Bought by the Beast King (Katerina and hunter) novel Chapter 138

Chapter 138

HUNTER

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I stopped at the main gate and waited. My men were scattered around me, patrolling their designated areas outside the property and around the packhouses scattered in the woods.

The rustling leaves and soft footsteps came moments later, and then Uncle Jasper stepped out.

He looked the same as always with his fake smile as he bowed, but that undercurrent of hatred of me was easier to pick up now. My abilities were still evolving, even now after the bond settled.

“Alpha,” Jasper said in greeting.

I didn’t open the gates. Jasper, with all that evil intent he harboured, couldn’t walk through Rivers’ new wards

anyway.

Jasper eyed the gates but didn’t get too close. His annoyance bristled under his skin. His spies must have told him the correct information this time.

“It’s been days since you asked me to leave,” Jasper said. “I assume things are settled now, and I can come back home?”

“This isn’t your home, Uncle,” I said. “It was my parents’ home. It’s my home. You only moved in to take care of me. I’m sure your house is still habitable, even after all this time.”

The muscle in his jaw ticked. Jasper’s house had been left unattended for so long that nature had reclaimed most of it. He’d made himself too comfortable in my house. What else could anyone expect of a man who’d plotted his whole life to get the crown and all the trimmings that came with it?

“You’re right,” Jasper said, averting his gaze. “I didn’t mean to overstep.”

Said the man who’d tried to overthrow me only days before.

“I’ve come as a representative for the Elders. They met last night and asked for an explanation about your guests,” Jasper continued.

“You’d have thought they’d come themselves instead of sending a middleman,” I growled.

They had become obsolete the moment I’d come of age. They only thought they were still relevant because Jasper fanned the flames. Still, I couldn’t ignore the threat they posed, especially now.

Jasper’s fists clenched at his role being reduced to just a ‘middleman! It was brief, but I caught it. My uncle must have been too shaken up lately, because he was getting worse at hiding his physical reactions.

“Even so,” Jasper continued, “the relationship between the werewolf kingdom and ours has long been unstable. Now with your beta dead, that serial killer case, and this threat of war… The pack has a right to ask questions.”

My pack never questioned me. Even if my trust in all of them was gone, it was only Jasper’s people who dared to go against my decisions.

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Chapter 138

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“You can remind the Elders that they retired long ago. When I need to make a statement, I’ll tell the whole pack.”

“Do you even care about them anymore?” Jasper asked loudly, drawing attention to himself.

And there it was. The reason my uncle had insisted on seeing me. He had honed his acting skills over the years, playing king, pretending he was the only one with the pack’s interest at heart.

“You spend more time in the human world, being the director of the Bureau,” Jasper said. “You don’t know anything about the affairs in your own kingdom, and less still about your own pack.”

I crossed my arms. There was some truth in that. I let everyone be unless they cross a line. The crown was rightfully mine, but I’d still clawed through so many minefields to claim it after my father died. Some of those grudges still weren’t settled, but they were still my people. Still my father’s people. Jasper would never

have them.

“Do you think a few words will change things?” I asked.

That may have been the wrong question. Elijah had hidden his own resentment so deeply that I was no longer sure where I stood with the rest of the pack.

“You killed one of us this morning,” Jasper said loudly. “Because of a werewolf.”

“One of us? Who was he? I don’t remember accepting his pledge of loyalty,” I said. “The pack bond is still perfectly intact, not even a ripple of disturbance.”

Jasper tensed.

“He was my guest,” he muttered.

“A guest who trespassed on the king’s property. Perhaps now is the time to remind all your guests of who I am, in case they didn’t understand me when we met in Christos Lordswood’s guesthouse. They seem to have a habit of this. Pick better friends, Uncle.”

“I never claimed to be the alpha. But we’ve taken many people in because-”

“You’ve taken people in,” I corrected. “Without my permission. Fix that before I fix it for you.”

Uncle didn’t budge.

“Unless you’re planning another rebellion? I don’t mind showing you why you will never wear the crown.”

He flinched and stepped back. That same hatred I’d felt from him when I’d made him kneel radiated from him before he caught himself and masked it.

“There was never a rebellion, Your Majesty,” Jasper said. “We were all there to play our part in catching that criminal Beta Elijah,

I didn’t bother responding to that. I could have cleansed the pack myself, but until the mastermind revealed himself, keeping Jasper closer was the only option.

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Chapter 138

“You won’t live here again. Make your preparations,” I said, turning away.

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Kitty was the lady of the house now. There was no need for Uncle to put his roots back into the foundations of

my property.

“But you have no beta or gamma. You can’t run the kingdom alone,” Jasper insisted. “Is it that werewolf who’s turned your head? Who is she, Hunter?”

I whirled back to him. Jasper bowed and stepped back again. Did he really not know what was happening in my house? I tracked the warriors around me, head tilted to the side as I made sense of it.

My warriors were closer. They’d formed a wall around my property and their houses, protecting the pack as always. And behind them were the unfamiliar auras, Jasper’s guests. They couldn’t get close enough to me to get reliable information. Perhaps that was why Jasper had taken a chance to send his person directly to my door.

“What’s this? You can’t be the alpha or the king, so you want to be my beta?” I said, throwing my head back as I laughed. This was new. Jasper would do anything to cling to power. “There are better men, more trustworthy men in the pack that I would pick before you.”

I walked away this time, still laughing. But inside, I wondered if he’d tried the same shit with my father. And if the repeated rejections were the reason that somebody started the fire.

By the time I walked back into the manor, my mood was darker. I could have ended Jasper the day I ascended the throne, but he was still my father’s only living relative. I didn’t want to make decisions without concrete proof. But anyone else involved in that was already dead, and I’d hit too many walls in my search for the truth.

Instead of going up to find Kitty, I walked to my office. Jasper wasn’t a priority now; Kitty was. I hadn’t sat down yet when my phone rang. It was Tanner.

“The Blackmore coven wants to meet you, Rivers and the princess as soon as possible,” he said straight away. “Before the full moon. The curse is real.”

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10:31 Thu, Jan 1