I Bought A Male Escort, Turns Out He's The Lycan King (by lg savage) novel Chapter 239

Chapter 239

HUNTER

Kostas.

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For a second, I thought I was seeing things. Not because he didn’t belong there, but because the last time I’d seen him, he’d walked away from his adoptive family without looking back. I hadn’t thought I’d have to see the bastard again.

Nathan didn’t slow as he stepped fully into the room, but I saw the shift in his shoulders. The tension as he settled April on a couch and looked everywhere but at Kostas. Everything that had been left unresolved between them hung like a tangible presence in the room.

As I looked between them, the similarities were even more obvious.

Malcolm didn’t move from where he sat; his posture was relaxed, but his focus was on Kostas. And Tanner was on edge, his attention moving between all of us as if he was trying to anticipate which direction this would go.

Kostas’ gaze moved from Nathan to me, taking in the state I was in without comment. Something in his expression tightened for a second before it smoothed out again.

“You look like shit,” he said.

For years, this man had been terrified of me, but all of that changed when he was infected by the dark magic. Now he spoke to me like he had nothing left to fear.

The second this shit was over, he and I would have a talk about that.

“Still look better than you,” I grunted before dragging my feet to a free couch.

I looked over his casual wear, and my gaze snapped to the combat boots on his feet. The same boots. He was the one with Nathan at the lodge.

“Why are you here?” I cut straight through the bullshit. If I’d been out for a day, then we didn’t have time for drama.

Kostas set his drink down on a side table and crossed his arms.

“Same reason we’re all here, I’m guessing,” he answered. “There are some powerful solitary witches who’ve teamed up to come after you and Princess Katerina.”

I’d only just found out about the witches. How the hell had he known?

“Someone’s been making the rounds,” he shrugged, as if he’d guessed what my next question would be. “Every dive, every backroom in the werewolf territories. Stirring people up. Recruiting.”

“You know who they are?” Tanner asked immediately.

“No. Just rumours,” Kostas answered. “One of them is supposed to be tied to an old coven that got wiped out

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Chapter 239

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when the Ironcraw pack fell. The stories about her are pretty crazy.”

The hooded witch.

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“Seraphina Vale,” he continued. “Even saying her name out loud is dangerous. People say she’s levelled whole villages before just because they saw her face. Whether it’s true or not doesn’t really matter.”

It did. Because I’d felt her power.

“The other two?” Tanner pressed.

Kostas shook his head.

“Nothing solid. But all three of them have embedded themselves into the city’s magic,” he said. “They’ve rooted their power into something, maybe a fixed point. That’s why they haven’t moved since last night.”

That explained the pressure. The way it had felt like the city itself was breathing around us. The magic that had pulled Kitty and me out of the safehouse. And the magic still lingering inside me? That chill in my body spread even further. If their magic was anchored to us, the strongest wolves in all three kingdoms, then the problem was even bigger than we thought.

“I don’t suppose they were giving out that information with the drinks?” Malcolm asked.

Kostas’ gaze flicked to him. The air shifted slightly between them, something unspoken tightening before Kostas looked away and moved to sit.

“I know they’re using Bronson,” he said. “They promised him the Alpha King’s crown. Told him he’d take the Lycan King’s throne, too.”

A few days ago, I’d have laughed, but now, it didn’t sound impossible.

“But Bronson is weaker than they are. Why build him up instead of taking control themselves?” Tanner asked.

Kostas looked me directly in the eye as if I were the one who’d asked.

“They’re not here for territory,” he said. “They’re not here for power in the way you understand it.”

“Then what do they want?” I asked.

“Magic.” It was Malcolm who answered.

My mind snapped back to the rooftop and the park. The way the hooded witch had known I was there but not pursued me. The way they’d lured Kitty to the city. The way that power had pressed into us in the park, not crushing us outright.

“They’re harvesting it,” I whispered.

It made sense.

“Not just harvesting. They let you leave the city, so they must be waiting for something,” Kostas said.

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Chapter 239

“Or testing us,” I said.

“Testing what?” A sharp edge crept into Nathan’s voice.

“Compatibility,” I answered.

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Kastas’ gaze flicked briefly towards the hallway, towards the room we had just left.

“They want to see if Katerina can hold their magic,” Kostas guessed. “If she can absorb it.”

“Like Zachary’s,” Malcolm said.

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Like mine. The man in the park had asked if I was evolving, too. Then that was their goal. To see if both of us could grow our magic before they took it back.

I felt that unfamiliar magic then, not through the room, but through me. That same instability that had been sitting beneath the surface since the park, weaving through my magic, and affecting my beast. The magic that had made my strengths unpredictable.

“You think they can just take it?” I asked.

“I think they already are,” Kostas said.

My jaw tightened. Were Kitty and I already doomed before we’d even tried to save ourselves?

“They don’t need to rip it out of her,” he continued. “They just need to push her far enough that she stops rejecting it.”

Katerina had been in this cabin when she’d pushed herself to tame Zachary’s magic.

“And when she does?” Rivers asked quietly. “When she learns how to control it?”

“If she learns how to control it, they win,” Kostas said. “Because they’ve tied themselves into her magic, if she stabilises it, then she stabilises them, too.”

The implication hit hard. Not just her, but me too. They’d tied themselves to me, too. They were testing me, too. But Kitty was unconscious now, and I was possibly her last line of defence. Could I trust these people with her? I was a king on the verge of losing control of everything; that was when alliances most often changed.

“If she can’t tame it, then they’ll wait for the moment she tips and take their magic back.”

“She barely managed to tame Zachary’s magic,” Rivers said. “How the hell are we going to teach her how to

control this?”

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