Alle Kapitel von Betrayed By My Mate, Now Claimed By The Lycan King : Kapitel 11 – Kapitel 18

The courtyard still smelled like smoke and spilled guts. Bodies lay where they fell, ours and theirs mixed together in the dirt. The crevice I'd ripped open gaped ten feet wide, black and hungry, swallowing the weak morning light.Gunnar didn't let go. He squeezed once, calluses rough against my new scales, then turned to the others. "Matthías. Nina. Get the dead burned before the crows come. Sunna, patch the wounded. Elva stays with me."No one argued. They'd seen what I did to the ground. Seen the elders run with their tails between their legs. I followed him through the chaos, boots crunching on broken stone. My legs still felt shaky but the fire in my chest had settled into a low, steady burn. Not raging anymore. Just waiting.We ended up in the war room off the main hall. Maps covered the big table, marked with fresh red ink where Jakob's line had been. Gunnar shut the door hard enough the lantern swung. Then he looked at me, his silver eyes tracing the silver scales climbing my

I yanked my boots on and stood up fast. The scales on my arm caught the weak light coming through the window and flashed like fresh steel. Gunnar was already buckling his sword belt, movements sharp and practiced. No long speeches. No bullshit pep talk. Just the two of us in that small room with the bond humming between us like it knew what was coming."Grab your cloak," he said. "And the spare dagger. You're not going out there with nothing but claws."I snatched the black cloak from the chair and slung it over my shoulders. The fabric smelled like smoke and him. Good. "I've got claws that can crack the ground, Gunnar. I think I'll manage."He looked at me then, silver eyes hard but the corner of his mouth twitched. "You'll manage better with steel in your hand too." He tossed me the dagger. I caught it and slid it into my belt. The weight felt right.We stepped out into the corridor. Matthías was already waiting, armor strapped tight, face set like he'd been born for days like this.

Nina's crossbow bolt took it in the eye. The creature didn't even slow down. It swiped at her position on the ridge and she dove clear just in time.Matthías slammed into its side as a wolf, teeth sinking into its stone shoulder. The Bound grabbed him by the scruff and hurled him into a tree. He hit hard and didn't get up."Matthías!" I screamed.Sunna was suddenly beside me, dagger bloody. "He's breathing. Focus!"The creature came for me again. Gunnar met it head-on. His sword rang against its arm and snapped clean in half. The Bound backhanded him a second time. This one connected solid. Gunnar flew and crashed into a boulder ten yards away. He didn't get up.The bond between us screamed.For a second everything went quiet in my head except that scream. The fire inside me exploded past every leash the bond had tried to put on it. Scales raced down my other arm. My claws lengthened into black talons. The ground under my feet cracked in a perfect circle.I ran straight at the Bound.

Sunna tried twice to pull me away for food or a bath. I told her to fuck off both times. She left the third time with a tray of bread and watered wine I didn't touch. Matthías limped in once around midday, arm still in the sling, face a mess of purple bruises. He took one look at Gunnar's chest, at the black lightning handprint still spreading faint veins under the skin and nodded like he understood."He'll pull through," he said. "Man's too stubborn to die from one old witch's trick."I didn't answer. I just kept my palm flat over the burn mark, scales pressing against Gunnar's skin, willing the bond to push whatever strength I had left into him. The power inside me stirred every time I tried. Not the wild explosion from the valley, but something restless. Hungry. Like it wanted out and didn't care who got hurt this time.By late afternoon the room felt too small. Gunnar's breathing had evened out some, but the black veins hadn't faded. Every shallow rise of his chest reminded me of