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بيت / Six Years as the Alpha’s Joke / Chapter 3

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Chapter 3

مؤلف: Hawthorne
I shoved Callum away and slapped him.

The crack echoed through the living room.

Sienna came off the sofa so quickly that I wondered how drunk she had ever been.

“Who the hell do you think you are?”

She charged at me and struck my cheek. Pain exploded across my face, filling my mouth with the metallic taste of blood.

I raised my hand to hit her back, but Callum caught my wrist.

Sienna continued lunging at me, forcing him to hold her back with one arm while pushing me away with the other. My lower back struck the metal door handle, sending pain up my spine.

Callum loosened his grip when he heard me gasp, but he remained between us, shielding Sienna.

“She’s drunk,” he said. “Are you seriously going to fight someone who can barely control herself?”

“She hit me.”

“I’m trying to stop this before one of you gets seriously hurt.”

Sienna clutched his shirt and looked directly at me.

“Let her leave. Plenty of women would be grateful to become your Luna. You’re not going to end up alone because of her.”

Callum neither agreed nor corrected her. He only looked at me as though I were an unreasonable problem he had to manage.

“You’re not calm right now. Stay at a hotel tonight, and we’ll talk tomorrow. I’ll deal with Sienna and send a healer to examine your back.”

He would deal with Sienna himself and send someone else to deal with me.

I took my suitcases and left without answering.

At a hotel near the edge of the territory, the pain in my back kept me awake. The moonstone pendant suppressing my royal aura also prevented my wolf from healing the injury as quickly as it normally would.

By late afternoon, messages had flooded my phone. Some people thought our breakup was another spring full-moon prank. Others told me not to destroy six years together over a delayed Luna ceremony.

Callum’s friends were less polite.

Callum is willing to talk to you. That should be enough.

You’ve always been reasonable. Don’t ruin the celebration over a joke.

Everyone knows how much you want to be Luna. Where would you even go without Callum?

I answered none of them.

Each time, Callum apologized and promised the next spring full moon would be different.

I opened the pack’s social page to silence my notifications and found Sienna’s newest post.

She had uploaded nine photographs of herself and Callum at the frozen moon lake, winter market, rooftop bar, and training arcade. She wore his coat in almost every picture. In one, he tightened her scarf. In another, she leaned against his shoulder.

The caption read:

Some wolves know how to enjoy a full moon.

She had left out the healer’s office and chosen only the photographs that made them look like a couple.

Callum had always called those places childish whenever I asked him to take me. Apparently, they were only a waste of time with me.

A message from him appeared.

Don’t read anything into Sienna’s photographs. Her wolf was unstable, and walking helped calm her down. I want to talk, and she owes you an apology. Come back when you’re ready.

He knew about the photographs and still believed all she owed me was an apology.

Before I could close the screen, a guard informed me that Callum’s anniversary gift had arrived at the Alpha House.

The custom black obsidian cuff links bore the Black Hollow crest and his initials.

Now I only wanted them out of my possession.

I would return once to leave the gift, my key, and my temporary access badge. Then nothing would require me to go back.

The Alpha House seemed quiet when I arrived that evening.

As soon as I stepped inside, two moon-crystal cannons exploded inches from my face. Silver light blinded me as petals and colored paper filled the room and cold laurel wine sprayed over my clothes.

“Surprise!” Sienna screamed beside me. “Happy spring full moon!”

Several people from the banquet stood in the living room with their phones raised. Camera flashes struck my eyes, making my wolf recoil beneath the moonstone’s restraint.

Sienna grabbed my arm.

“Callum said I owed you an apology, so I planned an apology party. Come on, Tessa. Smile. Show everyone you’re not still angry.”

She had not arranged an apology. She had arranged another audience.

I pulled free, but my heel landed in the wine covering the marble floor. My foot slid out from under me, and my fingers found nothing to hold.

My chin struck the sharp corner of the stone console table.

Pain burst behind my eyes as warm blood ran down my neck. The room fell silent.

“Tessa!”

Callum rushed from somewhere deeper inside the house and dropped beside me, catching my shoulders before I collapsed.

“Tessa, look at me.”

Sienna’s smile disappeared.

“I didn’t push her. She slipped. I only wanted to cheer her up.”

Callum ignored her and pressed a napkin beneath my chin. Blood soaked through almost immediately, and his hands began to shake as he reached for another.

“Why is she still bleeding?”

His gaze dropped to the moonstone pendant against my chest, but panic prevented him from understanding what it meant.

“Get a healer!” he shouted. “Now!”

My vision blurred until he became a dark shape above me.

Callum pulled me against his chest.

“Tessa, stay with me. Please don’t close your eyes.”

