All Chapters of The Alpha King's One-Time Rejected Mate: Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

Snow drifted in patient feathers, softening the fortress until stone looked almost gentle. Courtyard torches hissed in the flurry, their flames throwing honeyed light across the inner walls.Talia drew her cloak closer and pressed a palm to the swell beneath her ribs. Small still, but no longer pretend.Not imagination anymore. There. There you are.Lucian’s steps came without sound, yet she felt him before he touched her. His warmth folded around her back, his breath a tide against her crown.“You’re out of bed,” he murmured.“I couldn’t sleep.” She tilted her face up. The blue in his eyes glowed steadily. “They’re restless.”“They,” he echoed, reverent as always when he thought of her and the life inside her.He splayed his hand over hers—large, certain—and the weight of it steadied her in a way nothing else could. Kaela stirred, smug, brushing affection toward Savage’s shadow where he lingered beyond the archway, a mountain waiting to move.“They like snow,” Talia said, mock stern.

The training yard smelled of blood, dust, and sweat.Ilode knew that scent better than her own skin. Sweat ground into stone. Blood sank into cracks that never truly faded. This was where children were broken down and reforged into weapons—and she had been one of them.Her parents weren’t nobles. They weren’t councilors. They were soldiers.Her mother guarded the Queen. Her father served in the unit assigned to Ana Marie—Lucian’s young mate. Blades. Shields. Loyal to the bone.They never came home.Ilode didn’t remember the ambush from sight. She remembered it from repetition—how the survivors told it in fragments that never softened with time.The Queen believed mercy was strength. She believed rogues deserved aid, dignity, and food. That night, she went beyond the Obsidian lands to deliver it herself. Ana Marie insisted on going with her.Ilode’s parents went because they were ordered to. Because they believed in the crown.Someone betrayed them.The rogues weren’t desperate. They w

The war room hummed with restrained violence.Torches burned low against the stone walls, their flames snapping softly as if they, too, sensed the tension coiled in the air. Maps littered the table before Lucian—inked patrol routes, border breaches, reports of rogues pressing closer than they had in decades. The kingdom was holding, but only just.Lucian stood at the head of the table, posture carved from command. His presence alone quieted the room.Talia remained at his side, close enough to feel the heat of him, far enough to feel alone. One hand rested instinctively at the faint swell beneath her ribs. Kaela paced inside her, restless, hackles raised.Too many eyes. Too much hunger.Lucian’s blue gaze swept the assembled warriors. “You are the best we have,” he said. “Every one of you has bled for this Pack. From this moment forward, you will guard more than land or walls.” His voice hardened. “You will guard the Queen and her heirs.”A ripple moved through the room—boots shifting,

The marsh stank of rot and stagnant water. Mist clung to the pools like torn sheets, drifting in slow curls that made the reeds look like they were breathing. Every step Thomas took sank into mud, a wet sound that stuck to his ears. Wolves hated swamps. They belonged to ghosts and witches, not packs and kings.Mira walked ahead as if the ground shaped itself for her. Her black hair hung damp against her back, swinging as she moved. She didn’t look back at him once.Thomas hated following her. He hated how steady she looked while he had to pick his steps carefully. He hated that he needed her.“You’re certain about this?” he asked, his voice low but sharp.Mira’s laugh cut through the mist. “You’re the one who wants the crown, Thomas. Crowns don’t come without blood—or filth.”The reeds thinned. A clearing opened, and the air grew heavier. Thomas stopped short. Shapes formed in the fog—wolves, half-shifted, their bodies twisted by scars and hunger. Rogues. Their eyes glowed pale, catch

The convoy climbed higher into the hills, five black SUVs gliding single-file along the narrow road. Pines crowded close on either side, their branches clawing at the dark like watchful sentinels. The air thinned with altitude, sharp with cold sap and wet stone, the kind that burned the lungs if you breathed too deeply.From the outside, they looked like any elite security detail—armored plating, dark windows, rifles resting easy in trained hands.Inside the lead vehicle rode wolves.And the wolves were restless.Talia sat in the passenger seat, spine straight, gaze flicking between the road ahead and the dense forest hemming them in. Her fingers brushed the holster strapped against her thigh, leather warm beneath her touch, grounding. Kaela paced inside her ribcage, claws scraping along bone, irritation coiling tight.The wolf hated confinement.Tonight, her unease had teeth.Beside her, Lucian drove with the controlled lethality of an Alpha who had survived too many wars to waste mot