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KAHLIA'S POV
The hallway outside the ER was full of rushing nurses and rolling stretchers. I stood in front of the ER doors with a chart in my hands, ready to step inside, when a nurse’s voice suddenly rose above the noise.
“Patient in active labor. Camille Raine. Prepare the delivery room. We need the team now.”
My body froze.
I slowly lifted my eyes toward the entrance. A wheelchair moved through the sliding doors, and Camille Raine held her stomach as pain twisted across her face. Beside her, holding her hand with such care that it made my chest tighten, was Ethan.
My ex-husband.
He leaned close to her, whispering something to calm her, his fingers wrapped tightly around hers. His touch was gentle and warm, a softness he had never shown me, even when I tried my best to be everything he needed.
The memories rushed back before I could stop them. I remembered opening that hotel room door and seeing the truth laid bare in front of me, Ethan’s shirt tossed aside and Camille holding him as if she belonged there. I could still see the shock on his face when he realized I had caught them. That moment shattered everything I believed in.
Then came the divorce papers, the signatures that ended our marriage. After that, the news of her pregnancy cut whatever was left of me. I remembered how I cried that night until my chest ached and my breath felt tight, unable to understand how a man I gave my life to could betray me so deeply.
I felt the sting behind my eyes, but I pushed it back. I would not cry here. Not for him.
“You are too calm.”
Marga’s voice came from my right. Marga is a licensed cardiologist and my only one bestfriend. She must have noticed the way I went still. She followed my gaze and her eyes widened when she saw Ethan guiding Camille toward the maternity room.
“That is really them,” she whispered.
“Yes,” I said quietly.
Marga shook her head in disbelief. “He brought her here. He really has no shame.”
“It does not surprise me anymore,” I replied.
She stepped closer and studied my face. “Lia, are you alright?”
A small, dry laugh left my lips. I kept my posture straight even though my heart felt heavy. “I am fine. Honestly, I should thank him.”
Marga frowned. “Thank him for what?”
“For cheating,” I said. “If he had not betrayed me, I would still be at home cooking for him and cleaning after him instead of standing here as a doctor again. Losing him forced me to return to my career. It reminded me who I am.”
Marga nodded slowly. “You sound stronger now.”
“I have to be.”
She hesitated before asking, “But do you still love him?”
Her question cut deeper than I expected. I looked at Ethan again, still holding Camille’s hand with such devotion, and something inside me twisted. I opened my mouth to answer, unsure what I would even say.
I inhaled slowly, forcing my chest to rise evenly. “How can I still love the man who betrayed me?” The words felt heavy, even as I spoke them aloud, almost like admitting it gave them weight. “No. I don’t. Not anymore. I’m happy with my life now.”
Marga tilted her head, studying me like she could see inside my chest. “Even after everything, it’s just gone?”
I let out a short, humorless laugh. “Gone? I think it’s more like evaporated.
Disappeared with the last of the tears I cried over him. I gave him my heart once. That was enough. And now, I have my life back, my choices back. I’m free from him, from us, from the marriage that never belonged to me.”
Her eyes softened. “I’m amazed, Lia. Honestly. Most people would be a mess, crying, depressed, maybe even clinging to the past.”
I shrugged, letting a faint smile slip through. “Man is just a man. That’s all he is. Flawed, selfish, human. And I still have the right to control my life. I still have the right to decide who belongs in it and who doesn’t. The divorce is finalized. No reason to hold on to a marriage that’s dead.”
Marga shook her head slowly, still clearly in awe. “I hope you’ll be healed soon. Truly.”
I chuckled, a soft, self-deprecating sound. “Healed? I’m not sick to be healed, Marga."
That’s when Dr. Collins appeared, stepping around the corner with his usual brisk professionalism. “Excuse me for interrupting,” he said, his tone polite but firm, “but I wanted to discuss the VIP patient. I’ll need your expertise, Dr.Ford”
I nodded, ready to put my emotions aside. “Of course. What do you need, Dr. Collins?”
He glanced at his tablet briefly, then back at me. “Alpha Jaron. I’m referring him to you. He’s in recovery, unable to walk at the moment. I need you to give him your best as his physical therapist.”
I froze mid-breath, the name striking me like a lightning bolt. My pulse quickened involuntarily. “Alpha Jaron?” I whispered, barely loud enough for Marga to hear.
Marga’s jaw dropped, and her hand flew to her mouth. “Do you mean the Alpha Jaron? The Biker? The most feared, the handsome Alpha of Steel Fang Pack?”
I blinked, the weight of her words settling on me. The Alpha of Steel Fang Pack. The man whose very name commanded fear and respect in the supernatural and human communities alike.
I had read about him, heard rumors whispered even in hospital halls, and now, somehow, fate or Dr. Collins was throwing him into my care.
Dr. Collins raised an eyebrow at our exchange. “Yes. He’s highly regarded, but his injuries are severe. The faster he recovers, the better for him and his pack.”
Marga shook her head, her voice a whisper full of disbelief. “Oh my God. I… I can’t believe this is happening. So...You’re going to be treating him?”
