Bought by the Beast King (Katerina and hunter) novel Chapter 129

Chapter 129

Chapter 129

HUNTER

18

65 vouchers

She’d healed long before I carried her into the house. The logical part of my brain knew that, but the other part didn’t stand a chance with the scent of her blood in the air. I just couldn’t tell if that was my beast or my own instincts.

So I was on my knees. Her foot rested on my lap while I gently wiped the last trace of red. I didn’t dare look up. My claws were still extended, looking very obscene and dangerous against the softness of her skin. But I couldn’t calm myself enough to return to my human form.

Kostas still stood at my gates, but he might as well have been a ghost. My entire world had narrowed to one woman. To making sure she was safe and comfortable. The emotions flooding through me should have unsettled me, but I’d surrendered to them the second she pulled me away from Kostas.

Katerina Lordswood. My enemy’s daughter.

The woman I loved.

I’d stood firm in my decision to reject her before Kostas showed up, certain it was the only way forward. Now the thought of speaking that oath made my chest tighten until it hurt. It scared the shit out of me. Was this it, then? Was I really doomed to this fate?

My hand trembled when I finally set her foot down. And I remained on my knees like a love-struck fool. The mighty Lycan King, on my knees for a woman who would turn my whole life into shit.

“Are you hungry?” I asked, still thinking of her comfort. “I’ll make some lunch.”

My gaze stayed on her toes.

“Um… Not really. Should I make sure Kostas leaves?”

“No,” I said sharply, glancing into her eyes before I looked away again. “Don’t go near him.”

I’d shamed my bloodline. My pack. Yet the longer I knelt there, the clearer the life I imagined with Kitty became.

Because what churned inside me wasn’t one-sided. The same confusing, contradicting emotions echoed back at me through the bond. Confusion, longing, the urges I couldn’t hide. Love? That same tangled mess had subdued both my beast and my free will.

I needed time to understand what this meant for both of us. I couldn’t afford rash decisions.

“I’ll deal with him,” I said, finally standing.

Kitty rose too, quickly wrapping her fingers around my arm.

“You can’t kill him,” she said quickly. “That would make everything worse. They can’t force me to mate with him now.”

Force? My thoughts snapped back to the confrontation I’d barely registered through my rage. I’d been too busy imagining all the ways I would torture Kostas before I took his life. She’d asked him to leave several times, and even said she would never mate him.

“You didn’t want to mate Kostas?” I asked carefully.

Kitty shuddered, and her revulsion slammed through the bond.

“No! He’s my brother; that’s disgusting,” she said.

Chapter 129

Didn’t she know how Kostas felt about her?

“But your father announced it.”

“I found out the same way everyone else did, ” Kitty said flatly. “I had nothing to do with it.”

55 your

Something loosened in my chest. I should have figured this out sooner. Her tears that night when Kostas stood outside the ward. The look on her face when she’d recoiled from him before I took her from the castle.

How had I been so blind?

Still, whether she wanted to bond with Kostas or not was the least of our problems.

I took her hand in mine and watched silently as my claws retracted and the noise in my head eased. She didn’t snatch her hand away. All the gut-wrenching anxiety that had plagued the bond all day had dissolved. And that fear that had split me in two since I killed Elijah? Gone.

My pulse fluttered. I forced myself to breathe. I’d tackle one problem at a time. I had to know how much of this was real and how much was the bond. Or if this was just a twisted game to keep my beast from killing her beloved brother.

“So,” I said quietly, “how do you want me to handle Kostas?”

Kitty released my hand and sat back down, crossing her legs, reminding me abruptly that she was bare under my shirt. And Kostas had seen her like that.

I crushed the rage back before it could bleed into the bond.

“I don’t want to make things worse,” she said. “I told them I’m mated: I don’t know why Father sent him.”

Shock rolled through me before I could stop it, followed by warmth. But that died quickly, because I knew she hadn’t told them who her mate was. If she had, the whole kingdom would have been painted red with blood.

“I’ll tell someone to send him away,” I said. “The gates will stay

locked.”

She exhaled, tension rippling briefly before she looked up and smiled. She hadn’t smiled at me since before she found out what I was.

Something dislodged in my chest, as if all the darkness inside me was being eaten away piece by piece. She was dangerous. Lethal. I should have realised that, too, on our first night together.

“What’s changed?” I asked.

“What do you mean?” She didn’t look me in the

eyes.

“You didn’t want to be with me. You were terrified of me,” I said, swallowing hard when the memory hit me. “Why are you so

calm now?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “Nothing makes sense lately.”

“Then you’ll stay here until it does.”

Her gaze drifted to the window, almost as if she could sense all my people waiting beyond it. But they were all masked. Even with our bond, sensing their auras was beyond a werewolf’s capabilities. I was probably overthinking things.

“Your people don’t want me here,” she said.

“I’ve already told them to leave us alone.”

That unsettled her. But wasn’t that the best option?

20:14 Tue, Dec 23

Chapter 129

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify