Semua Bab Mated To My Alpha Stepbrother : Bab 121 - Bab 126

CLEO They led me back to my room in silence, and the door shut behind me without the click of a lock I expected to hear. I stood there a long moment, staring at it, waiting for the sound that never came. There was no bolt sliding into place, or a key turning. I pressed my palm flat against the wood, half convinced I’d imagined it, and pushed. The door opened an inch before I caught it and pulled it shut again, my heart hammering. They hadn’t locked it. So this room was a trap, then. It had to be. Nobody went to the trouble of barring every window in silver and then left the door to my room open, unless they wanted me to try something.I was certain Mordeth was watching, waiting to see what I’d do, ready to punish me the moment I took the bait. Don’t even consider it, little moon. Mordeth’s voice slid into my mind so smoothly I nearly missed the exact moment it arrived. His voice was cold and amused, like he’d been waiting for me to notice the open door so he could warn me again

CLEO The next morning, Mordeth was already at the table when I arrived for breakfast. The same cold confidence was stamped across his face as the night before, like sleep didn’t touch men like him the way it touched everyone else. “Sit.” He didn’t look up from whatever he was reading, a thin scroll unrolled beside his plate. “We have much to discuss.” I sat, keeping my face carefully blank, though my mind was still half trapped in everything Maren had told me. Three other black wolves, and none of them survived Mordeth. I forced the thought down, locked it away somewhere he couldn’t see it written on my face. “The ceremony will happen the moment your week ends,” he said, finally rolling up the scroll. “Which works in our favor, because as it happens, that night falls under the full moon. A black wolf’s power peaks under a full moon, little moon. Our child will carry more strength than anything born in generations.” I kept my hands steady around my cup, though my stomach turned

LAURENT The men gathered in my office by nine, maps spread across every surface, trackers and scouts from four different packs crammed shoulder to shoulder because the King had called in favors on my behalf faster than I could keep track of who owed what to whom anymore. I stood at the head of the table and tried to focus on the map in front of me instead of the sound of Cleo’s voice still echoing in my skull. Somewhere cold. I’d barely gotten a sentence before the connection she’d opened slammed shut again. I’d spent every hour since turning those words over and over, trying to wring more meaning out of them than they actually held. “Cold,” I said, cutting into whatever one of the trackers was explaining about scent trails gone dead at the border. “She told me it’s cold where she is. I want lists of every known territory experiencing winter conditions right now, every stronghold built into rock instead of wood.” One of the older scouts frowned. “Alpha, half the northern packs a