บททั้งหมดของ BARBARIAN: The Mad Alpha Is My Mate.: บทที่ 161 - บทที่ 166

He stood frozen in the wreckage of the shattered chamber, staring at the empty space where Caierre had vanished, and the bond—still there, still alive, still unmistakably *his*—felt suddenly distant in a way that made his chest ache with something close to physical pain. He could hear Caierre breathing through it, faint but real, and he clung to that thin thread of proof the way a drowning man clings to driftwood."Where are you?" he asked, urgent, voice cracking.Silence answered him for several agonizing seconds. Then Caierre's voice returned, weaker now, but clear.*Under the seal.*Alvar's eyes dropped to the broken markings still glowing faint beneath his boots. A narrow crack had split the stone, silver light bleeding up through it in slow, steady pulses—the same light that had surrounded them both moments before Caierre disappeared entirely."I'm coming," Alvar said, already moving toward it.*No.*His jaw tightened. "I'm not asking."*Alvar, listen to me. There's something her

The road back from Frostfang felt different in ways Caierre hadn't expected. No cold pressure lingered at the edges of his thoughts. No voice waited patient in the dark corners of his mind, whispering his name with cruel, unhurried satisfaction. No shadow followed them between the trees, watching, calculating, waiting for a moment of weakness to exploit.The kingdoms were still healing. Villages burned by fear-driven war still smoldered in places, and grief hung heavy over more than a few borders they crossed. But the fighting itself had stopped. Word had spread fast, carried by messengers and scouts alike, that the Mad Wolf everyone had feared for six generations had never been the threat at all—and that whatever truly had been, was finally, completely gone. Packs that had raised weapons against each other only days before now stood at wary, careful distance, lowering blades one hesitant gesture at a time.It wasn't peace yet. But it was the beginning of something that could grow int

The first rays of sunlight slipped through the bedroom window, warm and unhurried, settling over Caierre's face until he finally opened his eyes to greet them. For a long moment he simply lay still, listening to the quiet breathing beside him, letting the ordinary hush of the room settle fully into his chest.There was no screaming in his head. No cold, patient voice waiting to whisper his name the moment his guard slipped. No darkness lingering at the edges of sleep, ready to drag him under the instant he closed his eyes.There was only peace.He turned his head, and found Alvar still asleep beside him, hair mussed against the pillow, one arm stretched across the space between them as though even sleep hadn't fully convinced him Caierre would be there when he reached for him. Caierre smiled at the sight, something warm and quiet settling behind his ribs.It was strange, how ordinary it all felt.~~He had once believed, somewhere in the exhausted, desperate depths of everything they'