บททั้งหมดของ A broken Mate: บทที่ 21 - บทที่ 30

The pain was sharp, grounding, but it only made the bond pull tighter, pulling me closer across the seat until our knees brushed. His voice was low, almost intimate, but the cruelty was there in every syllable. “Because I don’t want this. I don’t want a bond controlling me like some pathetic pup. I don’t want to wake up one day and realize I’m making decisions because some stupid pull told me to. I don’t want to be weak.”My throat tightened, the words he’d spoken the night before echoing in my mind—the ones that had made me curl up in pain. “And me?” I whispered, my voice cracking despite my best efforts. “What am I in this? Just a means to an end you refuse to accept?”He turned then, fully. His eyes locked onto mine, intense, searching, but there was no warmth in them. Only cold calculation, the alpha mask slipping just enough to reveal the cruelty beneath. “You’re part of it,” he said, his tone flat, detached, as if I were a burden rather than the woman whose soul he’d claimed. “T

Hunter didn’t respond immediately. Didn’t introduce me. Didn’t even look at me, his gaze fixed somewhere over her shoulder like I was furniture. Instead, his hand came down on my lower back.Firm.Claiming.The touch was possessive, heavy, his palm splaying wide to press me closer against him until there was no space between our bodies. I felt the heat of him through the thin fabric of my dress, the bond surging in response with a rush of unwanted heat that made my knees weak. My breath hitched audibly.“She is,” he said finally, voice flat, cold, devoid of warmth. No name. No acknowledgment beyond ownership. Just a statement of fact, like declaring a territory.The woman’s smile tightened just a fraction, her perfectly arched brows rising. “Interesting choice,” she murmured, eyes flicking to me again with open disdain. “The girl who limps like she’s half-dead. And here you are, parading her like some trophy you can’t even bring yourself to speak to.”My hands clenched at my sides, th

The word stung more than it should have. I held his gaze anyway, refusing to shrink, even as the bond pulsed again—conflicted, torn, pulling me toward Hunter across the room and anchoring me here beside Bryce. Bryce didn’t miss it. He simply took a slow breath, his presence expanding just enough to remind everyone in range exactly who he was. This is Sarah, he said smoothly, his tone leaving no room for dismissal. My son’s bonded mate.The correction landed.Subtle. But powerful.The elder’s brows lifted slightly, reassessing, the calculating glint in his eyes flickering with something that might have been respect… or calculation. I see. Do you? Because I wasn’t sure I did. The elder’s gaze swept over me again, slower this time—not openly cruel like Elena’s had been, but no less critical. She looks… untrained. He paused, choosing his words carefully, each syllable measured like a chess move. My jaw tightened until it ached. I could feel the stares from the crowd pressing in, the subtl

My voice cut through the room—sharp, lethal, echoing off the tiles. But he didn’t back off. If anything, his grin widened, teeth flashing in the dim light. “Relax,” he said, raising his hands slightly but not stepping back, invading my space deliberately. “Just being friendly. You’re alone in here. No one to stop me. Hunter’s too busy playing alpha with his father, right? And you’re just… waiting.” My stomach twisted into knots. Raven surged inside me, not soft anymore. Not gentle. Show him. My pulse spiked violently, the bond flaring like wildfire—reacting, sensing threat, pulling every instinct to the surface like claws breaking through skin. The air in the washroom thickened, the faint lavender scent clashing with the beta’s greasy musk. “I said—” His hand shot out again. Grabbing my wrist. Hard. Wrong. So wrong. And that was it. I didn’t think. I reacted. My other hand came up fast, shoving him back with more force than I realized I had. He stumbled a step, surprise

Still threaded with that growl, like it lived in his throat now. I blinked, my thoughts scrambling to catch up. The adrenaline was still rushing through me, my wrist throbbing where the beta’s fingers had dug in, the faint redness already darkening into bruises. “I’m fine,” I said automatically, the words slipping out before I could stop them.But even as I said it—My wrist throbbed.Hunter’s eyes dropped instantly.Locked onto it.The faint redness.The imprint of fingers beginning to darken into bruises.And just like that—Something inside him snapped again.But this time—It didn’t explode outward.It folded inward.Condensed.Sharpened.His jaw clenched so tightly I heard the faint grind of teeth. The air around him shifted, his scent spiking violently—dark, suffocating, like smoke and burning metal. Not wild. Not chaotic. Focused. Lethal. The cold cruelty that had marked every word he’d thrown at me all night had fractured completely, splintering into something raw, feral, like