The smoke thickened as we pushed south.At first it lingered like a warning—thin, uncertain, easy to dismiss.Then it became a trail.Then a presence.By the time the first ridge broke open ahead of us, it was everywhere.Jaron slowed, raising a hand. The group behind us stopped instantly.No one spoke.We didn’t need to.I moved up beside him, crouching low as we approached the crest.“Wind’s wrong,” he murmured.“It’s shifting,” I said. “Carrying it uphill.”“Which means whatever’s burning…”“Is still burning.”We reached the top.And saw it.The valley below—one of the southern supply corridors—was scarred.Not destroyed entirely.But dismantled.Precision.The storage outpost had been split open, not collapsed. Timber walls cut clean rather than smashed. Supply crates broken—not looted, not fully burned—just ruined.Made unusable.Jaron exhaled slowly.“…Yeah. That tracks.”My eyes moved past the structures.To the bodies.Not many.That was the first thing that stood out.A norma
We didn’t speak much on the way back.Not because there was nothing to say—But because there was too much.The forest had shifted again.Not physically.But perceptibly.Every snapped twig, every rustle of leaves, every shadow between trees now carried weight. Not immediate danger—no one was following us—but awareness.We had crossed a line.And whatever came next would not be small.Jaron walked slightly ahead this time, his usual loose posture replaced with something more deliberate.“You’re thinking five steps ahead again,” he said without looking back.“Trying to.”“And?”“And I don’t like any of the outcomes.”He huffed quietly.“Good. Means you’re being realistic.”We pushed through a stretch of dense undergrowth before the terrain finally began to rise toward the fortress ridge.From here, we could just barely see the outer watchtowers in the distance.Home.For now.“They wanted us to hear that,” Jaron said after a while.“Yes.”“The external threat.”“Yes.”He glanced over h
The ravine swallowed sound.Water thundered below, churning white against jagged stone, mist rising in cold bursts that clung to the air. It blurred distance, softened edges, made everything feel closer than it should have been.Or farther.Hard to tell which.Jaron shifted beside me, weight balanced, gaze sweeping across the figures lining the opposite ridge.“…That’s more than last time.”“Yes,” I said.Behind the silver-pendant figure, at least six silhouettes stood spaced with deliberate precision.Not clustered.Not random.Positioned.“They’re controlling the terrain,” Jaron murmured.“Funneling us,” I added.His lips curved slightly.“Good thing we walked in willingly.”The figure across the ravine tilted their head, as if amused.“You adapted quickly,” they called out, voice carrying cleanly despite the roar of water.Jaron didn’t bother raising his voice.“Occupational hazard.”A faint smile.“But adaptation alone isn’t enough.”“No,” I replied evenly. “But it’s a start.”The
Morning came reluctantly.The storm had burned itself out sometime before dawn, leaving the fortress wrapped in a damp, uneasy stillness. Water dripped steadily from the stone eaves, each drop echoing faintly in the courtyard below.It felt like the aftermath of something unfinished.Because it was.Jaron hadn’t slept.Neither had I.By the time the first light crept over the mountains, the fortress was already awake—guards doubling rotations, messengers moving faster than usual, tension threading through every corridor like a drawn wire.And beneath it all—Expectation.“They let us live.”Jaron stood by the war room window, arms crossed, staring out over the valley.His voice wasn’t confused.It was annoyed.“Yes,” I said.“That’s bothering me.”“It should.”He glanced back at me.“They had the advantage. Surprise, positioning, numbers.”“And still chose not to finish it,” I added.Jaron exhaled sharply.“That’s not mercy.”“No.”“It’s strategy.”“Yes.”Silence stretched.Because we
The storm did not ease.If anything, it grew more violent as the night deepened—wind clawing at the fortress walls, rain striking stone like thrown gravel. The kind of storm that drowned out footsteps.The kind of storm that invited intruders.Jaron and I both felt it before either of us said a word.A shift.Subtle. Almost nothing.But wrong.We had just reached the upper corridor when Jaron’s hand caught my arm.“Did you hear that?”I nodded once.Not a sound, exactly.The absence of one.The guards stationed at the eastern stairwell should have rotated by now.They hadn’t.Jaron’s voice dropped to a whisper.“Stay here.”“No.”His jaw tightened slightly, but he didn’t argue. He knew better.We moved together, silent despite the stone beneath our boots.The closer we got, the clearer it became.Too quiet.No armor shifting. No low murmured conversation.Nothing.Jaron reached the corner first and leaned just enough to look.Then he froze.Not fear.Calculation.That was worse.“What
Night settled heavily over the ridge fortress, but sleep never truly reached it.Torches burned low along the stone corridors, casting wavering shadows that made the walls seem to breathe. Guards rotated in quiet patterns, their steps soft but alert.Jaron and I didn’t bother returning to our chambers.Instead, we claimed the war room.Maps covered the central table—territories, supply routes, old battle markers from conflicts that had ended years ago but still whispered lessons if you knew where to look.Jaron leaned over the map of the northern valleys.“If someone pushed Varik into this,” he said, tapping a ridge line with a finger, “they either promised him protection… or convinced him they were stronger than the consequences.”“Or both,” I replied.He glanced at me.“You’re thinking bigger than a rogue Alpha, aren’t you?”“Yes.”Because something about the entire scheme had bothered me since the recruits first confessed.Livestock attacks were crude.Framing Iron Vale was clever,
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I watched Doctor Ford walk down the front steps, her coat pulled tight around her frame, her phone already pressed to her ear. She paused at the bottom, turning back just once. Our eyes met. There was exhaustion there, worry, but also something else, something unfinished.“I’ll come back as soon as
Betty blinked again, slow and deliberate, as if trying to understand what was happening.I caught her eyes, the faint shimmer of mischief in them, and blinked back. That subtle signal, the one we had agreed on, told her to play the part. She exhaled softly, feigning weakness as she rolled her leg s







