《SECOND CHANCE: CLAIMED BY THE LYCAN KING》全部章節：第 111 章 - 第 120 章

HOPE'S POV.The water around us was warm, but the silence between us felt heavier than it should have been.Hunter hadn’t spoken in a while.At first, I thought he was just thinking. Processing everything Everything we had seen.But then I felt it.Something changed in him.His body tensed slightly beneath the water. His breathing shifted. Slower at first… then uneven.“Hope,” he said finally.His voice was low.Not like before. Not controlled.This one sounded… weak and broken.I turned to him immediately.“What is it, Hunter?” I asked softly.He didn’t look at me at first.His eyes stayed fixed somewhere ahead, like he was staring at something I couldn’t see.Then he exhaled.A long, heavy breath.“This is my fault,” he said.I frowned slightly.“What is?”He finally turned to me, and what I saw in his eyes made my chest tighten.Guilt. Deep, raw, heavy guilt.“All of it,” he said. “The bodies. The woods. The war coming on us, everything Garvin said...Everything. It's all my fault

HOPE'S POV.“You see things I miss when I’m… in my head.” Hunter said.That made me study him for a second.He didn’t say “weak.” he didn’t say “lost.” but I heard what he meant anyway. I nodded once.“Then I’ll be there,” I said.Something in his expression softened slightly at that. It wasn't much, but it was enough. Enough that I felt it.The silence returned again after that.Hunter leaned back slightly again, pulling me with him so I was resting against his chest once more.His hand rested at my back again, and this time it didn’t move much, it just stayed there.After a while, I heard his voice again, quieter than before.“If Garvin is right…” he said.I didn’t interrupt.“…then this is already bigger than we think.”I closed my eyes briefly, and then nodded slowly.“I know,” I replied softly.His fingers tightened slightly on my shoulder.“And we’re still missing pieces.”I nodded again. “Yes. Yes we are.”There was another pause, then he spoke again.“I don’t like not having c

HUNTER'S POV.Morning came faster than I would have wanted it to. I realized I was far from prepared.The meeting hall was already tense before I spoke.I sat at the head of the long table, my hands resting flat against its cold surface, my eyes moving slowly across the faces of the elders seated before me, some looked calm, some looked impatient, and some looked exactly the way I expected—skeptical.Hope sat at my right.Her presence steadied me more than anyone could ever know.The events of the night before still weighed heavily on me, Garvin’s words.The bodies in the morgue, the memory fragments that still refused to make sense, and the truth I had not told anyone else in this room—that I was expected to lead them into a war tied to actions I could barely remember.I pushed that thought aside quickly fo now. Now was not the time for doubt.I straightened slightly in my chair and looked around the table.“You all know why you’ve been called here this morning,” I said.My voice ech

HOPE'S POV.The moment we stepped out of the council hall, the air around us changed.It was no longer just tension sitting beneath the surface. It had risen now, settled into the walls, and spread through the castle like something alive. People were moving as usual—guards at their posts, servants passing through corridors, warriors training in the courtyard—but there was a difference I could not ignore.They felt it too.Hunter did not pause to acknowledge any of it, he moved forward immediately, his stride fast, his presence shifting into something sharper than before. Whatever doubt had been weighing on him earlier had been pushed aside. What remained now was more important than anything else anyone could have to say, and that was the safety of this pack. “Double the patrols along the entire boundaries around the pack grounds.” he ordered without slowing. His voice carried easily down the corridor. “No fixed routes. Rotate positions every two hours do I make myself clear?!"The gu

HOPE’S POV.The guards found nothing in the forest.That alone frightened me more than the bodies.By the time the search party returned, the night air had turned colder, and the tension hanging around the pack grounds felt thick enough to choke on. Torches burned along the edge of the clearing while warriors moved between the trees, checking the area one last time before giving up the search completely.Still nothing. Still no scent trail, still no footprints, still no broken branches.Nothing that explained how three trained patrol guards had been killed within this territory without anyone seeing or hearing a thing.I stood a few steps behind Hunter as he crouched beside one of the bodies again. His expression remained unreadable, but I had spent enough time around him now to recognize the signs.The stillness in him was never a good thing.One of the older warriors approached carefully and lowered his head before speaking.“My King,” he said, breathing hard from the search, “we co