Caged By The Cruel Alpha 의 모든 챕터: 챕터 31 - 챕터 40

"They are watching us."Thorne's voice was grim as he spread the patrol reports across the war table. The maps were covered in red marks—each one representing a Shadow Fang sighting along the borders of Black Hollow territory. There were too many marks. Far too many. They clustered along the eastern border like bloodstains, spreading north and south with each passing day.Wren stood at the edge of the room, her back pressed against the cold stone wall. She was not sure she belonged here among the warriors and strategists, surrounded by wolves who had spent their lives preparing for exactly this kind of threat. But Cain had invited her to attend—had insisted, actually—and she was not about to refuse. Not when her presence was the reason Shadow Fang had come. Not when every red mark on that map was, in some way, her fault."How long have they been out there?" Cain asked, his silver eyes tracing the pattern of red marks with cold calculation. His voice was steady, controlled, but Wren ha

"That was reckless."They were back at the pack house, alone in Cain's study with the door firmly closed. The guards had been dismissed. The other warriors had been sent to their duties. It was just the two of them now, and the air between them crackled with tension.Wren stood before him like a soldier awaiting judgment, her chin raised and her eyes defiant. She knew she had taken a risk. She knew she had potentially endangered everyone with her outburst. But she could not bring herself to regret it."And stupid," Cain continued, pacing the length of the room like a caged animal. His boots struck the floor with sharp, precise steps. "And exactly what Vorik needed to confirm you are here. Before, he only suspected. Now he knows for certain. You handed him the proof he was looking for.""He already knew. The messenger looked right at me before he delivered that message. They knew I would be there." Wren kept her voice steady, refusing to be cowed by his anger. "Vorik planned for me to

"Wren. Wake up."The voice pulled her from a restless sleep filled with dreams of fire and blood. She sat up in bed, blinking against the dim light of a single candle. Thorne stood in her doorway, his face grave with worry, his body tense with urgency."What is wrong? What has happened?""It is Sera. Her fever is spiking—worse than before. The pack healer says—" He paused, and Wren saw the fear he was trying so hard to hide. The crack in his composure. "He says she might not survive the week."The words hit her like ice water, shocking her fully awake. She was out of bed and moving before she fully registered what she was doing, pulling on clothes and racing toward Sera's room without thought for appearance or dignity.The room was crowded when she arrived. Brennan the pack healer stood by the bed, his face drawn with exhaustion and defeat. His hands were stained with the herbs he had been using, and his eyes held the hollow look of a man who had run out of options. Cain was there too

Everything hurt.That was Wren's first coherent thought as consciousness slowly returned. Her body felt like it had been wrung out and put back together wrong, every muscle aching and every joint protesting the simple act of existing. Her head throbbed with a dull, persistent pain that pulsed in time with her heartbeat. Even breathing was an effort, each inhale requiring conscious thought and deliberate will.But Cain was there.He was holding her hand like it was the only thing keeping him grounded in reality. His silver eyes were bloodshot and shadowed with exhaustion, rimmed with dark circles that spoke of sleepless nights. His jaw was rough with stubble he had not bothered to shave. His clothes were wrinkled, his hair disheveled, his entire appearance a far cry from the polished Alpha she had come to know.He looked terrible. He looked wonderful. He looked like he had been through hell and back, and somehow that made him more human than she had ever seen him."What happened?" she

Sleep would not come.Wren lay in her bed, staring at the ceiling while Elise's words repeated in her mind like a curse she could not break. He is mine. The contract is signed. Nothing changes that.She told herself it did not matter. Told herself that whatever she felt for Cain was foolish and dangerous and best forgotten. She was a healer—or she was supposed to be. He was an Alpha bound by politics and duty. There was no future for them. There never had been.But the ache in her chest refused to listen to reason.When dawn broke, painting the sky in shades of gray and pink, she gave up on rest and sought out Thorne. She found him in the training yard, watching the morning drills with tired eyes that suggested he had slept as poorly as she had. The tension of Elise's visit hung over the entire pack like a storm cloud."Tell me about the contract," she said without preamble. "The arrangement with Elise. All of it. I need to understand."Thorne sighed and gestured for her to follow him