All Chapters of The Alpha’s Forgotten Bride: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

Rowan’s POVI thought I heard her wrong.The moment the words left her lips, the world seemed to pause. My pulse, my breath, even the subtle ticking of the ornate clock on the far wall—all of it stilled, as though the universe itself needed to confirm what Calla Rivers had just said.Can we move in with you?I blinked once. Twice. Waiting for her to laugh, to scoff, to say she was joking. But she didn’t. Her posture was stiff, her hands pressed against her thighs like she was trying to root herself in place. And her eyes—those wide, haunted eyes—were locked on me.Unwavering. Unflinching. But filled with a panic she was trying desperately to hide.I opened my mouth to speak, but then she suddenly backtracked.“I—I didn’t mean that.” She shot to her feet so quickly, her chair scraped loudly against the tiled floor. “Forget I said anything. That was—stupid. I wasn’t thinking clearly. Just tired. You know—lack of sleep and all that.”I watched her grasp for excuses like a woman trying to

Rowan’s POVI sat in the VVIP lounge with a cup of black coffee and too much on my mind.She said it.The words that hadn’t left my head all day.Can we move in with you?Calla Rivers—white-haired mystery, sharp-tongued liar, mother to a boy with silver eyes—asked to live under my roof. And then she tried to snatch it back the moment it slipped from her lips.Classic defense mechanism. Say something real, then reel it in before it lands.But I didn’t let her. Because I couldn’t.Because my instincts were already past the point of no return.Every Alpha knows the difference between protectiveness and obsession. One is duty. The other is… madness.And I was dangerously close to the edge.When she asked me that question, I saw the panic in her eyes. Not just fear of me, but fear of something bigger. Her past? Her secret? The truth she hasn’t told me?That’s what eats at me most.Calla has secrets buried in her bones.And I intend to dig every damn one of them up.But not by force. Not ye

Rowan’s POVThe gates groaned open like the belly of a beast, ancient metal swallowing us whole.But she didn’t move.Calla sat perfectly still—no fidgeting, no eye contact, no word spoken. Just stillness, so tense and quiet it vibrated like a held breath.Asher, on the other hand, was practically pressed against the window.“Is this it?” he asked, eyes bright with wonder.“Yeah, kid,” I said gently. “This is home.”Home.The word hit differently this time.Because the woman sitting beside me didn’t flinch at the gates.She froze.And now I was sure.She’d been here before.The way her fingers curled tighter around Asher’s. The way her chest moved—shallow, careful breaths, like she was trying not to draw attention to herself. Like prey sensing a trap in its old territory.I said nothing at first. Just sat there, watching her like the puzzle she was. Every line of her body told a different story. Her jaw was set, too tight. Her knuckles white. Her eyes locked on the trees ahead but see

(Rowan’s POV)She was walking beside me, silent, with her head slightly bowed and her scarf covering most of her face like a mask. But I could still feel her unease—buzzing like static in the air between us.It wasn’t fear exactly. Calla didn’t seem the kind to fear easily. No, this was… wariness. The kind that comes from walking too long in shadow.And yet, she hadn’t flinched when Elder Elira called out to me.I had glanced at her, expecting at least a flicker of reaction. But she’d held herself still, unreadable. Calm on the outside, but something told me that her silence was tightly controlled.She was hiding something. That much I knew.But I didn’t push.Not yet.Instead, I just kept walking, leading them through the winding corridor that veered off the main path. The private wing wasn’t far—intentionally hidden behind a thicket of climbing vines and aged stone, a place I’d built to be both sanctuary and stronghold.For wolves like me who needed space. And for secrets that neede

Calla’s POVThe tension was still in me, flowing through my bones, causing my heart to thump faster than the usual way it does. Rowan was remembering and that was the last I needed for my plan to work out. I needed his memories dead the same way they had been in the lowest moment of our relationship and he forgot who I truly was.I could not afford that. Not now, not yet.The guesthouse Rowan led us to sat on the edge of the pack's residential quarter,it was a part of this packhouse that I had never really paid attention to when we were together then. But now, I can see that there was more to this world than I realized. I had stupidly believed being in love and being bonded to the alpha of this pack would be so easy. I thought love was, in fact, easy.The guesthouse was nestled in a grove of silver-leafed birch trees that shimmered in the breeze. It was beautiful, quiet—too quiet. A perfect place to hide. Maybe that was why it unsettled me.Asher had already made himself comfortable