All Chapters of FOR REVENGE, I MARRIED THE CRIPPLED LYCAN KING : Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

Selena's POVDave was waiting at the top of the east block stairwell when we got there, falling into step beside Kael without needing to be told."How long has he been down here?" Kael asked."About forty minutes," Dave said. "He hasn't asked for anything. Hasn't said a word since we brought him in. Just sits there.""Has anyone questioned him yet?""We were waiting for you," Dave said. "Didn't want to spook him into shutting down completely before you had the chance.""Smart," Kael said."I have my moments." Dave pushed open the door to the lower corridor and held it. "Fair warning, Alpha. He's young. Younger than I expected for this kind of job. Either whoever sent him is running low on experienced men or he chose someone disposable on purpose.""Probably both," I said.Dave glanced at me. "Probably both," he agreed. He looked back at Kael. "He had nothing on him when we brought him in. No weapon, no documentation beyond the forged papers, nothing that identifies who he answers to.

Kael's POV"Nothing that is any of your business," I replied, shutting the files in front of me.Lucien looked at the closed folder and then at my face and smiled the smile he used when he was pretending he had not already noted everything he came in to note."You seem tense," he said, dropping into the chair across the desk like he had been invited."You entered my office without knocking again," I said."The door was open.""The door being open is not an invitation," I said. "It means I expected Dave back shortly and did not bother closing it. Not that my brother should feel free to walk in and make himself comfortable.""You used to not mind," he said."A lot of things have changed," I replied.He looked at me for a moment, doing the assessment he always did, reading the room, reading me, calculating what he could get from this conversation and what he could not."Where is your Luna?" he asked."Why?""I was looking for her earlier. Wanted to extend a welcome now that the chaos of

Selena's POV"Are you okay?" Kael asked as I stood up to stand beside him, his gaze fixated on Lucien who was burning with fury."Y-yes I am," I muttered, tears welling in my eyes. I blinked rapidly, holding back the tears. The mate bond was pulsing softly on my neck, the thought of how I had almost been killed by the people who were supposed to protect me crashing into the reality that I now belonged somewhere, to something, that I had chosen this and it had chosen me back, and that was more than I had ever been given in twenty-two years and I was not ready to feel it in front of a room full of people who had not wanted me here to begin with.I pressed my lips together and breathed through my nose.Around us the chamber was emptying. Noble families filtering out in clusters, quiet conversations that would become louder ones the moment they cleared the doors. Marsh left without looking at either of us. Lady Voss swept past with her chin high and her smile in place, the kind of smile t

Selena's POV"No," I said, staring into his eyes and enunciating each word so there was no room for misunderstanding. "I will not grant you a private audience.""Selena, you cannot—""Yes, I can, and yes I will. If whatever you have to say is important enough to travel this far, say it in front of my husband or leave." I glanced at Kael from the corner of my eye, steady in his chair, watching Drake with the particular expression he wore when he was letting a situation develop before deciding whether to intervene.Drake's jaw tightened. "You cannot possibly—""We spent five years together," he said, switching angles, his voice dropping into something that was designed to sound reasonable. "Five years, Selena. And you cannot even give me ten minutes? You are really going to choose a man you have barely known over me? After everything between us, I do not even deserve—"My palm tore across his face before I had fully decided to move.The sound of it cut through the room. Drake's head sna

Selena's POVCaius had chosen the main council chamber. Not the smaller assessment room from two days ago but the full chamber, every seat filled, the noble families along the walls, the council elders at the table, the kind of assembly that was designed to make whatever happened inside it feel permanent and witnessed and impossible to walk back from.We knew before we walked in. Kael had not said it and I had not said it but we both knew, the way you know things when you have been paying attention to the shape of what is being built around you. The threatening message, Drake's men mapping the gate, the timing of Caius's arrival against the mating ceremony, Blackthorn had been using the Continental Council as a mechanism, and now the mechanism was about to deliver its verdict.I walked in beside Kael and took my seat and put both hands flat on my thighs under the table where no one could see them and kept my face doing nothing at all. Around the room people were already arranged in