The Alpha King’s Runaway Mate.Chapter 21: sleep over .That night, Regina stays up late once more, organizing the truly astounding number of parcels she now has in her room.(Had she truly purchased this many things, she wonders.)She’s halfway through organizing some of the items on her vanity, when she hears it.That quiet, muffled whimper, this time all the louder for how acutely her sense are attuned to the sound.This time, she wastes little time in letting herself through the door (and realizing, then, that while she can lock her side, King Mattel cannot, and wondering what the implications are that the man had crafted a proverbial cage for himself to be locked into).When she sees the floors and walls, once more, covered in that endless blackness, she can’t help the fear that, again, rushes up inside of her like a dam had broken.But she cannot leave King Mattel as he is, in whatever pained hell he has trapped himself into-In the nights I spend in this monstrous form, I beg
The Alpha King’s Runaway Mate.Chapter 22: birth of a star.Regina wakes first.This time, she awakens with the immediate and keen awareness of precisely where she is - that is to say, not her own bed, but the one she’d just shared with King Mattel.Alpha Mattel, who, when Regina looks to her right, is evidently still asleep.Regina can’t help but to stare.In sleep, the Alpha’s features seem impossibly young - with none of the heavy presence that bears on him like an ever-present weight when the king is awake.It’s something about his eyes, Regina thinks; those dark, fathomless depths that speak of years much, much beyond the king’s age of twenty nine.(And there’s a fascination here, too, of being permitted to observe such a feared man from up close - not unlike being permitted into a tiger’s den, when the ferocious tiger is declawed in its slumber.)“If you leaned in any closer, one would think it is my person people should worry about, rather than yours,” the low, gravelly timbe
The Alpha King’s Runaway Mate.Chapter 22: transfer of emotions .Mattel’s never slept so well in the twenty nine years he’s been alive, as he does now.Born with the curse of being permitted to command all those wraiths, terrors and horrors that haunt the minds of men,Mattel had learned, early on, that being able to command something did not mean the same thing as being immune to those same terrors.Most nights, ever since he’d manifested his curse side effects as a young child, he’d found his dreamless sleep plagued by the same terrible things that he can command unto others.As he’d explained to Regina, these shadows cannot kill him the way he can kill others with them. But that does not change the fact that, each night, he nearly dreads sleep with the anticipation of an endless, all-consuming despair.Even if the terrors don’t visit him every night, the nights when he is given the brief reprieve, he spends trembling in fear, anyway, teeth grit and back ramrod straight, bracing
Alpha Easton’s Runaway Mate.Chapter 24: just because .“Was it the shadows?” he asks.Regina shakes her head.Mattel glances at her with a sharp eye, as if to ascertain whether Regina is telling the truth, or simply shielding Mattel from the guilt he wears like an ever-present crown.“The bandits,” Regina murmurs simply, eyes fixed on the sheets in front of her.She feels childish for being so consumed still by a fear of something so trivial.Ashamed to even voice her trifling fear aloud, to a man who’s spent most of his nights haunted by unspeakable terrors.It reminds her, acutely, of how little use she’d ever been to her step father, as feeble and powerless as she is. Of all the things that he must have seen in her, missing and lacking in every way.She bites her lip hard enough to taste blood.Mattel, without a word, reaches over to flick on the lamp beside the bed.Regina curls her fingers into the sheets, shame curling in her stomach with that familiar pang. “I know it is foo
The Alpha King’s Runaway Mate.Chapter 25: power of a pretty face .Except, Regina doesn’t quite let the matter rest.The next morning, with much effort, she manages to rise early enough to follow Mattel to his practice match with Lionel.She reaches the courtyard just in time to see Mattel narrowly avoid being skewered by the sharp end of Lionel’s sword, and can’t help the quiet squeak that flits from her lips at the near-miss.Mattel’s eyes snap to her, having just noticed her presence.Lionel seizes the opportunity to slam the butt end of his sword into Mattel’s side, sending him clattering to the floor.“Alpha!”Regina doesn’t think that she’s ever run so fast in her life as when she flits to Mattel’s crumpled side, worry pounding in her chest. “Are you alright?”Mattel, where he’s sitting on the ground in the middle of sending a particularly scathing look in Lionel’s direction, turns his incredulous gaze to Regina, next.Regina, who’s gingerly grasping his arm and trying (unhel
The Alpha King’s Runaway Mate .Chapter 26: a new kind of normalcy .The moon goddess’s mind, it is said, works by creating associations - between experiences, memories, objects and ideas.Mattel, despite all signs to the contrary, would seem to be a liar if he didn’t believe that the moon goddess would always have her way with all the matchmaking she seems to be doing lately…. .For how else could he explain, the way his mind seems to have - without his permission - bridged an association between Regina, and the benediction of reprieve from his nightly terrors?Surely, the way that he finds his gaze and his attentions drawn to Regina like the subconscious weight of a gravitational pull, can only be explained by the mysterious eccentricities of the way the goddess’s mind works.She is unlike anything Mattel has ever laid eyes upon, before.She is not immune to the fears that plague all men, but unlike any person Mattel has known before, she seems impervious to the kind of paralysis
