Semua Bab THE LYCAN KING CLAIMED HER: She Becomes His Obsession: Bab 21 - Bab 30

KAEL My mate was destroying herself and I could feel every second of her unraveling through the bond we shared. The silver power radiating from Aria burned my skin where I lay against the cracked stone wall. Blood dripped into my eyes from where my head had struck but I pushed through the pain and forced myself to stand. She glowed so bright she looked translucent. Her wolf was consuming her from the inside the same way my curse had been consuming me for fifteen years. We were both dying just in different ways. "Aria." I took a step forward and her power lashed out again. It caught my shoulder and spun me sideways but I stayed on my feet. "I am not leaving you." "Stay back." Her voice sounded wrong. Layered with something ancient and terrible. "I cannot control it. I will kill you." "Then kill me." I took another step. "But I am not letting you face this alone." The curse stirred in my chest drawn by her grief like a moth to flame. It wanted to join with her power and create som

ARIA The presence in Kael's mind grew stronger as I slipped deeper into sleep and that was when I knew this was no ordinary dream. The world around me shifted into something that felt real despite knowing my body still lay tangled with Kael's in the bed. Stone walls materialized. Torches flickered along corridors that stretched into darkness. I stood in the Citadel but it looked different. "Hello Aria." The voice came from behind me. I spun to find a man who looked exactly like Kael would in twenty years. Same sharp features. Same commanding presence. Same gold eyes that saw too much. "You are his father." The words tasted like truth. "The previous Lycan King." "I was." He moved closer and I noticed he looked translucent. Like a ghost given temporary form. "I have been trapped in the curse since my death watching my son suffer for crimes he did not commit." "How is that possible?" My mind raced trying to make sense of it. "Curses do not hold spirits." "This one does." His expr

ARIA The arena where Kael had first claimed me now served as the stage for my death and that bitter irony was not lost on me. Midnight approached with the kind of silence that precedes violence. Torches ringed the fighting pit casting shadows that danced across stone walls slick with moisture. Above us magical projections shimmered showing my face to every pack in the realm. Thousands of wolves watched and waited to see me fail. Morgana stood across from me looking like a goddess carved from moonlight and malice. Power radiated from her in waves that made the air thick enough to choke on. Centuries of knowledge lived behind those ancient eyes. I had raw strength and three weeks of failed training. The outcome seemed predetermined. "Any last words?" Morgana's voice carried across the arena. "Something inspiring for your audience perhaps?" "I am going to make you regret this." My legs still shook from the poison but I forced them steady. "That is my promise." She laughed. The sou

KAEL I was a nightmare given flesh and that was all I knew in the moment my mind shattered completely. Twelve feet of muscle and fury. Claws that could carve through stone like butter. Jaws strong enough to crush steel. This was what the Lycan King became when the curse finally won. The world existed in shades of red. Everything moved too slow or too fast. Sounds stabbed into my skull like knives. My own heartbeat thundered loud enough to drown out thought. Somewhere beneath the madness I knew I was losing myself. I knew this was Stage Five and there would be no coming back. But the beast did not care about such things. It only cared that mate was hurt and dying. That something had to pay in blood. Guards rushed at me with weapons drawn. I tore through them without breaking stride. Their screams meant nothing. Their blood painted the corridors but brought no satisfaction. Only destroying the threat and reaching my mate mattered. I crashed through arena doors that had stood for

ARIA Kael was conscious inside his own mind and that discovery came three nights after the explosion when his hand twitched in mine. I felt him through the mate bond. Not thoughts exactly but presence. He was aware but trapped and fighting something I could not see from the outside. The healers insisted it was impossible. Comatose patients did not maintain consciousness. The mind shut down to protect itself during trauma. But they did not have our bond. I could feel him screaming. That night I closed my eyes and focused on the connection between us. I pushed my awareness along the golden thread that tied our souls, and followed it down into darkness until I found the prison his mind had become. Kael stood in a void fighting shadows that took vaguely human shape. Fragments of the curse that clung to his consciousness like parasites. He looked exhausted. Blood covered his knuckles where he had been fighting barehanded. His eyes held desperation bordering on madness. He was losing