All Chapters of THE ALPHA’S GHOST: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

KAYE'S POVI climb into the van.My legs shake so badly I nearly fall. The lean one follows me inside, and I see the silver cuffs in his hand a second before they snap closed around my wrists.The pain is instant.Silver against skin burns and freezes at the same time, like my nerves are being scraped raw. I gasp and try to pull back, but he holds my wrists steady until the locks click. Then he lets go. I clutch my hands to my chest, biting down on a scream.“Sorry,” he says. He sounds like he means it. “But you are the daughter of a mass murderer, and we are not taking chances.”The doors slam shut.Darkness swallows the van except for a thin line of light at the seam. The engine starts. We move.The cuffs keep burning. I can smell my own skin cooking under the metal. I close my eyes and focus on breathing because if I let myself think, I will break.Ethan Rivers rebuilt his pack on revenge. Everyone knows that. And now he has me.I am going to die.My wolf howls inside me, raw and ho

KAYE'S POVBy the third morning, time stopped feeling real.I woke before the knock again, staring at the same low ceiling while pain hummed through my body like a bad echo. My wrists still burned. The skin had not healed right. Silver never let wounds close the way they should. It sat in the blood and reminded you who was in control.I flexed my fingers. The marks were still there.Downstairs, the packhouse was quiet and heavy with sleep. Fog pressed against the windows, turning the world outside into nothing but gray shapes. Miriam was already moving when I stepped into the kitchen, her back stiff, her mouth set like she was chewing on anger instead of words.“You are late,” she snapped.“I am not,” I said carefully.She shot me a look sharp enough to cut. “Five AM means ready to work, not walking in at five.”I nodded. There was no point arguing. There never was.“Today you deep clean,” she said, pointing toward the far steel door. “The freezer. Every shelf. Every corner. I want it

KAYE'S POVWarmth reached me first.Not comfort. Just enough heat to make my body notice the absence of cold. My eyes opened slowly, blinking against pale morning light. The ceiling above me was smooth, faintly yellow, unfamiliar. Not stone. Not the basement. Not the freezer.My wolf snapped awake in the same instant.Fear slammed through me so fast I almost bolted upright. She pressed tight against my ribs, trembling, warning me that this place was worse than where I had been. Above ground. Higher in the packhouse. Surrounded by wolves. No shadows. No escape routes she could scent.I forced myself to sit up carefully. A blanket slid down my shoulders. My muscles screamed as warmth crawled painfully back into my hands and feet. Pins and needles burned through my fingers.The room was small and clean. A narrow bed. A dresser. A window cracked open just enough to let in cold air and pine scent. Second floor. I knew the difference instinctively.And I was not alone.Ethan sat near the win

KAYE'S POVThe basement felt different now.Not kinder. Not safer. Just quieter in a way that made my skin itch. Wolves passed me with shorter looks, quicker steps, like staying too long in my presence might stain them. Being moved back down here had been expected. Letting me wake in a real bedroom had unsettled the pack. This was where they were comfortable placing me again. Below. Out of sight.I folded sheets in the laundry room, steam curling around my hands. Miriam had decided I would split my time between the kitchen and laundry “until further notice.” The room smelled like detergent and warm cloth, a soft scent that felt almost wrong inside this place. The dryers rattled and hummed, steady and dull.Someone entered quietly.I looked up, already bracing myself.She was small, younger than most here. Sixteen, maybe. Her shoulders curved inward like she was used to shrinking. An uneven braid hung down her back. Omega. Her scent was light, careful, threaded with nerves.“Hi,” she sa

KAYE'S POVSleep refused me. It clung to the edges of my awareness, then slipped away every time I reached for it. The mate bond throbbed with Ethan’s unease, a restless undercurrent that tugged at my mind like a tide. He wasn’t in danger. I would have known. But something gnawed at him, anxiety sharp enough that even my wolf stirred beneath her exhaustion.I stared at the ceiling of the basement room. The lights were dimmed, the concrete cool under the thin mattress. The air felt too still, too watchful. Maybe it was the bond, or maybe it was the way the scent of missing wolves lingered in the corners of hallways, in conversations cut abruptly short, in the shifting glances of pack members who didn’t want to admit something was wrong.My leg itched where the ankle cuff rested. I brushed a finger against the metal. Supposedly it had a proximity trigger—step too far from designated areas and the shock would remind me where I belonged. But I had never tested its limits.My wolf nudged me