Ch. my mate gambled me away to the lycan King 13 my mate gambled me away to the lycan King 13

< Chapter 13 

Chapter 13 

My wolf screamed. 

: 

The wolfsbane burned through my chest like acid. My knees buckled. The world spun. 

“That’s cheating!” Tessa shrieked from the crowd. 

“There are no rules in a death challenge,” Bianca sang. 

Kane shifted. 

His brown wolf exploded out of his skin, massive and snarling, and charged straight at me. 

I barely rolled out of the way. His claws ripped across my shoulder. Pain blazed white-hot. 

:)) 

47 $ 

Through the smoke, I saw Alaric take a step into the circle. His Lycan guards were holding him back, their faces pale with fear, because by law, if the King interfered, the challenge would be void, and Kane could claim I hid behind a crown. 

“Lyra!” His voice tore through the night. 

Kane circled me, his wolf panting and grinning, saliva dripping from his teeth. 

I couldn’t shift. The wolfsbane had my wolf pinned down, writhing and choking inside me. 

Get up, I told her. Please. Get up. 

Then I heard it. Faint. Through all the screaming and the roaring blood in my ears. 

My father’s voice. Something he told me when I was little, when the other kids called me names. 

Ashford women don’t break, sweetheart. We bend. And then we come back stronger. 

I thought about the funeral photo. 

The pig cake. 

The steel chair. 

Four hours a day in the snow, every day, for a year, until my lungs burned and my legs shook and I kept going anyway. 

I thought about a little girl in frog boots swinging a broken stick at three boys twice her size. 

These are my woods. 

11:28 Wed, Oct 21 

< Chapter 13 

My wolf heard me. 

She surged up through the poison, through the pain, through everything, and tore her way out of my skin. 

The pack gasped. 

My wolf was bigger than Kane’s. Silver from nose to tail, glowing faintly in the moonlight like she was 

made of it. 

Kane hesitated. Just for a second. 

That was all I needed. 

I hit him like a freight train. We rolled across the clearing in a storm of teeth and claws. He was strong, but he was sick from the rejection, and I had been training for this my whole life without knowing it. 

I pinned him to the ground with my jaws around his throat. 

Kane’s wolf went limp. Then he shifted back, naked, trembling, bleeding in the dirt. “Please,” he sobbed.. 

“Please don’t kill me.” 

I could have. 

The whole pack was waiting. By law, it was my right. 

I let go and shifted back, wrapping myself in the cloak Tessa threw me. 

“I’m not going to kill you, Kane,” I said. “I’m going to let you live. As a rogue. With no pack, no name, and no one who will ever trust you again.” 

I looked at the elders. “Kane Mercer is banished. So is everyone who came with him tonight.” 

Bianca tried to run. Marcus caught her by the collar of her leather jacket before she made it three steps. 

“And her,” I said, “goes to the Council for trial. For conspiracy and attempted murder of an Alpha.” 

Bianca screamed my name as they dragged her away. 

I turned. Elder Graves was holding the silver crown with shaking hands. 

I took one step toward him, and my legs finally gave out. 

I didn’t hit the ground. 

Alaric caught me before I could fall. He’d crossed the clearing in a blink. His arms closed around me, and 

11:29 Wed, Oct 21 

<Chapter 13 

his whole body was shaking. 

“I’ve got you,” he whispered into my hair, his voice raw. “I’ve got you.” 

Above us, the elders placed the crown on my head. 

And the whole pack howled my name. 

11:29 Wed, Oct 21 

< Chapter 14