The Alpha King’s Runaway Mate.Chapter 27: who’s the fraud? .“Have you seen? The king’s obsessed with the new girl.” A maid called Emma gossiped to her fellow maid as the two of them were together in the pantry.“Yeah turns out Annalise isn’t his favorite anymore.” The other maid replied her friend as they giggled in disdain at the fall of the obnoxious blonde girl.“After all the ‘oh the king is my mate’..” Emma said imitating Annalise’s words as she rolled her eyes at the ending of her sentence scoffing. “Yet he isn’t her mate, she’s just nothing to him.”“But then why was the king treating her well then?.” Emma’s friend inquired confused as she stopped in the middle of their cleaning to ask. “I mean, all the others girls who have being brought to King Mattel, they’ve left in one way or the another other in great harm except Annalise.”Emma shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe that was why the king thought that she was his mate? Or his possible mate because she was the one who survived th
The Alpha King’s Runaway Mate .Chapter 28: finally recognized .Three miles away, practicing all by himself in the grounds while the other soldiers present looked on at the skills their king was presenting, meanwhile Mattel was trying to resist destroying the entire fucking if it wasn’t filled with weapons and at risk to the other soldiers as his sword-that he’s using to train - falls from his hand. again.Mattel Darius tries desperately to calm down and focus on keeping his scent in check as much as he can. If the slightly worried but mostly fearful looks his soliders are sending him are anything to go by, he isn't doing the best job."King Mattel!".Lionel’s voice snaps the alpha out of his momentary haze and his eyes, ringed in a barely suppressed red, snap to the other wolf in a threatening glare that causes the older male to flinch slightly.Immediate regret flows through the alpha but before he can grit out an apology, his bodyguard is already waving it off and leaning in to
The Alpha King’s Runaway Mate . Chapter 98: Announcements . “We promised we’d do it together. I may have still been out of it, but I kept my promise. She’s just been ‘baby,’ her entire life so far.”Mattel laughs as he kisses her again. “Oh, Regina,” he breathes, then he looks down, observing her body, the way they’re able to be pressed close like this for the first time in months. “I can hold you close again now. No obstructions.”Regina grins, looking like she wants to chastise Mattel for the smirk on his face, but a throat clears. She turns to find Jana and Lionel staring at them, the omega smirking knowingly--and oh, there’s another conversation they have to have now. No one but Mattel knows that Jana is pregnant. There’s something to look forward to. “Do I get a hello?” Jana asks, and Regina throws her arms around Jana, breathing in her friend’s sweet scent as Mattel pulls Lionel into an embrace, the two alphas holding tight to one another even as Mattel’s eyes never leav
The Alpha King’s Runaway Mate .Chapter 97: Not without you .The moment her heat is over, Regina rolls out of bed and tells the others to get ready. Apprehensive eyes look back at her, but she knows it’s time. Her body feels stronger than ever, her mind is sharp, and they’ve involved just enough people in the lower town in their plan that they’ve got the numbers to pull off an attack. At least enough to sneak into the dungeons and free their military.Despite their hesitance, Damian and the others get the horses prepared and weapons ready. Hal even prepares a sling for himself--he’ll be the one watching Regina’s baby while they are fighting.She hopes beyond all hope that today is a success, that she’ll get her family back together and they’ll never be separated again. Today, she will reunite her baby with her father, she will, and from here on out, they’ll only know peace.Still, her fingers shake as she dresses herself, doing up the laces of her leather waist coat, and looking
The Alpha King’s Runaway Mate .Chapter 96: Accidentally .When she wakes, Regina is feverish and covered in sweat. The moment she comes to awareness, she knows what’s happening, knows that her body has finally returned to normal, but it brings about a feeling of great sadness.She can’t fight when she’s in heat. She can’t do much of anything. A soft groan parts her lips as she throws her blankets back, her entire body growing hot--too hot.“F-Fuck,” She breathes, all the aches and pains in her body not enough to distract her from the tears that spring to her eyes. Six weeks have already passed since she left Mattel behind, and this heat will just put her back another several days if not another week entirely. “Shit.”From her little makeshift crib at her bedside, her baby whimpers as she comes awake. She wonders if she can scent her distress, her curiosity spiking as ehe rolls off of the bed to attend to her, lifting her into her arms. “Hey, my love, I’m so sorry,” She whispers, h
