All Chapters of Den of Alphas: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

AMELIA 'DECLAN' I wish! I didn’t know what triggered it at first. Maybe it was the quietness of the room. Maybe it was the pressure that had been sitting on my chest since I heard my father was searching for me. Or maybe it was the simple truth that no matter how far I ran, memories still followed me like shadows. Whatever it was… I found myself thinking about a time when life wasn’t this complicated. A time when my family wasn’t broken. A time when my father actually smiled at me. I sank onto my bed, closed my eyes, and the memories rushed in… soft at first, then painfully sharp. I saw myself as a little girl, no more than six, running across the courtyard of our old home. My mother’s laughter filled the air, that warm, gentle sound I used to love more than anything. She sat on the wooden swing, her long hair dancing in the breeze as she clapped playfully. “Faster, Lia! Show me how quick you are,” she called. And I ran, my small legs pu

LENNOX Still not found! The phone nearly cracked in my grip. I had been pacing my room for the last twenty minutes, the urge to shift crawling under my skin like a wild beast. My wolf was restless—agitated beyond reason—because the last thing my father had just told me was the last thing I wanted to hear. “She’s still not found?” I roared, my voice echoing off the cold marble walls of my room. My father exhaled on the other end, the sound older and heavier than I had ever heard it. “No. The search teams have combed the borders twice. Nothing.” My jaw clenched so hard my teeth ached. Fury burned through me, hot and violent. My fists curled, nails digging into my palms until I smelled the metallic scent of blood. Amelia was still gone. Amelia… my mate. Amelia… who had rejected me. Amelia… who had run away as if I hadn’t been born to command, as if I wasn’t the future Alpha, as if she wasn’t supposed to tremble at the sound of my voice. The hu

AMELIA 'DECLAN' I crossed what line? I had started to notice the shift long before it came to a head. Lennox… he had changed. Or maybe it wasn’t that he had changed… it was just that I was finally seeing the full, unfiltered version of him. The version that didn’t bother pretending anymore. His once-in-while calm, commanding demeanor at Lunaris had given way to something far more hostile, more dangerous, and it was aimed squarely at me, even if nobody could suspect why. I had thought it was subtle at first. The way he would glance at me in passing, his eyes sharp, cutting, and full of some unspoken fury. The way his wolf moved with tension around him, as though it was itching to leap at me. But I dismissed it, telling myself I was imagining things. That maybe it was just the aura of dominance that came with being Lennox. Then the first real incident happened during one of those training sessions I honestly don't enjoy. I was sparring with a fellow junior, prac

AMELIA 'DECLAN'     She wants me to return… to my death! I never thought my running away would cause anything more than my father’s usual rage. I never imagined it would spread beyond the walls of our home, or that the consequences would spill into another Alpha’s territory. I only wanted to escape. I only wanted freedom. I only wanted to breathe without someone deciding my life for me. But that afternoon, everything changed. I had just returned from training. Zayn had practically dragged me there because he suspected I wasn’t really as sick as I claimed. I smelled like sweat and wet dirt, and all I wanted was to collapse on my bed and forget the world for a few hours. My phone rang. A number I didn’t recognize flashed across the screen. Unknown. My heart jumped. “Not again,” I whispered, thinking it was another one of those strange calls that had been coming through since the r

LYDIA                   Even if I have to… My son was soft. Too soft for the world he was born into. Too soft for the crown that should rightfully be his. Too soft for the future I had carved out with blood, lies, and decades of patience. And all of that softness… every drop of it… belonged to one man. His father. Alpha Cyrus. I watched my boy… my only child… from across the room as he polished his blade with absentminded calm, humming the way Cyrus did whenever he trained. It infuriated me. The resemblance. The mannerisms. The way he idolized the man hose reign I had become desperate to end. And yet, he loved Cyrus with all of his heart. A weakness. A dangerous one. I needed to fix that. “Draven,” I said softly. He looked up, eyes bright like Cyrus’, loyal like Cyrus’. “Yes, Mother?” Always poli