Todos os capítulos de The Mate They Tried To Bury: Capítulo 31 - Capítulo 40

VALERIUS "Get out of my head."Growling at the empty room, Valerius paced the length of the royal guest suite. Sunlight had not yet pierced the horizon. Shadows clung to the corners of the stone walls. Sleep refused to come. Every time his eyes closed, he tasted cheap soap and rainwater. He felt her small, freezing hands gripping his shirt. He remembered the desperate, starving way she surrendered her mouth to him.She fought him with words, but her body yielded with total honesty.That contradiction drove his Lycan beast insane.Stripping his dark tunic over his head, he threw it onto the nearest chair. He needed to burn this energy out of his blood. Staying inside the estate felt like suffocating in a small wooden box. Sera’s cloying perfume lingered in the hallways. Rowan’s nervous sweat coated the dining room. Only the forest offered real air.Opening the glass balcony doors, he stepped out into the freezing pre-dawn mist. The drop to the courtyard was thirty feet.Vaulting over

AUTHOR’S POV.The syndicate came for them very early the next morning."Do not say a single word until we get inside."Nikolai muttered the warning just as the penthouse door swung open. Four men stood in the hallway. They wore dark coats and held suppressed pistols. Morning sunlight had not even touched the city windows yet. Elias felt his stomach twist into a cold knot. He had not slept. Sarah’s empty silence over the phone still haunted his racing mind.One of the thugs grabbed Elias by the shoulder. He shoved him roughly toward the private elevator. Another man pressed a gun barrel directly into Nikolai’s lower back. Nobody offered an explanation. They just pushed the hockey players into the steel box.Going down to the parking garage took less than a minute. Fear gripped Elias tight. He knew exactly what this was about. News of the car bomb had not hit the morning papers yet, but the syndicate knew everything. They knew Sarah tried to leak the files."Get in the van," a bald thug

AUTHOR’S POIV."Drop the brush."He stood in the doorway of the underground cell. A flickering torch in his hand cast long, distorted shadows over the wet stone walls.Kneeling on the freezing floor, Marie stopped scrubbing. Her arms shook violently. Fifteen hours had passed since Callum chained her ankle to the iron ring. The bucket of soapy water beside her knees was no longer clear. It was tinted pale pink.Slowly, she pulled her hands out of the freezing water.Her knuckles were split open. Raw, bleeding blisters covered her palms from gripping the stiff wooden handle. The coarse lye soap burned into the open cuts, sending sharp spikes of agony up to her elbows."Shift is over," Marcus grunted, stepping into the damp room.He bent down and shoved a rusted key into the iron cuff around her ankle. The lock clicked. The heavy metal ring fell away, leaving a dark purple bruise on her pale skin.Pushing herself up, Marie swayed. Her legs felt like hollow reeds. Her damp gray dress clun

MARIE"I just want out."Marie whispered the words to the empty attic. Darkness swallowed the sound immediately. Sitting on the edge of her lumpy cot, she stared at her ruined hands. The estate was finally quiet. The grand banquet preparations downstairs had ceased for the night, leaving her alone with the freezing draft and her own shattered body.Carefully, she unwrapped the damp linen strips from her palms.Pain shot up her forearms, sharp and unforgiving. Raw, weeping blisters covered her skin. The harsh lye soap from the kitchen basins had eaten through the open cuts from the dungeon scrubbing brush. Splinters of wood remained wedged in her flesh.Tears pricked the corners of her eyes. She fought them at first. She always fought them. Crying showed weakness, and weakness invited predators. But tonight, the physical agony combined with the crushing weight of her reality broke the dam.A single tear slipped down her bruised cheek. Then another.Leaning forward, Marie rested her elb

VALERIUS"Repeat what you just said."I closed the distance between us in two massive strides. My boots hammered against the wooden floorboards, rattling the crystal glasses sitting on the Alpha's desk. The air in the study turned freezing cold as my aura flooded the space.Callum did not back down immediately. He jutted his chin forward, desperately trying to project an authority he simply did not possess."I meant exactly what I said," Callum spat, glaring up at me. "Focus on Sera. She is your future bride. Whatever happens to Marie is none of your damn business."Rage blinded me.Reaching out, I grabbed the front of his shirt. I lifted him clean off the floor and shoved him backward with brutal force. His spine slammed against the stone wall. The impact knocked two framed maps off their iron hooks, sending shattered glass cascading across the Persian rug.Callum choked. He grabbed my thick wrists, trying to pry my fingers away from his collar. He bared his fangs, kicking his heavy