All Chapters of TWO ALPHAS ONE BOND : Chapter 151 - Chapter 160

LYRAThe next morning, the packhouse smelled completely different.I noticed it before anything else while standing at the top of the stairs with a mug of coffee I hadn't even finished making yet. It was woodsmoke that wasn't ours, it had a sharper, colder note underneath the usual smell of beeswax and fresh paint. The kind of scent that meant unfamiliar wolves had been moving through these halls overnight and hadn't bothered hiding it.By the time I got down to the main hall, I saw why.There were easily a dozen Nightshade wolves scattered across the ground floor. They were helping carry crates of glassware toward the ballroom, cheerfully arguing with a Ravenwood warrior over the fastest way to the kitchens, and one was perched on a stepladder reattaching a length of silver ribbon that had come loose overnight."Careful with that," a Ravenwood omega said, catching the ladder as it wobbled. The Nightshade wolf on it laughed and said something I couldn't hear, and the two of them fell

ORIONI’d faced down plenty of things in my life without flinching, Kael’s cold disappointment, an entire trial by combat, losing Karleen in a way I still hadn’t fully recovered from, but nothing really prepared me for the specific, bone-deep unease of finding my grandfather standing on Zeviar’s porch while flour was still drying on my knuckles."What are you doing here?" Zeviar asked again, harder this time, stepping half in front of Lyra without even thinking about it.Aldric didn't make a move to come in. He just stood there in the doorway, coat still buttoned up against the evening chill, hands hanging loose at his sides in that deliberately unthreatening way he’d adopted ever since the manor. Ever since he’d admitted what he’d done and what it had cost. It should’ve made him look smaller. It didn't, not quite. It just made him look tired in a way I’d never seen on him before, not even after Isolde, not even after Elowen, or at least not in any of the stories I’d grown up hearing.

LYRAThe packhouse had shifted again overnight, somehow louder and busier than before we left for the lake house. It felt like the two days we'd spent away had let all the coronation prep quietly double while our backs were turned. The ballroom floors were finally finished, dark wood gleaming under fresh polish. Someone had started hanging the real coronation banners to replace the temporary ones; deep green and silver that caught the light every time the front doors opened and let a cold draft in. A few staff members were arguing cheerfully near the base of the main staircase over whether the flower arrangements should be white roses or something more seasonal. The second I stepped through the door, the smell of ordinary fresh and warm bread hit me from the kitchen, against everything that had happened at the lake house less than a day ago.All of it should have felt reassuring. Instead, I found myself scanning faces without meaning to, sorting strangers from the familiar ones, wonde

LYRA‘Don't let them find me first.’Those words hadn't left me since the middle of the night. By the time the actual morning arrived, gray light was creeping through the windows of the meeting room we'd never bothered leaving. I was still sitting in the exact same chair. The same folder was open in front of me, and a fresh pot of coffee was somewhere on its third or fourth round."You didn't sleep," Zeviar said. It wasn't a question, but he set a mug down in front of me anyway."Neither did you," I replied, nodding at the dark circles under his eyes. He didn't bother arguing.Outside the meeting room, the packhouse was starting to wake up. The first sounds of hammering resumed down the hall, and someone's radio drifted faintly from the kitchen. The whole house was gearing up for another full day of coronation prep, but all of it felt a million miles away from the table we were sitting at.Ana arrived just past seven with a stack of new pages under one arm and the brisk energy of some

LYRA"What do you mean it's not abandoned?" I asked, gripping the phone tighter. Zeviar was already pulling the car onto the shoulder so we could hear her clearly."I mean someone's still using it," Ana said. "I pulled satellite imaging through a contact who owed me a favor. It's old and grainy, but it's clear enough to see structures still standing, and a few of them look like they were recently repaired. And there's more. I found a shipping manifest buried under three different shell companies, routing supplies through a chain of towns that makes zero sense unless you're trying to hide the final destination. Food, medical supplies, fuel." She paused. "The route ends less than two miles from where the old settlement should be.""Someone's still running it," I said, my stomach twisting. "After everything Reya told us. After whatever happened to those people, someone's still out there operating.""It looks like it," Ana said. "I can't tell you who, how many people are there, or what ki