Semua Bab Rejected and Banished: Claimed by the Lycan King: Bab 21 - Bab 30

Ares“Done." I meant it.No more threats to Kael. No more warnings to Stormclaw. I let her make her decisions.I left her in the map room. Her hands were on her stomach; she could hold the world together if she squeezed enough.Darric met me in the hall. "Is she alright?”“No," I said. "She’s on her feet. That’s enough for now.”“What are the orders?"“Pull back the patrols from the south road. No scouts in Stormclaw territory. If Kael wants to be stupid, let him do it without us giving him a target.”Darric raised an eyebrow. "You’re going to honor it?”“I would."That’s true. I usually remove threats before Lyra even knows they exist.Not to own her. To make sure no one else could.So I stood down.The alarm went off at midnight. No horn. No warning. Just silence. The kind that means your guards are already dead. I was on my feet before the heartbeat, sword in hand before the third.Darric burst into my room. " The east wall has been breached. Three or four of them. They moved like

KaelI pulled up at the gate.She was on the wall.Alive.She was wearing leather. Her eyes were silver. Her hands were on her stomach.She looked round. Pregnant.My legs gave out. I fell to the dirt.“Lyra—" I choked. "I didn’t know. I swear I didn’t know.”She looked down at me. Her face was empty.“You can’t come back now," she said. "Not because you’re sorry. Not because it hurts.”“Please, " I begged. "Lyra—”“Close the gates.”The stone moved.“Wait—" I was up running, reaching. "Lyra!”She didn’t look back.The gates slammed shut.There was silence.That was the thing I noticed. No guards were shouting. No mist was moving—no Lyra.Just stone.. My own breathing was too loud and too ragged. I stood there with my hand out. Like she might change her mind. Like the wall would understand and open back up.It didn’t.The dirt under my nails was cold. I had dug into it when my knees hit. I didn’t remember doing it. I didn’t remember standing up either.She's pregnant. A baby. But her

LyraThe gates didn't close quietly. They slammed shut. Stone hitting stone. Final. The sound hit my teeth. For one breath, nothing moved. Then everything broke loose. "Positions!" Darric yelled. "Archers get to the east tower. Move!" I heard boots and steel clashing. People shouting. The castle didn't just wake up; it snapped into action like a dog that smelled blood. I didn't turn around. I couldn't. Not yet. The mist was still pushing against the gates. It had been waiting for ten months longer. Right from the Abyss. It wanted out. It always did. "Let it, " Ares said behind me. I hadn't heard him come up. I didn't care."I am, " I replied. It went, not in a rush. A slow bleed. It slipped through the cracks in the stone. Poured out over the dirt where Kael had knelt. Where he had begged. It reached out, like fingers. Tendrils. Testing the ground. Tasting it. Looking for something"They'll feel that, " Darric said, standing beside me. He didn't look at me yet."Good," I said. Let

Kael’s POVThe room was too quiet.I had my back to the doors. My hands were flat on the table. My head was down. I was not praying. I was trying to breathe.It wasn’t working.The word "two" was stuck in my teeth. It wouldn’t go away. Not since I was told by one of the scouts. Two heartbeats.The heartbeats were alive.They were mine.Gods.Mine.I dragged a hand down my face. I did it hard. Like I could scrape the hour off my skin.It was too late.All of it was too late.The doors opened.I didn’t look.“I told you to leave " I said. My voice was like sandpaper.It was Serena. Of course. I breathed out. It was slow. It was mean.“I’m going to say this once " I sighed"Walk out of this room.”There was nothing.Then.“Or what?”That was it.That did it.I turned.Not fast. Not yelling.It was the kind of slow that makes people step back.Serena was where she always was. She had a spine. She had a face. Like the world hadn’t ended at the gate an hour ago.Like she hadn’t lit the ma

Serena’s POVThe doors were not shut yet.I had already stopped listening for Kael.Kael thought that was the moment when everything changed: the slamming door, the speech, the line in the dirt.This is what men always do.They think the break happens when someone yells and screams.It does not.The break happens before that.It happens after that always after in the quiet when nobody is watching.I did not go far.I just walked down the hall enough that I could not hear Kael breathing anymore.The corridor was empty I had made sure of that an hour ago no guards, no maids, no ears to listen.Control is not about shouting and screaming.Control is about having hallways when you need them."Step out " I said.There was no response at first then the darkness moved, one shape, two then three.These were rogues they do not knock they just appear.They had mud on their boots and blood under their nails and their eyes did not blink enough.This was good."You are late. " The tall one tipped