Semua Bab The Alpha's Unclaimed Mate: Bab 11 - Bab 16

Laila's POV"Where is Ava's father?"The words hit me like a slap across the face. No warning, no warm-up, just Jason standing there, his green eyes locked on me the way he used to when he was trying to crack some complicated pack problem, or figure out why the quarterly reports weren't adding up. Only this time I was the problem."This has nothing to do with you, Jason." It came out sharp, way sharper than I meant, but maybe that was the point. Like I was throwing up bricks, stacking a wall before Jason could even get close.And then his jaw did that thing. That twitch that always used to drive me nuts during meetings, like the tiniest movement carried a whole storm behind it. Same Jason. Same temper tucked neatly under the surface."I was just asking," he said, but the way it came out—like there was something bruised sitting under the words.I hitched Ava higher on my hip. She's growing so fast it feels like she gains a pound every night, but in that moment, I needed her weight agai

Laila's POVThe world tipped sideways. Riley's words just kept looping in my skull, broken-record style, like the universe had picked the ugliest song and pressed repeat. Ava collapsed. Rushed to the hospital.I don't remember dropping the phone. Don't remember shoving Jason back or cutting through that ballroom with eyes on me like I'd lost my damn mind. Next thing I knew I was in my car, tires screaming down the street, my heart hammering inside my chest like my ribs couldn't hold it in.Collapsed. Resuscitated. The words circled like vultures, each pass squeezing my lungs tighter. A noose, that's what it felt like. A slow, choking noose.Not Ava. Please God, not my baby.I knew her condition was slipping. Doctors had their polite way of saying it—cautiously optimistic, let's wait, let's schedule. But I saw it. I saw it in her face every morning, that ghost-pale look, that too-old exhaustion on a six-year-old.I should've screamed at them sooner. I should've forced their hand. Sho

Laila's POVTwo days.That's how long it had been since Ava's surgery—forty-eight hours of stale air, antiseptic floors, and the rhythmic beeping of machines that had become both lullaby and torment.Two days of living inside this sterile hospital room, counting every fragile heartbeat on the monitors like they might vanish if I dared blink too long.Dr. Martinez called the procedure a success. Better than expected, he'd said, as though those three words could erase years of fear.But success wasn't safety. "Well" didn't mean "finished." It meant a long road of recovery. Follow-ups. Specialists. Medication that insurance didn't fully cover. Bills that stacked like bricks on my chest every time I looked at them too long.I was buried in those bills when the air shifted.I didn't need to look up to know who stood in the doorway. His presence carried its own gravity.Jason. Again."Ms. Harper," he said, voice formal, like we were polite strangers instead of ghosts haunting each other. "I