All Chapters of ALPHA COLTEN: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

Colten's POVThe room was too quiet.Too clean. Too still. Like a stage after the curtains have fallen.I stood in the center of it all, her empty suite. The scent of wildflowers and rain still clung faintly to the silk sheets, taunting me. It hadn’t been that long since she was here. Days, maybe. But it already felt like the ghost of her was louder than her presence had ever been.A note sat on the vanity. Folded once, tucked neatly under the brush she never used.I stared at it for a long time, willing it to say something different.“Don’t come looking for me. This life was never mine to live. I’m taking it back, for me and for what comes next.”I crushed the paper in my fist.A lie. A coward’s note, maybe. But not hers. Not my Kieran.She wouldn’t run. Not unless someone pushed her. Not unless she was scared.Of me.I bared my teeth at the thought. I slammed the heel of my hand into the wall beside the vanity, cracking the plaster.“Alpha.”I turned as William entered, his head bow

Kieran's POVThe cold, damp earth clung to my boots, soaking through the soles as Mirian and I slowly edged backward. Each step felt heavier than the last. Our eyes darted between the three rogue wolves closing in, two males with wild, crazed eyes and a female who looked like she hadn’t known peace in years, only blood and gore. They all had that look: hungry, desperate, and disturbingly entertained by our fear.The silence pressing in around us wasn’t calm. It was thick, choking. Even the trees felt like they were holding their breath, watching our demise unfold.I could feel Mirian trembling beside me, her fear barely contained. She wasn’t even pretending to be brave. And honestly? I wasn’t either. The bond between us, friendship, survival, something deeper maybe, was suddenly a lifeline. Fragile and fraying as looked at these beastly rogues.Mirian whispered, her voice barely more than a breath, “Don’t run. Don’t shift. Just—stay calm.”Stay calm? Easy for her to say. Every instinc

Colten’s POVRage doesn’t feel like fire. Not for me.It’s ice. Sharp, brittle, and cold enough to burn from the inside out.Every step I took across the training grounds that morning was driven by that cold. The pack moved out of my way without a word. They knew better than to meet my eyes when I was in this mood. I didn’t bother slowing down, my target was in the far corner, working a heavy bag like he had nothing to answer for.“Rogan!” My voice cracked through the air like a whip.He froze mid-punch, shoulders tightening before he turned. His dark hair stuck to his forehead with sweat, his shirt clinging to his chest. His expression was flat. Too flat.I hated him for it.“You helped her escape.” I didn’t bother with pleasantries.His brow lifted, but his voice stayed calm. “Who?”“You know damn well who.” I stepped forward, close enough to smell the salt on his skin, the faint trace of metal from the weights he’d been lifting. “Kieran. You think I wouldn’t notice? I saw the messa

Kieran’s Point Of View Five years.It’s strange how a stretch of time can feel like forever and yesterday all at once. Sometimes, I can still smell that hospital room from the night they were born, the antiseptic sting in the air, my own sweat clinging to my skin, the hum of the overhead lights, and over it all, the sound of eight tiny, chaotic cries. Now those cries have turned into giggles, squabbles over the same toy truck, and the kind of screaming meltdowns that could shatter glass.Eight kids. Five years old. My entire world.And gods… I am tired.Not the kind of tired you can sleep off. The kind that lives in your bones. The kind that makes your coffee taste like survival instead of comfort. I work mornings at the diner three blocks away, afternoons as the building manager for Mrs. Ellen. I’ve learned how to carry three bags of groceries, a laundry basket, and a toddler all at once without dropping a thing, unless you count my sanity.It’s barely enough. There’s always a bill

Colten’s Point Of View I couldn’t stop thinking about her.Every damn hour since I’d seen her in that office, she was there. In my head, in my chest, under my skin. It didn’t matter what I was doing, closing deals, sitting in meetings, pretending to care about numbers on a screen, she was there.Kieran is here in New York.Five years of believing she was gone, rotting in the ground somewhere I had her buried. Five years of guilt eating me alive at night, thinking maybe if I’d done something different, she’d still be breathing. And all that time, she’d been alive. Breathing. Laughing, or in a relationship, probably.Living a life without me.I thought maybe I’d be angry when I saw her. Angry at the lie, the disappearance, the way she ripped herself out of my life like I was nothing. But anger didn’t come. Not yet. All I felt was that pull, that same force that had grabbed me the first time I ever saw her, back when the mate bond had slammed into place so hard it nearly knocked the ai