Lahat ng Kabanata ng THE ALPHA KING'S FORGOTTEN WIFE: Kabanata 11 - Kabanata 20

The elevator did not go to the sealed level.It stopped at sixty-one, and Adrian pressed a hidden panel behind the ice-gray wall. A narrow staircase slid out, spiraling down into the dark.Elena went first."You don't have to," Adrian said behind her."Yes, I do.""There could be traps.""Then I'll find them first.""Elena.""I've been running from this room for five years, Adrian. I'm done running."He said nothing, but she felt him follow close behind. His footsteps were quiet. His presence at her back was like standing next to a fire.At the bottom, a steel door waited.No handle. No lock. Only a faint circle of silver carved into the metal at the height of her chest.Adrian tried his palm against it. Nothing. He pressed harder, and the door didn't even hum."Ten years," he muttered. "My father wouldn't let me open it. And now I can't.""Let me."She hesitated. Then she laid her hand flat on the silver circle.Heat flared under her palm. The mark on her wrist lit up. The door shudd

She went anyway.She didn't tell Adrian. She told herself it was because there wasn't time. That the text said tonight. That the picture proved someone could walk past every guard in the Tower and stand over her son's bed.But the truth was simpler, and it scared her more.She was afraid of how much she wanted to stay.At two in the morning she carried Noah to the garage, wrapped in a blanket. She had stolen a set of car keys from a guard's belt, a small, nervous crime that made her hands shake. The old black sedan started with a cough.She had her hand on the gear stick when the passenger door flew open.Adrian slid in beside her."Drive," he said. "Or let me.""Get out.""No.""This isn't your fight!""It is exactly my fight." He slammed the door. "Someone threatens my son in my house, and you think I'll stand on a balcony and wave you off?""I'm trying to protect him!""So am I!""You're not the one who got that text!""I'm the one who's going to find who sent it!" His voice shook.

The Council Chamber was an old stone hall with a black marble floor and seven carved chairs.Elena had never been so aware of her own heartbeat."Remember," Adrian murmured beside her. "You don't owe them an answer.""I know.""If they push, look at me.""I know.""And if anyone touches you...""You'll rip their arm off. I know, Adrian."His mouth twitched. "Good."They walked in together. Whispers rippled around the benches. Elena kept her chin high.The Seven sat on a raised dais, ancient, gray, severe. At the center sat an elderly woman with silver hair and eyes like polished flint. Marguerite Vane, First Elder. She watched Elena without blinking."This hearing is convened," said the gray-bearded elder, "to determine the standing of one Elena Vale, accused of treason against the Blackthorn Crown.""Accused," Adrian said coldly, "on evidence I now know to be forged.""The Alpha is not permitted to testify in his own case.""I'm not testifying. I'm correcting the record.""Then corre

The Winter Accord Gala was held every year in the ballroom of the Silverlight Hotel. Every Alpha, every Council member, every pack with an ounce of power came to be seen.Elena hated it on sight."I look ridiculous," she muttered, tugging at the deep blue gown."You look," said Adrian from the doorway of her dressing room, "like someone who could end a war."She turned. He was wearing black, a perfect tailored suit with a white shirt open at the throat, no tie. His hair was still damp. He looked lethal and unfairly beautiful.She forgot what she was going to say."Thank you," she managed."I mean it.""I know.""I'll be beside you all night.""I can protect myself.""I know that, too." He crossed the room, slowly. "But I'd like to be there while you do."His hand rose, and for a moment she thought he'd touch her face. Instead he fastened a thin silver chain at her neck. At the end hung a small black crescent."What is it?""My mother's. It's a warning charm. If anyone with a weapon co

Adrian heard it.He heard it in the ballroom. He heard it in the car. He heard it in the clinic, when they laid her on the white bed and stitched the cut in her throat. He heard it in the quiet three hours after, when the drug finally left her system, and she slept.Cassian.He sat in a chair beside her bed, elbows on his knees, staring at her sleeping face.It was a name. Only a name. It meant nothing.A man's name.Her lips said it like a prayer.His wolf was a living thing in his chest, pacing, growling. Who? it demanded. Who is he? Who is the man she calls when she's dying?"Easy," he muttered. "Easy. We don't know."Find out.Adrian rubbed his eyes.He was being a fool. He knew it. She had nearly died tonight, and his first coherent thought, after the fear, was jealousy.You've lost your mind, he told himself. You're sitting here wondering if your wife has a lover, when someone is trying to kill her.But five years of silence made a man hungry in strange ways. He wanted to know e