<h4>Chapter 308: I Guess I Deserve That</h4>


    Kyllian folded his arms across his broad chest, leaning casually against his car, but the faint upward curl of his lips betrayed the truth. A chuckle rumbled in his chest. She has always been a firecracker. Even in her deepest fury, even with grief and betrayal cutting into her, she burned brighter than any me he had ever seen.


    It was a dangerous beauty—one that could bring kings to their knees and destroy empires if left unchecked.


    Still, Kyllian’s sharp instincts kept him cautious. His eyes followed the fading glow of Luna’s taillights, but his mind turned to Damien. Time and again, Damien had been doubted, and time and again he had risen, proving his cunning, his strength, his unwavering loyalty to Luna.


    Kyllian exhaled slowly, the weight of his conflicted thoughts heavy in his chest. Perhaps this time, I will give him the benefit of the doubt.


    The night wrapped around him. From the shadows, the guards eyed him uneasily, but none dared step closer. His presence was toorge, toomanding, his power coiled beneath his skin. He tilted his head back and studied the looming silhouette of the Blood Castles.


    Kyllian settled himself against the hood of his car, crossing one booted leg over the other, a king at ease but not at peace. Somewhere beyond those walls, Damien was ying a game that could cost him everything. Kyllian knew he would have to be patient, to wait, but every muscle in his body was taut with readiness.


    *****


    As soon as Damien climbed from his car and took two steps toward him, the Alpha King’s fist connected with a clean, brutal smack against the vampire king’s jaw. For a heartbeat everything froze — the guards hurried to their king’s defence.


    Damien did not stagger. He only steadied himself, lifted a hand slowly, telling the guards to stand down. "I guess I deserve that," he said.


    "I don’t know. I feel like you deserve more. That is for hurting Luna. You want to turn the other cheek so I can punch you for holding Talon for something he didn’t do?"


    Damien looked tired down to the bones. "Let’s take a walk," he said, and without waiting, he began to move along the outer wall of Blood Castles. Kyllian fell into step behind him, the guard’s rigid formation dissolving as the two kings paced side by side.


    "What the fuck are you doing?" Kyllian cut in after a few strides. "Are you nning on starting another war?"


    Damien slowed. "I thought you would jump at the idea," he said. He stoppedpletely and turned to face Kyllian. "Actually...I need you to."


    Kyllian blinked. "What? You want a war?"


    "No...I want an idea of a war."


    "Okay. I’m just going to say this once. Uhn?" Kyllian stared at Damien as though he had finally lost his mind.


    "I am tired, Kyllian. I am tired of me and my family being constantly under attack and I want it to end once and for all. Someone wants a war between werewolves and vampires and the only way I can put an end to this is to hold up this farce."


    Kyllian exhaled heavily. He raked a hand through his dark hair and red at Damien. "For once, I am going to trust your process," he admitted. Trust did note easily between wolf and vampire, but this was Luna they were talking about. His Luna. His princess. His firecracker. "But Luna is on the verge of erupting," he added.


    "What are you going to do about it?"


    "I also need her to erupt." He turned his gaze away.


    <fnee2c> Th? link to the orig?n of this information r?sts ?n find?novel</fnee2c>


    "You should talk to her."


    "You think I don’t want to? My wife looks at me like I am evil. The look in her eyes, it crushes me every time. Kyllian, it’s worse than death." His throat bobbed as he swallowed the lump forming there, hisposure trembling.


    "I just want us to be happy, but every step of the way, it’s always something. Every shadow hides another dagger pointed at our backs."


    He dragged in a breath and muttered hoarsely, "I wish I could abdicate the throne. Maybe then we’d finally have some peace. She... my wife... needs peace. And I am going to give it to her."


    Kyllian said nothing for a long moment. The two men stood shoulder to shoulder, enemies by fate yet bound by the same love for one fiery queen.


    Finally he asked: "What’s your n?"


    Damien exhaled. "What’s Talon’s pain threshold?" he said simply.


    Kyllian’s answer was immediate: "He can hold his own." There was a warning in it — not that Talon was unbreakable, but that the man’s loyalty and pride were weapons in and of themselves.


    Damien’s eyes flicked to him. "I am going to have him tortured," he said. "You have to talk to him. Tell him that when he is eventually questioned, he has to admit that the queen instructed him to attack Isolde."


    Kyllian’sugh was a short, incredulous bark of disbelief that sounded like it left a bad taste in his mouth. "Oh boy," he muttered, then shook his head. "He won’t do it." There was more than doubt in his voice — there was loyalty, the kind that refuses to break on principle. Talon would rather die.


    "He didn’t assault her," Damien insisted, as if restating the fact might make the rest of his n less monstrous.


    "Isolde is working with a sorcerer — Morvakar’s son — who wants a war between us. I need to create the illusion that it’s working. I need Isolde to believe she will be recing Luna. If she thinks she can step up, she’ll make more mistakes, reach, make herself seen."


    Kyllian’s face darkened. "This Isolde is your original fated mate, isn’t she?" he said, the implication sharp.


    "Yes." A single syble, brittle and wounded. Damien’s mouth ttened. "She is," he admitted.


    Kyllian watched him then, slow as a hawk. "You think you can fight it? The mate bond?" There was skepticism and a hint of disbelief. The mate bond, in Kyllian’s world, was ancientw — binding, brutal, often immutable.