Semua Bab The Alpha's Abandoned Mate : Bab 111 - Bab 120

“Ryder, stop,” Sienna whispered, her voice sharp and low as she tightened her grip on his hand. “Someone’s there.”“I know,” he murmured without turning, his body going rigid as the faintest shift of air brushed past them like a warning. “Stay behind me.”“I’m not hiding.”“You are tonight.” His tone carried no room for argument, only a quiet authority that came from instinct, not ego, the same instinct that made his shoulders rise as if sensing danger before it even breathed. “Sienna, listen to me, ”“No,” she cut in, stepping beside him instead of behind like he wanted. “Whatever is waiting for us, we face it together.”He almost smiled, but the tension in his jaw didn’t soften. “Together doesn’t mean equal danger.”“Tonight it does.”He didn’t argue again because the forest answered for him. A branch snapped, a clean, decisive break, not the clumsy sound of a soldier lost in the dark. This was deliberate. Precise. Like someone making sure they were heard.Ryder’s hand shifted insti

“Ryder was here,” Sienna said, her voice sharp enough to cut through the cold morning air. “I can feel him.”“Or someone wants you to think that,” Mira replied, crouching near the fallen arrowheads scattered across the frost-crusted ground. “Look at these. They weren’t dropped. They were torn from bodies.”“They weren’t our rebels’ arrows,” Sienna murmured, kneeling beside her. She picked one up, brushing her thumb along the shaft. The wood was clean, untouched by poison. “These belong to Zane’s hunters.”“And they’re dead now,” Mira said quietly.Sienna rose to her feet, ignoring the tremble running up her arm. “He saved them.”“Saved who?” Mira asked. “Your rebels?”“Who else?” Sienna’s gaze swept the border forest, the skeletal trees bending under a heavy winter wind. “Who else would tear arrows out mid-flight, break sigils with bare hands, and leave no tracks behind?”Mira exhaled slowly. “You really think the Ghost Alpha everyone whispers about is Ryder?”The name rippled through

“Where did he go?” Sienna demanded as she shoved aside the low branches and stepped into the deeper part of the pines, her voice cutting through the cold morning light.Torin hurried behind her, breath uneven, boots sinking into the damp needles blanketing the forest floor. “Majesty, slow down, no one can keep up with him. He moves like, ”“Don’t say ‘ghost.’” Sienna didn’t stop walking. “He’s still a man.”“Barely,” Lysa muttered, keeping pace with them, though her eyes kept darting toward the shadows. “We’re lucky he didn’t kill us by accident last night.”“He saved you,” Sienna shot back.“True,” Lysa said. “But he didn’t look at us like people.”“And how did he look at you?” Sienna snapped.Lysa swallowed. “Like prey he chose not to eat.”Sienna exhaled, long and slow, trying not to let the words sink too deep. The forest felt too alive, branches whispering above them, the wind shifting directions too quickly, the silence stretching in odd ways as if holding its breath. Ryder’s pr

“Get him away from her!” Zane shouted, the words ripping from his throat like a man already losing the war he swore he’d win.He didn’t realize he was moving until Renna grabbed his arm, nails digging into his skin. “Stop. You can’t take him head-on. Not like this. He isn’t the man you fought before.”“He’s never been a man,” Zane growled, wrenching his arm free. “He’s a curse wearing skin.”Renna hissed, “A curse you can’t defeat.”Zane ignored her, forcing his way through the chaos as if brute strength alone could bend the night to his will. But the battlefield obeyed no one. Not tonight. Bodies slammed against him, some friend, some foe, all swallowed by the roar of war. Steel screeched. Wolves snarled. The snow turned black with blood. And through it all, a single figure refused to slow.Ryder.Every step he took left a trail of devastation. Not loud devastation. Not flamboyant or explosive. Quiet, efficient, merciless devastation. A throat cut in silence. A blade redirected so sm

“Sienna, don’t move,” Rowan hissed as he shoved her against the stone wall, his voice breaking under the weight of the flames tearing through the lower city. She tasted the smoke before she saw the fire, and the heat rolled over them in waves strong enough to blister stone. The sky above had turned a violent shade of crimson, the Moon Gate fracturing in the heavens like glass being punched from the inside. Every sound around her was a chorus of chaos, wolves howling in fear and rage, steel striking steel, buildings collapsing, children crying, warriors shouting orders that vanished into the storm of war. She pushed Rowan aside and stepped forward, her voice steady even though her pulse thundered like a trapped animal. “If I hide now, the city burns faster.”Rowan caught her arm again, desperation flashing in his eyes. “You are the Queen. If you fall, everything falls with you.” His words trembled with truth, but she shook him off because hesitation was a luxury she could no longer aff