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Home / Werewolf / The Alpha’s Second Life / Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

All Chapters of The Alpha’s Second Life: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

75 Chapters

31

"Where the hell did you get that mark?"Richard’s voice wasn't a question. It was a tremor of tectonic plates shifting under the Harrington estate. He didn't look like a recovering patient anymore. He looked like a predator that had just realized the prey in front of him shared his soul. His hand, still wrapped in sterile gauze, twitched as he pointed at the base of Henry’s neck—the faint, silver-white crest of the Harrington lineage glowing through the mud on the boy’s skin."Don't you look at him." Joshua stepped left, his shoulder blocking Richard’s line of sight. He felt the heat radiating off the Alpha—the heavy, pine-and-iron scent of a wolf reclaiming its territory. Joshua’s own heart hammered against his ribs like a trapped bird. "He’s a patient. You’re a patient. Get back to your wing, Richard. Now.""I saw it. Don't you lie to me, Joshua!" Richard lunged forward. His boots skidded on the marble, his face contorted. He reached out, his fingers inches from Henry’s jacket.Josh

32

"Sign it, Richard. Now."The gold pen rattled against the mahogany desk. Richard didn't move. He stared at the two men sitting across from him—the Harrington Pack’s top legal council. They looked like vultures in tailored suits. Their eyes were dry, devoid of the panic currently clawing at Richard’s throat."I’m not signing a request for a 'blood-theft' inquiry," Richard rasped. He shoved the paper away. It skidded toward the edge of the desk. "He’s my son. I don't need an inquiry to prove what my own wolf already knows.""You need it for the Council, Alpha." The elder lawyer, a man named Sterling, leaned forward. He didn't blink. "The boy is legally a Scott. Without a formal challenge to the death certificate you signed five years ago, he doesn't exist to this pack. Legally, you’re trying to kidnap a stranger’s child.""He’s not a stranger! He has my eyes! He has the Silver Link!" Richard slammed his fist into the desk. The wood groaned. A glass of water tipped, spilling across the b

33

"It's over, Bianca. The elders saw the boy."Bianca Moore slammed her glass against the vanity. The crystal didn't break. It just rattled against the marble, mocking her. She looked at her reflection. Her hair was perfect. Her makeup was a shield. But her eyes were wide, the pupils blown."They saw a child in the dirt, Richard," she snapped at the empty room. She leaned closer to the mirror. Her scent was fading. That synthetic, jasmine-heavy pheromone—the one that mimicked a True Mate bond—was thinning. Her skin felt dry. Itching."You're shaking."She spun around. Her maid, a mousy girl named Sarah, stood in the doorway. She held a fresh silk robe."Get out!" Bianca hurled the hairbrush. It caught Sarah on the shoulder. The girl didn't cry. She just backed away, her head down. "And find me my phone. The black one. The one in the safe.""But the doctor—""I don't give a damn about the doctor!" Bianca screamed. She stood up, her chest heaving. "Get it now!"She waited until the door c

34

"Who are you calling, Richard?"Bianca stood in the doorway of the study. She looked like a portrait of the perfect Alpha’s mate. Silk dress. Hair pinned back. A soft, practiced smile that usually made Richard’s wolf sit at her feet like a tamed cur. She took a step into the room, and the air around her began to shift. The heavy, sweet scent of jasmine rolled off her skin in waves.Richard didn't look up from the tablet on his desk. His hands were shaking. He was staring at the surveillance footage of the garden—empty gravel and a fountain that seemed to laugh at him. "None of your business.""You're obsessed with that child." Bianca glided closer. She reached out, her fingers brushing his shoulder. She released a concentrated burst of what should have been her 'Calming Mate Scent.' "The Scott boy is gone, Richard. Joshua stole him. Let it go. We have the pack to think about. We have... us."Richard inhaled. He waited for the familiar haze to settle over his brain. He waited for the j

35

"Get in the car, Joshua."Richard’s voice came through the phone like grinding stones. I gripped the receiver, my knuckles white. Henry was in the other room, humming to a cartoon. The sound usually calmed me. Today, it felt like a countdown."I’m not a Harrington employee anymore, Richard. Call your own vet.""This isn't a request." Richard’s breath hitched. A jagged, wet sound. "The hospital wing. Ten minutes. Or I send the Enforcers to your front door."The line went dead. I stared at the screen. My heart slammed against my ribs. I looked at Henry. He was safe. For now. I grabbed my medical bag, my fingers digging into the leather.The estate smelled like ozone and rot.I walked into the hospital wing. The sterile lights hummed. Richard was sitting on a stainless steel exam stool. He looked like hell. His shirt was torn at the collar. Sweat matted his hair. He didn't look like an Alpha. He looked like a man who had just crawled out of a car wreck.He held two amber vials in his han

