All Chapters of Return of The Alpha's Mate: Chapter 31 - Chapter 33

Chapter 30I found him in the office.The same one where we’d lost control. Where the bond between us had gone from a slow burn to wildfire.It looked the same—cold, controlled, all dark wood and leather, like a throne room disguised as a war map. But the air was different now. Tighter. It hummed with unsaid things.He stood with his back to me, hunched slightly over the table. Red markers lined the northern border like pinpricks in old scars.“I’m not furniture, Naja,” I said. “You don’t get to keep me in the background and expect me not to notice.”He didn’t turn.“You’ve doubled the patrols. You’re holding meetings behind closed doors. Everyone’s walking around like a storm’s already here—except nobody’s saying a word to me.”A pause. A muscle ticked in his jaw before he finally spoke.“You’ve been training.”“Don’t change the subject.”“I’m not.”“Really? Because from where I’m standing, I’m still on the outside looking in. And I’m tired of it.”He turned now—slowly. The gold in h

Chapter 32 The bruises on my ribs throbbed in rhythm with my heartbeat as I limped toward the west wing corridor. The compound was quieter now. Still tense, but like it had taken one long inhale and was waiting to exhale.I hadn’t seen Riley since training, but her presence lingered in my head like a song I couldn’t shake. She’d looked... off. Not in the tired way we all did. Not in the pre-war dread sort of way either. No, it was sharper. Focused, as something inside her had locked onto a scent no one else could smell.And she hadn’t said a word.That was the part that kept bothering me.I made it to the far hallway before it happened.One step—normal. The next—like I slipped through a crack in the floor of reality.The walls around me blurred. The scent of the hall vanished. And then—Screaming.Blood. Wet and hot between my fingers. A forest lit with moonlight. Ash in the air. A howl that wasn't quite wolf. Not ours. Not theirs. Something older. Hungrier.I blinked. Staggered.An