All Chapters of MY DESTINED MATE IS A LYCAN KING: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

Bonen retreated to the hall, leaving the formal coat behind him, the black shirt under it open at the throat. His gaze locked on her, hard, analytical, retaining all the anger from the insult of the northern king. He did not say anything. He just looked at her as he had always done after the performance ended, and the ugly truth was left standing between them.Astrid raised her chin. The crown wavered. With slow steps she came closer to him, the skirt of the dress rustling along the stone floor, like a promise of violence. When she stood before him, she did not halt at an appropriate distance. Instead, she pressed her body to his, her hands sliding up to his chest and the back of his head.“Okay,” she whispered in his ear, her voice barely audible with everything that she didn’t say aloud. Her teeth nibbled at the earlobe until it stung slightly. “I want you now, Alpha.”Bonen’s hands were gripping her waist tightly enough to

“They can try.” Hale’s free hand came to rest on my cheek, turning my face to look into his eyes with all-consuming protectiveness glowing in their golden depths. “But they will not succeed. Not as long as I am alive. Not as long as the armies of the north still follow my orders and the spells protecting this palace are still in place. The child’s magic is still settling. Seraphine was very adamant about how dangerous any strong emotions and especially hatred could be for her at this time. Until we have Seraphine’s permission, you will stay within these walls under complete protection. I will take care of everything else.”“I hate this feeling of hiding,” I said, the words ripping free from the bottom of my throat. “I hate the fact that they can rule over me on a throne made out of the blood of the elders that raised me and blessed my future while I stand here like some kind of delicate thing that will shatter if the breeze blows the wrong way. I want to be the one to enter that hall,

The letter came at dawn, written on paper that was black and sealing wax as dark as dried blood from a messenger that seemed to know he might not live through the act.Bonen stood by the long table in the Alpha’s private study, a place where old Blackthorns had once debated the destiny of their pack around maps and under the moon’s blessing wine. The pictures of the old Blackthorns were no longer there having been burnt in the courtyard during the weeks following the purge, all that remained were blank white spaces in the stone walls that used to bear the marks of history and loyalty. One lamp glowed on the table, trying to fight the growing darkness of the morning. Astrid moved by the dead fireplace, the silver crown missing from her head for once, her black hair still messy from her endless nights reliving the Lycan King’s words in their great hall.The air between them crackled with the residual heat of their earlier coupling and the sharper, uglier fear Hal

That week, following the northern king’s rejection of Blackthorn’s plea for alliance, was spent in odd anticipation, as if the world were holding its breath for the storm to hit rather than in any sort of calm.Wards were reinforced until magic was singing through the air around the palace. The number of patrols increased two-fold. Seraphine and those healers she deemed most trustworthy walked the royal wing in quiet vigilance, observing the slightest flash of the golden light burning under my skin with the sort of focused scrutiny that revealed their ignorance of the ancient magic building up within me. Hale rarely let me out of his sight. His council work was done in the solar attached to our room. He only managed to sleep fitfully, his hand always hovering over the part of me carrying our child.Three nights before the change came, I knew it was coming.The golden glow which had pulsed in a gentle rhythm for many months had begun to deepen; it had become almost molten under my skin

It lingered in the birthing chamber like a living memory, soft and warm, coating the stone walls and the tangled linens in a gentle radiance that refused to die. Lyra slept against my bare chest, her tiny body rising and falling with each precious breath, the luminous crescent mark at the base of her spine glowing faintly even in sleep. Every few moments her small hand flexed against my skin, as if reassuring herself that I was still there, that the heartbeat beneath her ear was real and steady and hers.Hale’s arms remained locked around both of us, careful of her fragile size yet absolute in their possession. His chest was a solid wall of heat at my back. His chin rested against my temple. I could feel the rapid thunder of his heart gradually slowing to match mine, the residual tremor in his muscles from the terror and wonder of the last hours.“She’s so small,” I whispered, afraid that even the sound of my voice might break the fragile perfection of the moment. “How can something s