All Chapters of The Alpha King's Rejected Mate : Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

KAEL "Is this Thane?" Torin slid a photo across the table. It was grainy and out of focus, but the face was clear enough. The man who had saved Aria. There was no doubt.Anger still burned through me, fed by what Paisley had said earlier. It hadn't cooled at all. Hours had passed, and now Aria and I sat in Torin's office with Elara. She had promised answers. I was done waiting for them."You knew he was dealing drugs, and you did nothing?" The words came out rough, sharp with fury."Thane is more than a drug dealer," Elara said. Her voice tightened, like she already knew where this was going. "It's hard for us to investigate things inside the rogue circles. We were looking for him, but under a different name. When he was part of Ironwill Basin Pack, he went by Jefferson.""Fine," I said. "Call Ironwill Basin's alpha. I want answers from them."Elara and Torin traded a look. It was brief, but it told me plenty."Ironwill Basin cut off contact with us," Torin said. "It's been a month.

ARIA The moment his fingers brushed my skin, there was no pretending left. I could lie when he stood behind me, when I didn’t have to meet his eyes. I could hold myself together when there was space between us. But the second he touched me, my body folded. I wanted to come apart. I wanted to stop fighting it.He drew me back until I was locked against him, my back pressed hard to his chest, his heat everywhere.“It won’t be fine while you’re still afraid of what your father might do,” he said quietly. “It won’t be fine until you can say what happened out loud. It won’t be fine until I can touch you without you bracing for it. You weren’t fine then. You’re not fine now. But you will be. I swear you will.”“I’m not your mate, Kael,” I said, sharp and bitter. “I never will be. I’m just the whore you got pregnant. That’s what everyone thinks. You remember that, don’t you?”Something in him snapped cold. “You don’t get to call yourself that. And every wolf who ever has is going to lose th

KAEL It took three full days to reach the witch’s den. The road was slow, winding, and tense. At some point, frustration got the better of me and I asked why she couldn’t just fling us there with magic like before. The response was immediate. Every single person shot me a look sharp enough to cut. No one answered. The silence lingered. The reason stayed unclear until we were standing at the door.Lunessa had not been expecting us.She yanked the door open, took one look at Elara, and her face twisted with anger. “No. Absolutely not. Did you drive here?” Her voice rose. “What the hell, Elara? You can drive right back out.”She tried to slam the door in our faces. Markel reacted on instinct, shoving his boot into the gap just in time. The door bounced back open. Lunessa’s arm came up fast, magic gathering, her fingers tense and ready to strike. The air felt sharp, charged. Karin cleared her throat, deliberate and loud.“Hello, cousin,” Elara said, bright and unbothered.Lunessa froze.

ARIA “There’s still blood in your hair.”Karin sounded almost impressed. Not concerned. Not alarmed. Just observant. Her eyes lifted, following the line of my head, and I reached up where she pointed. My fingers brushed against something stiff.She was right. A small, dry fleck of blood clung to my hair, hidden near the roots.It wasn’t from the fight with the rogue wolves last night. I’d scrubbed myself clean afterward. I remembered the heat of the water, the sting on my skin, the way the drain ran pink and then clear.But after the shower, Kael had walked in. Covered in blood. His shirt soaked through, his hands still shaking with leftover violence, his eyes dark and fixed on me.After that, nothing had been clean.Definitely the messiest sex I’d ever had. No hesitation. No restraint. Just need and heat and the taste of iron in the air.My face warmed. I pushed my hair back quickly and secured it with a band. “Red hair,” I said. “Blood blends in. Easy to miss.”Karin’s mouth curved

ARIA Karin summoned Lunessa. Elara and Mireya stayed behind at the den. Lunessa had complained earlier, said she wasn’t helping anymore, but the moment the call went out, she didn’t argue. She moved us instantly.The clearing appeared around us, quiet and open, the river cutting through it like nothing terrible had happened.Fen lay near the water.His body was twisted on the ground, too still, one arm bent at an angle that made my chest tighten. Grief tried to rise, fast and choking, but I forced it down before it could slow me. There was no room for it yet. Moving carefully, I crossed the clearing and dropped beside him.There was too much blood beneath him. It darkened the earth and soaked into the grass. Too much to ignore. But his chest lifted. Fell. Shallow, uneven, but there.That kept me steady.When my fingers brushed his arm, his eyes opened. Gold flashed in the dim light, sharp even through pain and shock. His hand shot up and locked around my wrist, grip tight, desperate.