All Chapters of The Wolf King's Reluctant Mate: Chapter 81 - Chapter 90

Adele"I only said it as a joke," Bram muttered. His face was still white. "In the courtyard and the tunnels. Just a few times among the men.""Obviously the entity was listening, the whole time" Lira flatly answered, her grey traveling cloak snapping as she stood rigid beside him.Cold crawled over my skin. Every private word, every plan we had spoken near the stone or the seals, the thing behind the gate had been heard.Rowan's hand tightened around mine. "Then we stop speaking near it. We give it nothing it can use."He raised his voice to the pack. "No names near the heart-stone. No plans. If you must talk, go to the far side of the courtyard."People stepped back. Morning work had started again, t

We did the test where no stone could hear us.The high wall's far corner was all wind and open sky, with no well, no vault and no tunnel mouth for a hundred paces. Rowan stood an arm's length from me. Darius waited a few steps away, his staff planted."Use one finger, nothing more" Darius said.Rowan held out his hand. I lifted mine and our fingertips met.For a breath, nothing happened. Then, faint as a key turning in a distant door, we both felt it: a soft click deep in the bond. From far below the east wall, a pulse answered.I snatched my hand back. Rowan's face went still."It is not the gate," he said quietly. "It is us. It is listening to

We went down to the outer wall on the southern gate, where three riders came fast through the snow with a dark-haired girl seated between the first two. She looked about fifteen. She wasn't tied. She was waving both hands high over her head, like she was coming home.Lira stopped dead beside me. "I never wrote the address down. Not once. How did they find her?"Rowan kept the careful space between us. "We should get her inside first, then the questions come after."Bram was already shouting. "Open the gate! Four guards on those riders the second they stop. Nobody draws out their swords unless I say so!"Before the horses reached the arch, Darius stepped into their path. He ran his hand a finger's width above each rider, then above the girl's head and wrists."They seem to be compromised, there are no burns on the arms either. They are clean." He stated.Then the gates swung wide and the girl slid down before anyone could reach her. She had bright dark eyes and a long braid. The moment

I stayed on the floor until the purple line closed and the pulse under the courtyard faded. Lira's claws slid back in, but her eyes stayed on Wren.Rowan's answer came through the bond, low and close. I felt it. I'm coming up.He reached the door and stopped an arm's length from me. Bram came up behind him and doubled the guards on the stairs without a word."What did you feel?" Rowan asked softly."One beat from Pebble," I said. "The first since we shut the gate. It came right after the mark on her opened up."Lira looked up. "Did it answer to the girl or the seal?""I don't know yet." I answered back

AdeleI kept my hand pressed flat against the edge of the parchment until the silver lines finally ceased their luminescent hum.Rowan stood close beside me—his towering shadow completely enveloping mine—yet he maintained that agonizing, mandatory arm’s length of empty space between us.Darius held the iron lantern perfectly steady, its low flame cutting through the damp gloom of the chamber."The map drew the heart-stone as a key," I murmured, staring at the faded ink. "A key opens a lock. I need to find where it goes.""The well shaft," Rowan answered, his deep baritone dropping into a low, gravelly register that vibrated through the floorboards."The one I had blocked. The crystal's trail stopped there, and someone went down it under the cover of night." He turned toward the iron-reinforced door."Sarlen is coming. He knows the composition of tonics and the layout of the old wards better than anyone else. Lira remains above, guarding the north tower with Wren and Elara. Bram unblock