Chapter 151
Lucien POV
Private Suite, Hollow Creed Safehouse
Just After the Ambush
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Blood dried beneath my fingernails. It flaked every time I clenched my fists, which was every few fucking seconds.
The silk sheets tangled around my hips were warm…Vaela’s doing…but I was ice under the surface.
Rage wasn’t a strong enough word for what I felt.They knew.
They walked into our trap like they built it themselves. Like they had a fucking script. I stood at the edge of the bed, naked, still half drenched in smoke and sweat, staring at the wall where the war map used to be before I burned it down with a curse.
“They had to have a seer,” I muttered. “Or a divine. Someone tipped them off.”
Behind me, Vaela stretched, slow and satisfied, like she hadn’t just watched our entire front line get annihilated.
“We still wounded them,” she purred, her voice thick with post battle arousal and arrogance. “They may have survived, but they didn’t
win.”
I turned, growling low. “Don’t. Patronize. Me.”
Her grin widened. She liked when I snapped. The star kissed bitch with the silver bear magic should’ve died. She was supposed to burn in that clearing, screaming and begging for the very gods that cursed her to begin with.
Instead? She wiped out an entire Creed unit. My fangs ached from how tight I was clenching my jaw.
“They weren’t surprised,” I hissed. “They moved like predators. Coordinated. Clean. Even the mage ward broke at the exact right second.”
I dropped back onto the bed beside Vaela, my skin still buzzing with fury. “I don’t like being outplayed.”
Vaela rolled onto her side, her fingers sliding across my chest, her runes still glowing faintly with residual blood magic.
“They were prepared, sure,” she whispered, “but not for what’s coming next.”
I glanced at her, my eyes narrowed. “You have something in mind?”
Her smile was venomous. “Always.”
She pressed her lips to my neck and spoke against my skin. “You’ve been attacking the head, my king. The queen. But what happens when you poison the roots? The villages? The supply lines? The morale?”
I growled low, my eyes closing briefly. “You want to strike the civilians.”
“I want them to break.” Her nails traced a line across my ribs. “Not from war. From rot. Slow. Internal. Let them turn on each other. Lose
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Chapter 151
faith. Then, when they beg for peace..”
“We deliver death.”
“Exactly.”
I leaned back into the pillows, letting her sink into me like smoke. Maybe I didn’t win last night. Maybe the goddess wolf got her little fucking moment.
But she’d learn the hard way…
Vaela POV
He was still seething, naked, and blood streaked. With his fangs bared in the half light, and gods, I could’ve come just from the way he paced the room like a wild animal denied his kill.
“You don’t lose well,” I purred, lounging in the ruined sheets, runes still pulsing across my skin like a heartbeat.
His glare should’ve scared me. It didn’t.
“I don’t lose,” he snarled.
I rolled onto my stomach, my chin on my hands. “Then let’s make sure they remember this wasn’t a win. It was a warning.”
Lucien stopped mid step. That got his attention.
“You’re thinking something,” he said slowly.
“I’m always thinking,” I replied, stretching like a cat. “That’s the difference between me and them. Elowen and her pathetic pack of soft hearted, temple crying fools? They protect. We infect.”
I sat up, letting the silk fall from my chest as I slid off the bed and walked barefoot to the glowing runes along the wall. My hand hovered above one of them, the blood bond thrumming through me.
“She has temples,” I said. “Gods. Worshipers.”
Lucien’s eyes narrowed. “You want to hit her faith.”
I smiled, sharp and cruel. “Let’s show her what it feels like to be forgotten.”
And then, like clockwork, I heard her.
Raelith Mortem.
Her voice was always velvet and venom, warm like a lover’s breath, but soaked in decay. “My child of crimson… the bear queen spreads her light. Shall we dim it?”
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Hunted Hybrid – Aegis War Saga 1
