All Chapters of Alpha’s regret : The return of his rejected mate: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

HELEN’S P.O.V..It was the first thing that registered. A dull, throbbing ache that seemed to live in the verymarrow of my bones. It started in my shoulder, where the rogue’s teeth had sunk in, andradiated down my spine, settling heavily in my lower abdomen.My eyes fluttered open, but the light was too bright, a harsh, sterile white that sent aspike of agony through my skull. I groaned, turning my head to the side, trying to escapethe glare.The smell hit me next. Antiseptic. Lavender. And something else something earthy andunfamiliar. It wasn't the scent of the Pine Forest Pack. It wasn't the scent of Damian.Damian.The name brought a fresh wave of nausea, sharper than the physical pain. The memoryof his cold eyes, the way he had looked at me when he told me my pregnancy meantnothing, that I was just a slave… it crashed into me like a tidal wave. I tried to sit up,panic seizing my chest.My baby.I scrambled backward on the bed, my hands flying to my stomach. The rogue atta

The glass of whiskey slipped from my fingers.It hit the mahogany table with a heavy thud, amber liquid splashing over the maps andfiles, yet I didn't flinch. I couldn't move. I couldn't breathe. The world had narrowed to thewoman standing in the penthouse suite's doorway.Helen.It was impossible.I had spent seven years haunted by her ghost. Seven years staring at the spot in thewoods where her scent had vanished, replaced by the metallic tang of blood and thestench of rogues. I had mourned her. I had hated myself for her death. I had spent everynight since she left drowning in a guilt so profound it felt like drowning in the ocean.But she wasn't a ghost.She was standing there, flesh and blood, wearing a sharp suit that hugged curves Ididn't remember her having. Her hair was pulled back, severe and professional, strippingaway the softness of the girl I used to know and revealing the striking bone structure ofthe woman she had become.And her eyes… those honey-brown eyes th

The drive to Sector 4 was a blur of screeching tires and flashing lights. Damian drovethe lead SUV like a man possessed, his knuckles white on the steering wheel, his jaw setin a line of grim determination.I sat in the passenger seat, checking and rechecking my gun, though my hands wereshaking so badly I could barely hold the magazine.Leo.The name was a prayer on my lips.“We’re two minutes out,” Damian said, his voice tight. He glanced at me, his eyessoftening for a fraction of a second. “We will get him back, Helen. Kai is with him. If he’shalf the warrior you say he is, he’ll hold the line.”I nodded, swallowing the lump in my throat. “Kai is good. He’s… resourceful.”But the nagging doubt from earlier persisted. How did Kai find him so fast? Why was hethe one to find him?We skidded to a halt in front of an abandoned textile factory. It was a skeletal building,its windows shattered, looming like a rotting carcass against the twilight sky.Beta Karl was already there, dir

I didn't scream again.Screaming was for victims. Screaming was for women who waited for knights to kickdown the door. I had been that woman once, bleeding on a forest floor, waiting for asavior.And Kai had come.I looked down at the phone in my hand, my thumb hovering over the pixelated image ofmy son sitting in the back of a traitor’s car.Kai. The man who had held my hand while I pushed Leo into the world. The man whohad taught Leo to tie his shoes. The man who had sat at my kitchen table for sevenyears, eating my food, laughing at my jokes, and pretending to be my family.It was all a lie.Every smile. Every kindness. Every moment of shared silence. It was just a long con. Hewasn't a savior; he was a sleeper agent. A hollow man filled with nothing but greed andpatience.My hand didn't shake. A cold, absolute calm settled over me, freezing the panic in myveins. It was the icy clarity of a detective standing over a crime scene, detaching theheart from the head to see the e

HELEN’S P.O.V.There is a specific kind of silence that follows the arrival of an Alpha. It isn't the absence of noise. It is the suppression of it. The wind seems to hold its breath; the rats in the walls cease their scratching; the very air molecules freeze in deference to a predator that commands the food chain. When the bay doors of the Aurelius factory exploded inward, tearing through rusted steel as if it were wet paper, the world went silent. I stood on the catwalk, clutching the railing, looking down into the swirling cloud of dust and debris illuminated by the high-beams of the SUV parked outside. From that cloud emerged a nightmare. He was massive. I had seen Damian shift before, years ago. But the wolf I remembered was a prince sleek, groomed, a creature of pageantry. The wolf standing below me was a king of war. He stood nearly five feet at the shoulder, his fur a void of midnight black that seemed to absorb the light rather than reflect it. His muscles were corded ropes r