All Chapters of bride of vengeance : Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

Valeria pov I tightened my grip on the dagger until the leather wrapping bit into my palm. I couldn't let this Lycan King catch me — not now, not when everything I'd trained for came down to this single, fragile moment. If he found me crouched here like a common thief, it would all end before it had truly begun, and twelve years of preparation would die with me in a garden that wasn't even mine to bleed in. He took another step closer. Then another. My mind raced through every possible outcome. I could run — but running meant revealing myself, and revealing myself meant a fight I hadn't planned for, in a place I didn't know, against a man whose full strength I couldn't begin to guess. I could fight — but a single dagger against an Alpha king, in his own territory, surrounded by guards who would come running at the first sound of struggle, was closer to suicide than strategy. Then a guard came jogging up behind him, heavily built, slightly out of breath. "Your Majesty, we caugh

valeria pov The moment I stepped into the palace, every head turned in near-perfect unison. The hall stretched before me, vast and gilded, chandeliers dripping candlelight across a floor polished so bright it looked like still water. Dozens of young women lined the space in gowns of every color, each one clearly chosen for how well it framed her figure, her face, her chances. I had expected nerves. I hadn't expected the sheer weight of so many eyes landing on me at once, a physical pressure against my skin the moment I crossed the threshold. Whispers rippled through the hall like wind through tall grass. "She's gorgeous." "There's no doubt he'll pick her." "Even if he doesn't, she'll be my daughter-in-law one day, mark my words." Somewhere to my left, a woman hissed something less kind under her breath, and another laughed sharply in response. I kept my chin high and my expression carefully unreadable, the same mask I'd worn through years of missions far more dangerous than a roo

Valeria's POVI opened the envelope with steady hands, the same hands that had picked locks and drawn blades a hundred times without trembling. But something about the plain white paper made my pulse stutter before I'd even read a single word.One sentence. No signature.Leave the palace before the next full moon, or die.I read it twice, then a third time, searching for some hidden meaning beneath the threat, some clue to who had slipped it beneath my door. Whoever they were, they'd gotten close enough to my room to leave it without a single guard noticing — which meant they were either palace staff, or something far more dangerous.Someone already wants me gone. But do they suspect why I'm here, or is this about something else entirely?I folded the note and tucked it into the hidden seam of my sleeve, my mind already cycling through possibilities. A jealous noblewoman, furious over the selection? A guard who'd noticed something out of place the night I broke into the archive? Or so

Valeria's POVI waited until the palace had settled into its deepest hours of quiet before slipping from my room, my bare feet silent against the cold stone floors. Sleep had refused me entirely after the attack in the garden, my mind circling the same unanswered questions over and over until I could no longer lie still beneath the covers pretending rest was possible. The failed assassination had left me with more questions than answers, and I could no longer ignore the growing certainty that something far larger than a simple plot against the king was unfolding around me.If someone wants Alejandro dead badly enough to send an assassin into his own gardens, and someone else wants me gone before the next full moon those two things might not be separate at all.I moved through the darkened halls with practiced care, keeping to the shadows between torch brackets, my senses stretched wide for any sign of a patrol. The palace at night felt different from the palace by day quieter, heavi

Valeria's POVI went perfectly still, every instinct I'd spent twelve years honing snapping instantly into place. My eyes stayed closed, my breathing slow and even, every muscle relaxed in the practiced illusion of deep sleep — even as every nerve in my body screamed with awareness of the presence now moving carefully across my room.Whoever this is, they're skilled. I didn't hear the door. I didn't hear the window. That alone tells me this isn't some clumsy hired blade.Soft footsteps crossed the floor, deliberate and unhurried, someone who clearly believed themselves undetected, confident enough in their own skill not to rush. I counted the seconds, tracking the sound as it drew closer to my bed, my hand inching with agonizing slowness toward the dagger I kept hidden beneath my pillow. My pulse thundered in my ears, and I forced my breathing to stay even despite it, the same discipline that had kept me alive through a hundred smaller dangers than this one.The footsteps stopped besi