บททั้งหมดของ A wife for the cursed alpha : บทที่ 101 - บทที่ 110

Max’s POVThe city was still half-asleep when I returned. It's towers pale by the first threads of dawn. I climbed up the staircase two steps at a time. Every nerve in me thrummed from the risk I’d just taken. The forest air clinging to my clothes. I could taste the memory of Lana’s scent on my tongue…thin, fading, but real. It should have steadied me. Instead it set my blood roaring louder. My wolf tearing at the inside of my chest.I shoved the door to my penthouse open harder than I meant to. The slam rattled through the glass walls. Darkness pooled across the living room… broken only by the faint glow of the city’s lights beyond the windows.And then a voice. Calm, low and way too steady for this hour.“You went.”I froze.Ethan was seated in the armchair by the window. His broad frame folded into the shadows like he had been waiting all night. His eyes found me instantly, sharp, unreadable.The air tightened in my lungs. “What are you doing here? How did you get inside?”He rose.

Max’s POVThey stared in clusters. Some turned their faces away. Others edged inward, intrigued, hungry for scandal and harvest. The council loved proof, the sort of tidy evidence Leonard was giving them. Leonard fed it to them like a warm dish.“Contractual,” he said again, and his voice was a blade each time. “And publicly recognized. you brought her into your house under terms. If this is so, then the Alpha has misled his pack, misled us. How do we trust what he swears? How do we trust his judgments if the heart he claims to have is written in ink and ordinance?”I couldn’t make that not be true. The paper sat there like a thing between us, and the truth about it was that the world thought contracts could substitute for the wildness of a bond and made me feel naked. Leonard watched me peel like a man who has waited to harvest fruit.“Lies,” I roared. “All of it.” My voice sounded far away. “Everything you hold up as evidence is built on coercion and careful placement. You brought t

Max’s POVThe silence was so long, and very heavy and so suffocating. My words should have been enough, once upon a time, they actually always were. Once, the pack would have bowed their heads, their faith in me unshakable. But tonight, I could feel it. Their faith was torn apart, cracked, slipped through my hands like water.An omega’s voice rose from the middle of the crowd, clear, shaking but strong enough to pierce the quiet. “And what of the curse?” Her eyes found mine, wide and accusing. “Leonard didn’t invent that. We’ve all heard whispers. You never denied them. You only hid them.”Loud murmurs went through the others, the truth of it went in very deep.I clenched my fists at my sides. “I hid nothing that mattered. I led you. I protected you. A curse does not erase that.”A man stepped forward, Greg, one of my older werewolves. His hair was graying at the temples, his face filled with years of loyalty, but even his gaze was covered in doubt. “You told us Lana was your mate,” h

Max’s POVGregory.It wasn’t some fool with more temper than sense. Not an outsider. It was actually, Gregory, the man who taught pups how to take a hit and stand back up. Gregory, who stood shoulder to shoulder with me at the river fight, who had scars that matched my own. Gregory, who had been the first to call me Alpha and mean it.If Gregory had gone to Leonard…Then this wasn’t a mistake.It was a crack in the bones of the pack.I turned from the window before it could swallow me. Ethan stood waiting, lean and watchful, the way he always was after bad news. His presence grounded me, he had that beta’s calm, the kind that waits until the worst part is over before breaking.He didn’t waste time. “He met with Leonard after the pack meeting. ”My jaw went tight.“Stayed long enough for a second watch to clock him,” Ethan continued. His voice was clean. “Then they left together.”I should have been used to this kind of thing by now, werewolves making secret moves in the dark but my c

Max’s POVI stepped closer, close enough that he could smell the truth of me, the Alpha under my skin, the wolf pacing. “You will set up a meeting with Leonard,” I said. “Tonight.”Gregory swallowed, but he nodded.“You will act natural,” I continued, each word clipped, precise. “Like a man still loyal to him. You will not falter. You will not hesitate. If he smells fear on you, if he suspects you’re lying, you die first. Do you understand?”His nod was sharper this time. “I understand.”I stared at him until he looked away. “Good. Then make the call.”Gregory’s throat bobbed. “Now?”“Yes. Now.”He hesitated only long enough to glance toward Ethan, as if for some reprieve, but Ethan’s expression was colder than mine. There was no reprieve coming.Gregory fumbled for the small comm device tucked in his coat pocket. Leonard’s men liked their own tools. He powered it on with a trembling thumb. I folded my arms and waited.“Leonard’s man usually answers,” Gregory muttered, as if explainin