Bought by the Beast King (Katerina and hunter) novel Chapter 160

09:34 Wed, Jan 21 GA.

Chapter 160

Chapter 160

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Pain split me open as I staggered outside.

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I barely made it down the front steps before my feet tangled and I went down hard, my side slamming into the stone edge. The impact knocked the breath from my lungs, but it was nothing compared to what tore through my chest.

“Kathrine!”

Nathan hauled me upright, his grip firm as he steered me back towards the house.

“No.” I wrenched free, gasping. “Something’s happening. I can’t leave him”

But the castle was hours away. A Bureau SUV sat at the end of the driveway, but would I even make it in this state? I could barely stay on my feet. I dragged in a breath and reached for the mindlink.

‘Hunter!’ He didn’t answer. Only pain shot down the bond. Was he too far away?

“If you go out there, you’ll be completely exposed,” Nathan said sharply. “The full moon is tomorrow night. This could be a trap.”

Another wave of pain hit me, so intense my vision dimmed at the edges. I cried out, clutching at my chest. If it hurt this much, I couldn’t even think about what Hunter was enduring. I couldn’t just sit back and do nothing.

The helicopter.

I grabbed Nathan’s hand, forcing him to stop.

“Fly me there,” I demanded.

He stared at me as if he didn’t understand the words coming out of my mouth.

“Did you hear anything I said?”

My knees buckled. Nausea surged as I bent over, retching. My wolf braced me, taking what she could, but we were both fraying.

“I don’t care,” I hissed. “I make my own decisions.”

Nathan stepped back and raked a hand through his hair.

“Your last decision kick-started the magic rotting your pack’s land,” he snapped. “Now you’re going to let your selfishness. destroy what’s left of us.”

The old guilt tried to resurface, but I shoved it back. I was not the same person I was when I first returned. I straightened, trembling but clear-headed.

“I’m an omega with no magic,” I said. “If something catastrophic is tied to me, you should be questioning the prophecy, not blaming the person it targets.”

I met his glare head-on.

“I’m going to fight for the person I love, not for some half-mad vision an old man had in his sleep.”

Nathan clenched his jaw, and his eyes flashed.

09:34 Wed, Jan 21

Chapter 160

“If we stay here,” he insisted, stepping closer, “I can reinforce the wards. No one will get in. We’re safer here.”

“And if something happens to Hunter?” I shouted. “What then?”

Would it even be worth living?

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The question gutted me. The old me, before the bond, would never have thought like this. I’d clung to my hard-won independence. But the bond had changed me. If I lost Hunter, I’d lose my own heartbeat.

“If anything happens to him, then that’s on him,” Nathan shouted. “He shouldn’t have gone out.”

No. Everything Hunter was doing was for me.

“Fly me there!”

“You’re not thinking straight,” Nathan said, grabbing my shoulders. He shook me hard a couple of times. “You’re staying here, Kathrine.”

The air shifted.

Even with the pain, I sensed his wolf surge. Felt the weight of his command pressing into me. He was doing it again. He was turning my life upside down with just a few words.

No!

My wolf lunged forward. My claws tore free as my senses sharpened, and my rage blazed through me. I lashed out, slicing across his chest before I even registered the movement:

Nathan stumbled with a sharp grunt, and red seeped through his ripped shirt. He stared at me, wide-eyed, clearly stunned.

“Don’t,” I hissed, stepping back from him. “Don’t ever try that shit on me again.”

I braced for my muscles to lock up and my body to follow his command, but his aúra pulled back. Or maybe it couldn’t penetrate the wall of pain and fury surrounding me. Nothing got through.

Nathan didn’t move. Just stood there staring like I’d grown another head. I shouldn’t have challenged him, I knew that. I was an omega, and he was an alpha.

But Hunter needed me.

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His pain, his desperation, his agony slammed into me again, relentlessly, shredding my insides.

“Get the helicopter,” I screamed, my wolf snarling inside me, lending me her strength.

Nathan flinched. Then his face drained of colour. He turned and walked back into the house without a word, leaving me on the front step with my chest caving in. I collapsed to my knees, gasping, every second stretching as I worried for Hunter. If he’d taken Kostas home, then my family was responsible for this.

They’d found a way to break a Lycan. Then what would they do if I showed up?

What felt like an eternity later, Nathan returned, his movements/stiff and his expression drawn. He’d changed his shirt.

“Five minutes,” he said. “We’ll wait in the back!

Was he helping me? Stunned, I met his gaze. I sensed the resistance and his wolf prowling beneath the skin. I sensed his anger. He was bristling. But he was still taking me to Hunter.

I pushed myself upright, still clutching my chest, still trembling. Had I misjudged him? Guilt flickered, but I crushed it again. I didn’t care what waited on the other side, only that I was willing to walk through it for Hunter,

Chapter 100

Nathan turned and walked ahead of me. I followed, shuffling my feet, tensing my muscles against the pain. His back was straight and his shoulders rigid. He didn’t say another word about the risk I was taking.

As we crossed the hall, April stepped out of one of the rooms, hair damp like Nathan’s. Her eyes widened, and she bowed quickly, visibly trembling when she saw me.

Even with the weight of what I was about to do sitting on my shoulders, my distrust filtered through.

The backyard was as I remembered. The pool, bar, layered terraces and sculptures that belonged in museums. I gritted my teeth as I walked down and waited beside Nathan. The hum of the helicopter grew louder as pain lanced through me again.

“You’re going to get everyone killed,” Nathan said quietly.

He wasn’t angry anymore. Just resigned.

He was the man who’d protected me during my first shift and heat. Despite what he said earlier, I knew it wasn’t right to drag him into a mess that had nothing to do with him.

“You can drop me off at the castle grounds,” I said. “Wait for us somewhere safe.”

Nathan snorted and stuffed his hands in his pockets.

“There won’t be anywhere safe after tonight.”

He looked at me then.

“You won’t even make it to the full moon.”