Alpha's STOLEN Mate (by Abigail Hayes) novel Chapter 209

Chapter 209

The truth was, the magic she’d used to enslave me had been weakening for days. My Alpha King bloodline carried resistance to magic in the blood itself-ancient protection built into my very DNA. It had taken time, but I’d slowly clawed back pieces of my mind, fragments of my will.

I was aware now. Conscious. In control.

But I couldn’t let her know. Not yet.

Not until I found the crystal. Not until I understood her weaknesses. Not until I could protect Elowen from whatever retaliation would

come.

Even if it meant hurting her first. Even if it meant making her hate me.

Morgath was still ranting about my father, her emotions clearly spiraling. Whatever history existed between them, it was raw and unhealed. A wound she couldn’t stop picking at.

This was an opportunity. A crack in her armor.

I needed to dig deeper, make her lose control, find information I could use. My mind raced, calculating the risk.

“Indeed,” I said, injecting a note of contempt into my voice. “He wasn’t just a fool. He was a preening king who loved the sound of his own

voice. Every time he got drunk, every time he held court with his bottles of wine… he’d bring up things from decades past. Bragging.

Laughing.”

It was a complete lie. My father had been many things, but he never spoke of the distant past when he drank. He’d been too busy drowning in recent failures, recent losses.

But Morgath didn’t know that.

She went rigid. “What?”

I pressed forward, keeping my tone casual, even slightly sympathetic. “Every time he drank himself stupid, my lady. Those old stories were

his favorite entertainment.”

Her hands stopped moving. “Fuck. He made jokes about it? Turned it into… laughing material?”

Hook, line, and sinker.

I arranged my features into something like righteous indignation on her behalf. “My lady, for decades-every drunken night-he was exactly that kind of fool. Why should you care about his mockery now? I only regret that I didn’t have the chance to kill him myself when

I could.”

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14:43 Thu, Jan 22

Chapter 209

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Her whole body went taut. “Fuck! You’re saying… for decades? Every time he drank? Every goddamn time?”

I had no idea what nerve I’d struck, but it was clearly the right one. She was unraveling.

“Fuck!” she spat again.

I moved closer, letting my clawed hands settle on her waist, pulling her against my Lycan form. My voice dropped to a low, intimate

rumble.

“He’ll be your pet eventually, my lady. Why waste your fury on him now? I’ll capture him myself. I’ll drag him here and lay him at your

feet, so he can pay for every decade of his mistakes.”

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She leaned into me, trembling with emotion-anger, hurt, something uglier underneath. She was so focused on her rage, so consumed by

whatever memory I’d accidentally triggered, that she didn’t notice the danger.

I could kill her right now. One twist of my hands, and her neck would snap like a dry branch. Morgath would be dead, and this nightmare

would end.

But then what?

My cover would be blown. The gemstone would remain hidden. I didn’t know how many followers she had, how many creatures sworn to

her service. I’d seen glimpses of her power-the way she manipulated reality itself, bent space and time to her will.

If I acted too soon, if I revealed myself before I was ready…

Elowen would pay the price.

So I held Morgath gently, when every instinct screamed to rip her apart.

She pulled back slightly, and even through the mask, I could sense something twisting in her expression. Her voice went cold and sharp.

“What did he say? Tell me exactly what that fool said. Word for word.”

My mind went blank.

Fuck.

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