All Chapters of THE ALPHA'S BETRAYAL: Chapter 131 - Chapter 140

They didn't stop running until her legs gave out.Amelia collapsed against a tree, bark rough and unforgiving against her back, her breath coming in sharp, ragged gasps that felt like shards of glass tearing through her lungs. The world tilted violently sideways, colors bleeding into one another like wet paint, and she pressed her hand flat against her chest, fingers splayed over her heart, trying desperately to hold herself together. Trying to remember how to breathe. Trying to remember why breathing even mattered anymore.Something was wrong. Something was very, very wrong.Her body felt foreign, like it didn't belong to her anymore. Like something inside her was coming undone, unspooling thread by thread, and she was helpless to stop it. Her veins burned. Her chest ached. And beneath it all, beneath the pain and the terror, she felt it. The bond. Lars' mark. The venom he'd forced into her blood months ago, binding her to him in ways she'd never fully understood. It was fracturing. S

The battle raged around her like a living nightmare, all snarling teeth and screaming metal and the wet sound of flesh tearing that she'd never be able to unhear. Amelia moved through it like she was underwater, everything muted and distant except for the pounding of her own heart, the knife in her hand slick with blood that wasn't hers, her breath coming in sharp gasps that tasted like copper and fear.Carlos was somewhere to her left, a blur of black fur and violence, taking down wolves twice his size with brutal efficiency. His men fought in coordinated pairs, trained and disciplined, while Lars's pack attacked with the wild desperation of animals who knew they were losing but couldn't stop. Wouldn't stop. The clearing had become a graveyard in real time, bodies piling up, the earth so soaked with blood it squelched under her boots.She'd killed today. Actually killed. Put her silver blade through a wolf's throat and watched the light leave its eyes, watched it choke on its own bloo

The days after Lars disappeared blurred together into a strange kind of routine that felt almost like peace but never quite arrived. Amelia woke each morning in Carlos's cabin, a sturdy structure at the heart of his territory that smelled like pine and earth and safety. She'd make coffee while he planned strategy with his lieutenants. She'd sit in on meetings about territory disputes and pack alliances, learning the politics of a world she'd been dragged into but never fully understood. And every night, she'd lie beside Carlos, close but not touching, both of them pretending the distance didn't mean anything.It did, though. It meant everything.Two weeks after Lars vanished into the wilderness, Amelia found herself in a meeting room filled with wolves who looked at her like she was either a miracle or a threat. Probably both. The table was rough-hewn wood, scarred from decades of use, and around it sat representatives from seven different packs. All rogues. All survivors of Lars's rei

That night, Amelia couldn't sleep.She lay in bed staring at the ceiling, hyperaware of every sound outside. Wind in the trees. An owl calling. Wolves moving through the compound on patrol. Each noise spiked her anxiety, made her wonder if Lars was out there, getting closer, preparing to do, what? She didn't even know what she was afraid of anymore. Not physical harm, exactly. Carlos was right that Lars had had opportunities and hadn't taken them.So what did he want? What was the point of haunting the borders, of making sure she knew he was there but never approaching? Was it punishment like she'd said? Or something else? Some twisted hope that if he stayed close enough, eventually she'd remember the good moments, the times before everything got dark and wrong, and come back to him?The thought made her sick.She got up quietly, pulling on clothes and slipping out of her room. The compound was quiet, most wolves already asleep. She made her way to the kitchen, thinking tea might help,

The first time Amelia asked to visit Lars, Carlos looked at her like she'd suggested walking into fire."No." The word came out flat, absolute. They were in his office, mid-morning light streaming through windows that overlooked the compound. He'd been reviewing supply reports when she'd made the request, and now those reports lay forgotten on his desk. "Absolutely not.""I wasn't asking permission." Amelia kept her voice calm, even though her heart was hammering. She'd known this wouldn't go well. Had rehearsed arguments in her head for days before finally working up the courage to say it out loud. "I was informing you. I'm going to see him."Carlos stood abruptly, chair scraping against wood. "Why? Why would you possibly want to go near him after everything he did?""Because I need closure." She stayed seated, refusing to be intimidated even though every instinct screamed at her to back down, to avoid conflict, to be smaller. "Because there are things I need to say to him. Things I n