All Chapters of Surrogate for the Lycan King : Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

Zeus’s POV The double doors of the Council Chamber slammed shut at midnight, but the storm brewing inside was already out of control. The hall was crammed to capacity with angry lords, noble family heads, and frantic advisors, all shouting over each other until the noise vibrated off the pillars. Elder Malakai stood right at the head of the long wooden table, leading the charge like a man possessed. "This is a mockery of our sacred laws!" Malakai bellowed, his face turning an angry shade of red under the torchlight. "The Breeding Lottery was created to give the Crown multiple highborn choices, ensuring His Majesty selects only the strongest, most resilient females! Selecting a single human girl who barely passed the basic blood tests is basically signing this kingdom's death warrant!" "He is right!" Elder Vance chimed in, slamming his fist onto the wood. "If your Majesty is determined to use this strange girl, you must at least select two or three additional surrogates to increase

Zeus's POV The banquet hall was packed. Every noble family from every corner of the territory, hundreds of them, sitting around tables dripping with silver and candlelight, all whispering about the same thing. My human surrogate. I sat at the head table with my fingers drumming a slow beat against the carved armrest, staring at the double doors like I could will them open through the force of wanting. She was ten minutes late. I had no idea if she was actually coming or if she'd locked herself in that room and decided to tell me, and the entire kingdom, to go to hell. Inside my chest my wolf was pacing, scratching at my ribs, demanding to know where our mate was. He didn't care about nobles or protocol. He just wanted her in the room. "If she doesn't show soon, Zeus, they're going to think you've lost control of this," Marcus muttered beside me. "They'll be demanding a new lottery by morning." "I'm aware, Beta." My jaw was tight enough to crack a tooth. Three seats down, Elder

Zeus’s POV I sat behind my desk, staring at the thin parchment report Varian had delivered to my study less than an hour ago. The ink was barely dry, detailing every strange, impossible thing the old physician had discovered about Kelsey’s blood. Rapid tissue regeneration. Complete immune resistance. Adaptation to Lycan energy. "She is adapting to my blood," I whispered into the quiet room, my thumb tracing over the crisp edge of the parchment. I hated that I couldn't stop myself from obsessing over a human. But I couldn't help it. I couldn't help that I was willing to tear this entire kingdom apart just to keep her breath in her lungs. Inside my chest, I could feel my wolf shifting. If there was one thing Ares my wolf hated, then it was drama and unnecessary conflict. But it hated anyone threatening what was ours even more. She is ours, the beast spoke, She is adapting because she was built for us. Stop letting these pathetic old men waste our time. She is human. Varian says he

Zeus’s POV The clock on the wall of my study ticked past two in the morning, and I was losing my mind. I sat at my desk, staring down at a stack of border patrol reports that might as well have been written in a foreign language. I had read the exact same sentence about western supply wagons five times, and not a single word had registered in my brain. I tossed the parchment down, leaning back in my chair and rubbing both hands over my face. I couldn't focus. I couldn't work or even sleep. The worst part was her scent. It was drifting through the walls, sweet, and impossible to ignore. Rain, wild lavender, and sharp pine. But it wasn't just there; it was growing stronger. When she first walked into the palace four days ago, her scent was light, like a faint breeze. Now, it was so intense, filling up my private hallway and wrapping around my senses like a physical rope pulling at my chest. Why was it heightening like this? Was it because her body was adapting to the palace? Was

Zeus’s POV I speed-walked down the private corridor like I had just barely survived a deadly ambush. My boots hit the floor in fast, furious strides, my mind internally screaming at myself the entire way back toward my study. I was a two-hundred-and-forty-year-old Lycan King. I was the conqueror of three brutal border wars, a ruler who had brought entire enemy packs to their knees with a single growl. And I had just face-planted straight into a human girl’s mattress while aggressively sniffing her pillow. Inside my skull, my inner wolf was rolling on its back, howling with hysterical laughter. Shut the hell up, I snarled at my wolf, my face burning with a ridiculous heat. The great conqueror, the wolf wheezed in my mind, utterly useless. Defeated by a sheet and a startled jump. She caught you red-handed, you fool. "I was running security checks," I muttered out loud through clenched teeth, aggressively rubbing the back of my hand over my face to scrub her lingering lavender sc