Semua Bab The Alpha's Forgotten Mate: Bab 121 - Bab 130

Caelan's POVThe sun was setting by the time I could finally stand still long enough to take stock of what we'd lost.We have seventeen dead. Thirty-two wounded. Twelve of those might not see the morning.The numbers sat in my chest like stones.I stood on what used to be our front line, my boots sunk in churned-up earth that still smelled of blood and burnt magic. Wolves moved around me in slow, quiet patterns: carrying the injured, wrapping the dead, and stacking broken weapons. No one spoke above a whisper. Even the wind seemed afraid to disturb the valley tonight.We had won. The Shadow Council was shattered, the Seekers were gone, and Annalise was in chains. But none of it felt like winning.Through the bond I could feel Aeliana the way I felt my own heartbeat: she is steady, exhausted, and aching. The Entity lived in both of us now, like a quiet third presence that tasted our grief and stayed politely silent."You should sit down," I sent to her, the thought sliding across

Caelan’s POVFour days after the battle, the valley's life was starting to feel almost normal again. Pups chased each other through the grass. Someone was roasting meat over an open pit. The smell of pine smoke and fresh bread drifted on the breeze.Then the growl of engines ruined the quiet.Three separate convoys rolled in at the exact same minute, dust clouds rising like signal fires.Riverside Pack from the north road. Blackwood Pack from the east. Silverstone Pack from the west.Alpha Thomas, Alpha Sarah, and Alpha Marcus of Silverstone stepped out of their trucks almost in unison. They had clearly planned this joint arrival. No one drives six hours each way just to “drop by.”Aeliana and I were already waiting at the main gate with Liora and my Gamma Marcus on either side. The closer the trucks got, the heavier the air felt.“They’ve been talking,” Liora muttered. “A lot.”“No kidding,” I answered.The three Alphas walked forward together, their seconds and guards a respectful

Caelan's POVThere is a ripple of awareness that pulled me from sleep at dawn on day five. Beside me, Aeliana stirred, feeling the same disturbance through our dual vessel bond."Something is wrong," the Entity said to both of us simultaneously. There is magical interference within the pack. It is active and deliberate. I was already moving, pulling on clothes with the efficiency of someone who'd woken to threats too many times to count. Through the mate bond, I felt Aeliana doing the same, her alarm matching mine."Another attack?" she asked aloud, her voice still rough with sleep."No. This is something subtler." I reached for the bond connecting me to my pack members, searching for disturbances. Everything seemed normal on the surface—the usual early morning rhythms of a pack waking to routine. But there was something... off. A dissonance I couldn't quite identify.There, the Entity directed my attention to a specific thread in the pack bonds. That one. The signature is masked by

Caelan's POVEight years. Annalise had been using Sophie for eight years.Through our bond, I felt Aeliana's rage match my own. The witch had taken a child...because sixteen was still a child...and turned her into a weapon against her own people."What did you report?" Marcus asked, his voice carefully controlled despite the grief I felt through pack bonds."Everything." Sophie's voice was hollow. "Pack routines. Security measures. Who was close to the Alpha? When Luna left and when she returned, I helped sneak her outside the day she went missing. The Entity's awakening. Your alliances with other packs. Everything I saw or heard, I had to tell her. Had to send messages through the journal she gave me.""Where's the journal now?" Vera demanded."My room. Hidden under the floorboards beneath my bed.""Marcus, get it," I ordered. "Don't open it, don't read it, just bring it to Jolene so she can neutralize whatever magic it contains."My Gamma left immediately, and I turned back to Sophi

Caelan's POV  Annalis is held in holding cells, which are in the deepest part of the pack house, warded so heavily that the air itself feels thick with magic. Jolene and Theron had layered protections upon protections—wards to prevent escape, to block magical communication, and also to suppress Annalise's power to the point where she was functionally mortal.Functionally, but not entirely. I could still feel the witch's presence as we approached, a cold spot in the warmth of pack bonds, like frostbite spreading through healthy flesh.Through our dual vessel bond, I felt Aeliana's tension match my own. Are you sure about this? she asked silently. Confronting her now, with only t