Semua Bab The Alpha's Broken Pet: Bab 81 - Bab 90

VanessaThe afternoon crawled. Word finally came up: the injured warriors had been brought back. Maya had gone downstairs first, sniffing for answers, with Nina right behind her.I stayed where I was. My legs weren’t listening. My heart thudded in my chest. I pressed my head to the window. The glass had warmed under the sun, and it stuck to my skin.When Nina came back, she didn’t look gutted. Her mouth wasn’t twisted with bad news, and her eyes didn’t have that wet glaze people get when they’re carrying grief.“What’s going on?” I asked, though my throat felt dry.“They’re still fighting,” she said, walking in like she didn’t want to sit still. “I don’t know who’s dead, but Alec is alive. Lucas and Gary too.”That was something. That was more than enough to lift the edge off the weight pressing down on my chest.“I hope the casualties aren’t too much.”“We don’t know yet,” she replied, rubbing her palm against her arm. “But from what the warriors said, we dealt double the damage. Tha

Vanessa I ran barefoot through a forest, with my lungs tearing, and my heart rattling so loud it might as well have been outside my chest. The sky above was silver black, and cold. The night was alive and cruel. The trees were off — wrong somehow — taller, hungrier. I knew this place, but not like this. Red eyes flashed between the trunks. My foot slammed a root. I staggered but didn’t stop.No direction felt safe. I spun left, then right, then checked behind me. Every time I looked, I expected something worse. And there it was. A figure. Crimson claws. Above me was screeching. My scream ripped out before I hit a tree. The bark scraped my back.From behind the trunk, a woman in white slipped into view. She didn’t walk. She floated. Alec was behind her, soaked in blood. His head wasn’t upright. “Vanessa,” he whispered. But his voice was two voices, layered. I stumbled backward. He pointed at me. I couldn’t move. I wanted to scream. Then a bird the size of a hawk landed on my shoul

VanessaI was halfway to the door, steps already in motion to get back to Alec, when Nina crashed into me. Her arms locked around my ribs with such urgency that it knocked the breath from my lungs. I stood there, holding, blinking. Then I gripped her just as tight. My fingers clawed at her shirt like the fabric could anchor me. I hadn’t realized I needed that hug more than food, more than sleep, more than answers. We cried into each other’s shoulders, but I couldn’t tell whose tears were whose. My throat burned. I pulled away first and scrubbed my face with the back of my wrist.“Whoever taught you this?” Nina said, voice shaky but trying for lightness. “They deserve a damn raise. Imagine if you hadn’t known what to do.”I shrugged. “Olga.”That name killed whatever flicker of calm we’d built in the last ten seconds. Nina’s smile dropped like a stone. Her jaw clenched, and she gave me this slow nod like she finally understood. She got it—got that the power I’d used to save Alec was on

I should’ve known something was wrong.My boyfriend, Alan, hadn't answered my calls all day, but I told myself he was just busy. I even justified it. He was the Beta's son; maybe the elders had given him more responsibilities.Clutching his favorite wine, still in my heels and flushed from a courtroom victory, I stood outside his apartment. I’d just won a major case and planned to celebrate with him. I had no idea I was walking into the moment that would shatter my world.I slid the spare key into the lock and stepped inside.Silence, then a breathy moan.I froze.The bedroom door was ajar. I moved as if underwater.Alan was on his knees, pleasuring a woman.No. No, no, no.The wine slipped from my fingers and shattered against the tile.Alan’s head jerked up. So did his lover’s.Genevieve.My best friend.She shrieked, her lips parted in shock, but it was short-lived. She sat up and pushed her curls back, her eyes meeting mine.“Wh—what is this?” I stammered.Alan stood shirtless, sw

JustinI stood beside my mother in the suffocating heat of the hall, the air thick with the cloying smell of werewolf desperation. Their hungry eyes followed every Lycan that passed, and disgust washed through me. If I had my way, I would not be here. The entire werewolf nation was a drain, a mess created by their greedy alpha and his incompetent council.My mother sipped her wine, her gaze sweeping over the crowd with the bored look of a queen surveying a colony of ants.“What exactly are you doing?” I asked, letting a yawn stretch my jaw. “Our workforce is already bloated. We don’t need more mouths to feed.”A chuckle escaped her. “I am offering them hope, darling.”“You’re manipulating them,” I corrected her.“Empires are built on manipulation, darling. How do you imagine our kingdom became so powerful? It was certainly not by playing fair.”I tipped the last of the crushed wolfsbane from a leather pouch into my mouth. The bitterness barely registered on my tongue anymore after yea