Bought by the Beast King (Katerina and hunter) novel Chapter 180

Chapter 180

KAT

The forest thinned and died within moments.

One moment, thick, lush trees pressed in on either side of the road, still heavy with blood and magic. The next, the dry, withered trees on my father’s territory blurred past my window looking brittle and lifeless, a pale imitation of the Lycan kingdom we’d just left behind.

Nathan didn’t say a word.

Any sound would have shattered me. I focused on my breathing instead, counting each inhale, each exhale, afraid that if 1 let my thoughts settle, they would drag me under. My mind felt fragile, as if it had splintered at the edges.

After what felt like an eternity, the drawbridge rose ahead of us. My stomach twisted. In moments. I’d have to face my family. I’d have to explain about Hunter. I’d have to explain why had Kostas in the back of the car. My breaths came in too fast, my chest tightening, until I forced myself to stop thinking again.

Not thinking was safer.

The drawbridge lowered with a groan, and we crossed the murky moat into the empty streets. There were no people, no movement. Just decay and silence. And then I felt it. It wasn’t relief, and it wasn’t the safety I was supposed to feel coming. home. It was a heavy weight that sank into my bones, reminding me that this was far from over. My pack was gone, and the land was still dead. Nothing here could survive on what little it offered.

I didn’t even know if we could turn things around, or if this was the end for the Lordswoods.

Like it was the end for Hunter and me.

My thoughts circled back, and my fists curled in my lap as I tried to numb myself again. Nathan shifted slightly in the driver’s seat, and my body reacted instantly, but I didn’t turn from the window. Every muscle still hummed from leftover power, the echo of the things I’d just done but didn’t want to think about. I was hyperaware, my senses still heightened in ways they had never been before. I couldn’t run from them. I couldn’t run from myself.

The gates creaked open ahead of us, and my muscles coiled tighter. I hadn’t wanted to spend a second longer in Hunter’s house, so I was still caked in blood. It had dried along my ribs and thighs, smeared on my face and in my hair. The car reeked of it. Mine. The Lycans. Kostas’s.

The tyres crunched over gravel, the sound too loud in the quiet as the car finally stopped in front of the castle. Home. would never be the same again.

That red ooze was gone from it, but it would never leave me. It clung to my memory, to the images that flashed behin eyes. The blood, the screams, the way it felt to end lives without hesitation. How many souls would not rest in peace bet of me?

And then my thoughts circled again to the forest, to the Lycans d killed. To the monster I had become. Like Hunter.

The truth sat heavily in my chest. I was a hypocrite.

“We’re here,” Nathan said quietly.

I was startled despite,the softness of his voice. But I stared ahead at the castle doors that were not opening, not responding to him.

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