All Chapters of The Alpha’s Claiming Bite : Chapter 61 - Chapter 70

The council chamber smelled of old stone, smoke, and blood that hadn’t yet dried from the envoy’s carefully staged theatrics. Torches burned along the carved walls, shadows reaching up like claws as the envoy stood at the center, robed in the colors of the High Moon Council—white trimmed with silver—but there was nothing pure about the serpent’s smile on his lips.“You’ve tasted power too long, Blackwood,” the envoy said, his voice smooth, honey dripping over steel. “The Council does not look kindly on wolves who think themselves above its decree. Cassian’s death unsettled the balance. And balance, as you well know, must always be restored.”Kade’s jaw tightened, the cords of muscle in his neck drawn like a bowstring. “Balance was shattered the moment Cassian crossed our border and defiled our lands. If the Council wants to weigh scales, let them remember whose claws drew first blood.”The envoy’s smile deepened, but his eyes gleamed with something reptilian, as though he enjoyed the

The blood hadn’t cooled. It steamed faintly on the war map, soaking into parchment that had charted generations of territory. Wolves stared at it like it was a curse, as though Ronan’s life had seeped into the grain and would never wash away.No one moved at first. Not until Ronan’s body was dragged away, leaving a trail of crimson like a broken seal. Then the room fractured.“He was loyal!” one voice shouted, raw with grief. “He fought beside us in the northern raid—”“Loyal? Did you not see his eyes?” another snapped, lips curled in disgust. “Cassian owned him before the Alpha ended it.”“That could have been any of us,” a third whispered, trembling. “If the envoy’s poison can take Ronan, then none of us are safe.”The walls trembled with their discord. Fear had a scent—it was sharp, metallic, bitter—and it filled the war room until Lena’s wolf paced restlessly beneath her skin, baring teeth at shadows.Kade stood at the center of the storm, his hands still stained with Ronan’s bloo

The stronghold reeked of smoke, blood, and silence.The fighting had ended, but its echoes still clung to the stone walls—the growls, the snapping of teeth, the wet sound of blades finding flesh. Now, in its place, there was only the hollow weight of grief.Bodies were being gathered. Wolves who had fought beside Lena mere days ago now lay cold and broken, their lifeless eyes staring at the rafters as though still waiting for orders. Pack members moved through the carnage with stiff movements, their hands slick with blood as they lifted the fallen onto wooden stretchers.At the center of the hall, Ronan’s body lay shrouded in black cloth.Lena’s throat constricted. She hadn’t cried when her blade found him—there had been no time for tears, only survival. But now, staring at the cloth that clung to the outline of his broad shoulders, the dam threatened to break. Her hand trembled as she reached for it, needing to see his face one last time, but Kade’s grip closed around her wrist befor

Dawn came heavy with smoke.The stronghold still breathed fire in its bones, charred timbers groaning as if the stone itself mourned. Ash drifted through the air like gray snow, clinging to Lena’s hair, to the torn sleeves of her tunic, to the bodies that lay in rows across the courtyard, waiting for the earth to claim them.She moved among the wounded slowly, as if each step risked breaking her. The scent of blood and soot filled her lungs, clogging the back of her throat. Wolves who had stood side by side only hours ago now lay bandaged, broken, or silent forever. And among them—Ronan’s absence was a wound in itself.Her hands shook as she pressed them against the side of a young wolf’s ribs, steadying the cloth tied there. His eyes fluttered open, glazed with pain, but he tried to bare his teeth in a grin. “Still breathing,” he rasped.Lena forced a nod, though her chest ached with the weight of his words. Still breathing. For how long? For how many more?When she finally stood, he

The stronghold did not sleep that night, though silence pressed heavy over its halls. It wasn’t the hush of peace, but the taut, fragile quiet of a body waiting for its wound to open wider. From the high balconies, smoke still trailed like ghosts from the burned banners of Ronan’s men, their sigils already blackened into ash. Yet within the fortress, unease was louder than any fire or clash of steel. Every corridor carried whispers. Every chamber reeked of sweat, grief, and the metallic tang of rage left unshed.Kade felt it in his bones as he rose from the bed he had barely warmed. Lena stirred against the rumpled sheets, her breath still caught between sleep and the ache of what had passed between them. Her skin bore the marks of his hands, his mouth—signs of a night that had been both desperate and grounding, two wolves clinging to each other while the storm battered every wall around them.But dawn offered no reprieve. Dawn only reminded him that the pack would come knocking, and