All Chapters of The Alpha King's Unclaimed Queen: Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

Vivienne POVI never finished the sentence.The lamps went out all at once, without a flicker or warning. One moment, I could see Voss's long face across the floor, and the next, the Hall was completely dark. The shutters were closed over every window, and the doors were shut. With the lamps gone, there was no other light to guide us.For a heartbeat, nobody made a sound. Then the silence broke into panic. Chairs scraped and overturned. Someone cried out near the dais, while a man shouted for light and another shouted over him. Voices rose from every side, blending until I could no longer tell where they were coming from.I kept my hands flat on the table and forced myself to stay where I was. My fingers pressed against the wood as I remembered the warning from my dream, the gold wood and the woman whose face I could never clearly recall. When they put out the light, do not run. I had heard those words, but I had not expected to need them so soon.A hand closed around my arm. It was w

Killian POVThere were four men in front of me, and none of them was trying very hard to kill me.That was the first thing I understood. I had been fighting through the dark for what felt like a long time, yet not one of them had tried to open my throat. They parried, gave ground when I pushed, and closed the gap whenever I turned. Each time I moved toward the east wall, one of them moved with me, his blade raised but never fully committed to a strike.They weren't trying to kill me. They were keeping me away from something.I stopped, though every part of me wanted to keep moving. The change was running just beneath my skin. My nails had thickened and hooked, and my vision had sharpened until the darkness looked gray instead of black.I could see the men's faces now. They were young and calm, and one of them looked almost bored."Alpha Cross," the nearest man said, breathing hard. "Please stay where you are."I fell silent. Anyone who had fought beside me knew what that meant. The l

Vivienne’s POVThe dagger was hurtling towards my stomach, and I wasn't thinking about the Hall, the Court, or the Sable line. I wasn't thinking about Killian, the hum beneath my skin, or the women in the wood who had told me I would be asked to rise. All I could think about was my child.No.The refusal came from deep inside me, below my ribs where the baby lay. It wasn't a plea or an expression of fear. It was an instinct so strong that I felt it in my bones, and something inside me answered.The warmth that had been humming beneath my skin for weeks spread through my chest and down my arms. I had mistaken it for nerves, pregnancy, or my own imagination, but it had never been any of those things. Whatever it was, it had been waiting for this moment.Without knowing why, I pulled one arm away from my stomach and held it out, my palm facing the dagger. My fingers remained steady as the blade came closer, and for the first time, I felt the presence of the women from the golden wood.We

Vivienne POVI had stood in gold light once before, in a stone chamber before a basin of fire, and I had thought I knew what it felt like. I had been wrong.At the ritual, the flame had risen from the bowl while I watched, telling three packs' worth of witnesses what my blood already was. I had been grateful for the verdict, frightened by it, and uncertain what it meant.This was different. This was a pulse.It rose through the soles of my feet, through the child beneath my ribs, and into every part of me. The steady beat was slow and enormous, yet it did not feel as though something was being done to me. It felt as though I was the one doing it.I could feel the edges of my power reaching through the Hall, touching the walls and every one of the three hundred bowed heads. At last, I understood what the ritual had never been able to tell me.The flame had confirmed my blood. It had told the room whose daughter I was and answered a question about my past. This light had come from somet

Vivienne POV“Don't let him leave this floor.”Killian's order sent Owen moving, but Draven was already halfway down the west wall, heading for the great doors. He moved quickly, keeping low, as if he could escape notice by making himself small.He was wrong. Every Alpha in the Hall was watching him.His uneven footsteps carried across the stone. One by one, the Alphas and their guards turned to follow him. Nobody called out or tried to stop him. They watched a man in a torn suit run for the exit, and their silence made his desperation impossible to ignore.Owen limped across the wreckage with two of our guards at his sides. Draven had a head start and reached the doors before they could catch him.He seized the edge of one heavy slab and shoved. There was no handle, only black wood studded with iron and a thick bar on the other side. Owen had explained that much in the dark.Draven threw his weight against the doors. They held firm. He struck them again, then began pounding with both