All Chapters of The Lycan King's Hybrid Bitch Queen: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

CHAPTER 21Hunt’s POVAlly’s voice rang clear through the hall as she read the blood-stained cloth. “The only way to rid the pack of the rose plague pandemic is through witch fire. There’s no time for me to help. Once you get this note, start a fire. Burn this cloth with my blood in the flames and heat fresh water over that fire until it boils. Then add sorrel and sage.Every infected person, and anyone who has touched them must bathe in it.”The hall descended in silence. Then someone shot from the crowd.“Why should we trust the witch?” “Witch fire? From her blood?” Lord Frederick sneered. “Are we sure she didn’t start this pandemic?"His words added spark to the fire. More murmurs swelled into open grumbling as some court members stood to the side. Eyes darted to me. I knew they were waiting for a response. Outwardly, I kept my face impassive. Letting my power radiate in a low pulse that made the nearest nobles shift uneasily.But inside, my wolf snarled the same suspicion. Why

Chapter 23 Ashlyn's POV Warmth. That was the first thing. Warmth, and the distant smell of herbs, and something soft beneath my cheek that definitely wasn't a stone floor. I opened my eyes slowly. The ceiling was high. Familiar. The dark wood beams of Hunt's chambers swam into focus above me and I blinked until they stopped moving. "Easy." The voice came from my left. I turned my head and found a girl sitting beside the bed, her dark hair loose around her shoulders and her hands folded neatly in her lap. Young. Bright-eyed. Watching me with the particular expression of someone who had been waiting a long time for me to wake up and was trying very hard not to show it. I didn't recognize her. "Who are you?" My voice came out wrong. Scraped raw and thin. "Ally." She smiled, small and careful. "I'm the one who brought your cloth to the hall last night." I stared at her. The cloth. The memory hit me in pieces. The dungeon floor. The cold. My wrists. The desperate, half-delir

Chapter 25 Ashlyn's POV Hunt agreed without hesitation. That was the thing about him and Injila. The way his whole bearing shifted when he looked at her, not softer exactly. But settled. Like something in him that was always braced came slightly undone. He loved her. Completely and without the suspicion he pointed at everything else. "The investigation is yours," he said. "Full access. Report only to me." Injila inclined her head. "Of course." She didn't look at me as they finalized it. Didn't need to. She had what she came for. The general fell into step behind her as they moved down the corridor and I watched them go with my hands loose at my sides and the cold certainty still sitting in my gut like a stone. Full access. To everything. Everyone. Every witness and physician and guard who might have seen something they shouldn't have. I said nothing. By evening, the weakness had settled into something more manageable. Less like drowning. More like moving through water. I

Chapter 27 Ashlyn's POV I was moving before Ally finished the sentence. "Ashlyn," She caught up quickly, her shorter legs working double to match my pace down the corridor. "He's already decided. Alex tried to," "Where is the great hall from here?" "Left at the end but," I was already turning left. I heard the hall before I reached it. That specific quality of silence that meant a large number of people were holding very still. The kind of quiet that had weight to it. Anticipation pressed into every corner. I pushed the doors open. The court was assembled. Not fully, not the formal arrangement of a summit or a ceremony, but enough. Nobles and council members and high-ranking wolves ranged along the walls, their faces carefully arranged into the expressions people wore when they wanted to watch something without appearing to want to watch it. At the far end, Hunt stood on the raised platform. Below him, Lucinda. She was upright. Her chin level, her shoulders set with the r

Chapter 29 Ashlyn's POV "Move," I said. Alex didn't move. He looked at me with that particular patience of his, the kind that wasn't passive, that had iron underneath it, and then his hand closed around my arm and he stepped sideways, drawing me with him into the alcove at the bend of the corridor before I'd processed that it was happening. "What," I pulled back. He released me immediately but the alcove was small and his presence filled the rest of it. "What are you doing?" "Keeping you from making another mistake." His voice was low. Not unkind. But carrying the weight of someone who had decided this conversation was necessary regardless of whether I wanted it. "I made a political point," "You publicly challenged his authority." The quiet in his voice made it worse somehow. More serious than shouting would have. "In front of his court. In front of the exact people," He stopped. Exhaled. "You cannot do that again." My heart was going too fast. I pressed my back against the a