บททั้งหมดของ The Cursed Alpha’s Only Mate: บทที่ 41 - บทที่ 50

Hecate POVThe door opened without a knock.I felt him before I saw him. The shift in the air. The way the candles flickered as if caught in a sudden breeze. The familiar weight of his presence pressing against my senses like a hand against my chest.Maddox stood in the doorway, his gaze moving from my face to Ysabella's arms wrapped around me, then back to my face. His expression was unreadable. His hair was still damp from a bath, and the scent of soap and something deeper, something wilder, drifted toward me. The pendant hung against his chest, the vial of blood catching the candlelight."Am I interrupting?" he asked.Ysabella pulled back slowly, her hands lingering on my shoulders for a moment before she stepped away. She looked at me, then at the king, and something passed across her face. Understanding, perhaps. Or warning."I will go be with my little girl," Ysabella said, her voice soft. "I do not want to be apart from her ever again."She nodded to the king and slipped past h

Hecate POVWe left the training field without drawing attention.Or perhaps we did draw attention. Perhaps the warriors saw the way we walked too close together, the way our shoulders brushed, the way our eyes kept finding each other. I did not care. I could not care. The only thing I could feel was the heat of him beside me, the pull of the bond tightening in my chest like a fist around my heart.We barely made it to my chamber.The door had barely closed behind us when his hands were on me, pulling me against him, his mouth finding mine with a hunger that stole the breath from my lungs. I fisted my hands in his shirt, pulling him closer, closer, as if I could crawl inside his skin and live there.He walked me backward toward the bed, his lips never leaving mine. My knees hit the edge of the mattress, and I fell back, pulling him down with me.His mouth left mine and traveled down my neck, hot and insistent, kissing and licking and sucking. I arched beneath him, my fingers tangling i

Hecate POVThe thermal pool was tucked away in the eastern wing of the castle, a cavern of pale stone and rising steam that smelled of minerals and warmth. Torches flickered in iron sconces along the walls, their light reflecting off the water's surface in golden ripples. It was meant to be a place of healing, of relaxation, of peace.Today, it was anything but.Odette sat on a submerged stone ledge, the water lapping at her shoulders, her pale arms braced against the edges. Her face was flushed from the heat, her dark hair plastered to her forehead. Tears streamed down her cheeks, mixing with the droplets of water that clung to her skin."I cannot do this," she said, her voice breaking. "It hurts. It hurts too much."I knelt beside her in the water, my robes discarded, my hair pinned up to keep it dry. My hands moved over her legs beneath the surface, massaging the atrophied muscles, guiding them through the movements she could not yet perform on her own."You can," I said, my voice

Ysabella POVThe chessboard sat between them like a battlefield.Ysabella watched from the corner of the room, her wine glass forgotten in her hand, her eyes fixed on the two figures hunched over the carved wooden pieces. The fire had burned low, casting long shadows across the walls, but neither Hecate nor the king seemed to notice. They had been playing for nearly an hour, and the rest of the world had fallen away.Emrich sat beside her on the settee, his arm draped across the back, his thumb tracing idle patterns on her shoulder. He was watching too. They both were. They could not help it.It was just chess. A game of strategy and patience, of wooden kings and queens and pawns. Nothing more.But the way they played was anything but ordinary.Hecate moved her knight, her fingers lingering on the piece a moment longer than necessary. She looked up at Maddox through her lashes, a small smile playing on her lips."Check," she said.Maddox's eyes flickered from the board to her face. H

Hecate POVMorning light filtered softly through the heavy curtains of the guest room, painting the walls in pale gold. I stirred slowly, wrapped in warmth and the unmistakable scent of Maddox. His lips were already on my skin, pressing lazy kisses along my bare shoulder. Each touch was feather-light, reverent, and it pulled me gently from sleep. For a moment I kept my eyes closed, savoring the sensation. It felt so familiar, so dangerously right. He used to wake Samantha like this, with slow kisses and gentle hands, as if she were the most precious thing in his world. The memory made my heart flutter warmly in my chest, a treacherous bloom of affection I could not quite suppress."Good morning," he murmured, his voice rough and lazy with sleep. His breath tickled my neck as he nuzzled closer, one strong arm banding around my waist to pull me back against his chest. We were both still naked, skin to skin under the rumpled sheets. His hand roamed lazily over my hip, tracing the curv