All Chapters of ALPHA Arthur: The Mate Who Lied: Chapter 71 - Chapter 78

78 Chapters

71

"You're taller than the pictures."Phineas didn't turn around. He didn't have to. That voice—soft, melodic, like a blade wrapped in velvet—had lived in the back of his throat for twenty years. It was the sound of a lullaby that ended in a scream."The pictures were of a child you abandoned." Phineas adjusted the black diamond cufflink on his wrist. His hands didn't shake. He wouldn't give her that. "The man standing in front of you is the King of this house. Who gave you permission to enter the private gallery?""I don't need permission to walk through my own history, Phineas."He turned then. She stood by the window, the moonlight catching the silver embroidery of her gown. She looked exactly like the portrait in the attic. Not a day older. Not a single gray hair. Her eyes were the same stormy gray as Solomon’s, but there was no shadow in them. Only the cold, flat shine of a predator."You died in the Great Fire." Phineas stepped into the light. "I saw the urn. I saw the memorial.""

72

"They’re waiting."Lucian’s voice rasped in the dark of the study. He didn't turn on the lights. He didn't have to. The glow from the courtyard was enough—rows of black sedans, their headlights cutting through the rain like the eyes of deep-sea predators. The heads of the twelve great families. The Mafia kings. The ones who had spent decades trying to bleed the Aurelius line dry."Let them wait." Phineas sat at his desk, his fingers tracing the edge of a heavy, vellum scroll. "A minute of their time is a decade of mine. They’ve come to beg, Lucian. I want them to feel every second of their desperation.""They aren't begging. They’re bargaining." Lucian walked to the window. He checked the clip of his obsidian-weighted pistol. "The 'Treaty of Eternal Silence.' They give up their claims to your territory. They stop the hits. They acknowledge you as the High Alpha of the Council. In exchange, you give them back the supply routes.""The supply routes are worth more than their silence." Ph

73

"Drink it. Every drop."Lucian pressed the rim of the silver chalice against my lower lip. The liquid inside smelled like iron and rotting lilies. I tried to turn my head. The movement sent a bolt of white fire through my neck. My skin felt like it was being stripped from my bones by invisible claws. The Lunar Burn wasn't just an allergy anymore. It was a consumption."I can't." My voice was a dry rattle. "My throat... it's closed.""I don't care." Lucian’s hand moved to the back of my head. He gripped my hair, tilting my face up. His eyes weren't amber. They were a flat, terrifying black. "If I have to pour it down your lungs myself, you are swallowing this. Open."I opened. The bitter slush slid down my throat. I gagged. My stomach roiled, forcing a jagged sob out of my chest. I slumped back against the pillows, sweat soaking through the silk sheets. My pulse was a frantic, irregular thud against the mattress."The boys?" I whispered."They're with the guard." Lucian set the cup dow

74

"Don't touch me."Abram didn't look up from the disassembled rifle on the workbench. His fingers, thick and scarred from a decade of border skirmishes, moved with a surgical, rhythmic precision."Your hands." Leo stood a foot away. He held a small bowl of steaming water and a clean rag. His blonde curls caught the harsh overhead light of the armory. "They’re bleeding, Alpha. The metal—it’s cutting your knuckles.""I said stay back." Abram slammed a spring into place. The metallic click echoed against the concrete walls. "You're here to carry my gear, not play nurse. Solomon didn't tell you the rules?""He told me to serve you." Leo took a step forward. He didn't flinch at the low growl vibrating in Abram’s chest. He reached out, his fingers pale and smooth against Abram’s ruined skin. "It doesn't have to hurt all the time. My mother told me that fated mates can heal the deepest wounds just by—""Fated mates?" Abram finally looked at him. His eyes were a dark, stormy gold. He let out a

75

"Do you think he loves you?"Leo looked up from the silver tea service, his hands trembling so hard the porcelain rattled against the tray. He forced a smile. That same wide, hopeful expression I used to wear before the world taught me better. "He stayed, High Alpha. Abram stayed in the armory. He let me touch him. He let me—""He let you breathe his air because you were a novelty." I leaned back in the carved oak chair. The solar was too bright. The morning sun cut across the floor like a blade. "Set the tray down, Leo. Stop trying to impress me with your domesticity. It’s pathetic."Leo’s face crumpled. Snot ran down his lip. He wiped it with the back of his hand and set the tray on the low table between us. "I don't understand. Solomon said you wanted a union. He said the Prince needed a mate to ground his bloodlust.""Solomon says many things." I stood up. My silk robe hissed against the floorboards. I walked toward him, my presence a cold, heavy weight that made him shrink into t

76

"You stole him!"Abram’s voice cracked the silence of the throne room like a gunshot. He didn't walk; he stormed. Every step left a scuff mark on the black marble. His aura was a thick, suffocating heat that made the torches along the walls flicker and die. He stopped ten feet from the dais, his chest heaving, his fists dripping with the blood of the practice dummies he'd just shredded."I removed a distraction." I didn't get up. I sat on that cold, melted-steel throne and met his golden eyes with my own flat, dead ones. "Sit down, Abram. You’re tracking mud on the rug.""I don't give a damn about the rug!" He slammed his fist into a stone pillar. A spiderweb of cracks groaned through the rock. "He was mine. You gave him to me. Then you staged that... that pathetic play in the courtyard. You think I’m stupid? You think I didn't see the way you handled the vial?""I think you’re emotional." I stood up. My knees popped. A reminder of the human heart still beating under all this ice. "An

77

"Don't trip."Lucian’s hand was a steady, familiar weight at the small of my back. He stood a half-step behind me at the top of the grand staircase. Below, the ballroom was a churning sea of silver silk and black leather. Five hundred Alphas, their predatory scents stifled by expensive cologne and the crushing pressure of my aura. They didn't just look up; they went silent. The music—a sharp, aggressive violin arrangement—faltered for a beat."I haven't tripped in twenty years, Lucian." I didn't turn my head. I kept my chin level, my white hair swept back and pinned with a single shard of obsidian. The Lunar Bloodline didn't just keep me alive; it kept me preserved. My skin was as smooth as marble, though my eyes felt a thousand years old. "Besides, if I fall, I'll just make sure I land on someone important. It’s been a while since I ruined a diplomatic suit with blood.""You look like a god tonight." Lucian’s voice was a low, sandpaper rasp. He was in full dress uniform—black wool, s

78

"Is it enough?"Solomon stood in the doorway of the high balcony, his silhouette a sharp, dark needle against the dying orange of the sunset. He didn't wait for me to answer. He never did. He walked to the marble railing, his movements possessing that same predatory grace I’d spent twenty years perfecting. Below us, the Aurelius empire stretched into the horizon—a grid of steel, neon, and blood."The world?" I gripped the stone edge. My knuckles were white. "Or the silence?""Both." Solomon looked down at the training grounds. Even from this height, the gold of Abram’s aura was visible. Our Golden Warlord was snap-kicking a subordinate into a concrete wall. The sound of the impact reached us seconds later. A dull thud. "Abram has the generals eating out of his hand. The Southern Pack is a memory. The Western Reach is a tax colony. I’ve just finished the restructuring of the Euro-Sino trade block. We don't just own the land anymore, Mother. We own the air they breathe.""I used to thin

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