He wanted to kill someone again.He wanted to tear apart every person who had looked at her wrong, touched her wro

Morning came too softly for the kind of night they had survived.For a few long, disoriented seconds, Violetta didn’t know where she was.Warmth surrounded her.Heavy. Steady. Male.And then—the memory of the night before slammed into her all at once.The auction. The cage. The blood. The screams. Draven.Her breath hitched, and she stiffened instantly.She was in his arms.One of Draven’s large hands rested at her waist beneath the blanket, his body wrapped around hers from behind like even in sleep, he had refused to let the world take her again.His face was buried in her hair. His breathing deep. Even.And despite herself…Violetta stayed still for one more second.Because there was something dangerously comforting about this.Too familiar. Too intimate. Too easy to slip back into.That was what made it terrifying.So carefully, slowly, she moved away from him.The second the warmth left his arms, Draven’s body tensed.His eyes opened instantly.Sharp. Alert. Wolf.Then t

Her mother’s face crumpled.“Violetta, of course I did—”“Don’t lie to me.”The prison went still.Violetta stepped closer.Tears streamed silently down her face now, but her voice had gone eerily steady.“Not now. Not after everything. Not when I was put in a cage like an animal because of you.”Her mother started sobbing harder.But Violetta didn’t stop.“Did you ever love me,” she repeated, “or did you only love what I could do for you?”That question broke something.Not in Violetta.In her mother.Because for one split second—one horrible, honest split second—silence answered for her.And that silence was enough.Violetta’s face went completely blank.Draven saw it and instantly knew—this was worse than tears.Worse than screaming.This was the kind of pain that turned a person quiet because something essential inside them had finally died.Her mother reached for the bars desperately.“Violetta, please—”“No.”Violetta took a step back.Then another.And when she looked at her

The Curse They Wanted to Expose The first sign that peace would not last came just after noon. Violetta had barely managed to get Kael back to sleep after his feeding while Elara dozed against her shoulder, her tiny fingers curled into the soft fabric of Violetta’s robe. For the first time since the nightmare began, the room felt almost still. Almost safe. Draven sat across from her in the nursery chair, his sleeves rolled up, his massive frame looking absurdly out of place while he assembled one of the twins’ wooden rattles with grim concentration—as if fixing baby toys might somehow repair everything else too. Violetta should have smiled. On another day, she would have. But she was too tired. Too full. Too aware of the strange, fragile thing that had settled between them since last night. Not forgiveness. Not peace. But something quieter. Something raw. And then— Dimitri burst into the room without knocking. That alone was enough to make Draven ris