All Chapters of The Alpha King's Unclaimed Queen: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

Killian POV"How true would you say that claim is, Vivienne?"The question cut through the room, and I caught the shift in the crowd before I understood what had caused it. Conversation had thinned out near the far side of the hall, and attention had gathered toward something I hadn't yet located.I'd barely ended the call about Ashford, the news worse than I'd hoped and better than I'd feared, when I lowered the phone and looked toward the disturbance. I scanned the room until I found her.Vivienne was surrounded. A reporter I didn't recognize stood too close, two cameras already trained on her, while a small crowd formed around them. People were watching with the quiet attention that came when they sensed something worth seeing.I was moving before I'd fully processed what I was looking at.I closed the distance just in time to hear the question land, sharp and deliberate, loud enough for every camera and listening guest in the hall. I didn't yet know what claim the reporter was re

Vivienne POV “It's not as bad as it could be,” Owen said as we entered his office.He had the article pulled up on his tablet by the time we reached his desk, and I made myself read it in full, even though every instinct told me to look away before I finished the first paragraph.It was worse than I'd braced for, though not in the way I expected. The reporter hadn't printed the accusation outright. She hadn't needed to. She had simply described the scene at the gathering in careful, damning detail. The unanswered question, the silence that followed, my own composure described as “notably measured” in a way that made it sound less like grace under pressure and more like practiced evasion.Vivienne Cross declined to deny the allegations directly.I read the sentence twice.It wasn't a lie. That was what made it dangerous. I had refused to answer a question that had been built on an accusation no one had been willing to make openly, and the reporter had turned my refusal into evidence.

Vivienne POV Priya's grip on my arm was the only steady thing in a hallway that had turned into chaos within a few heartbeats.We ran together, a guard I didn't recognize leading the way with one hand hovering near the weapon at his hip. He shouted directions over the blare of the alarm, and I could barely process them fast enough to follow. Staff scattered around us in every direction. Some sprinted toward the lower levels, while others stood frozen in doorways, their eyes wide with the panic of people who had trained for emergencies they had never believed would happen.Through a window at the end of the corridor, I caught a broken glimpse of the grounds below. Shapes moved quickly across the lawn in the dim evening light, too many and too organised to be random. A body hit stone with a hard crack, followed by a snarl that raised every hair on my arms."This isn't like before," I said, breathless, as we rounded another corner. "This isn't like the poisoning or Draven at the gate

Killian POV I was in the east wing with Owen, reviewing security reports when the alarm tore through the estate, making the reports in front of us suddenly feel absurdly small against whatever was happening beyond that door.I didn't wait for a briefing. I was moving before the first guard reached us, some old certainty already screaming through me that whatever this was, it had come for her specifically. Every second I spent gathering information was a second I couldn't afford to lose.The corridors blurred past in fragments, staff scattering and distant shouting carrying through the estate. I let the shift take me halfway, enough to move faster and hit harder without losing the reasoning mind I needed to actually find her. Two attackers came at me near the main staircase. The first barely had time to raise his weapon before I drove him into the wall, and the second went down under a blow that sent him sprawling across the floor. I didn't stop to see whether either of them would ge

Killian POV"The security logs are back," Owen said, finding me in my study just before dawn. Exhaustion showed in his posture, but nothing had dulled the sharp focus in his eyes.He closed the door behind him with the care of someone about to deliver news he already knew I wouldn't take well."Whoever disabled the eastern perimeter sensors used valid credentials. Not stolen. Not spoofed. Valid.""Whose?""Marcus's."The name landed exactly as I expected it to, confirming a suspicion I'd carried since the poisoning without ever having enough to act on it."Are you certain?""As certain as a login credential can make me. It doesn't prove he was the one who used them personally. Someone could theoretically have stolen access without stealing the physical card required to pair with it. But the timing, combined with everything else we've suspected since your dinner table introduced us to his particular brand of contempt..." Owen exhaled. "I don't believe in that many coincidences.""Nei