All Chapters of The Wolf King's Reluctant Mate: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

The executioners hauled me down a winding staircase that bored deep into a mountain. My bare feet dragged uselessly against the frost-bitten stones. With every step, the purple runes on the heavy iron cuffs flashed, injecting cold that caused numbness from my wrists straight to my shoulders. I tried to balance my weight, to pull back, but the guards moved with unyielding strength like they were not flesh and blood."Where are you taking me?" I demanded, forcing the rattle out of my throat, desperate to project a courage I didn't possess. "The main courtyard isn't down here.""Keep quiet," the lead guard growled, his gauntlet shoving open a reinforced iron door at the foot of the steps.We got to a circular chamber that took the breath right out of my lungs. The rou

His eyes were wide with shock and disbelief that I was able to find him here, he must have thought it was a secret hold. But I have always known his secret moves even though how I achieved that was no longer clear to me at this timeI took one heavy step forward. My fangs were fully out, blood, and saliva dripped from my jaw onto the floor.“Step away from her.”My voice barely sounded human to my ears. The silver sheets on the walls rattled with the sound.Eric’s eyes flicked to the medical tray. He snatched a silver-tipped skinning knife and pressed the edge straight against Adele’s throat before I could close the distance.“Don’t move,” he said. His hand shook once, then steadied.

When I opened my eyes, the flashing green fire and suffocating silver walls were gone.I lay on a thick down mattress in a vaulted chamber that smelled heavily of dried sage, lavender, and crushed roots. The iron suppression cuffs were gone. Strips of clean, white linen wrapped my wrists from knuckle to forearm, but a deep, rhythmic ache still throbbed beneath the cloth every time I tried to flex my fingers.“Don’t try to sit up yet, wild cat.” Someone said it was Rowan. He sat motionless in the carved oak chair beside my pillows. He looked more broken than I felt. A row of dark, jagged stitches partitioned his left brow, and thick bloody linens bound both of his massive shoulders beneath his torn jerkin. His midnight eyes held a heavy, suffocating guilt as he tracked my movement, as if he we

My mind was still on the words written in the dead physician’s blood.“We need to get out of here,” I whispered, pulling Rowan’s heavy black cloak tighter around my shoulders. The smoke-and-pine scent helped push back the copper smell, but it did not stop the shaking. “The air feels wrong.”Rowan did not answer at once. He kept his eyes on the stone wall a moment longer, then took my arm. His hand was warm and steady as he guided me up the winding steps, away from the body and the message.When we reached the royal suite, the oak doors closed hard behind us. The room was warm from the fire, but it still felt like a cage.“You need to rest,” Rowan said. He pointed toward the bed. “Sit.”“I am tired of sitting.” I leaned against the timber table instead. My wrists throbbed under the clean bandages. “And I am tired of being told what to do. You say I am your mate, but you tr

Rowan touched the torn edge of the book. The red edge returned to his eyes under the lantern light.“Darius.”The physician hurried into the alcove. “What is it?”“The last page is gone. The tear is fresh. Who else has access?”Darius traced the ragged paper with his fingers. His face went pale. “The master key stays around my neck. No one enters without my permission.”“Theresa just walked out of the shadows,” I said, my voice cutting sharply through the dusty vault as my hands continued to shake. “She used the servant tunnels to breach the perimeter. If she can bypass our security to slip into this alcove, anyone can.”“This was not Theresa’s doing.” Darius raised the ragged, broken paper to his nose, inhaling deeply before looking toward the dark corridor. “She carries the heavy reek of soot, coal dust, and grease. This tear is clean. It smells