All Chapters of Craving the alpha soldier : Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

Tyla’s POVThe Veil does not close.It recedes.Like a tide recognizing the moon it answers to.Fire gutters out around me, curling back into nothing as my boots hit solid ground. The realm breathes—once, deep and vast—and then stills, waiting.Arthur is already moving.Not charging.Not fighting.Just coming to me.Each step he takes feels heavier than the last, like the world is daring him to revert—to snarl, to bleed, to kneel. His shoulders are rigid, hands trembling at his sides, jaw clenched so hard I hear his teeth grind.When he stops an arm’s length away, he doesn’t touch me.He looks.Really looks.Like he’s afraid that if he reaches out, the cost will come due.“Say something,” he whispers.I step closer.The space between us hums, charged with everything we almost lost.“I saw it,” I say softly.His breath shudders.“The choice,” I continue. “The bargain. The silence.”His head bows.“I was going to tell you,” he says hoarsely. “After the war. After the trials. After—”“Af

Tyla’s POVThe palace is awake when we arrive.Not bustling—braced.Torches line the battlements, their flames sharp and restless, bending in a wind I can’t feel. The gates stand open, but every guard is armed, every posture tight with the kind of readiness that comes from too many unanswered questions and not enough sleep.Word traveled faster than we did.It always does, when fear is involved.As Arthur and I pass through the outer archway, conversation dies mid-breath. Heads turn. Eyes widen. I feel it like a pressure change—attention slamming into us from all sides.Not just him.Me.The Mark at my collarbone hums softly, no longer hiding itself. I resist the instinct to cover it. If this is the cost of rewriting the rules, then I will not pretend ignorance now.Arthur’s hand brushes mine.A silent check-in.I squeeze back.Together.Inside the palace walls, the air feels strained, stretched thin over something volatile. Courtiers cluster in murmuring knots, nobles peering from be

Tyla’s POVThe nights change first.Not dramatically—no tearing skies or screaming rifts—but subtly, in the way silence gathers where it didn’t before. Moonlight no longer presses down like a command. It drapes instead, softer, uncertain, as if the sky itself is learning restraint.I wake before dawn with the sense of being needed.Arthur is already awake beside me, propped on one elbow, watching the window where pale light seeps through the curtains.“You felt it too,” I murmur.He nods. “The Veil isn’t reacting anymore.”I sit up, the sheets sliding down my shoulders. “It’s… waiting.”That unsettles me more than any monster ever did.We dress quietly. No armor. No ceremonial blades. Just leather and cloth and the Mark glowing steady at my collarbone like a promise I’m still learning how to keep.The palace corridors are nearly empty as we move through them. Guards bow, but there’s hesitation now—not fear, not reverence. Expectation.People are waiting to see what comes after truth.

Arthur’s POVPower used to be simple.You took it.You held it tighter than anyone else could.And when the world demanded a price, you paid it in blood—preferably your own, because that felt like control.Now?Now power watches me flinch when I clench my fists.Now it waits to see what I’ll do without pain to justify the choice.The first time a rift stabilizes without my intervention, I feel useless.Truly, bone-deep useless.I stand on the ridge above the northern valley, guards spread out below me, watching villagers work in careful coordination—ropes anchored, stones placed, voices steadying one another as the air warps and then slowly, stubbornly settles.No roaring.No shift.No Alpha command snapping the world into line.Just people… holding.My claws itch.“Don’t,” Tyla says quietly beside me.I hadn’t realized I’d started to shift.I force the change back, muscles trembling with the effort. “I wasn’t going to.”She gives me a look that says she knows the lie I tell myself as

Tyla’s POVThe world does not end.That surprises everyone.After the anchors are established—after the Veil learns how to rest—people wait for catastrophe the way they always have. For backlash. For punishment. For the universe to demand repayment for a balance that didn’t involve blood.It doesn’t.Instead, things become… uneven.Some days are quiet enough to feel suspicious. Other days are loud with argument, grief, learning. The realm breathes irregularly, like a body recovering from a long illness. Nothing about it is graceful.But it’s real.I walk the palace grounds at dawn, bare feet on cold stone, feeling the threads of connection stretch and relax beneath the world’s skin. The Veil is present—not hovering over everything, not threaded through every choice—but accessible. Like a river with banks instead of a floodplain soaked in sacrifice.Arthur joins me by the eastern wall, two cups of steaming tea in his hands.“I still expect something to jump out at us,” he admits, passi