เข้าสู่ระบบแชร์
Chapter Twelve: The Cost of Silence
วันที่เผยแพร่:
2026-06-15 18:15:01
บทล่าสุด
MY STEPBROTHER ALPHA'S DIRTY OBSESSION Chapter Seventy-Nine: Seventy-Eight Wolves
Serena’s POVThey gather at dusk. Not summoned, not organized into rows or formations or any of the structured arrangements that Silver Crest uses for formal pack gatherings. They simply come. Moving through the trees from different directions. Arriving in ones and twos and small groups. Finding their places in the large open space at the center of the settlement where the ancient trees create a natural amphitheater around a central clearing.I watch them arrive from the edge of the space. Seventy-eight wolves. I keep counting them even though the number doesn't change. Seventy-eight. Some with the mark visible at their collarbones. Glowing faintly in the dusk light the way mine does. Most without the full mark but carrying something in the way they move. In the quality of their attention. Something that lives in the blood even when it doesn't surface as the visible crescent.They range in age from what looks like late teens to old wolves whose faces carry decades of this valley and t
MY STEPBROTHER ALPHA'S DIRTY OBSESSION Chapter Seventy-Eight: The Covenant
Serena’s POVThe book is heavier than it looks, not physically.The weight is in what it contains. Three pages of dense, careful script describing a mechanism that has never been attempted. Theoretical in the way that the bond seal was theoretical before we attempted it. Grounded in older texts. Referenced in accounts that no longer exist in complete form but are real.The same quality of realness that the gatekeeper's question had. The specific feeling of something that is true even before it's been proven true. That exists in the logic of how things work before anyone has tested it.I read it twice in the chair across from Maren.Kael reads it over my shoulder; nobody interrupts.When I finish, I set the book on my knee and look at the fire for a moment."How many Silverborne are in the valley?" I ask."Thirty-one who carry the mark," Maren says. "Another forty-seven with enough bloodline to participate in the covenant even without the full mark." She pauses. "The mark is not requir
MY STEPBROTHER ALPHA'S DIRTY OBSESSION Chapter Seventy-Seven: The Beginning
Kael’s POVStart from the beginning.Serena says it like the beginning is a simple thing. A fixed point. Something with a clear location in time that you can walk up to and say here. This is where it started.Maren looks at her with the expression of a wolf who has been alive long enough to know that beginnings are never where you think they are, but she nods, and she begins."The gate existed before the packs did," Maren says. She says it the way very old things get said. Without drama, without the performance of significance. Just the flat accurate statement of something that is true regardless of whether anyone finds it remarkable.We find it remarkable. I sit beside Serena. Maya and Damien have come through the door by now. Elena last. Maren looked at Elena when she entered, and something passed between them. Not recognition exactly. The specific acknowledgment of a wolf who knows what another wolf did and has decided to receive their presence anyway. No words exchanged, just that
MY STEPBROTHER ALPHA'S DIRTY OBSESSION Chapter Seventy-Six: What Maren Kept
Maren’s POVThe girl asks the right question.They always do eventually. The Silverborne line has always produced wolves who ask the right question at the right moment. It is one of the things that makes them what they are. Not the blood alone. Not the mark alone. The specific quality of mind that comes with both.Serena Vale asks it without anger. That is what surprises me. I have been expecting anger since I felt the seal complete three nights ago. Since I knew she would come. Since I arranged for Lira to bring them down the north face path and into the valley and to this room. I have been preparing for the anger.What she gives me instead is the question, Flat. Direct. Without the architecture of emotion around it. Just the question itself, standing alone, demanding an answer. Why?I owe her the full version of that answer. Not the careful version, not the version I have refined over three generations of carrying this. The full version, unedited. I sit back down. She doesn't sit.S
MY STEPBROTHER ALPHA'S DIRTY OBSESSION Chapter Seventy-Five: The Fourth Range
Serena’s POVThe fourth range is different from the others.I feel it before we reach it. Not through the mark, not through the bond. Through something older than both. The specific awareness that lives in a body when it's approaching something significant. Not danger exactly. Significance. The particular weight of a place that has been important for a very long time and carries that importance in its geology.The mountain knows we're here. That sounds like something Maya would say and probably dismiss immediately after saying it. But it's the most accurate description I have for the feeling that starts in my feet when the path transitions from the third range's rocky terrain into the fourth range's approach. Different stone, older.Darker in color. Denser. The kind of formation that was here before the mountain ranges around it finished deciding what shape they wanted to be.Elena notices me notice it. "The Thornline chose well," she says quietly beside me. "This range is a natural b
MY STEPBROTHER ALPHA'S DIRTY OBSESSION Chapter Seventy-Four: The Third Range
Maya’s POVThe third range is where the weather decides.We're two hours into the climb when the clouds that have been sitting low and noncommittal since dawn make up their mind. The temperature drops first. Then the wind picks up from the north. Then the snow comes. Not a storm, not yet.Just the beginning of one. The tentative leading edge of weather that is testing whether it has enough energy to become something serious. Small flakes at first. Sparse, almost polite. Then less sparse. Less polite.I watch Kael read it. He does that thing he does with terrain and weather simultaneously. The internal calculation running behind his eyes while his body keeps moving at the same steady pace. Filing variables, adjusting."How long can we keep climbing in this?" Serena asks him. "An hour," he says. "Maybe ninety minutes if it stays at this level." "And if it escalates.""Then we find shelter and we wait." She nods. No arguing, no pushing. The specific trust of someone who knows when anothe
MY STEPBROTHER ALPHA'S DIRTY OBSESSION Chapter Nine: The Game Begins
Serena’s POV"You're scared of me." The words leave my mouth before I can stop them.Damien pauses mid-step. Slowly, he turns back to face me. The hallway is empty now. Just us. His smile is still there, but something behind it shifts. "Scared?" He tilts his head. "That's an interesting word.""You
MY STEPBROTHER ALPHA'S DIRTY OBSESSION Chapter Five: Bloodlines and Lies
Serena’s POV"You're lying." The words come out before I can stop them. My voice sounds strange. Hollow. Like it belongs to someone else entirely.Marcus doesn't flinch. His golden eyes stay fixed on my face, patient and calculating. "I understand this is difficult to hear," he says calmly. "But I
MY STEPBROTHER ALPHA'S DIRTY OBSESSION Chapter Two: A Bond That Shouldn't Exist
Serena’s POV"Say that again." My voice sounds strange. Distant. Like it belongs to someone else.Kael's grip on my wrist doesn't loosen. His golden eyes bore into mine, and I see something there I didn't expect. Fear, not of me, of what he just said."You heard me." His jaw tightens. "You're my ma
MY STEPBROTHER ALPHA'S DIRTY OBSESSION Chapter One: The Wrong Mate
Serena's POV"You married him without telling me?"The words leave my mouth before I can stop them. My hands shake as I grip the car seat. Outside, iron gates close behind us with a crash that echoes through the night. My mother keeps her eyes forward. "Serena, please. Not now.""When, then?" My vo
บางทีคุณอาจจะชอบ
Iridian
Jane Doe906.2K viewsTHE ALPHA KING'S CLAIM
JMFelic556.2K viewsTHE LYCAN KING’S SECOND CHANCE MATE
Sumi745.3K viewsAlpha's Second Chance
Salani965.3K viewsCHOSEN LAST
Queen Ugo41 viewsForbidden Moon: Claimed By My Fiance's Father
Shepherd 58 viewsThe Alpha who Rejected me Becomes my prisoner
Bellas135 viewsTrapped by the Alpha King's Obsession
Caroline Above Story375 views
