All Chapters of Dreamt My Alpha Mate: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

The house was too still. Still enough that I could hear my own heartbeat echo in my ears, a hollow thrum against the quiet. The locket at my throat pulsed faintly, warm where it lay against my skin, the hairline crack along its edge catching on my fingertip whenever I brushed it.I had been avoiding my mother’s eyes ever since the chapel. Her questions clung to me like smoke, but tonight I couldn’t escape. Not after what happened with Jace.“Don’t look away from me, Ivy,” my mother said softly, her voice like the snap of crumble leaves. “Tell me what he did.”I swallowed hard. “He… he touched me. Just my wrist.” My throat tightened around the rest, but I forced it out. “And the pain, it stopped. Like someone poured water over a fire. For a second, it was gone.”The air between us thickened, hot, suffocating. I could hear the faint click of the grandfather clock in the hall, each tick measuring out my guilt. I wanted to tell her I didn’t mean it like that, that I wasn’t spiraling in

The hall feels colder than it should. Maybe it’s the stone floors, maybe it’s the weight of everyone’s eyes scraping against my skin, but I swear the air itself thickens the moment the charm bowl flares brighter.Was not just brighter but Alive.The silver glow whips upward, licking at the vaulted ceiling, spilling across the crowd until shadows carve the walls into absurd shapes. Someone gasps. Someone else mutters. Then the word no wolf should ever hear drips into the silence like poison.“Witch.”The word “witch” hit me like it had before. Years ago, when I was barely ten and overheard two Omegas whispering behind the stables. They laughed as they said it then, like it was a fairytale curse. Tonight, there was no laughter. Just fear.It starts as a hiss. A single tongue too brave for its own good. Then another voice joins, and another, until the whispers coil into a low chant that gnaws at my bones.“Witch. Witch. Witch.”Every syllable claws me raw. My pulse thrashes in my throa

The council chamber stank of incense and arrogance. Old wood groaned under the weight of Elders leaning back, silver rings catching firelight like they were already basking in their own triumph.“Alpha Damon,” Elder Kyle’s voice curled like smoke, too smooth, too deliberate, “you proved loyalty to pack and law. You severed the impulse in favor of duty.”Applause rose, not thunderous, not heartfelt, but measured claps from bony hands. Polite. Mocking. Like I was a fighter that had survived, not a leader still in control.I sat still, but my body betrayed him. My jaw ticked with every hollow compliment. My fingers drummed the armrest once, then curled into clawsInside, the bond still screamed. Ivy’s scent clung to me like phantom rain. They didn’t smell it, they couldn’t but my wolf pressed claws against my ribs, pacing, demanding to turn back time.Gemma caught my eye from the corner where she stood like a shadow to my flame. Her arms were folded, fingers drumming slow, deliberate bea

The air down here was wrong. I could taste it the second time my boots hit the slick stone steps, the way rot and ash twisted together into something that didn’t belong in a wolf’s lungs. It wasn’t just the stench of decay, it was the bite of warding magic, the kind that chewed at the edges of your senses until you questioned if the shadows were crawling or if your eyes were betraying you.The catacombs under The Thorne were not on any official maps. That’s what made them perfect for hiding things like secrets, bodies, weapons too dangerous to leave in daylight. My bet was on all three.I forced my steps to stay quiet, one hand brushing the damp wall as if grounding myself would stop the bond from burning in my chest. Ivy’s scent didn’t reach here, but her absence pressed down heavier than the damp ceiling. That phantom tug between us, it flared and dimmed like a wound that refused to block.I pushed it down and got focused. The ash trail had not lied. Thin streaks of grey dust m

Legal ShieldThe Council’s enforcers had already fanned out in a neat crescent by the time I reached the apothecary’s outer square. Polished obsidian armbands caught the lamplight, stark against their gray uniforms. Their scent, iron, cold parchment, sanctimony hung like fog. They thought this was law. I knew it was theater. And they had picked the wrong night to try and cage her.“Alpha Damon,” the lead officer inclined his chin, just enough to acknowledge my rank without respect. “By decree of Elder Kyle, we’re authorized to perform purity verification now!”The words might as well have been shackles snapping shut. Ivy stood rigid behind me, breathing quick, her pulse a frantic tattoo I could feel through the mate bond, even the part I had tried so hard to sever.“Procedural faults,” I said, voice clipped. “No Council tribunal has been set, no two witness signatures affixed, no healer designated to oversee the draw. You know as well as I do: your decree is incomplete.”The enforce