Todos los capítulos de MARKED BY FATE: THE ALPHA PRINCE'S REGRET: Capítulo 21 - Capítulo 30

I hadn't expected Ashford territory to feel this familiar.Not the palace itself. We stayed far from that, slipping along the capital’s edge with me hidden under a merchant’s cloak and hood Kaelan pulled out like it was nothing. But the roads, the buildings, the air thick with ambition and old money it all felt too much like Hartwell on its best days, only bigger, colder, and so much worse."You've gone quiet," Kaelan said, guiding our horses down a narrow side street toward the archive building, a squat grey structure tucked between grander ones like an afterthought."This is where you grew up," I said. "Being told exactly what I was, before I ever set foot here." I glanced at him. "I don't love how familiar that makes it feel."Something flickered across his face new defensiveness. Understanding. "I know," he said quietly. "I spent a lot of years thinking this place was just how the world worked. I didn't understand until recently how much of it was built specifically to make people

The second the scent hit, we bolted. Corvin moved faster than I thought possible for someone his age, all three of us tearing through the last patch of frostbitten trees. The farmhouse came into view, small and ordinary, just ahead.Smoke curled from the chimney, innocent and warm, like the house had no idea what was coming for it.We hit the fence line just as someone stepped onto the porch. A girl, maybe sixteen, dark hair, eyes sharp as broken glass. She froze the instant she saw us."Get inside," Kaelan shouted, "now, there's"She didn’t run for the door. She came straight at us instead, her face going cold and steady, way too calm for someone who’d just been told to hide."I already know," she said. "I've felt something wrong in the air since dawn. You're not the first person to arrive uninvited today."My stomach dropped. "Serrin's already been here?""If that's her name," the girl said, "then yes. She didn't come to the door. She's been circling the property for the better part

Rhys hadn't slept properly since Callen's death.He kept telling himself it was strategy. An Alpha with a border this exposed didn’t get to rest. But after three nights without sleep, even his own warriors started trading worried glances when he walked by. The looks he’d snap at anyone else for chipped away at pack morale."You need to eat something," Bianca said, appearing in the doorway of the war room with a plate she set down with more force than strictly necessary. "And before you say you're not hungry, I genuinely do not care."Rhys glanced up from the map spread across the table, patrol routes marked in red ink that had multiplied steadily over the past three days. "I appreciate the concern.""It's not concern, it's self-interest," Bianca said, dropping into the chair across from him with none of the careful poise she'd once cultivated at Hartwell. "If you collapse from exhaustion right when Serrin decides to test this border again, I'm the one who has to explain to Ivy why her

Bianca's hand flew to the blade at her hip before she even thought about it. The Sterling warriors on either side of her were already moving, weapons out, eyes locked on the door."How many?" she asked."With my uncle involved?" Tobias grabbed a second blade from the wall, tossing it to her without hesitation. "Assume more than we can see."Glass exploded inward. The first attacker burst through the smithy's rear window in a blur of dark fur and claws. A Sterling warrior met him mid-air, both of them crashing into the forge's cooling embers, tools scattering everywhere."Behind you!" Tobias shouted, and Bianca spun just in time to catch a second attacker's strike on her borrowed blade, the impact jarring up her arm hard enough to numb her fingers.She wasn't a fighter. She'd spent her whole life perfecting charm and appearances, not combat. Every instinct screamed it now. Panic clawed at the shaky confidence she'd managed to build these last few brutal weeks.I don't need to be as str

Rhys moved before the blade finished falling.He moved so fast Bianca barely saw him. One heartbeat, Ambrose was about to strike. The next, Rhys had his hand locked around Ambrose’s wrist, the blade yanked away just before it could touch the child. Metal hit stone with a useless, echoing clatter.The girl screamed. She tried to crawl away, twisting against her bindings, sobbing so hard she could barely breathe. But she was alive. Unharmed. Still whole.Ambrose snarled, fighting Rhys’s grip with a strength that didn’t match his age. But Rhys was all momentum and fury. He slammed Ambrose down at the edge of the ritual circle, pinning him with a knee to the chest."It's over," Rhys said, voice raw with barely controlled violence. "Stand down, or I end this considerably less gently than I'd prefer to."Sterling warriors rushed in as soon as the standoff broke. They cut the children free with quick, careful hands. Some of the warriors were crying, scooping up the small, shaking bodies and