Alpha's STOLEN Mate (by Abigail Hayes) novel Chapter 210

Chapter 210

Kaius

Silence stretched between us like a knife edge.

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Morgath’s masked face tilted, studying me with an intensity that made my Lycan skin prickle. I could feel her suspicion coiling in the air, could sense the question forming behind that silver surface.

Fuck. I’d pushed too hard, played my hand too aggressively. She was about to ask again, about to demand specifics I couldn’t provide because I’d made the whole thing up.

Think. Think.

Then it hit me her hatred. That venomous contempt she held for all wolves, the way she spoke about my kind like we were inferior

creatures. The disgust that dripped from every word when she mentioned my father. She didn’t just hate individual wolves. She hated the

entire species with a passion that bordered on obsession.

As if wolves had personally wronged her. As if we were beneath her.

I dropped my gaze, letting my voice go low and hesitant. “My lady… I dare not speak the words aloud.”

Her posture changed instantly. The confusion vanished, replaced by something sharper, hungrier.

“Speak!” The command cracked through the air. “Tell me, Kaius! It’s hatred that’s kept me alive all these years! I don’t mind adding more fuel to the fire!” Her voice rose, trembling with barely contained rage. “Nothing can hurt me more than I’ve already been hurt!”

I took a breath, committing to the lie.

“He said all witches are fools. Trash. Worthless scum that could never compare to wolves.”

The effect was immediate and devastating.

Morgath shoved me away with surprising force, stumbling backward until she collapsed onto a nearby stool. Her hands gripped the edges,

knuckles white beneath pale skin.

“Fuck!” The word tore from her throat. “Fuck! Fuck! FUCK!” Each repetition grew louder, more unhinged. “Aldric! You haven’t changed at

all! If I’d known you were laughing at me all these years-mocking me-I should have killed you!”

She was spiraling, lost in whatever ancient wound I’d accidentally torn open. I stood perfectly still, maintaining the blank, bestial

expression even as my eyes began to scan the room.

The gemstone. It had to be here somewhere. Hidden, protected, but here,

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Chapter 210

My gaze swept across ornate furniture, shelves lined with bottles and books, tapestries hanging on crystal walls. Where would she keep something so precious? Something that controlled her entire domain?

“Of course!” Morgath’s voice yanked my attention back. She was laughing now-a bitter, broken sound. “Of course Aldric would despise

witches! He’s the Alpha King! He never saw us as anything more than tools! Servants!” Her voice dropped to something raw and aching.

“That’s why he stopped me from being with a wolf. Why he-

She choked on the words, her hands clenching into fists.

“He killed my child! Murdered my baby! FUCK!”

My heart stuttered.

What?

My father… killed her child?

The revelation crashed over me like ice water. Was this the root of everything? Some ancient tragedy involving my father that had

metastasized into this nightmare?

But even as shock rippled through me, another part of my mind remained cold and calculating. Even if my father had done something

unforgivable-even if he’d committed some terrible sin—that didn’t justify this. Didn’t justify kidnapping and transforming innocent

wolves. Didn’t excuse what she’d done to Elowen.

Past wrongs didn’t make present atrocities righteous.

Morgath’s hands moved to her face, fingers pressing against the mask’s surface as if trying to soothe pain beneath it. The gesture was

compulsive, desperate.

I watched, pieces clicking into place.

Her face. Whatever lay beneath that mask was connected to my father. The way she touched it, the way she hid it even from her own

servants… those weren’t just scars. They were a reminder. A brand of some past trauma.

Burns, maybe. Severe enough to disfigure. Severe enough to haunt her for decades.

She began to calm, the storm of emotion receding. When she stood, her movements were deliberate, controlled. She crossed the distance

between us until we were close enough that I could hear her breathing beneath the mask.

“But Aldric never imagined this, did he?” Her voice was soft now, almost conversational. “He never thought that one day, the pain he

inflicted on me would come back to him.” She reached up, trailing one finger along my jaw. “Years of agony, Decades of suffering. And

now I’ll make him taste every drop of it.”

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