บททั้งหมดของ Betrayed By My Alpha Mate, Claimed By The Lycan Prince : บทที่ 11 - บทที่ 20

Sierra I knew something had changed the moment I sepped out of my chambers and the hallway went silent. Not quiet. Silent. The kind of silence that has a shape to it, that presses against your skin and makes you aware of every sound you're making just by existing, my own footsteps too loud, my own breathing too obvious. Two maids folding linens near the east window froze mid-fold when they saw me. One of them actually flinched. I stopped walking. "Good morning," I said, because I didn't know what else to say to two women looking at me like I might bite them. "Good morning, Luna," the taller one said, and her voice cracked on the word Luna like it cost her something to say it. I kept moving before either of them had to figure out what to do with their hands. My heart was already picking up speed and I didn't even know why yet. By the time I reached the dining hall, I understood. I heard it before I saw it, the low murmur of servants clustered near the kitchen doorway, that part

LirielI had told myself I would not do this.I had told myself that a hundred times over the past week, lying awake in my chambers replaying the moment Kairo overruled me in front of the entire court, chose her, the wolf less nothing from Glendale, over my own counsel and every time I told myself I wouldn't stoop to this, the humiliation of it came back sharper than before, until wouldn't had quietly worn itself down into would.The vial sat in my palm, small and unremarkable, the kind of thing no one would look at twice. My grandmother's recipe, refined over generations of women in my bloodline who understood that some doors only open when a man's guard is down enough to forget he has one.It wasn't poison. I want that understood, even now, even by no one but myself in an empty room. I would never have poisoned him. This was gentler than that a compulsion, a pull toward whoever stood closest when it took hold, nothing that couldn't be explained away afterward as wine and exhaustion

SierraThe unease from Theron's visit didn't fade the way I expected it to. It settled instead, low and persistent, a splinter I couldn't quite work free no matter how many times I turned it over. No one who'd notice if something changed. Three days had passed since he'd said it, and I still hadn't decided whether it was a threat or simply the careless cruelty of a man who liked reminding people how exposed they were.Either way, it had done something to me I hadn't expected. It had reminded me, with brutal clarity, exactly how little time I actually had.I sat at my writing desk that evening with a blank sheet of paper in front of me and thought about Aurora not the abstract idea of her, the daughter I was saving in principle, but the actual weight of her in my arms for the few minutes I'd been allowed to hold her before Darius took her away. The way her small fist had curled around my finger. The sound she made, half cry and half question, like even a newborn could tell something

Sierra"You look terrible," Liriel said, closing my chamber door behind her without waiting to be asked in. "I take it you didn't sleep.""I didn't.""And yet here I am, and there's no answer waiting for me. That's not a good sign, Sierra.""I have questions first.""You had an hour to think, not to interrogate me.""You said you could find the tower. Confirm she's alive." I made myself hold her gaze instead of looking away, the way I would have with Fenris across the training ring steady, unwilling to be the first to flinch. "Prove it.""Prove it.""Before I agree to anything. Before I give up everything I have here on the strength of one conversation with a woman who's admitted she wants my husband for herself.""That's a bold way to phrase a request from someone with nothing to bargain with.""I have the one thing you actually want. Which means I get to ask for something before I hand it over."Liriel was quiet for a moment, studying me the way she might study an opponent who'd une

Sierra"You're doing it again," Kairo said, watching me across the small table in his study."Doing what?""Studying the broth like it's about to confess something to you.""I'm making sure you actually drink it this time. Last week you let it go cold and pretended you hadn't.""I didn't pretend anything. I got pulled into border correspondence and forgot it existed.""You forgot an entire bowl of soup was sitting six inches from your hand.""I contain multitudes."I nearly laughed before I caught myself, which annoyed me more than it should have. "That's not an excuse. That's just an admission that you're careless.""I'm never careless." He picked up the spoon, finally, watching me over it with something warmer than the careful diplomacy we usually managed across this table. "Selectively distracted, occasionally. Careless, never.""Is there a difference?""A significant one. Careless implies I don't notice what I'm neglecting. I notice everything." He took a slow sip, deliberately, h