บททั้งหมดของ Mated To My Ex’s Stepbrother, The Alpha: บทที่ 21 - บทที่ 30

Aria’s POV The river was too cold, it punched the breath out of me the second I hit the surface. The current yanked me under, rolled me against rocks, filled my mouth with silt and freezing water. I kicked wildly, arms flailing for anything solid. Mira’s hand found mine—slippery, desperate and we broke through the surface together, gasping. “Keep moving!” She shouted over the roar. “They’ll lose the scent in the water!” I didn’t look back, I couldn’t, but I felt him. That heavy, b

Damon’s POV By midday, I had shaken more hands than I could remember and accepted congratulations that felt like condolences disguised in silk. “Wise choice,” Elder Maren told me for the third time that morning, her thin fingers squeezing my forearm as if she were sealing a bargain. “You’ve put the pack above your impulses. Your father would be proud.” I inclined my head because that was what an Alpha-in-training did when elders praised him. He absorbed it, he carried it and he did not flinch under it. “Stability is what we need,” I replied evenly, hearing the steadiness in my own voice and despising it. “Lyra brings strong alliances.” 

Aria’s POV By the morning of the ceremony, the pack house no longer felt like a home I had grown up in. It felt like a stage dressed for a performance I had not agreed to attend. The corridors were crowded with relatives from allied packs, servants carrying trays of polished silver, young wolves rushing past with bolts of silk draped over their arms.  Laughter echoed too brightly off the stone walls and every time someone glanced at me, their expression shifted, curiosity folding into caution, caution tightening into judgment. I kept my head lowered and my hands steady as I arranged fresh linens along the long dining tables in the east hall.  

Aria’s POV By nightfall, every candle had been lit, every silver tray aligned, every silk ribbon drawn taut beneath careful hands. The pack house no longer resembled a home but a shrine built for spectacle, and I moved through it in the uniform Lyra had gifted me, the ivory fabric brushing softly against my skin like a reminder of my place. I was nothing more than a servant. The word echoed each time a guest’s gaze slid over me and dismissed me just as quickly. I kept my head lowered as I adjusted the final arrangement of moon lilies along the aisle carved into the clearing beyond the house. The full moon hung vast and luminous overhead, bathing the stone altar in pale light. Incense coiled upward in thi

Aria’s POV The clearing was still buzzing with unsettled whispers when Mira and I finally slipped away from the dispersing crowd. Wolves clustered together in tight circles, their voices sharp with speculation as they replayed the ceremony’s collapse. Some glanced at me openly, curiosity and judgment tangled in their expressions, while others pretended not to stare at all. The full moon still hung above the treetops, brilliant and merciless, casting silver light over the stone paths that wound back toward the residential quarter of the pack. I drew a long breath, the cool night air easing the tightness in my chest. My pulse was only just beginning to steady after the chaos of the ceremony. Every step away from the clearing felt surreal, as though I had stepped ou