Alle Kapitel von THE MAD ALPHA : Kapitel 81 – Kapitel 90

POV VAREKThe shadows move wrong and I smell it before I see anything and my wolf is already up and snarling inside me.Not one scent. Not two. Too many. They overlap and twist and push at each other like they are trying to hide and I bare my teeth in the dark hallway and whisper, “Of course,” because I am so damn tired of this.I roll my shoulders and flex my hands and my bones ache for a fight and I do not bother waking slow. I just move. I shove my feet into boots and I am out the door before the alarm even finishes its first soft warning hum.They picked tonight. All of them picked tonight.I hit the stairs two at a time and the manor already feels loud even though no one is screaming yet and the walls feel tight like they know what is coming. My wolf presses forward and my vision sharpens and I smell blood that is not spilled yet and magic that tastes like metal on my tongue.“Incoming,” I growl into the mindlink. “Not one. Many. Move now.”Kael’s voice snaps back fast. “Wards fl

POV: LYRAThe first thing I hear is the hum.Low. Deep. Not loud. It crawls under my skin and settles there like it owns me.I stop in the doorway and breathe it in and my wolf stirs slow and mean inside my chest.“Oh,” I whisper. “Good.”The table stretches across the room and it is covered. Not messy. Not rushed. Laid out clean. Careful. Like someone planned this for a long time and waited for me to finally snap.My father stands on the other side with his sleeves rolled up and blood on his hands that is not his. He does not look at me right away. He is adjusting a rune carved into the side of a short blade. His fingers glow faint and the metal answers him.“You’re late,” he says.“I was busy being locked in my room,” I say and step forward. “Like a fucking child.”He finally looks up. His eyes flick to my face then away again like he already knows what he will see there.“You asked for weapons,” he says. “I delivered.”I drag my fingers over the table. The hum jumps. Every piece r

POV: ELARADawn hits Emano like it does not care what happened last night, and that alone makes my chest ache.Light spills over the stone paths and the broken walls and the blood, and the blood is everywhere, dark and sticky and wrong in the morning glow. It stains the places where moonlight used to fall clean, and I stop walking for a second because my brain refuses to catch up with what my eyes are seeing.My wolf goes quiet inside me, not calm, just watchful, like she is counting.“No,” I whisper, and I do not even know what I am saying no to.Behind me, boots scrape on stone.“Elara,” Varek says, and his voice is rough like he has not slept at all. “You should not be out here yet.”“I’m fine,” I say, and I keep walking.“You’re not,” Kael adds softly from my other side, and I do not need to look at him to know his eyes are worried and tired. “You haven’t stopped since the attack. Let us do this. Let us bring you reports.”I stop then, slow, and I turn, and the look on their faces

POV: ELARAI know something is wrong before Kael ever calls the meeting.The air feels wrong. Heavy. Off. The manor does that thing where it goes too quiet, like it is holding its breath and waiting for something bad to land.Later, Kael will tell me he did not sleep.Later, he will tell me he sat on the edge of his bed all night, staring at the wall, arguing with his wolf until his throat hurt and his head felt like it might split open.Much, much later But right now it is morning.Right now I am standing in the kitchen with a mug in my hands that has gone completely cold, and my chest feels tight for no clear reason. Like my body knows something my head has not caught up to yet.Varek comes in first.He looks tired. Not injured. Not bleeding. Just tired in that deep way that sinks into the bones and does not leave.“Kael wants a meeting,” he says.I nod slowly. “About the weapons?”He hesitates.That pause is what really gets me.“I don’t think so,” he says finally. “He wouldn't ca

POV: KAELI wake up choking and terrified. A crushing horrible terror.My hands are red.I jerk upright in bed and stare at them. My heart is slamming so hard I think it might crack my ribs, I rub my palms together fast, too fast, like I can wipe it away.And then all of a sudden, there is nothing there.No blood.No single stain. Nothing wet at all.But I can still smell it.I drag in a breath and it shakes on the way out.My wolf stirs, slow and tired, and presses against me from the inside.“It is not real,” he says, low and steady.“I know,” I whisper, but my voice breaks anyway. “I know it’s not.”It feels real.It feels like every person who died because of that curse is standing in this room, quiet and watching, and their blood is on my skin even if I cannot see it.It has been days.Days since Elara walked out of that room and did not look back.Days since her door stayed closed.Days since the silence settled in the house like something heavy and alive.Varek told me to giv