The Alpha King’s Runaway Mate .Chapter 95: Side by Side .In the days after Imari discovers Jana’s pregnancy, things become difficult for them. Jana is now chained to the all, and after several sleepless nights, the poor omega managing to find a comfortable position by some miracle.Mattel tries to help her out, but there’s only so much he can do when there’s iron digging into his skin as well. He makes a mental note to completely get rid of the dungeons when this is over, when he and Regina have defeated the evil that’s taken over their kingdom.God, he misses Regina. He misses his baby. His family. Thanks to their situation, he’s only had a few minutes with his daughter and it’s killing him. A part of him is starting to fear that by the time he sees her again, his child will be a woman, and he and Regina will both be old and gray. And that’s if he sees her again.Today, Imari had summoned him and Jana in for a meeting, and they’d managed to buy themselves some time for the rescue
The Alpha King’s Runaway Mate .Chapter 94: Must go on .It has been four weeks since Mattel and Jana were left behind at the castle, four weeks without his baby, without either of their mates. Without a doubt, it has been the worst four weeks of his life.At night when he’s trying to sleep, he calls to mind the image of his daughter’s face, the sound of Regina’s laugh. He envisions a world where they’d never been separated. In that world, he imagines that they’d gotten the chance to hold one another in the aftermath, that he’d been by his wife’s side through her recovery.In that world, they’re just a couple with a baby. They don’t have the pressure of kings and royalty. It’s beautiful and evergreen, but it can never be a reality, they can’t abandon the kingdom and leave it behind for Imari. It would be madness.The fight must go on.He and Jana are being marched back into the grand hall, Imari having summoned them somewhat randomly in the middle of the night. Whatever it is, it ca
The Alpha King’s Runaway Mate .Chapter 93: A long way to go .Regina swallows the lump in her throat, leaning into Lionel as Castile rises from the picnic blanket to help her, the former moving aside to allow the latter to loop an arm around her back as well. Together, they make their way back toward the cottage, Hal and Damian following suit as the queen hangs her head low, fighting the urge to cry.“I’ll get them,” She whispers.Castile’s palm is warm against her back as he rubs circles into it, his alpha scent soothing. “We know, Regina.”“I’ll kill them.”“We know, Regina,” Damian says, then they guide her into the cottage, laying her gently on the bed as the queen fights back tears. “Get some rest, hold your daughter for a while. Remember why we’re here.”Sniffling quietly, Regina nods, watching as Hal enters the room with her baby, sitting down beside her before handing her gently over to her mother. Silence passes between them as she takes her, supporting the newborn’s head
The Alpha King’s Runaway Mate .Chapter 92: Coming for you .The rest of the afternoon passes in relative quiet. Once they got on the road again, Regina spent the bulk of their time mesmerized by her baby. She’s fed her twice on the journey, half worried that they’d run out of formula at some point, but eventually, she sees their friend’s little cottage at a distant bend in the river, smoke pouring out of the chimney—they are going to be all right.By the time they pull up in front of the cottage, the sun is beginning to set, the light streaming in through the carriage window to illuminate her daughter’s face. A smile parts her lips as she reaches up a hand into the light, the little dust particles floating in it dancing around her tiny fingers as Regina’s heart melts.“There’s the sunset, darling,” She tells her, laughing softly to herself as the baby coos softly.On the other side of the carriage, she can hear snoring beneath her infant’s soft coos, and she looks over to find Lio
The Alpha King’s Runaway Mate .Chapter 91: together we conquer .Tears prick again at her eyes, a couple of droplets making their way onto her cheeks before she wipes them away, kissing her daughter again before glancing across the carriage where Castile and Lionel are sound asleep in each other’s arms. Jealousy wells up in her chest as she watches, but she says nothing.They’re lucky to be together. She remembers how they got together. How in the beginning, her healer, Castile, and Mattel’s chief of Commander, Lionel had met and immediately fallen for one another at first sight.Only they hadn’t met until Mattel summoned Castile to court to treat an injury—one Regina had inadvertently given him when he’d been giving one of his training lessons. She almost laughs at the memory, but before she can get too lost in it, there’s the sound of Damian pulling on the reins.The other two in the carriage slowly stir awake. Curiosity floods both of their faces, then Castile turns around, pul
The Alpha King’s Runaway Mate .Chapter 90: Whatever shall be .The simultaneous feeling of joy at being a father and the sorrow at the loss of his wife and baby is already exhausting. A part of him wants to start thinking of names, Sandra, Ari, hell, just calling her “Baby,” even? But he’s too upset to think. He can barely even focus.Down the hall, there’s shouting, and he forces himself to wipe his tears, rushing toward the cell door as he hears banging and shuffling. He gets there just in time to see guards dressed in the enemy’s colors and symbols carrying a limp Jana in their arms.“Jana!” he cries, but before he can worry about his friend, the omega is thrown into the cell with him. All he can do is watch as he collapses, unconscious, with a bruised eye and a split lip facing the ceiling, then he hears a throat clear, and suddenly Imari, now king of the north, is standing before him.The omega king is taller than he is, but not quite as broad. They’ve met before, but someh