All Chapters of His Regret, The Crown's Claim : Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

The days leading up to the ceremony were tiring and bone breaking. There was a lot of fitting going on and I had to choose the colours for the event and pick out every cutlery. When I did it the last time for my previous mating ceremony, it was also this exhausting and I really didn't want to do it again, but here I amBut the loud and stressful meetings weren't really my problem, it was the quiet moments that truly unsettled me. I stood on the balcony, watching the sun dip below the peaks.Kael’s words from the study the other day still echoed in my mind. He hadn't praised me for being a dood woman or a dutiful partner but he had praised my strength. He enjoyed seeing me stand on my own, claws out and mind sharp, far more than he seemed to enjoy playing the protector. It was an intoxicating kind of validation I didn't know I craved so much. For five years, I had been the glue holding Cade together, and he had resented me for the very strength he relied on. Kael, however, seemed to wa

The scent of rain drenched pine drifted through the open windows of the room, but all I could smell was the lingering trace of sandalwood and citrus. It was the smell of Risa which had permeated every corner of this palace, turning this cold fortress into something that felt like a home.I stood by the tinted glass, watching her walk through the courtyard below. She was accompanied by that boy, Axel. I had let him in to come see her often because I knew she needed a piece of her old life to keep her company, but watching him touch her arm made the wolf inside me pace with jealousy but I suppressed it.“Patience, Kael,” I told myself, my fingers curling into the palm of my hand. She is a wounded bird and if I tighten my grip, I'll only feel her bones snap.I had spent the last hour reviewing the reports from my shadow guards I had placed around her. They told me how she had dismantled Elara and the Council daughters with nothing but her wits and the sheer weight of her presence. A ghos

The silence that followed my outburst was worse than the screaming. It was a heavy, suffocating pressure that made my skin feel like it was crawling with thousand of insects. My wolf was no longer pacing but he was curled in a corner of my mind, shivering, his spirit fractured by the looming reality of the Royal Mating.I looked at my hands, they still wouldn't stop shaking. It was like it was only getting worse by the minute. I was losing my mind as it is and I needed something…anything to calm my restless mind."Zara," I croaked, my voice small. I stumbled out of the kitchen, tripping over a piece of stool. I struggled to get up as I headed to Zara's room as my head ached like hell. I needed that vial she offered that made the world stop spinning for a while.I found her in the hallway, her expression still angry from our earlier confrontation."The medicine," I said, reaching for her, my fingers twitching. "Zara, please. I can't... I can't think. My head is burning. Please give it

All through that evening I just couldn't stop thinking about Kael no matter how hard I tried. The way he looks at me, his touch and just the way my body reacts to him... I didn't want it but I could not help myself.I have to get a grip too right? I do not want my heart to be shattered again because of my weakness of falling in love easily. Yes he had saved me from an abusive marriage and I pledged devotion to him but that should be all right? I should not get my heart involved.But when he looks at me with those eyes I simply cannot help my feelings. Maybe I really am cheap, always falling in love with a man who seems safe. Maybe I should stay away from him a bit till I can think straight. The night air was thin and cold, but as I drifted into sleep, the silk sheets seemed to morph into the damp, clinging mud of a Southern forest.I fell into deep slumber and In the dream, I was that young girl again that was in danger. The scent of pine was overwhelmed by the metallic tang of bloo

The night air was cold against my face as Zara led me toward the outskirts of the territory. My mind was still floating on the calm of her latest vial, my pulse a sluggish thumping in my ears. I didn't ask how she knew where she was going, or why her gait had lost its sickly stagger, becoming fluid and predatory in the moonlight.I was beyond questions. I was a man clinging to a sinking ship, and Zara was the only one offering a hand, but was she pulling me out or pushing me deeper into the bottomless ocean? That I didn't know.We drove deep into the grey-wooded valley where the trees grew so thick the stars vanished. Eventually, a gargantuan structure loomed out of the fog, a mansion of rough black and iron that looked less like a home and more like a tomb."Zara," I whispered, my voice sounding small even to myself. "Where are we? This isn't Grayson land.""It’s land that doesn't exist on any map Kael draws," she replied, her eyes fixed on the massive iron gates ahead.The security