Mated To The Alpha King (Raven and Ethan) novel Chapter 362

Chapter 302

Chapter 362

Reven’s POV

Pam followed me like a shadow that refused to loosen its grip.

Every step down the corridor felt like my skin was being torn open all over again.

My body screamed in protest, each movement sending sharp, higning reminders of what I had endured in the dungry

Blood had dried stiff against my clothes, gluing fabric to raw flesh. Where the dog’s claws had torn into me, the wounds throbbed as if they had their heartbeat.

Still, I walked.

I would not crawl. I would not beg.

The guards flanked me in silence, their boots echoing against the stone floor. I could feel their eyes on me some curan. some indifferent, some faintly uneasy. None spoke. None apologized. They never did.

When we stopped, it wasn’t at the dungeon door.

That alone made my chest tighten.

The door before us was smaller, older, and marked with symbols of healing carved deep into the wood.

The smell reached me even before the guard pushed it open: boiled herbs, clean water, dried leaves, and something faintly bitter but calming.

The healer’s quarters.

For a brief, dangerous second, my knees almost gave out.

The guard shoved me forward. “Go in.”

I stumbled inside.

The door closed behind me with a dull thud.

And that was when I saw her.

Edna looked up from her table, where she had been grinding herbs with a stone mortar. For a heartbeat, she simply stared at me. Then the color drained from her face.

“Gods above,” she whispered.

Her hands trembled as she set the mortar aside. She crossed the room quickly, her steps light despite her age.

The moment she reached me, I swayed, my strength finally abandoning me now that I was no longer surrounded by enemies.

Edna caught me just in time.

“Easy, child,” she murmured, wrapping an arm around my waist. “Easy now.”

She guided me to the narrow bed against the wall. The moment sat down, pain exploded across my back and arms. I clenched my teeth so hard my jaw ached, refusing to scream.

1/5

་་་་་་

Chapter 369

Edus knelt in funt of time he derpyes wanning every inch meeting beneath it, dehully confredtel lige at tehind a

Who did this she asked sofily

I let out a dry humorless laugh. Take a gue.”

Antyle stim. Her face was alon, bur 1 dan du fory

Her lips pressed into a thin line. She didn’t respond, but the way her hands curled briefly into fare told me everything

She turned away and began preparing water, heating it over a small flame. As she worked, she spoke quietly, as if afraid the walls themselves might be listening.

“You should not be alive,” she said finally

I swallowed. “I feel that

way too.”

She glanced at me over her shoulder, her gaze sharp. “Don’t joke about that.”

I shrugged, the movement pulling painfully at the wounds on my shoulders. A hiss escaped my lips before I could stop it.

Edna noticed immediately.

“Don’t move,” she snapped gently. “You’re already in bad shape.

She returned with a basin of warm water and clean cloths. She knelt again, dipping the cloth and wringing it out before carefully pressing it against my arm.

The pain was immediate and blinding.

I sucked in a sharp breath, my fingers digging into the edge of the bed.

“I know,” she said quickly. “I know it hurts. But if we don’t clean it properly, it will fester.”

I nodded stiffly.

As she cleaned the blood away, the full damage became visible. Long, jagged scratches crisscrossed my arms and back.

Some were shallow, others deep enough that the flesh beneath was still angry and red. Bite marks darkened my thigh, already swelling.

Edna sucked in a breath through her teeth.

“They used a dog,” she said quietly.

I didn’t answer.

She didn’t need confirmation.

“They’ve done this before,” she went on, more to herself than to me. “They always do.”

Her hands were steady as she worked, but I felt the tension in them, the restrained anger. She was careful, precise, as if gentleness alone could undo what had been done to me.

After a while, she spoke again.

“You need to stop getting into trouble, Reven.”

The words were gentle, but they landed heavily.

2/5

Chapter 36

I laughed weakly. “That’s hard to do when ruble keeps finding he

She paused, then looked up ai ine, really looked at me.

“Your body is already weak,” she said. “You’ve lost too much blod over time. You don’t eat enough. You don’t rell ewrigh Punishments like this. She shook her head. “They will kill young before any Blade does.

