Semua Bab The Bride He Never Wanted : Bab 181 - Bab 190

OLIVIAAxiel started the engine and turned to me one more time before putting the car in gear. "Are you absolutely sure about this? Once we leave, it's a long drive back if you change your mind."I stared out the windshield at the Barcelona skyline, at the city that had been my home for years, and felt nothing but the hollow ache in my chest."I'm sure," I said quietly."Alright then." His voice was gentle. "Let's do this."He pulled out of the parking garage, and I watched the hotel disappear in the side mirror. Then the restaurant district. Then the neighborhood where my apartment was… the one I couldn't go back to because Logan knew where it was. And finally, the route that would have taken us to Ryan's penthouse, though Axiel wisely chose a different path.For the first few minutes, we drove in silence. I kept my eyes on the passing scenery, watching Barcelona give way to suburbs, then countryside, not really seeing any of it. My mind was replaying the video on a loop, no matter h

OLIVIAThe inside of the Alpha's residence was somehow worse than the outside.I remembered these halls as full of life… wolves moving with purpose, the smell of food from the kitchens, the low hum of a functioning pack at work. Now it felt hollow. Like a body still walking around after the heart had stopped.Portraits lined the entry corridor, generations of Hunters staring down at me with stern, unforgiving eyes. I had looked at these faces my whole childhood and wanted so desperately to earn a place among them.Now I walked past them and felt absolutely nothing.My father led us through the main hall, past pack members who froze and stared and bowed their heads all over again. A woman I vaguely recognized… one of the kitchen staff who used to slip me extra bread as a child… pressed her hand to her mouth when she saw me. I looked away before either of us could feel anything about that.It was when we reached the sitting room that I stopped walking."Where's Mia?"The question came o

RYANI couldn't sit still.I'd tried. I'd sat on the couch for approximately four minutes before my skin started crawling and I had to get up. Then I'd stood at the window for six minutes, watching Barcelona move below me like nothing in the world had gone wrong today, before that became unbearable too. Now I was doing laps of my own penthouse like a caged animal, phone in my hand, checking it every thirty seconds for something that wasn't coming.Fourteen missed calls out. Zero answered.I set the phone down on the kitchen counter and pressed both hands flat against the marble and made myself breathe. She didn't want to talk to me. I knew that. I understood it… understood it in the way you understand something that still feels like being gutted every time you think about it. She'd seen that video and she'd walked out and she wasn't picking up and the last look on her face…I stopped that thought before it finished.I just needed to know she was safe. That was it. That was the only th

OLIVIAAxiel was waiting in the hallway outside, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed."How'd it go?" he asked."He wants me to take over as Alpha."Axiel blinked. "Well. That's... not a small ask.""No. It is not." I started walking and he fell into step beside me easily, matching my pace. "He's also in worse shape than I thought. The famine is real, the pack numbers are down, and half their alliances have dissolved." I glanced at him sideways. "You knew all of this when you came to get me.""I knew some of it.""Axiel.""I knew most of it," he amended. "But I also knew that if I led with *your father's pack is in famine and falling apart and he wants you to take over as Alpha,* you might have said no before you'd seen it for yourself.""You were probably right," I admitted. "I'm still slightly annoyed.""Noted."We walked in silence for a moment, down the corridor toward the main entrance. Through the windows, I could see the pack grounds… the overgrown paths, the building

AXIELShe was asleep.I noticed the exact moment it happened… the way her breathing changed, slowing and deepening, the slight release of tension across her shoulders that had been there all day like something she'd been carrying and hadn't been able to put down. One moment she was watching the film with that expression she had… and then her head drifted, and then she was simply gone.Her head was on my shoulder.I stayed very still.I was aware that I was smiling in a way that probably looked ridiculous, and I was equally aware that there was nobody here to see it, so I let myself have it anyway. She's here.After everything… after months of living in a deteriorating pack and having difficult conversations with a dying Alpha and navigating the very delicate question of how to reach a woman who had every justifiable reason to want nothing to do with anything connected to the situation… she was here. In my space. Asleep on my shoulder, with the film still playing softly in the backgro