The Alpha's Rejected Mate のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 81 - チャプター 90

Kael’s POV“Come home, my daughter.”The voice echoed through my bones.Lyra stood frozen.The golden eye beneath the kingdom stared directly at her.I grabbed her hand.“Don't listen.”She looked at me.“What if it's telling the truth?”“It isn't.”“How do you know?”“Because anything that wants you to come home after everything we've survived isn't asking.”The ground shook.A crack opened beneath Lyra's feet.I pulled her toward me.Too late.Golden light exploded from beneath her.“KAEL!”I caught her as she fell.Her body was burning.Not with fire.With light.“Lyra!”Her eyes opened.They were completely gold.Then she whispered—“I'm sorry.”My heart stopped.“For what?”She smiled.“I remember.”The light swallowed us.---When I opened my eyes, I wasn't in the palace.I was standing in darkness.Lyra was beside me.Seris was there too.And Luna.But none of us could move.A voice echoed through the darkness.“You finally came home.”A figure appeared.Not a woman.Not a man.

Lyra’s POV“Hello, Lyra.”“I've been waiting for my daughter to come home.”I stared at the silver-haired man standing before me.My daughter.Those words should have sounded comforting coming from a stranger who claimed to be Luna's grandfather.Instead, they made my skin crawl.I tightened my grip on Kael's hand.“Stop calling me your daughter.”The man's smile faded slightly.“Still stubborn. You inherited that from your mother.”“My mother is Selene.”“Selene raised you. She did not create you.”Mother's name left my lips like a warning.“Don't you dare speak about her.”He studied me for a moment.Then he bowed.“Forgive me. I forgot how fiercely you defend the people you love.”Kael stepped between us.“Enough riddles. Tell us who you are.”The man looked at him with something resembling pity.“You carry a king's heart, yet you still ask permission to stand before one.”Kael lifted his sword.“I don't need permission to cut you down.”The stranger laughed.For the first time, I

Kael’s POV“Because I am Lyra.”The voice came from Lyra's mouth.But the woman standing beside me had not spoken.I stared at my wife.Her eyes were wide with terror.“Kael,” she whispered. “I didn't say that.”I tightened my grip on her hand.“I know.”The voice laughed inside her chest.“You know nothing.”The golden light beneath Lyra's skin spread toward her throat.Aurelia struggled against the chains wrapped around her body.“Don't answer it!”Lyra staggered.I caught her before she fell.“What's happening to me?” she gasped.Aurelia's expression was desperate.“The fragment has awakened. It remembers being whole, and it wants to return to what it was.”“Then take it out!”“I told you I can't!”Lyra's knees buckled.I lowered her carefully to the floor.“Look at me,” I said.Her frightened eyes found mine.“Whatever that voice tells you, remember who you are.”She swallowed.“I'm Lyra.”“Yes.”“I'm your wife.”I pressed my forehead against hers.“Yes.”“And Luna's mother.”Behi

Kael’s POVThe man wore my face.Not the face I saw in the mirror every morning. Not the face Lyra touched when she thought I was asleep.This face was older.Colder.His silver eyes held the exhaustion of a man who had watched the world end and decided to let it happen again.He stood beneath the shattered black moon, holding the sword I had driven into Elaris's heart.“Now,” he repeated, “let’s finish what you started.”I tightened my fists.“Who are you?”His smile was almost kind.“You already know.”“No.” I stepped forward. “I know the memories. I know the blood. I know what I did to Elaris. But I don't know you.”“Of course you don't.” He tilted his head. “You gave yourself a new name. A new face. A new life. You even convinced yourself that loving a woman could make you something other than what you were.”My chest tightened.“Don't speak about Lyra.”“There he is.”The stranger's smile widened.“My favorite lie.”The ground split between us.Silver light surged through the crac

Kael’s POVThe crown was cold.That was the first thing I noticed.Not the darkness spreading beneath my skin. Not the ancient voice whispering through my bones. Not the thousands of dead kings kneeling before me.The crown was cold.It settled upon my head as though it had been waiting there for centuries.And suddenly, I remembered everything.Every kingdom I had conquered.Every enemy I had slaughtered.Every time I had mistaken fear for loyalty and called it peace.I remembered Elaris dying beneath my sword.I remembered Aren screaming my name as I abandoned him beyond the boundaries of time.I remembered the first moment I had heard the Hunger whisper.You could save them all.All I had needed to do was open the door.I had believed I was strong enough to control what came through.I had been wrong.The creature before me lowered its enormous head.“My King.”I looked at my hands.Black veins crawled beneath my skin, but my fingers were steady.For the first time in centuries, I f