Caged By The Cruel Alpha 의 모든 챕터: 챕터 21 - 챕터 30

"Elara warned him," Wren whispered to herself, fingers tracing the faded ink on the journal page. "She knew what he was. She knew what he would become."The words blurred before her eyes. She had been reading for hours now, long after the sun had set and the candles had burned low. The workshop was silent except for the occasional crackle of the dying fire and the sound of her own breathing. But she could not stop turning pages. Every entry pulled her deeper into a past she never knew existed.This place could be home.Cain's words echoed in her mind, stubborn and persistent. She hated how much she wanted that to be true. She hated how the thought of belonging somewhere—of having a place where she was wanted—made her chest ache with a longing she had buried years ago."Stop it," she muttered to herself, pressing her palms against the worn wooden table. "He is still the enemy. He is still a wolf. He is still the man who bought you like property."But even as she said the words, they fe

Sleep did not come.Every time Wren closed her eyes, she saw Jonas's face. The way the light left his eyes like a candle being snuffed out. The sound of his mate's screams, raw and broken and endless. The pool of blood spreading across the stones, black in the torchlight.She rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling. The darkness pressed down on her like a weight, heavy and suffocating. Her room—which had seemed like such a luxury when she first arrived—now felt like a prison cell. The soft bed mocked her. The clean sheets felt like an accusation.How could she rest in comfort when a man lay dead because of her choice?"I made the right choice," she told herself, her voice thin in the silence. "Trying would have killed me. The magic does not work without connection. I would have died for nothing."But the words felt like lies. Comfortable lies that she told herself to avoid the uglier truth.She had been afraid. Not afraid of death—she had made peace with that possibility long a

"You know them."Cain's voice was not a question. He stood before her in the privacy of her room, arms crossed over his broad chest, silver eyes fixed on her face with an intensity that made it impossible to look away.Wren sank onto the edge of her bed. Her legs would not hold her anymore. The strength had drained out of her the moment she heard that name—Shadow Fang—and now she was nothing but hollow bones and trembling flesh."They killed my family." The words came out flat. Empty. As if she were speaking about someone else's tragedy, someone else's loss. "Shadow Fang attacked our village in the middle of the night. No warning. No reason given. Just fire and death."Cain said nothing. He simply listened, his expression unreadable."They set fire to the houses while people slept. Blocked the doors so no one could escape. And then they hunted us through the streets—anyone who managed to get out, anyone who tried to run." Her voice cracked, but she forced herself to continue. "My pare

"Teach me to fight."Cain looked up from the patrol report he was reading, his silver eyes sharp with surprise. Wren stood in the doorway of his study, her jaw set with a determination that brooked no argument. She had rehearsed this moment in her head a dozen times, preparing for every objection he might raise."What?""I am tired of being helpless." She stepped into the room, closing the door behind her. The study was warm, lit by a crackling fire and filled with the smell of leather and old paper. "If Shadow Fang comes, I want to be able to defend myself. Not hide in a safe room while others die protecting me. Not wait for rescue like some princess in a story."Cain set down the report, his full attention now focused on her. His eyes swept over her small frame—the thin wrists, the narrow shoulders, the body that had been starved and worked nearly to death for five years."No.""Why not?""Because you could get hurt. Training is dangerous, especially for someone with no experience.

"Did you hear? The Alpha is personally training her.""Training her for what? She is just a healer. A failed one at that.""Maybe he wants to make her Luna.""Luna? That scrawny thing? Please."Wren froze just outside the doorway to the weaving room, hidden from the group of female wolves inside by the angle of the wall. Their voices carried clearly through the thin partition, sharp with malice and dripping with disdain.She should have walked away. Should have continued to her original destination and pretended she had heard nothing. That was what the old Wren would have done—the servant, the invisible one, the woman who had learned to swallow every insult and keep her head down.But she could not move. The words had rooted her to the spot."She is not even pretty," another voice chimed in. "All angles and bones. What does he see in her?""Maybe she has bewitched him. Healers can do that, you know. Dark magic. Love potions. They are not as innocent as they pretend.""I heard she refu