Lahat ng Kabanata ng IN BED WITH THE DEVIL AS HIS SURROGATE : Kabanata 31 - Kabanata 40

(BACK AT BLOODCAST PACK)PRINCE CASPER"Argh!"The roar tore out of me before I could stop it, and everything in reach went up in flame — the table, the chair beside it, the curtains along the far wall catching and curling to ash within seconds.My Beta dropped to one knee, bowing his head low. "My King, please. Calm yourself."King. Yes. That's what I'd demanded they call me, the day I built my own palace on the edge of a forgotten pack no one bothered to claim. I didn't care what the rest of them whispered behind my back. I wanted the title, and I had taken it for myself, piece by piece, the only way anyone in my family ever gets anything that matters."They all fought me." My voice dropped low, shaking with something closer to disbelief than anger now. "Over a slave. A slave who hadn't set foot in his chamber in seven years without dying for it, and suddenly he's throwing his whole guard at me to protect her?""She must be special, my King," Xavi offered, bowing lower."Special."

(TWO DAYS LATER)KATHLEENI woke to a strange cold settling deep into my bones. My hands wouldn’t stop trembling. The weather outside was perfectly ordinary, and yet I felt like winter itself had crawled under my skin. I curled tighter beneath the duvet, dragging it up to my chin, and found even breathing had become an effort. The room tilted faintly whenever I tried to focus on anything.Sheba walked in, humming something under her breath, and crossed straight to the window to pull the curtains open. The soft morning breeze drifted in, and it made everything worse.“Close the window,” I managed, my voice shaking as badly as the rest of me.She spun around, took one look at me, and rushed over, pressing the back of her hand to my forehead. She flinched. “Holy Goddess.” Her eyes went wide. “Kath, you’re burning up.”“I don’t know what’s wrong,” I admitted. “I just woke up like this.”This was a new problem for me. I’d hardly been sick a day in my life growing up — it was always Sa

(THE COUNCIL MEETING)The hall was already full by the time the doors opened — every pack elder seated, patient, waiting for the meeting to begin.Then the door burst open, and Casper strode into the hall.No one rose.Not a single chair scraped back, not a single head bowed. The entire table simply watched him cross the room, cold and unmoving.Prince Casper's jaw tightened at the sight of it, though he kept his stride even, refusing to let the snub slow him down. They'd all agreed, once, that respect in this hall belonged only to the King. He'd never cared for that rule before. Apparently tonight, they'd decided to finally enforce it."Prince Casper." One of the elders rose to his feet — the only one who bothered standing at all, and only to speak. "This meeting is for members of the Oreblack pack only."Casper scoffed, his glare cutting toward the man before sweeping across the rest of the table. "I am a member of the Oreblack pack." A pause. "By blood.""Regardless," several voic

KATHLEENI stood at the window, watching the courtyard below, wondering what could possibly warrant gathering the entire palace like this. I couldn't make out a single word from up here, only the shapes of people and the weight of whatever was happening among them.Beta Fin looked furious, the kind of fury that radiated even from this height. Lord Tarry's gaze kept sweeping across the crowd, slow and searching, like he was hunting for something specific in every face.Then I spotted Sheba, kneeling, shaking, tears streaming down her face. Beside her, a little further off, knelt the chef — the same woman who'd set me up with that bread and watched me get whipped for it without so much as blinking.The gathering stretched on a long while before it finally broke apart, the crowd dispersing in uneasy clusters. I waited by the door after that, restless, until it finally opened and Sheba slipped inside.She shut it behind her and stood there a moment, breathing hard, the dried tracks of

KATHLEENHe stayed frozen for another heartbeat, then another, like he was waiting to see if I would push him away. Why was he acting like he needed my permission when he had always been the one to make a move.When I didn’t—when my hands only tightened on his shoulders, he exhaled hard and started to move.The first slow drag of his hips made my back arch off the floor.He was thick, stretching me open in a way that bordered on too much, and every inch of him dragged against places inside me that made my vision blur. “Fu—ck—-” I made a broken sound that didn’t sound like me at all.“Shit,” he muttered against my temple. “You’re so tight. Taking me so well.”He pulled almost all the way out, then slammed back in with a controlled roll of his hips that forced a gasp out of me. Again. And again. The wet sound of it filled the quiet room—obscene, undeniable. Every time he bottomed out, that strange pull in my chest flared hotter, like a second heartbeat answering his.“Look at me,” he