Semua Bab THE LYCAN KING CLAIMED HER: She Becomes His Obsession: Bab 31 - Bab 40

ARIA The thing wearing Kael's face moved with predatory grace and that wrongness sent ice through my veins. I scrambled backward off the bed. My feet hit cold floor. Every instinct screamed to run but where could I go? This was our chamber. Our sanctuary. Now it was a hunting ground. "Do not run from me." The curse spoke through Kael's mouth. "We are meant to be together." "You are not Kael." I edged toward the door. "You are a parasite wearing his skin." "Am I?" It tilted his head in a gesture that looked almost curious. "I know everything he knows. Feel everything he feels. I am more him than he is right now." The door was ten feet away. I could make it if I was fast enough. If I could get into the hallway I could call for guards. I lunged for the exit. The curse moved faster. Kael's body blocked my path with speed that should have been impossible. His hand caught my wrist in a grip that would leave bruises. "They cannot help you." The curse smiled with his lips. "No one else

ARIA The war council assembled at dawn and I had to convince them all that I was their King. I wore Kael's authority like armor. Stood with his posture. Moved with his controlled violence. Let my gaze sweep the room with the weight of someone who could kill everyone present without breaking stride. Fifty Alphas watched me with varying degrees of respect and suspicion. They had come for war strategy. They would get performance art and cunning wrapped in masculine confidence. "Bryson and Drake march on us with three thousand soldiers." I let Kael's voice carry across the chamber. "They hide behind accusations against my Luna but we all know the truth. This is a coup attempt dressed as justice." Alpha Thorne leaned forward. "What are their specific demands?" "They want Aria handed over for trial." I paced like Kael did when strategizing. "They claim she murdered Morgana unlawfully. That she used forbidden magic to manipulate me. That proper Luna candidates were denied their rightful

ARIA The curse core wore Morgana's face and that was worse than any nightmare I could have imagined. She emerges from the darkness beautiful and terrible. Her skin glowed with stolen silver light. Her eyes held depths that went beyond death into something older and infinitely more cruel. "Did you really think killing my body would end me?" Her voice echoed through the mindscape like shattering glass. "I am smarter than that little servant girl." Kael stepped in front of me instinctively. "You died. We destroyed you completely." "You destroyed flesh." Morgana's laugh cut through the corridor. "But I bound my consciousness to the curse before our duel. Insurance against exactly what you did. Now I exist as something better than alive. I am eternal." Horror crawled through me. We had not defeated her. We had freed her from the limitations of a physical body. "What do you want?" I forced the question past my closing throat. "What I have always wanted." Morgana moved closer. "Kael,

ARIA The Moon Goddess studied us with eyes that saw through every lie we had ever told ourselves. "Before I restore you there must be sacrifice." Her voice held weight that made the void tremble. "True mate bonds cannot exist without cost. You must each surrender something precious." Kael's soul tightened around mine. "What do you want from us?" "From you Kael I require the Lycan throne." She spoke with terrible gentleness. "You must abdicate permanently. Walk away from power and politics and centuries of bloodline obligation. Become a normal wolf living a normal life." The words hung in the space between us. Kael had been raised to rule. Trained from birth to carry the weight of an entire realm. Being king was not just what he did but who he was. "And from me?" I forced the question past my fragmenting consciousness. "Your silver wolf power." The Goddess turned her impossible gaze on me. "The abilities that make you unique. The strength that protected you. All of it surrendered

ARIADrake's smile held twenty years of planning and that realization turned my blood to ice."You look surprised." He pressed the knife harder against Vera's throat. "Did you think this was spontaneous? That we just happened to attack while you were conveniently unconscious?"Kael's fury blazed through our bond hot enough to burn. "What are you talking about?""Your father." Drake gestured at me with his free hand. "The great silver wolf rebel who tried to overthrow the throne thirty years ago. Bryson and I created his madness."The words did not make sense at first. Then understanding crashed through me like a wave."You cursed him." My voice came out flat. "The same way Morgana cursed Kael.""Exactly the same." Bryson spoke up from his position beside Drake. "We needed to see if the curse would work on silver wolves before we used it on the Lycan bloodline. Your father was the perfect test subject."Nausea rolled through my stomach. My father's descent into violence had not been na