All Chapters of The Alpha’s Pretty Mistake: Chapter 171 - Chapter 180

EmoryI sat on my bed, staring at the blank canvas I had propped against the wall. It mocked me.Every time I picked up a brush lately, it felt like I was signing a confession. That painting of me with the gun, the one Gina used to frame me—l, was proof enough. Words twisted into pictures, and suddenly everyone thought my anger had turned into murder.I wanted to paint. I needed to. My head was clogged and chest ached like someone was pressing a fist into it. But the thought of Hale or anyone else walking in here, finding another piece of “evidence,” made my stomach twist. So instead, I dropped the brush back into the jar of an already cloudy water and shoved the canvas face-down against the wall.Not today. Not anymore.I reached for my phone. Music, at least, couldn’t be used against me. Noise to drown out the silence.But before I could untangle my earbuds, I heard a knock on my door.I froze.Lately, no one really knocked here. People barged, demanded, shouted. A knock meant hesit

MinaThe figures on my math paper faded away until I could hardly see them as some meaningless markings. I laid the pencil aside, and pounded the heels of my palms against my eyes, trying to get myself to pay attention. Schoolwork was an escape, the one thing I could depend on when all things were collapsing around me. However, recently even the easiest of the problems seemed to be like pushing on a wall that would not move.Nothing in the house was like it used to be since dad woke up. It should have been a relief, everyone had prayed, whispered, begged for it. But his waking hadn’t healed anything. If anything, it cracked us even more.My mother, on her part, said less and less. But her silences weren’t calm. They were tough and rough, an it cut me deep anytime I stared at her. There were moments when I felt she was watching me because I felt she thought I was watching her. Maybe I was.And then there was Gina. My twin, my mirror in so many ways. Only, these days, she wasn’t a refl

AriaI don’t know what compelled me to disturb him that evening. For years, since he got married to Agatha, Kol’s study had been a boundary line I rarely crossed unless necessary, his fortress of solitude where he buried himself in papers, reports, and a bottle of whiskey. But something about seeing him alive, after almost losing him, made me do something I hadn’t in years.Take care of him.I waited at the door, hand hanging on the knob, then giving it a push. Kol raised his head over his desk with an arching brow. His cane was resting on the desk beside him and papers were scattered on his table.“Aria?“ he said, as though I were a ghost that had gone through his door. “Did you get lost?”I made a face, but then I smiled a little. “Don’t flatter yourself. I came to see if you’d eaten. Or are you planning to live off whiskey and ink again?”The surprise on his face almost made me laugh. “You came here… to check on me?”“Yes.” I walked further in, snatching the glass of whiskey from h

AgathaI was running along endlessly long corridors, with my bare feet, out of breath. The walls was covered with shadows rather than paint. Someone was waiting at the furthest end of the corridor.As she entered the half-light, my blood froze.Lira.Her hair fell down her shoulders, black as a raven. Her eyes were gleaming with that very keen wickedness she always had.“Welcome,” she purred, and her mouth curved into a smile that wasn’t a smile at all. “Welcome to the club.”My voice trembled. “What club?”“The one where mates turn on mates,” she said. “You tried to kill him, didn’t you? Kol. Just like I did once. Just like Aria did as well.”I stumbled back. “No. No, I’m nothing like you.”She laughed. Cackled even. “That’s what they all say. That’s what I said too, once. Until I wasn’t.”“You’re dead,” I whispered. “This isn’t real. You’re not real.”Her smile widened, cruel and knowing. Her smile was broad, cunning and evil. Oh, but here,” she tapped her forehead, “I am real, I am

KolI walked into the council chamber with my cane against the floor. A silence fell upon the room, like that of the elder men waiting, as vultures round the dead. I did not miss this irony, they were half as old as the grandfathers, with bodies crooked with service, and I was the one that was examined on account of a cane.I did not walk as quickly as I wanted to because every step was as heavy as the burden of their eyes. I hated appearing weak before anyone, but especially here. These walls had seen leaders fall for less.“Alpha Kol,” Elder Kalis began, his tone sharp as the edge of a blade. He didn’t even wait for me to sit before striking. “We respect your presence. But we must address the obvious, are you fit to lead?” His eyes fell right down on the cane in my hand, as though it were mocking at him.There was a murmur in the semicircle of elders. My jaw tightened. “It will heal,” I said straightforwardly and stooped into the chair at the head of the table. I forced my voice ste