Alle Kapitel von The Wrong Mate, The Right Alpha: Kapitel 141 – Kapitel 150

Damon's POVThe room never recovered from Bragg saying my brother name.There are moments when a space changes shape not physically but politically. The council chamber had always been designed to feel eternal: stone pillars carved with laws older than any living wolf the ceiling etched with the phases of the Moon Goddess, the Alpha's seat raised just enough to remind everyone where authority settled.Now it felt smaller.Crowded.Hungry.Like walls closing in.I stayed seated.Not because I did not hear the murmurs or because I did not feel the weight of eyes drilling into my back but because standing would have acknowledged the legitimacy of what Elder Bragg had just attempted.And I refused to do that.Darius had not yet entered.That in itself was telling.They were making me wait. Making everyone wait.Building anticipation. Creating theater.They wanted me unsettled before they paraded him in. Wanted the image of hesitation of fracture, of weakness. Wanted the pack to see me as

Mara’s POVThe council chamber emptied the way a battlefield does after the dead have been counted.Not loudly.Not all at once.Just movement.Footsteps receded along stone corridors. Cloaks brushed past one another without greeting. Guards shifted positions with faces carefully blank, eyes tracking exits, entrances, people. Elders departed in pairs or alone whispers clinging to them like smoke. No one raised their voice. No one challenged Damon again not here not now.The noise had already done its damage.I walked beside Damon through it all with my spine straight and my breathing even. I did not lower my gaze. I did not rush. I did not cling to his arm the way some expected me to.But I felt it.The attention.It pressed against my skin not hostile exactly, not yet but sharp. Curious. Measuring. The way predators assess terrain before deciding where to strike.They were not looking at Damon anymore.They were looking at me.They are measuring you now Kira said quietly with her pre

Mara's POV Morning arrived without ceremony. No bells. No calls. No warmth. It slipped into Damon estate like a held breath quiet in a way that felt deliberate as though the entire property had agreed not to disturb something fragile and dangerous at once. I woke before dawn. Alone in the our bedroom. The bed felt too large. Too soft. I'd barely slept. I noticed it immediately. The halls were clean in a way they were not usually clean. Not lived-in clean. Not busy. Ordered. Controlled. Servants moved with softened steps, eyes lowered, shoulders tight. Guards stood where there had never been guards before at the mouths of corridors near stairwells along the garden facing windows. Wolves lingered at thresholds instead of passing through them watching, listening, pretending they had reasons to be there. I counted five new guards on my way to the dining hall. Five that shouldn't have been there. The Alpha Trial had not begun. But the pack already had. They were reacting to th

Mara's POV With a calm finality that felt heavier than it should have the door closed behind us. Not because of what we were going to do but rather because it had been a while since we had given ourselve permission to desire it. The lock clicked. Soft. Final. Like sealing out the rest of the world. The room smelled like Damon. Like night air and iron and something steady that always made my chest loosen when I breathed it in. Lights were dimmed low casting long shadows across the walls. Outside the estate slept with one eye open with guards rotating and wolves listening and the world bracing itself for tomorrow. I could hear footsteps in the hall below. Distant. Fading. Someone checking locks. Someone making rounds. Inside there was only us. For a moment we just stood there. No urgency. No rush. Just the awareness of proximity the hum of the bond stretched taut and warm between us relieved finally of the strain of distance and restraint. I looked at him. Really looked. Th

Mara's POV The moment Damon hit the ground the world tilted. Not in panic. Not in fear. In recognition. Because the silence that fell over the arena was not the sound of an ending. It was the sound of a breath being drawn. I stood at the edge of the arena. Zeta to my left. Ryan to my right. Neither of them moved. Neither spoke. But I felt their tension. Their readiness. I felt it before I saw it, before anyone did. A pressure behind my ribs a tightening along the bond that had nothing to do with pain or desperation. Kai did not howl in distress. Damon did not recede. He anchored. Deep. Solid. Unmoving. The dust stirred first. A fine tremor rippled through the stone beneath my feet, subtle enough that only wolves sensitive to shifts in power noticed. Heads lifted. Ears angled. The pack leaned forward without realizing it. I felt Kira rise inside me. Not aggressive. Alert. Watching. Darius stood over Damon, chest heaving, triumph rolling off him in hot reckless waves. H