All Chapters of ALPHA COLTEN: Chapter 41 - Chapter 44

Kieran’s Point Of View I’d always thought fear had a taste, bitter, metallic, like the tang of blood in your mouth. Turns out, it has a weight too. It sits on your chest, crushing, squeezing until your breaths feel like they might just snap your ribs from the inside.Eight pairs of eyes watched me, wide and unblinking. My babies. My octuplets. Huddled together on the cold concrete floor, their hands clinging to mine like they could anchor themselves to safety through me. I wanted to tell them it was okay. I wanted to promise them we’d get out. But the truth? My mouth was too dry to speak, and I didn’t trust my voice not to crack.Selina paced in front of us, her heels clicking against the floor in a rhythm that felt like it was counting down to something terrible. Her face, gods, that smug face, was the picture of satisfaction. She’d won something, at least in her head.“You know,” she said finally, stopping just close enough for me to smell the expensive perfume clinging to her skin

Third Person POVThe palace didn’t feel like the cold, echoey place it used to be. Not anymore.Now it breathed, it laughed. The floors that once carried only the heavy steps of guards now rattled under the stampede of little feet. The walls, which had heard more orders and arguments than anything else, now soaked up squeals, giggles, and the occasional crash when something breakable met its doom. No one really minded much, because every bit of chaos came wrapped in joy.Kieran had lost count of the times she’d been in the middle of something serious, going over supply lists with the steward, hearing a patrol report, only to stop when she heard that piercing giggle from somewhere in the halls, followed by Colten’s deep, booming laugh. Every single time, without fail, her lips curved up. She didn’t even fight it anymore.The Blue Ridge pack had gotten used to it too.It wasn’t strange now for a warrior mid-report to pause as a little girl with crooked braids ran through the council cha