All Chapters of The Mate Hunt: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

MaeveBefore Lyra could question me further, the atmosphere in the room changed.There was no announcement. No opening of trumpets or call from the Huntmaster.One moment, the ballroom was filled with music and conversation. The next, power rolled through it. It moved across the marble like an invisible storm.My wolf lifted her head.The pressure pressed against my skin, heavy and commanding. Several younger women stopped speaking. A servant near the wine table nearly dropped the bottle in his hands.One by one, heads turned toward the western entrance.I did not need to look. I felt him. Ronan Caine entered the ballroom as if he owned the air inside it. Perhaps he did.He wore black again.A formal coat this time, tailored across his broad shoulders and left open over a dark shirt. The top buttons remained undone, revealing the base of his throat and the faint edge of a scar disappearing beneath the fabric.His dark hair had been pushed away from his face, though one stubborn lock h

MaeveA dark, pleased expression crossed Ronan's face. He liked that.The bastard genuinely liked being threatened.Aldric raised his staff again. “Enough.” The single word rang with ancient authority, as undeniable as gravity. Even Ronan, for all his dominance, stepped back, though every muscle in his body remained coiled and alert.The rest of the names were announced in turn. I barely heard them, just distant echoes. Lyra stood rigid beside me. The easy confidence she’d radiated earlier had sharpened, crystallizing into something brittle and cold. She had come to the Hunt expecting Ronan to see her. Instead, he had threatened seventeen Alphas over me.I did not want his attention.But that didn’t stop Lyra from resenting me for having it.When the final participant’s name was called, servants entered, gliding across the floor in perfect synchrony. Four of them bore a wide stone basin between them, placing it reverently at the center of the silver circle. The bowl was a dark, stor

RonanMidnight struck with twelve deep chimes from the clock tower above Blackthorne Mansion.The women stood at the edge of the forest beneath a sky bleached silver by the full moon. Forty-two figures lined the boundary marked by burning torches and a long strip of white stone laid into the earth.Beyond them waited darkness.The Blackthorne forest stretched for miles in every direction, dense with old pines, steep ravines, narrow streams, and hunting paths that twisted back on themselves. Fog gathered low between the trees, softening the roots and rocks beneath a pale veil.The sanctuary stood somewhere on the eastern side of the territory.A small stone temple surrounded by silver ash trees.Any woman who crossed its threshold before sunrise would be untouchable. Any woman who failed would belong to the hunter who caught her.Maeve stood near the middle of the line.I saw no one else.She had changed out of the dark green dress she wore during the ceremony. Her black trousers fit c

RonanThe thought of standing behind the boundary while another Alpha hunted Maeve nearly split my control apart.My gaze moved toward Darius. He stood ready, shoulders loose, eyes fixed on the same gap in the trees where Maeve had disappeared.“You follow her,” I said, “and you die.”He looked at me. “We have already discussed this.”“No. You mistook a warning for conversation.”Darius’s expression remained calm. “You have not caught her.”“I will.”“She may reach sanctuary.”“She won’t.”“Then you should have nothing to fear.”Fear. I had not feared another wolf in years. But I feared another man touching Maeve.The realization was so sharp that my wolf nearly forced a shift.Bones cracked through my shoulders. My spine bowed. Claws lengthened from every finger, and the gold flooding my vision sharpened the night until I could see each droplet of mist clinging to the nearest grass.Several hunters stepped away from me.Cassian moved closer. “Ronan.”My teeth sharpened. “If you touch

MaeveDarius Blackthorne leaned against the wide trunk of an ancient oak, his posture as casual as if he’d been waiting for a leisurely stroll, not hunting through the tangled woods at dusk.His formal coat was nowhere in sight. The sleeves of his dark blue shirt had been rolled back to his elbows, revealing muscular forearms crisscrossed with faint, silvered scars.I tightened my grip on the knife and glared. “How did you find me?”Darius’s gaze flicked downward, settling briefly on the blade between us. “You’re standing in my forest.”“That doesn’t answer the question,” I shot back, not lowering the knife.He shrugged, the motion lazy. “It answers all of them.”Then he pushed away from the tree.I rose slowly, keeping the blade steady as a warning. Darius didn’t flinch, didn’t even seem to care. That made him more dangerous than any man I’d faced in the ballroom, more dangerous than any of the wolves on my trail.“I’m not interested in you,” I said. His mouth curved in a wry smile.