All Chapters of The Mate Hunt: Chapter 81 - Chapter 90

MaeveMaris took a long breath. “Do you want Ronan’s crown?”“No.” The answer left me before she finished speaking.The silver light surged so violently that several wolves shielded their eyes.“I never wanted this.” My voice shook. “I never wanted the Caine territory. I never wanted to be a Luna. I never wanted a hidden pack waiting somewhere to reclaim me.”Power gathered beneath my skin.“I never wanted the Hunger to need me.”Ronan flinched. Regret struck immediately.I turned toward him. “That does not mean I regret saving you.”The bond loosened. Only slightly.I looked around the courtyard. “When I entered the Hunt, I had a knife and a plan to die.”The words silenced everyone again.“I did not walk into that forest dreaming about a crown.” The circle glowed brighter. “I wanted Mara out of a cell.” My voice broke. “And I wanted the monster I believed had destroyed her life dead.”No pain came. No red light. Only silver truth.Maris stared at me for a long moment. Then she looke

MaeveThe dining hall darkened around me.Same long tables. Different night.Bodies sprawled across the flagstones. A bowl shattered on the floor, the sharp crack drowned by a scream. Blood ran between the stones, pooling around boots and broken glass.Ronan’s father crumpled beside the nearest table. His mother reached for him, desperation on her face.A wolf crashed through a window, glass exploding inward, shards catching the lamplight. Another rushed from the hallway, teeth bared.The acrid stench of wolfsbane. Poison. Blood. Fear.Ronan’s voice, yelling... "Elara!"I ripped myself out of the memory with a gasp. “Stop.”The word was strangled, barely a sound.Ronan caught me before I hit the stone. The dining hall returned, whole, bright, alive. Several wolves had stopped working, all eyes on me.My breath came in ragged gulps.Blood. There was no blood. The stones were clean. But I could still smell it.“I saw—”“I know.” Ronan’s arms tightened.“Your father—”“Don’t.”“Your moth

MaeveBehind me, Ronan went unnaturally still. The kind of stillness that came before something died.The Hunger surged through the bond so violently that heat ripped beneath my skin. It clawed toward the surface, furious and feral, carrying Ronan’s grief with it until I could barely separate his emotions from my own.Cassian shifted beside him. “Ronan.”“I’m fine.”He wasn’t. I felt every piece of him that wasn’t. Rage. Grief.The memory of blood soaking into stone. Elara’s hand slipping from his. Her throat opening beneath Mara’s blade.Pain struck through the bond hard enough that I nearly sucked in a breath, but I forced myself to remain focused on the woman behind the bars.“What did you just say?”Mara didn’t flinch. “Elara knew what the Caines were.”My stomach twisted. “What were they?”“Dangerous.”“That isn’t an answer.”Her expression remained maddeningly composed. “She knew what Ronan would become.”Behind me, Ronan laughed once.There was nothing remotely amused about it.

Maeve“Open the cell,” I said.Ronan’s head snapped toward me. “No.”Mara stepped backward. “Absolutely not.”Cassian looked between them. “Remarkable. Agreement.”“Cassian.”“Stopping.”Ronan moved beside me. “Maeve.”“She’s going upstairs.”“She murdered half the wolves in this house.”“Then chain her.”“She is dangerous.”“So am I, apparently.”“That does not help your argument.”I turned to him. “I stood in that circle.”His jaw clenched. “I know.”“I told your entire pack that I entered the Hunt intending to murder you.”Mara’s expression changed behind the bars. I saw it. Surprise.“You what?”I ignored her. “I told them I bonded you willingly.”Ronan's mouth twitched despite himself. “I remember.”“I told them I still love Mara.”Now Mara went completely still. Her face changed. I felt it before I looked at her. Pain. Something naked.I forced myself to continue. “I told them I don’t know whether I would choose her over your pack.”Ronan’s expression tightened.“And I told them

MaeveThe words left me quietly. Almost too quietly. And yet they carried farther than my scream had.The courtyard fell silent. Mara lifted her head slowly, and something changed in her face, not anger, not defiance. Fear. "What?"I stared at her. At the woman who had raised me. Protected me. Used me. Sent me toward a man she knew I intended to kill, because she needed me angry enough to enter his Hunt. The woman who had taken my blood and placed it inside another woman's ritual because murdering Ronan had proven too difficult. The woman who had looked at me my entire life and called me sister while planning to turn that love into a weapon.Something inside me finally went still.For years, Mara had been the center of every decision I made. I had crossed territories for her. Walked willingly into the Mate Hunt for her. Put a knife against Ronan Caine's throat in my imagination a thousand times because I thought he had hurt her. And all along, she had been waiting for me to do exact