All Chapters of Abandoned At The Altar By My Mate: Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

The Past Catches Up"Get up."The voice was ice, brittle, slicing through the taut silence like a knife edge.Adrian didn't stir for a moment. He sat where they had placed him, his wrists cuffed, his shoulders rigid. His head pounded;his body bruised from the incessant floggings Kade's men had administered. But none of that mattered. Pain was something he had learned to live with a long time ago.Standing across the room was the real pain.Flora.She stared at him, her eyes ablaze with unspoken questions, with something else-with something that twisted his stomach.Kade sighed melodramatically, rolling his eyes. "Oh, come on, don't make this harder than it has to be." He nodded at his men.Rough hands grabbed Adrian, yanking him to his feet.Flora flinched.Adrian gritted his teeth as they forced him forward, shoving him down onto his knees before her. The floor was cold beneath him, but the weight pressing against his chest was colder.Kade paced lazily between them, like a wolf circ

AftermathThe ruins of what had once been Adrian's pack stronghold sprawled before them, smoke rising from the wreckage, bitter proof of all they fought to destroy. The sun had set hours ago, but the faint glow from the soldering remains cast long shadows across the broken stone and twisted metal. The air reeked of burnt wood and blood, the fight was long over, yet the weight was still there as if a heavy fog had engulfed everything in its path.Adrian stood at the edge of the ruins, his back to the rest of them. His shoulders were rigid, his hands clenched at his sides, like he was hanging onto something much deeper than the destruction around him. His chest rose and fell with every heavy breath, but his face was unreadable, hollow even.Flora drew closer to him, her gaze tracing the line of his back, the hunched way in which he had stood there amongst the wreckage, small. The lump in her throat was enormous, and words were hard. "We won," she managed to say from behind him. Her voice

Adrian's Past TruthThe silence in the room was deafening, the air thick with unspoken truths hanging in the air. Flora stood by the makeshift cot where Elena lay, the chill running down her spine refusing to leave her. The woman, barely conscious, was a mystery to them all-someone from Adrian's past, someone he obviously didn't want to talk about.Jace and Alice had worked in near silence, tending to the woman's wounds. She was in bad shape-her breathing shallow, blood staining her clothes, her skin a sickly shade of pale. Adrian hadn't said anything, his eyes locked onto hers in a continuous gaze, as if he were waiting for something-an answer, maybe, or some kind of sign.Flora stepped back, watching him. Her instincts told her that there was more, something dark and deep inside Adrian waiting to come to light. She couldn't let it slide anymore, not after everything that happened, not after the warning of that mysterious woman.She took a slow breath and then moved closer to him. "Y

The First StrikeFlora kept her gaze locked on the dark alley in front of her, senses high, aware of every shift in air. Adrian moved by her side, his normal taut silence leaning against her, yet today, something was more weighted about it. They weren't just navigating around the city for safety or supplies, no, today was different. Today they hunted information. Or better put, the information hunted them."You sure this guy's reliable?" Jace’s voice broke the stillness, a hint of scepticism lacing his words. He was several paces behind, ever watchful. “You’ve done business with him before?”Adrian didn’t even look back, his gaze locked ahead, sharp as ever. “He owes me a Favor. A big one. And he knows what happens when people don’t keep their word.”Jace grunted, shifting the strap of his bag over his shoulder. "Good. Because I'd rather be back with Alice and Lorne, making sure Elena doesn't decide to wake up and get herself killed." He wasn't wrong. Everyone had a role to play now,

The WarningThe hideout was silent. Too silent. The only sound in the room was the soft hum of the fluorescent lights flickering overhead and the heavy, uneven breathing of the group trying to catch their breath. They'd gotten out, barely, but nobody was under any illusions. The danger wasn't over. Not by a long shot.Alice and Lorne were already there, waiting for them. The minute Flora stepped through that door, she saw it in their eyes: the tension, a mixture of concern and wariness, as if they were just as unsure of what was coming next as she was.Elena sat on one of the worn couches, still pale but upright, and gave them a small, tight smile as they came in. Her face was strained, the weight of everything weighing down on her, but there was something in her eyes that made Flora uneasy."You saw him, didn't you?" Elena asked softly, the words hanging in the air like a dark cloud.Flora watched as Adrian nodded shortly. Still holding it in, just about. Jaw tightly clenched and fis