All Chapters of bride of vengeance : Chapter 11 - Chapter 15

Catalina stared at me for a long moment, something raw and unguarded crossing her ancient face, an expression I hadn't expected from a woman who'd survived twenty years of secrets, who'd vanished into smoke without so much as a flicker of hesitation."You have your mother's eyes," she said quietly, almost to herself, as though the resemblance had caught her off guard despite everything she already knew about who I was, everything she'd clearly been watching for since the moment I first arrived at this palace.I tightened my grip on the dagger, refusing to let the comment soften me, refusing to let twelve years of careful discipline crack now, when I was finally close enough to the truth to touch it. "Answer my question," I said. "Who is hunting the hybrid bloodline? Who ordered my parents' deaths if it wasn't Alejandro's kingdom?"Catalina took a slow step back, putting distance between us, her silver eyes flicking briefly toward the window behind her — a glance I might have missed if

Valeria's POVThe palace had erupted into full chaos by the time Alejandro and I reached the top of the grand staircase, guards shouting orders that overlapped into meaningless noise, torches sweeping wild arcs of light across walls that had felt so peaceful only hours before.At the bottom of the stairs, a servant lay sprawled across the marble, unmoving.His throat had been torn open not cut, not stabbed, but torn, the wound ragged in a way that made my stomach clench even after everything I'd seen in twelve years of training. Blood pooled dark and wide across the pale marble floor, spreading in a slow, spidering pattern that caught the torchlight like something obscene.Somewhere behind me, one of the young women from the bride selection screamed, the sound sharp and raw, quickly joined by others as more guests spilled into the hallway to see what had happened. Guards pushed past us, fanning out through the corridors, searching every shadowed alcove and locked door for whoever had

**Valeria's POV**My heart pounded so violently against my ribs I feared Esteban could hear it from across the table. One wrong answer, one flicker of hesitation, and everything I'd built since arriving at this palace would collapse in an instant the mate bond, the fragile trust growing between Alejandro and me, whatever chance I still had at learning the full truth about my parents."No," I said again, more firmly this time, meeting his eyes directly rather than looking away. Looking away would read as guilt. I'd learned that lesson years ago, the hard way, during my very first mission when a moment of averted eyes had nearly gotten me caught.Esteban studied me carefully. Too carefully, his gaze lingering on details most people wouldn't think to examine the set of my jaw, the stillness of my hands, the exact rhythm of my breathing. This was a man who had spent years learning to read lies the way I'd spent years learning to tell them convincingly. I wondered, distantly, how many pe