The Hybrid King's Hidden Mate

Prologue

Note: be aware of k*dnapping, violence, loss of mate, and death.

-Ronan-

“Where is she?” I screamed at the top of my lungs.

Mate... We need to find her.

My wolf kept repeating the same urgent message. We needed her. We needed to ensure she was safe. Yet, a nagging feeling persisted within me, signaling that nothing was right. The attack on the castle tonight had caught us off guard. None of us were prepared.

The walls were now adorned with blood, bodies strewn about, both friend and foe. How had they breached our defenses? I craved answers, but thoughts of the enemy coven’s assault had to be pushed aside for now.

First, I had to locate Adrianna. I had stationed some of my most formidable warriors to protect her. It had become a habit whenever I couldn’t be by her side. Ever since she became pregnant, I found myself increasingly absent.

Adrianna was the last female hybrid, just as I was the last male. She bore more than just my heir. She carried the legacy of our line, ensuring its survival beyond us. A hybrid pregnancy often ended in tragedy, either in death or miscarriage. This pregnancy was a divine blessing, but a part of me feared it would be snatched away.

“Where?” I screamed once more.

After the attack, I rushed to our chamber to search for her. Blood stained the room—her blood. I could scent it, but her body was nowhere to be found. All the warriors I had assigned to protect her lay slain.

Adrianna knew the castle intimately, its hidden passages and corridors. Perhaps she had escaped. There was a chance she had fled, but my instincts, and my wolf, refused to be calmed until I laid eyes on her again. Until I held her in my arms and felt her and our son close.

She claimed she knew it was a boy. How, I wasn’t sure, but I was grateful for this miraculous gift she had bestowed upon me. Our child. I couldn’t bear to lose them.

This coven had brought me countless troubles. Their leader desired Adrianna and the throne for himself, even attempting to sway her before she became mine. But she had always been destined to be mine. Always.

“My King!” Suddenly, I heard someone shout for me at the end of the hallway I was walking in. A few of my closest men had followed me around but had kept their distance, knowing not to approach me right now.

I turned around and saw Enzo coming my way, carrying Adrianna in his arms. The white dress she wore was drenched in blood, and even from a distance, I could see she was lying limp in his arms.

“No...”

I couldn’t move. My whole body was frozen. Enzo walked over to me, the look in his eyes telling me everything.

“I found her in the woods. She seemed to have escaped but...” He didn’t finish the sentence. He handed me her body, and as soon as I received the weight, my legs gave way beneath me. They couldn’t support me anymore.

She was dead.

Her body was still warm, but... but I couldn’t hear her heart. I couldn’t hear the... the baby. I laid my hand on her stomach. Even now, it seemed like she was reaching for him. One of her hands was placed a little higher on her stomach, just above mine, but there was nothing there.

Even though she hadn’t been far in her pregnancy, I could feel him. Like another presence there. He had seemed unsure about me at first. It was as if he could sense I was something he had to figure out whether I was a danger to him and his mother.

Very alpha-like to be so protective, but then as he got used to my touch, the feeling of me, he would grow a bit uneasy if I wasn’t near his mother. He recognized me for what I was. His father, and even as such a small little thing, he knew I was there to protect them both. Now I couldn’t feel him.

He wasn’t there.

They were both gone...

I pulled her body closer to mine, crying and feeling my heart break into a million pieces. I pressed my face close to her still-warm neck, but I knew there was nothing there. There wasn’t that strong pulse of hers I had often felt under my hand or heard. Even her scent seemed to be fading.

She was leaving me. She couldn’t leave me! She couldn’t! I needed her!

Suddenly, my pain was replaced with anger, and I lifted my head before a deafening roar escaped me, shaking the castle and letting everyone know I would not rest until everyone who had anything to do with Adrianna’s death had paid with their lives. I would hunt them all down and I would skin them alive. I would show them what happened when you crossed The Hybrid King.