Semua Bab Fighting For The Alpha's Mark: Bab 111 - Bab 120

SavannahThe nasty cramp twisting through my lower back made it impossible to sleep, so I gave up trying. The sheets were damp. I shoved the blanket off, stood slowly, and pressed my palm into the curve of my spine.My body felt tight, like the walls were closing in, and lying there pretending to rest was starting to feel like punishment.Also, my brain wouldn’t shut up. Everything from Sasha’s silence to Xavier’s forced optimism was piling up like wet laundry, and I was sick of breathing in other people’s expectations.I pulled on one of Xavier’s sweatshirts he'd forgotten in my room. It was oversized on me, but carried his scent.The soft snores of the boys filled their room as I crept past their door.The front door of our wing creaked when I cracked it open. I stopped to listen for movement. Nothing. The guards never came this far in unless summoned.I didn't have to fear, though. Cameras and patrols walked like ghosts. But I needed air more than I needed privacy, and if someone s

XavierPolitics and barely concealed ambition hung in the air like incense that had long burned out. I adjusted the cuff of my coat and took my seat on the elevated Alpha dais.The High Arbiter struck the gavel. Everyone rose. His voice rang out in that formal, unnecessarily pompous tone: “Let the council acknowledge the Regional Alpha.”They all bowed slightly—some with more stiffness than others. I nodded.Bigger title, same old problems.The proceedings began immediately. Two minor Alphas were brought forward. They had a territory dispute—something about a mine near their shared border. The conflict had been dragging on for over a decade, passed down from the previous generation. One of them had a map that looked like it had been hidden under a floorboard for years. The other carried digital projections and receipts like we were in a courtroom on Wall Street. Every word they spat felt personal. Every piece of "evidence" came laced with insults.I listened and even tried to mediate—

SavannahI didn’t realize I was holding my breath until I reached the edge of the stairs. The wind had picked up. It moved through the hedges and curled dust along the path. My chest felt cracked open, not the clean kind of break, but the aching, splintered kind that sits in your ribs.I walked faster, needing to get out of her wing. Xavier stepped out from my side of the house. He looked exhausted.“I told you not to go to her, didn’t I?”He spoke like he’d caught me smoking behind the school shed or climbing something I wasn’t meant to touch. And I was already pushing past him before he could ask.“Hey, hey—what happened?” He caught my arm, his voice softer now.I shook my head, but I couldn’t stop the tears this time. They slid down without warning—hot and stupid—and I hated that I was doing this out here, in the open, where anyone could see. I pulled back, glancing toward her window. “Please don’t hold me. She might be watching.”He glanced in the same direction. “She’s always wat

SavannahI had been watching from the window long before they rang the bell. The physiotherapy team rolled in, wearing pressed uniforms. They always came in groups. I watched them unload the gear and found myself hoping this time it would stick.Maybe if Sasha started walking again, she'd stop throwing emotional grenades at me. Maybe half the bitterness had been hiding in her wheelchair all along.But I didn’t believe that. You can’t blame steel and rubber for a bitter heart.Through the glass, I spotted my mother pacing in Sasha’s wing. My dad was with me, scrolling on his phone, too focused to notice that his left thumb was twitching as he typed. He kept glancing toward Sasha’s corridor like he was expecting an alarm to go off.I leaned on the wall next to him. He didn’t look up.“Are you texting your soulmate?”He blinked and pulled his phone closer to his chest, like I was trying to snatch it. “Ha ha. Funny.”“Mmhmm.” I rocked back on my heels. “So... are we pretending again, or i

SavannahIt was freezing. Not from the weather, just the kind of cold that gets under your skin when your nerves won’t sit still. I wrapped my coat tighter. Morning sickness, stress, rage all churned together like sour milk in my throat.Today was supposed to feel good. Payback. Closure. Whatever. Claire was finally in custody, locked in a holding cell under Alpha court authority. That was the only reason it happened this fast—she had messed with two Alpha houses. Xavier and Ethan. Even the council didn’t blink when she was arrested. When you frame an Alpha, especially for a scandal that risks inter-pack stability, you're not getting a slap on the wrist. You're getting a cell, and your trial happens before the ink on the complaint even dries.Still, I couldn’t stop shaking.One of Xavier’s men was driving us. Eve sat beside me, tapping something into her phone.“I swear,” Eve muttered, “If they let me get five minutes in that room, I’m giving that witch the kind of slap that rewires