I stared at the wall behind her

“What would you have me do?” I asked quietly. “Bow? Smile? Lehem break me without resisting?”

Edna sighed and returned to her work. “No. I would have you survive?

She cleaned my back next, and I bit down on a cry as the cloth touched one particularly deep wound.

“Survival is not weakness,” she continued. “There is strength in knowing when to step back.”

“And there is danger in showing fear,” I replied.

She didn’t argue.

Instead, she said softly, “There is also danger in showing defiance when your body cannot afford it.

Silence stretched between us, thick and heavy.

She applied a thick herbal paste to the wounds, cool and sharp–smelling. It burned at first, then slowly eased the pain into something duller, more manageable.

“Lie down.” she instructed. “On your side.”

I obeyed, lowering myself carefully onto the bed. The straw mattress was thin, but it felt like a luxury compared to cold

stone.

Edna worked in silence for a while, wrapping clean bandages around my arms and torso. When she finished, she sat back on her heels and studied me with a tired expression.

“You heal slowly,” she said. “Not because you’re weak but because you carry too much inside.”

I turned my head to look at her. “You make it sound like a sickness.”

“In a way, it is,” she replied. “Fear, anger, grief… they all live in the body. They drain it.”

I closed my eyes.

Images flashed through my mind: blood on stone, red eyes in the dark, and the Rough King’s calm smile as he promised to break me.

“I can’t let them think I’m weak,” I whispered.

Edna reached out and rested a hand on my arm. Her touch was warm, grounding.

“They already know you’re strong,” she said. “That’s why they punish you this way.”

I opened my eyes again.

She met my gaze steadily. “If you were weak, they wouldn’t bother.”

Her words settled deep in my chest.

315

Chapter 36%

She stood and moved to a small shelt returning with a cup at a liquid “brink this slowly

I grimaced at the bitter taste but obeyed

“It will help with the pain and help you sleep,” she explained Vur body needs remse than retellina tento

I wanted to argue. I wanted to say I couldn’t afford rest. That I led to stay sharp, alert, realy

But exhaustion crashed over me like a wave.

My limbs felt heavy. My eyelids drooped.

Edna adjusted the blanket over me carefully. “You’ll stay here throughout today,” she said. “I told them you’re too injured to

be moved.”

“They listened?” I asked faintly.

She snorted softly. “They listen when it suits them.”

I hesitated, then asked that had been burning in my chest since the dungeon.

“Edna… if someone were coming for me… would you know?”

She paused.

Her back stiffened for just a second before she turned to face me

“Why do you ask?”

“A guard said something,” I murmured. “He said my mate was coming for me.”

Edna’s eyes searched my face carefully.

“Did he say more?”

“No.”

She nodded slowly. “Then don’t cling to it too tightly.”

Hope stirred, fragile and dangerous.

“You don’t believe it,” I said.

“I believe many things,” she replied carefully. “But hope can be a blade if you hold it the wrong way.”

I swallowed. “What if it’s true?”

“Then you must live long enough to see it,” she said firmly.

She leaned closer. “That means you stop provoking them when you can. You conserve your strength. You choose your battles.”

Her gaze softened. “Reven, revenge requires patience. And a living body.”

I looked away, tears burning behind my eyes.

“I didn’t let Sabrina take my calmness for weakness,” I said quietly. “I couldn’t.”

Edna nodded. “I understand.”

4/5

21:53 Mon, Feb 9

Chapter 362

After a mom, she added, ut commemines the greatest insul?

ndifference

I buffed out a weak breth. “You sauted like someone who’s learned that the hard way

She smiled sadly. “I have

She dimmed the lamp, leaving only a faint glow in the room.

“Sleep,” she said. “1l be here.”

I shifted slightly, wincing, then settled against the wall, my head resting on the cool stone.

As sleep crept in, my thoughts tangled of the hidden file, of whispered promises, of red eyes in the dark, of a bond that refused to die.

If he knows I’m alive

If he’s coming…

I clenched my fingers weakly in the blanket.

I just need to survive.

The last thing I felt before sleep claimed me was Edna’s hand resting lightly on my shoulder steady, human, real. And for the first time in a long while, the darkness did not feel quite so absolute.