Sold to Bastard Alpha after My Divorce! novel Chapter 181

Chapter 181: Chapter 181

Rebecca’s POV

My throat was on fire.

Every breath felt like swallowing glass. My body ached everywhere. The kind of deep, bone-level pain that came from collapsing in the desert and getting dragged across rocks.

But none of that mattered right now.

Because I was staring at a ghost.

Magnus Blood Crown stood on that raised platform. Looking down at me with those terrifying red-gold eyes. The same eyes his son had. The same predator’s gaze.

But Magnus’s eyes held something Kael’s never did.

Pure, absolute madness.

"You—" The word came out as a croak. My voice was wrecked. "You... you..."

I couldn’t finish the sentence.

Couldn’t make my brain process what I was seeing.

Magnus Blood Crown was supposed to be dead. Or at least—gone. Disappeared. Kael had defeated him. Driven him out of the territory. Everyone said he’d probably died in exile.

Everyone was wrong.

He laughed.

The sound echoed through the stone chamber. Deep. Rich. Completely insane.

"Cat got your tongue, little Rebecca?" He descended the steps slowly. Each footfall deliberate. Measured. "You look like you’ve seen a ghost."

"I... I thought you were..." I swallowed hard. Tasted blood. "Dead."

"Dead?" He reached the bottom step. Stopped just a few feet away. "Oh, my dear girl. I’m very much alive."

He gestured around the cavern. At the dozens of rogues watching us. At the torches casting flickering shadows across stone walls.

"More alive than I’ve been in years, actually."

My mind was racing. Trying to understand. Trying to piece together how this was possible.

"But Kael—"

"Kael." Magnus spat the name like it tasted bad. "That ungrateful whelp thought exiling me would be enough. Thought driving me into the wasteland would kill me."

His smile turned sharp. Vicious. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

"He was wrong."

I stared at him. At this man who should have died out there. Who should have succumbed to the heat and thirst and endless nothing.

Instead, he was here. In this underground fortress. Surrounded by followers.

"How?" The question came out barely audible.

Magnus tilted his head. "How what?"

"How did you... how are you..." I gestured helplessly. "All of this?"

He laughed again. That same insane sound.

"You think being an Alpha King for thirty years taught me nothing?" He started pacing. Hands clasped behind his back. "You think I didn’t make contingency plans? Didn’t prepare for the possibility of betrayal?"

He stopped. Turned to face me directly.

"I had resources. Hidden caches throughout the wasteland. Supplies. Weapons. Everything I needed to survive."

My stomach dropped.

"And followers." He continued. His voice getting harder. "Wolves who were tired of pack law. Tired of rules and hierarchy and playing nice. Rogues who wanted power without restraint."

He gestured at the men surrounding us.

"I gathered them. Trained them. Built something new out here in the forgotten places." His eyes blazed. "Something stronger than what Kael has. Something pure."

The word made my skin crawl.

Because I could see what he meant. Could see it in the scarred faces of the rogues. In their vicious grins. In the way they looked at me like I was meat.

This wasn’t a pack. This was something else. Something darker.

"You..." I forced my voice to work. "You’re planning to go back."

It wasn’t a question.

Magnus’s smile widened. "Smart girl."

He stopped right in front of me. So close I could smell him. Blood and iron and something rotten underneath.

"And when that day comes—" His voice dropped to a whisper. "I’m going to rip my ungrateful son’s throat out. Take back what’s mine. Rule the way an Alpha is supposed to rule."

Horror washed over me in waves.

"You... you’re going to kill your own son?"

Magnus laughed. The sound was completely devoid of warmth. "He stopped being my son the moment he betrayed me. The moment he chose to believe I was too harsh. Too cruel. Too old-fashioned."

His hand shot out. Grabbed my chin. Forced me to look at him.

"He’s nothing to me now. Just an obstacle that needs removing."

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