Alle Kapitel von Surrogate to the Beastly Alpha : Kapitel 61 – Kapitel 70

Aria The mechanical shriek of the perimeter alarms completely shattered the magic of the evening. Cassius tore his mouth away from mine, his entire body going rigid. The intoxicating, devoted lover vanished in a fraction of a second, replaced entirely by the lethal Alpha King. His golden eyes snapped toward the Great Hall as Beta Drew burst through the velvet curtains. "Alpha!" Drew shouted over the noise of the panicking pack, his face pale and tight with adrenaline. "We are under attack! A massive force of rogues just breached the southern outposts! They are setting the watchtowers on fire!" Cassius let out a feral, vibrating snarl that shook the stone walls of the alcove. "How many?" "At least fifty, heavily armed. They bypassed the outer tripwires completely," Drew reported frantically. "They're pushing toward the lower village!" Cassius turned back to me. His chest was heaving, his jaw locked in absolute fury. He grabbed my shoulders, his large hands gripping me tightly en

Aria The black venom moved through Cassius’s veins with terrifying speed. He didn't even make it to the Great Hall to confront his brother. We were halfway down the grand corridor, surrounded by a phalanx of royal guards, when the towering Alpha King suddenly faltered. He stopped walking, his massive hand flying to the stone wall to brace himself. "Cassius!" I gasped, grabbing his other arm. His skin was burning with an unnatural, scorching fever. The veins in his neck, radiating outward from the jagged bite mark, had turned a sickly, necrotic black. The dark web was spreading upward toward his jaw and downward across his chest, visibly poisoning his blood with every beat of his heart. "Alpha!" Beta Drew shouted, rushing forward to catch Cassius’s other side. Cassius’s golden eyes flickered erratically, completely consumed by pain. He looked down at me, his heavy, shaking hand lifting to cup my cheek. Even as his body shut down, his only focus was on my safety. "Drew," Cassius

Aria The gilded cage of the East Wing had become a tomb. For two days, I didn't see the sun. I didn't see Finn, who was still recovering in the clinic, and I certainly didn't see the Alpha King. My only company was the deafening silence of my suite and the rhythmic, mocking tick of the grandfather clock in the corner. I paced the floor until my bare feet ached, my mind desperately searching for a way to break the witch’s dark magic. The antidote had burned the venom from his blood, but it had frozen his soul. He had looked at me with such absolute, chilling indifference that the memory alone made my chest physically ache. On the evening of the third day, the heavy iron deadbolt violently clicked open. I stopped pacing, my breath catching in my throat. Two heavily armed royal guards stood in the doorway. They didn't bow. They didn't avert their eyes in respect like they used to when Cassius had claimed me as his own. They looked at me with the cold, detached professionalism rese

Aria I needed the sun. After spending the rest of the night huddled in the corner of Cassius’s ruined chambers, surrounded by splintered wood and the lingering scent of his agonizing, forced shift, the suffocating darkness of the castle felt like it was crushing my lungs. When the morning enforcers finally came to escort me back to the East Wing, I refused to go to my suite. Instead, I walked straight toward the glass-domed conservatory. The guards, unnerved by the feral blood drying on the doorframes of their King's room, didn't argue. I pushed open the glass doors and stepped into the blinding, crisp winter light. I sank onto a wrought-iron bench, pulling my silk robe tightly across my chest, and just let the morning sun wash over my freezing skin. I closed my eyes, focusing entirely on the heat pressing against my eyelids, desperately trying to block out the horrific sound of Cassius’s bones breaking. Click. Click. Click. The sharp, deliberate sound of heels striking the ma

Aria "Feral," I repeated, the word tasting like ash in my mouth. I stared at Finn, the bright warmth of the morning sun suddenly offering absolutely no comfort. "What do you mean, feral? He is the Alpha King. His control over his beast is absolute." "Not anymore," Finn said grimly, leaning forward on the iron bench, his hand still pressing against his bandaged stomach. "The Healers are saying the witch’s antidote violently clashed with his mate bond. His mind was wiped, but his wolf refused to accept it. The psychological trauma forced the shift, and now the beast has completely locked the human side away. He is roaming the deepest part of the winter woods, and he is attacking any enforcer who tries to approach him." My heart plummeted into my stomach. Cassius was trapped in his own body, tearing himself apart in the freezing snow because the poison wouldn't let him remember me, but his soul refused to let him go. "Ronan has already called an emergency assembly of the council f