All Chapters of MY DESTINED MATE IS A LYCAN KING: Chapter 61 - Chapter 70

The third strike came from beneath the archive.The royal sigil carved above the sealed doors split down the middle.Chloe heard the crack before she saw it.“Move away from the door!” Hale ordered.Seraphine seized the edge of the stone table as dust spilled from the ceiling. The lamps along the underground chamber flickered, their flames turning black one by one.Hale caught Chloe by the waist and pulled her behind him.“I can stand on my own,” she snapped.“Then stand behind me while the ceiling decides whether it wants to kill us.”“Your concern is touching.”“Chloe.”“Fine. But if another stone falls, I’m not waiting for permission to move.”A second crack raced across the carved crescent above the archive.Seraphine stared at it.“That is not possible.”Hale released Chloe only long enough to draw his blade. “You have said that three times tonight. I would appreciate a more useful observation.”“The sigil was carved from moon-forged granite. It survived the first war, the fall o

“No.”The gold flared.The creature recoiled so violently that the doors slammed shut.A wave of force struck the chamber. Hale braced himself against the table, while Seraphine fell to one knee.The royal sigil above the archive blazed with gold light.For a moment, the black line dividing it disappeared.Then a new inscription burned into the stone.THE FIRST KEEPER DID NOT GUARD THE DOOR.Seraphine stared at it.Chloe read the words twice.“What does that mean?”A second line appeared.SHE WAS THE DOOR.Hale moved to Chloe's side.“Seraphine?”The healer did not answer.“Seraphine.”She looked at them, and the expression on her face was worse than fear.“The first keeper wasn't guarding a threshold,” she said. “She was containing it within herself.”Chloe's fingers went cold.

“The second door,” she murmured.Hale rocked Lyra gently.“Do you think that was the same voice we heard in the archive?”“No.”“How can you tell?”“Because the thing beneath the palace wanted us to open the door.” Chloe looked at their daughter. “That voice wanted us to keep one closed.”Hale's face darkened.“Two doors.”“Two sides.”“And one of them is inside our child?”Chloe shook her head.“I don't know. But the first keeper may not have been the only one.”The nursery door opened, and Seraphine hurried in with her medical satchel.“What happened?”Chloe told her everything—the smoke, the mark, the voice.Seraphine listened without interrupting. When Chloe finished, the healer approached Lyra and held two fingers near the baby's palm.

“Then we find another way.”“You say that as if the world is full of convenient alternatives.”“No. I say it because I refuse to let an ancient monster decide which member of my family gets to live.”Chloe held his gaze.“Then we agree.”She looked down at Lyra.“And we start with the second door.”The archive chamber had changed by the time they returned.The third strike had left a deep split across the royal sigil. Dust covered the floor, and several stones had fallen from the arch. The black liquid had retreated into the cracks, but its presence remained visible in the dark lines running through the marble.Two guards stood at the entrance.Hale stopped before them.“Has anyone entered?”“No, Your Majesty.”“Have you heard anything?”The older guard hesitated.Hale's eyes narrowed.

And the royal sigil broke in half.The sound was sharp enough to silence the laughter behind the archive doors. A piece of carved stone struck the floor beside Chloe's boot. The remaining half of the crescent hung above the entrance, split through the three claws.Seraphine stared at it.“No,” she whispered.Hale did not look away from the broken symbol.“Tell me I'm wrong.”The healer swallowed. “I wish I could.”Chloe shifted Lyra against her shoulder.“Maereth Cross was a queen. Why was her name erased?”Hale's jaw tightened.“Because the official history says the first king founded the northern kingdom alone.”“And you believed it?”“I was taught it.”“That wasn't my question.”He finally turned toward her.“No. I never believed the story was complete.”“Yet you never questioned it?”“I questioned the gaps. I questioned why the royal records began with a coronation and not a birth. I questioned why the oldest portraits had been removed from the throne room.” His gaze returned to t