All Chapters of The Lost Heir: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

Celeste led them through the great house in silence, past rooms Maya had once cleaned, down stone stairs she'd never been permitted to descend. The Council chamber waited below—ancient, cold, already full of Alphas who'd felt Ivy cross into their territory."They've been waiting for hours," Celeste murmured. "Every pack leader in the Alliance."The blood drained from Maya's face. Every pack in the Alliance would be watching.The Council chamber was carved from stone older than Stonehaven itself, deep in the mountain where the wards ran thickest. Alec felt the atmospheric pressure the moment he crossed the threshold. This wasn't Stonehaven gathering its own. This was a War Council deciding whether their defensive line could still hold.Ivy walked beside him, her small hand swallowed by his. She wasn't pushed forward like a trophy, nor was she tucked behind him like a secret. She moved carefully, her eyes lifting to faces she didn't know but understood were the ones who kept the borders

The next day settles into Stonehaven without ceremony. The yard fills early, the sound of drills carrying down the lower paths—wood striking wood in a steady, violent rhythm. Children trail after their mothers, still half-asleep, clinging to hands and skirts before drifting toward the same open patches of dirt worn smooth by generations of play. No one directs them. They gather where they always have, an instinct as old as the mountain itself.Maya watches from the porch while Ivy eats her breakfast, legs swinging from the bench, humming a tune without words. Alec had gone to the yard before the sun fully cleared the ridge. He'd paused in the doorway just long enough for his gaze to linger on Maya—a look that felt like a physical touch—before saying he'd be close. Then he was gone, leaving the air in the room feeling suddenly thin and charged with the memory of his presence.Ivy talks about the game she watched the night before, about how the older kids kick the ball without looking a

The house settles into its night sounds—the creak of old wood, the distant murmur of voices from the lower halls, the whisper of wind through the pines. Maya sits on the edge of Ivy's bed, her hand smoothing through her daughter's hair in the repetitive, grounding rhythm that has soothed them both since Ivy was an infant. "Am I bad?" Ivy's voice is small, muffled against the pillow. Maya's chest tightens. "No, baby. You're not bad." "I hurt people today." "You were scared. Your power reacted. That's not the same as being bad." Ivy's eyes open, red-rimmed and searching. "But what if I can't stop it?" Maya leans down, pressing a kiss to Ivy's forehead. "Then we'll figure it out. Together. You, me, and your dad." The word still feels strange on her tongue—dad—but Ivy's face softens at the sound of it. "He protected me," Ivy whispers. "He did. He always will." Ivy's eyes drift closed, her breathing evening out. Maya stays until she's certain Ivy is asleep, then slips f

Maya and Ivy left early the next morning. Maya didn't say where they were going, just that she needed time alone with her daughter. Alec didn't push. After everything that had happened at the Council meeting, she deserved space.He's in his office when Celeste walks in.She doesn't knock. She never has. But today, the familiarity of the gesture feels hollow, like she's playing a role she no longer fits.Alec looks up from the papers spread across his desk. His expression shifts when he sees her face—the careful makeup that doesn't quite hide the exhaustion, the rigid set of her shoulders."Celeste.""I can't do this anymore," she says. No preamble. No easing into it.Alec stands slowly. "Celeste—""I'm hurting, Alec." Her voice is controlled, but barely. "I've tried to be patient. Tried to be understanding. But I can't keep standing beside you while you build a life with someone else."He doesn't deny it. The silence is answer enough."I gave you two years," she says. "Two years of my

The sound hits the compound like a physical blow. The pack answers with a guttural roar. Howls tear loose from the dark—raw, uneven, and hungry—erupting from every direction at once. Alec is already running, his boots chewing into the gravel, when the first shout echoes from the far end of the yard."They're here!"He doesn't slow. He doesn't think. He shifts mid-stride.It's a violent, practiced agony. Bone rolls under skin; muscle surges with a force that steals the breath from his lungs. His jacket shreds as he drops to four limbs, his momentum carrying him into the open yard just as the first wave of rogues breaks from the tree line.A massive grey wolf—Rowan—hits the lead intruder, taking his throat in one surgical snap. Blood sprays hot and metallic across the frost-covered grass. Another man fires wildly, the muzzle flashes illuminating the chaos in strobe-like bursts. The rounds chew bark off an oak before a black wolf slams into him from the side, teeth locking into a shoulde