36

Silence is a luxury we no longer have, Alpha."Edward Harrington’s voice scraped against the high vaulted ceilings of the Council Chamber. He sat in the center of the mahogany dais, his skin the color of old parchment. He was a skeleton draped in a tailored suit, one hand trembling as it rested on the pack’s ancient charter."I'm not here for a history lesson, Edward," Richard barked. He stood in the center of the room. His fists were curled. His jacket was missing. The silver-rot scars on his neck pulsed with every beat of his heart. "You called a Purity Hearing. Get on with it.""Status is everything." Edward’s clouded eyes didn't move. "A True Blood heir has been claimed. Yet the boy’s mother—the woman you named as your mate—is currently in a holding cell smelling of chemicals. And the Omega you declared dead is standing in the gallery. The pack demands an audit of the soul.""The audit is done." Richard pointed a finger at the dais. "Bianca lied. She drugged me. She faked the bond

37

"Strip her of the Harrington name."Richard stood on the high dais, his voice a jagged blade. He didn't look at the woman kneeling in the center of the Council Hall. He couldn't. His fingers dug into the mahogany railing until the wood groaned."You can't." Bianca lifted her head. Her hair was a matted mess. Dirt smeared her cheek, but her eyes—those sharp, calculating eyes—were wide with a manic triumph. "You touch me, and you're a murderer in the eyes of the Great Pack.""The evidence is signed in blood, Bianca." Richard stepped down. One slow, heavy step at a time. "The rogue attack. The scent-mimics. The dead guards. You're done.""I'm not alone!" Bianca screamed. She slammed her palms against the marble. "I'm carrying the future of this pack. Your second heir, Richard. I’m pregnant."The hall went silent. Every Elder leaned forward. The air in the room thickened, heavy with the sudden, metallic scent of shock.Richard froze. His foot hovered over the final step. His jaw tightened

38

"Open the door, Joshua."I didn't move. I leaned my forehead against the cool wood of the apartment door. The rain was lashing against the hallway window, a steady, rhythmic drumming that matched the thudding in my chest."Go away, Richard.""I'm not leaving." His voice was muffled, thick with something that sounded like gravel and regret. "It's been three hours. The neighbors are staring. I don't care."I looked at the clock. 2:14 AM. I looked at the small pile of bills on the kitchen counter. Electricity. Water. Rent. All overdue. All the price of a life lived in the shadows while he played king in a palace built on my silence.I turned the deadbolt.Richard was a wreck. His silk shirt was plastered to his skin, translucent from the downpour. Water dripped from his jaw, pooling on my cheap welcome mat. He didn't look like the Alpha of the Silver-Oak Pack. He looked like a man who had lost his way in the dark."You're tracking water everywhere," I said."I'll buy you a new rug." He s

39

"Get the children to the back! Now!"The clinic door shattered. Not just the glass. The whole frame groaned and buckled. I shoved a mother and her toddler toward the sterile hallway. My hands shook. My stethoscope tangled in my fingers. I ripped it off and threw it."Joshua! There are more out front!"My nurse, Elena, pointed toward the street. Three blacked-out SUVs had jumped the curb. Men in tactical gear poured out. No badges. No uniforms. Just the heavy, cloying scent of rogue pheromones and wet dog."Barricade the intake!" I grabbed a metal filing cabinet. I shoved. It didn't move. My boots slipped on the linoleum. "Elena, call the—"The air suddenly tasted like pennies. A high-pitched whine started in the back of my skull. Then the flash.Whump.The front windows didn't just break; they vaporized. A cloud of fine, metallic powder filled the lobby. It hung in the air like a fog. Silver-Dust."Richard?" I coughed. My lungs burned. Every breath felt like swallowing needles.I look

40

"Sign here."I shoved the three-page document across the scarred kitchen table. The edge of the paper caught on a splinter in the wood. Richard didn't reach for it. He stared at the pen I’d laid on top—a cheap plastic ballpoint that looked like a toy in the shadow of his massive, bruised hand."You're serious?" Richard looked up. His eyes weren't amber anymore. They were dark, circled by the exhaustion of the last forty-eight hours. "You want me to abdicate the lineage?""I want my son to sleep without an Enforcer outside his window, Richard." I leaned back, my chair creaking. I crossed my arms. Hard. I didn't want him to see my fingers shaking. "The Council is only hunting him because he’s a 'Harrington Heir.' If he’s just Henry Scott, a medical anomaly with no claim to your throne, the political target on his back shrinks.""The Council doesn't care about names, Joshua. They care about that howl. They care about what he can do.""They care about the right to what he can do." I tappe

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