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0177: She Never Softened
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2026-08-21 05:23:29
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The Alpha's Greatest Regret 0177: She Never Softened
ALICE'S POVThe last patient of the day was a carpenter in his seventies who'd split his own firewood for forty years and wasn't about to stop now.I strapped his wrist while he counted off every reason a man his age didn't need help carrying logs."You'll be young again in two weeks. Only if you stay off the axe."He laughed. "I'll disappoint my sons if I start behaving sensibly.""They'll survive it."I walked him to the door. He stopped in the doorway, his good hand flat on the frame, eyes down on the floor."I shouldn't have believed those things people were saying." It came out rough. "You've looked after my family for years. I forgot that."I didn't make him say it twice."Take the tablets. Stay off the axe."He grinned, and I watched the relief go through him, and he headed off down the path. I waited until he turned the corner before I shut the door.Another one. I'd stopped counting them weeks ago, stopped expecting them, and they kept coming anyway.I was in the examination
The Alpha's Greatest Regret 0176: The Mother Lied
JOHN'S POVI was the first one in the building. Nobody had come for the crates yet, so two of them still sat by the back door, empty electrolyte bottles from the northern quarters waiting to go back to the supply house.Twelve children sick, and every one of them home in their own bed. First week in a month where the work had done what work's supposed to do.I went past my desk, past the morning's files, and unlocked the cabinet with her name on it.Lily Scott.The investigation had stopped moving. Cora was dead. Alice was back at work and the pack wanted her back. The council wanted the file shut. Out in the waiting room people were talking about ordinary things again — weather, roofs, whose son was getting married. Nobody had mentioned Lily Scott's name to me in a week.And something in that file wouldn't sit still.So I took it all out and laid it across the desk in order. The toxicology. Every witness statement. My own notes from that afternoon, in handwriting I could barely read b
The Alpha's Greatest Regret 0175: Cole Doesn't Exist
LISA'S POVI went up to the Alpha House before noon. The guards had the door open before I made the top step, and they know better than to ask what I want. Nobody's asked me what I want since the day my daughter died.Somebody said he was in a meeting, so I sat on the bench by the window and waited.Benjamin came through a few minutes later, ink on two fingers, a stack of reports wedged under one arm. He set them down on the side table before he turned to me. He wouldn't have done that for most people. He looked tired. I'd bet he hasn't slept since they found Cora's body."I'm sorry to interrupt," I said. "I just wanted to see you.""You're not interrupting."I looked down at my hands and let a moment go by before I went on. "I need a favor. I can't pack Lily's room. I get as far as the door and then I stop." A breath got away from me. "Four times now."I didn't ask him to sit with me, or hold my hand, or tell me it would pass. I let it sit there instead, and let him look at me while
The Alpha's Greatest Regret 0174: Justice Can Wait
BENJAMIN'S POVCallum didn't knock. He was through the door before I'd got my jacket back on the hook, shoulders still wet from the woods."Children from the northern quarters. Six of them are down with the same thing since midnight.""What do you mean?""High fever. Vomiting. Can't keep down food or water. One of the toddlers almost died around three."I took the jacket back off."Has John seen them?""He's at the clinic. Same as doctor Watson."Six children sick in one night, in one row of houses, three weeks after somebody in this territory measured out a poison for a grown woman and a nine-year-old drank it instead. I carried that thought as far as the vehicle and made myself put it down there. A man who's spent three weeks hunting a poisoner will find one in a rainstorm if nobody stops him."Get me John first. Before anything else."The waiting room was full past the walls. Every bench gone, parents standing down both sides with children over their shoulders, a baby going hard ag
The Alpha's Greatest Regret 0173: Somebody Knew
BENJAMIN’S POVWe reached the marker at half past nine at night, and I wasn't putting one man on that track until there was light to see it by.Callum said his mind in front of the others. He doesn't do that often, so I let him."Four days of rain, Alpha. Another eight hours isn't going to hurt it any more than the weather already has.""Eight hours of dark with four sets of boots in it will."So we waited by the vehicles until the sky went pale, the two who'd drawn the night watch waiting with us. One of them kept both hands wrapped around a flask of coffee for the better part of an hour and never once opened it. Then we brought the horses off the trailer, because nothing with wheels was getting down that game trail.The eastern woods are cold before sunrise. Four days of rain had left the ground soft and the whole place smelling of wet bark."About thirty paces in, Alpha." The younger one pointed between two old oaks. "Snagged on a branch by the dry creek bed."I got down and put my
The Alpha's Greatest Regret 0172: Hidden Identity
LISA'S POVThe market was going strong by the time I got down there, and that suited me fine, because a crowded row is the safest place to ask a question nobody's supposed to notice you asking. The council was sitting at two o'clock to shut the investigation for good, and every row down there knew it before I did, which had them all talking.I didn't ask anybody about Cole. I asked about visitors. Who'd come through this year. Whether anybody new had turned up in the weeks before my daughter died. Most of them just shrugged at me — travelers come and go, and nobody keeps track of them unless they stay.He stayed.The woman at the candle stall actually gave it some thought, which was more than most of them managed."Quiet fellow. Very polite. Pays what you ask him and doesn't argue about it." She wrapped a taper for the woman ahead of me and passed it over the counter without looking up. "That's about all I've got.""Where's he come in from?""East, I suppose. They all come down the ea
The Alpha's Greatest Regret 0005. Kid's First Betrayal
ALICE’S POVThe Blue Moon Festival was Lucian’s idea of heaven and my four-year plan of endurance.He’d been talking about it for weeks—the lanterns, the fireworks, the honey cakes from the booth near the stage. When he’d asked, he’d pressed both hands together like he was praying, eyes wide, and I
The Alpha's Greatest Regret 0004. Four Years Too Late
ALICE’S POVThe days that followed had a rhythm I didn’t trust.Benjamin came every morning. He actually sat at the table — something I still hadn’t gotten used to — and ate whatever I put in front of him. He returned every evening and stayed until Lucian’s eyes drifted shut.Four mornings in a row
The Alpha's Greatest Regret 0006: He is a Mistake
ALICE’S POVI should have taken Lucian home.I should have picked him up, carried him away from this festival of false joy and false hope, and tucked him into bed with a story, a kiss, and a promise that tomorrow would be better.But I didn’t. Because Lucian wanted to see the fireworks. And I could
The Alpha's Greatest Regret 0001:One Month Left
ALICE’S POVI hadn't slept. I'd counted his breaths instead.It had been four hours since Lucian collapsed at breakfast. Four hours since I’d screamed loud enough to wake every wolf on our floor of the western wing. Now the monitors did the counting for me — soft, steady, mechanical as my son slept
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