Alle Kapitel von Claimed and Sold at the Lycan King's Ball: Kapitel 31 – Kapitel 40

CHAPTER 32AVA'S POVThe heavy oak doors of the royal suite hadn’t just been closed; they had been fortified. Four towering vanguard guards stood shoulder-to-shoulder in the corridor, their heavy breathing audible even through the thick wood. Draken had officially turned my quarters into a gold-plated cage with locks.“If the King finds out, he'll have my head,” Maya whispered, her hands shaking as she adjusted the heavy curtain over the servant’s passage in the dressing room. She kept looking over her shoulder toward the main doors, jumping at the sound of the wind rattling the glass.“Good thing we're not telling him,” I muttered, tugging a dark velvet cloak over my shoulders and pulling the hood low. My ankle still twinged from my library mishap the night before, but the adrenaline overrode the ache. I wasn’t going to sit here like a decorative doll while Draken hunted a ghost.Maya squeezed through the narrow stone gap behind the wardrobe first, immediately pressing her back again

CHAPTER 34AVA'S POVLess than eight hours after promising Draken I wouldn’t leave the royal floor without him, I was already slipping my boots on. I wouldn’t just sit around wearing silk while a killer left blood-stained notes under my teacups,They've pushed me to the wall and I wasn’t going to let them have it. If I was going to be the Luna of the Northern Kingdom, I needed answers. And more importantly, I needed to know how to find them myself.Tucking Madame Lira’s rune stone into the hidden pocket of my gown, I slipped past the changing guard rotation in the service corridor. Ash was restless beneath my skin, the southern wolf had extented her claws scratching at the back of my mind. She wanted answers just as badly as I did.The air grew colder as I walked down the palace lowest level with every step I took, the air turned heavy with the scent of old stone and ancient parchment. When I finally reached the massive, iron passage of the Blood Vault, two royal guards crossed their w

CHAPTER 36AVA'S POVMy fingers froze, hovering just above his skin, my eyes pinned to the puckered, raised flesh at the base of his neck.A curved, broken crescent intersecting an iron crown.I had looked at that exact configuration of lines less than two hours ago on a scroll bound in heavy iron chains.Draken didn’t flinch away from my hand, but I felt the sudden tightening of his muscles. The bond didn't flare with heat; it was cold, like ice water flooding my veins. His head tilted back, eyes tracking my frozen posture in the reflection of the glass window.“Ask,” he said, completely devoid of the Alpha authority he usually wrapped around himself like armor.I swallowed the lump in my throat, my heart hammering against my ribs. I dropped my hand, stepping back a single pace to give him space, though my eyes never left the mark. “Why do you have the Blackthorne crest burned into your skin?”The silence returned, heavy and suffocating. Draken pulled the collar of his dark wool tun

CHAPTER 38AVA'S POVThe air inside the Blackthorne crypt was dense with centuries of dust.Water dripped somewhere in the dark echoing off the ceiling. Every surface was carved from deep obsidian rock, etched with ancient wolf figures and the repeating shape of the Blackthorne crest—the curved crescent and the iron crown. It was cold, the kind of damp chill that seeped past my clothes and settled straight into my bones, thick with the heavy scent of old magic.“The perimeter seals were shattered from the outside,” Thorne said. His voice was too quiet and controlled.I stood just behind Draken, my arms wrapped across my chest as I watched the High Commander. Several royal guards stood near the entrance, torches held high, casting long, dancing shadows across the broken stone entrance.Nothing had been smashed. No tombs had been defaced. The intruder hadn’t been looking for gold or common treasures. They had bypassed the outer wards, knowing exactly where to go.“They didn't touch the

CHAPTER 40AVA'S POV“I didn't break into the crypt, Draken!”“You walked directly into a compromised tomb without a weapon!” he roared, his voice dropping an octave as he rounded the desk. His strides were heavy, closing the distance between us before I could even think to retreat. “You have wolf venom still clearing from your system, an anonymous killer targeting you in my own court, and you are standing in a dark crypt pointing out broken runes like you are untouchable!”“Because nobody else was looking!” I yelled back, stepping forward instead of away, my Southern stubbornness refusing to let him intimidate me. “I am trying to stay alive! I am trying to figure out who is doing this to us!”Our breath was mingling now. The argument had brought us so close our chests were practically brushing each other with every sharp inhale.“You don't have to figure it out alone,” Draken said, his voice suddenly dropping into a low, tone that made my knees instantly weaken. The anger in his eyes