His Baby Daddy [ Taekook ]

Chapter 36

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The transition from a prison of glass to a kingdom of stone did not happen with a shout, but with the slow, agonizing creak of a world resetting its axis.

Three days had passed since the ash of King Hansol had been swept into the mountain winds. Three days since Taehyung had slept through the dawn with Jungkook's scent anchored in his lungs. Now, the sun sat high and cold over the Crystal Citadel, and the reality of a leaderless nation was beginning to bleed through the euphoria of victory.

Taehyung stood before a floor-length mirror in the King's solar, but he wasn't looking at his reflection. He was staring at the pile of discarded silks on the floor-the high-collared, witch-bane tunics he would never wear again.

Today, he wore charcoal wool and a mantle of silver-fox fur. He looked like the North. He looked like his father.

A sharp rap on the door broke his trance. Namjoon entered, his armor polished but his eyes weary.

"The Council is seated, Taehyung," Namjoon said, his voice low. "They've been whispering for an hour. The witches are nervous, and the vampire elders are clutching their lineage scrolls like shields."

Taehyung exhaled, a sound that was half-growl. "They're looking for a King they can recognize. They're going to be disappointed."

"They don't need a King they recognize," Namjoon countered, stepping closer. "They need a King they fear just enough to respect. Ruhan is already in the chamber. His presence alone has silenced half the room."

Taehyung nodded, centering himself. He could feel the connection to Jungkook-the soft, distant hum of the Resonance-flickering at the back of his mind. Jungkook was awake, eating breakfast with the twins in the sun-parlor. That thought was the only thing keeping Taehyung's wolf from pacing.

"Let's get this over with," Taehyung said.

The High Council Chamber was an obsidian ribcage, designed to swallow sound and amplify authority. As Taehyung entered, the silence was so sudden it felt physical.

He didn't walk to the throne. He prowled toward the center of the room.

Taehyung reached the dais but didn't sit. He turned to face the assembly, his presence filling the room with a sub-harmonic vibration that made the crystal chandeliers tremble. To his right stood Ruhan, a towering mountain of grey fur and scarred leather; to his left, Mishil and Namjoon.

The council members-vampires who had lived centuries in the shade of Hansol's lies, stared at Taehyung.

They saw the amber-red in his eyes, the broader set of his shoulders, and the raw, unsuppressed power radiating from his skin.

"The King is dead," Taehyung began, his voice a low, lethal resonance. "And with him, the lies that built these walls."

"Your Highness... or should I say, Alpha?, the Blood Laws," began Lord Varlis, a vampire so old his skin looked like parchment, "dictate that a ruler must be of pure Crystal lineage. You stand before us as... a hybrid. A wolf-born."