All Chapters of The Price Of Fate: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

Nyra’s POV The pack erupted before Kieran even moved, cheers, stomping, voices rising in pride. Kieran stepped forward, but he didn’t look like a man being celebrated.He looked… hollow.Like he hadn’t slept.Like something inside him had been clawing him apart for days.His shoulders were tense. His face was pale beneath the torchlight. His jaw was clenched so hard it made his cheekbones sharp.And his eyes, His eyes found me immediately.Not with the cold dismissal he wore in daylight.Not with the careful distance he always kept.With fear.Pure, raw fear.It hit me like a punch.His gaze pleaded with me in a way his mouth never dared.Don’t let go.Please.Don’t leave me.For a second, my heart faltered.For a second, the bond tugged like a hand reaching for mine.And then I remembered every time he’d looked away.Every time he’d let them laugh.Every time he’d chosen reputation over me and called it love.So I didn’t look back.I stared past him.Through him.As if he was just

Nyra’s POV One of the only “perks” of being wolfless, if you could call it that, was this:Most wolves didn’t clock my scent immediately.Not unless they were looking for it.Not unless they were close enough to care.My smell didn’t announce me the way theirs did. It didn’t bloom into the air with dominance or rank or heat. It didn’t cling to the world like a flag.I was easy to overlook.Easy to miss.Easy to pretend wasn’t there.And for once, that invisibility became a shield.I froze at the edge of the trees, just outside the porch, my breath held so tightly in my chest it hurt. Alpha Ethan stood at my mother’s door, broad shoulders squared, jaw hard, two of his men waiting a few paces behind him like guard dogs straining on a leash.My mother stood in the doorway, spine straight, hands clenched at her sides.They didn’t see me.They were too busy tearing at each other with words.I lingered where I was, behind the shadow of the pines, close enough to hear but far enough to va

Nyra’s POV The moment I stepped out of the shadows, the world froze.Alpha Ethan’s voice died in his throat. My mother’s pleading expression stiffened into something like stone. Even the morning wind seemed to pause, as if the trees themselves were waiting to see what would happen to the outcast girl who had overheard too much.I hadn’t meant to make a scene.But my feet had moved before my mind could stop them, dragged forward by the ache of hearing my life discussed like a punishment that could be adjusted at will.Alpha Ethan’s guards reacted first.Two of them charged toward me like I was a threat.Like I was a criminal.Like I was something that needed restraining.Strong hands grabbed my arms and yanked me forward.My breath punched out of me.My healing might have been fast, thanks to my mother’s secret light, but my body still remembered pain. It still remembered how easily wolves could break me.My mother lunged a step forward.“Ethan, no, please!” she cried.The sound

Nyra’s POVAlpha Ethan didn’t wait for the murmurs to settle completely before he lifted a hand and claimed the air again.He stood on the platform like the pack belonged to his bones, like every breath Vandwood took had to pass through his approval first. The sunlight caught the sharp line of his jaw, the heavy set of his shoulders, the kind of authority that didn’t need shouting to be felt.“Wolves of Vandwood,” he said, voice carrying clean and far, “as you all know, it is tradition that both alpha heirs compete to decide who will succeed me as Alpha.”A ripple moved through the crowd, anticipation dressed up as pride.“They will both be tested in wisdom and strength over the next month,” he continued. “May the best Alpha win.”The cheer that followed was loud enough to shake the morning. But even through the noise, I could tell what it really was.It wasn’t for both of them.It was for Kieran.His name wasn’t even spoken, yet it was everywhere, in the way people leaned forward, in

Nyra’s POVFor the rest of the day, I couldn’t focus on my work.I tried. I really did.I kept my hands busy, pulling weeds, turning soil, snapping brittle stems clean the way the head woman liked it. I counted rows. I counted breaths. I told myself that if I stayed inside the small, simple rules of the garden, my mind would stop wandering.But it wouldn’t.Because the garden was quiet enough for him to fit inside it.Ronan.His name came like a warm ache, settling in the hollow beneath my ribs like it belonged there. Every time a breeze slid along my neck, I remembered his mouth close to my ear. Every time my fingers brushed my own hair, I felt him again, tucking it back with that gentleness that didn’t match the way he’d pinned me to the wall.I hated how my body betrayed me over the smallest things.A shadow passing over the beds made me look up too fast, my pulse jumping like I expected to see him standing there, watching. A deep voice from the other side of the hedges made my sto