All Chapters of I Accidentally Became the Alphas' Mate : Chapter 71 - Chapter 76

The pregnancy test sat on the edge of the infirmary sink like it was waiting for me to deal with it.I was not dealing with it.I was rinsing my mouth for the fourth time in an hour, conducting a calm and rational inventory of everything I was responsible for.One war. Actively in progress.Three packs under my authority. One more whose Luna I was promised to become. Four territories, four sets of people who needed the woman gripping this sink to keep her head on straight.One five-year-old cousin who looked at me like I was the only thing between him and the end of the world.One enemy who had sent back a surrender or die with the confidence of someone who believed those were the only options.And now this.I looked at my reflection. It looked back with an expression that said, "You knew what you were doing, and now you must live with it. My wolf, Rose, had opinions."I know," I told her.From the main infirmary room, I could hear River and Cade not hovering — too still, too careful

The ceremony was small.That was the right word for it — not intimate, not private. Small. The kind of smallness that happens when the person being buried leaves little warmth behind. Mara had been my sister by blood and by pack law, and I had loved her the way you love something complicated — carefully, from a certain distance, always aware of the weight. Standing at the edge of the grave in the grey morning light, I tried to find grief that felt clean and came up empty. Even my mates on either side of me could not make me feel anything beyond the sadness of a potentially great wolf dying without a decent legacy as pack luna. What I found instead was the habit of watching.I pushed my awareness out in a slow, quiet sweep the way I always did now — the way I could not stop doing, even here, even now. Pack members ringed the grave in loose clusters, shoulders drawn in, faces turned down. Beta Marc stood across from me, still and correct, Josylyn by his side, tears flowing down her fac

Elara looked like hell.I had never once, in my entire life, seen my half-sister look like hell. Elara was the polished one, the Luna who ruled Silverpine with a manicured everything and a mate who agreed with her in public and — I had always assumed — in private. The woman standing in the rain outside the Iron Den bar was unrecognizable. Her polish is gone. Her coat was soaked through. Her hair hung in ropes. "Laney." Her voice cracked on my name. "Please. Before anyone calls Silverpine. Before they find out where I am."Cade and River stayed half a step behind me, and through the bond I felt them both do the same thing I was doing — sweep the treeline, the road, the dark beyond the parking lot lights. Rose pushed against the inside of my skin, hackles up."No one followed her," Rose said after a moment. "Or no one she knows about.""Inside," I said. "Not the main hall. Around back through the kitchen."Iron Den's old kitchen was stone-walled and windowless, with exactly one door,