For the first time that night, real fear filled his voice.
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  • Six Years as the Alpha’s Joke   Chapter 9

    Elder Corbin’s secretary was captured before dawn at the eastern border. Over the next five days, the documents in his vehicle confirmed that Corbin had monitored me since the year I left Valeborn. He had expected my absence to become permanent, allowing the council to replace me with an heir chosen from another royal branch.My return threatened six years of preparation.Sienna had simply given him a convenient weapon.On the morning of the restoration vote, Corbin remained suspended from the council and under guard. His secretary had confessed to sending Sienna the forged authorization after seeing the announcement of my return.Sienna would remain in royal custody until her trial. The charges against her included falsifying medical records, altering evidence, and entering royal territory under a false seal. An independent investigator had already left for Black Hollow.Callum accepted the investigation without objection.The council chamber was full when I entered.Representatives f

  • Six Years as the Alpha’s Joke   Chapter 8

    The palace search continued through the afternoon without finding Sienna.Every vehicle inside the walls was inspected, and the guards checked the guest residences twice. No one matching her description had entered under her own name.At sunset, Darius found me in the strategy room studying a map of the western district.“If she wanted to attack you, she would have chosen an easier place than the royal palace,” he said.“She wants an audience.”“Then why hide?”“Because she wants to control when it happens.”Marcus entered with a sealed invitation.“Elder Corbin has requested a special hearing tonight. He claims a witness has provided evidence concerning your conduct in Black Hollow.”Darius’s expression hardened. “Corbin found her.”“Or she found him,” I said.The hearing began an hour later.Seven council members had assembled in the tribunal chamber. My parents sat at the head of the table, with Darius and two visiting Alphas behind them. Callum had also been summoned because the ev

  • Six Years as the Alpha’s Joke   Chapter 7

    Callum entered the royal audience chamber at nine the next morning.He wore the black uniform of Black Hollow’s Alpha, but the journey had left shadows beneath his eyes. Marcus stood at my right, while two guards remained beside the doors.Callum stopped before the raised platform and bowed.“Your Highness.”It was the first time he had addressed me by my rank.“Alpha Thorne,” I replied. “You requested an audience concerning Sienna Blake. You may begin.”His gaze moved toward Marcus.“I asked to speak with you alone.”“Your request was denied.”“Tessa, please.”The guards shifted at the sound of my name.I kept my voice even. “You are addressing the royal heir in an official audience. Follow court protocol.”Pain crossed his face, but he lowered his head.“Yes, Your Highness.”He placed a folder on the table between us. Inside were printed messages, witness statements, and security reports from Black Hollow.“The evidence shows that Sienna arranged several incidents involving you,” he

  • Six Years as the Alpha’s Joke   Chapter 6

    By sunrise, every recognized pack in the northern territories knew I had returned.Messages crowded the royal communications office. Some Alphas welcomed me home, while others requested confirmation that I would reclaim my council seat. A few carefully worded letters questioned whether someone who had lived outside royal territory for six years was qualified to become the next Alpha Queen.My father placed those letters at the top of the stack on my desk.“You could have given me one quiet morning,” I said.“You have already had six quiet years.”I opened the first report. Three eastern packs were disputing access to a winter hunting route. Two southern Alphas wanted royal support for a trade agreement. Black Hollow had submitted a formal petition requesting an audience.I left that document unopened.My father noticed. “Avoiding it will not make it disappear.”“I’m prioritizing matters that affect more than one Alpha’s pride.”A brief smile touched his face. “Good answer.”The prelimi

  • Six Years as the Alpha’s Joke   Chapter 5

    The royal plane landed shortly after dawn.By the time the wheels touched the runway, the wound beneath my bandage had begun to itch. Without the moonstone pendant suppressing my royal blood, my wolf was already healing me properly again.Marcus waited until the plane stopped before standing.“Your parents are at the palace.”Royal guards lined the private runway, each wearing the silver-wolf crest of House Valeborn. For six years, I had hidden the identity that crest represented. Now I was returning without a disguise.The moment I stepped from the plane, every guard lowered to one knee.“Welcome home, Your Highness.”My wolf stirred as the aura I had buried for years spread through the cold morning air.Marcus studied my face.“How quickly are you healing?”“The wound is already closing.”“And the scar?”“I’ll survive it.”His expression remained calm, but his jaw tightened.“Your father may not be as restrained.”The drive to the palace took less than twenty minutes. New watchtowers

  • Six Years as the Alpha’s Joke   Chapter 4

    I woke in the Black Hollow medical center with gauze covering my chin and pain throbbing through my cheekbone.The healer said I had needed stitches but was no longer in danger. My moonstone pendant still suppressed my scent, slowing my wolf’s healing and leaving her weak beneath the restraint.Callum sat beside the bed with dried blood on his sleeve and exhaustion shadowing his face. As soon as I opened my eyes, he grabbed my hand.“Thank the Moon Goddess. You terrified me.”For a moment, I almost believed he understood what he had nearly lost.Then he said, “Sienna didn’t mean for you to fall. She thought the apology party would make you laugh. Her wolf has been unstable all night, and you know how she gets during the full moon.”“She invited people into your house to film me being humiliated again.”“She didn’t know you would slip.”“She poured wine across the floor.”Callum’s jaw tightened.“I’m not saying what she did was right. She feels terrible. She cried all night.”I lay in a

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