All Chapters of The Alpha Forgets : Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

22 The trap had been set before noon. Messages quietly sent through the channels that mattered. Carefully worded updates that would ripple through Dark Mountain’s ranks and beyond, just enough truth to be believable, just enough bait to make the right enemy move. Decker would soon address his pack. That he was recovering, had already begun discussing terms with Adam of Edgewater Falls, and most importantly, the meeting would happen soon. Very soon. Now they waited. The waiting was the hardest part. Adam had retreated to the war room to coordinate patrols and monitor messages filtering in from scouts. Matthew moved between floors of the packhouse like a silent shadow, adjusting guard rotations and checking the perimeter himself. That left the quiet center of the storm upstairs. Lotty’s room. Decker sat in the hospital bed placed near the wall, the monitors humming softly beside him. His boots were gone now, replaced by bare feet resting on the floor as he leaned slightly forward,

24 The ride back to the packhouse was tense. Cole drove. Rylan sat in the back with the two restrained attackers, one knee planted firmly between their shoulders to keep them pinned. Both men were bruised, bloodied, and glaring like cornered animals. Lotty sat in the passenger seat, her hands folded tightly in her lap. Adrenaline still hummed through her veins. Every few seconds she glanced at Cole’s side. “You’re bleeding through the bandage,” she said. Cole didn’t take his eyes off the road. “It’s shallow.” “That’s not the point.” “It missed anything important.” Lotty exhaled sharply. “You’re both getting stitched when we get back.” Rylan chuckled behind her. “Yes, doctor.” Lotty leaned back in the seat, tension still buzzing through her chest. The bond was restless. Decker had felt it. She knew he had. Her fear. Her anger. The spike of danger. The connection between them had flared hard during the attack like a thread suddenly pulled tight. Lotty rubbed her temples. “He’s

26 The packhouse finally grew quiet. The kind of quiet that only came after a long day of tension, arguments, interrogations, and planning. Warriors rotated through night watch, the low murmur of voices fading as patrols settled into their posts around the property. Inside Lotty’s room, the lights were dim. Two beds sat a few feet apart, one the medical bed Decker had been using since he arrived, the other Lotty’s. For the first time that day, no one was knocking on the door. No alarms. No urgent reports. Just silence. Lotty lay on her side facing the window, staring into the darkness outside. The moon had climbed high above the trees, casting faint silver light across the room. She should have been exhausted. Her body certainly felt it. But sleep refused to come. She shifted under the blanket for the third time in ten minutes. Behind her, Decker noticed. He had been watching the ceiling for nearly an hour, unable to settle. His injuries had begun to ache again, the deep pull in

28 Decker lay beside her for nearly an hour after the dream. Lotty slept on, her breathing soft and even now, one hand curled near his chest beneath the blanket. Moonlight had shifted across the room, leaving the bed in a dim wash of silver-gray, and for a while he let himself stay there. Let himself memorize the weight of her against him. The warmth. The grounding pull of the mate bond humming low and steady in his blood. But sleep never came back. Not even close. The memory had left him too raw. Too awake. Too full of restless energy that had nowhere to go. His wolf paced beneath his skin, agitated and sharp, pressing at the edges of him with that same unbearable need it had carried since he woke in Edgewater Falls. protect, move, act, stop waiting. Decker carefully untangled himself from Lotty and slipped out of bed. She stirred once, a quiet sound catching in her throat, but didn’t wake. he stood still until her breathing settled again. Then he crossed the room and stepped int

30 The northern border smelled like rain and tension. The forest opened into a long clearing where the invisible line between territories ran like a scar through the trees. On one side, the scent markers of Edgewater Falls clung to the bark and soil. On the other, Dark Mountain’s presence lay thick and sharp in the air. Two lines of wolves faced each other across that narrow space. Warriors. Thirty on one side. Nearly as many on the other. No one had crossed yet. But it wouldn’t take much. Decker stood at the edge of the clearing with Adam, Matthew, and Lotty beside him. Behind them, Edgewater Falls warriors held their formation in a silent wall of muscle and restrained aggression. Across the line, Dark Mountain wolves waited. Their eyes tracked Decker the moment he stepped into the open. Even from this distance he could feel it. Shock. Recognition. Suspicion. And underneath all of it, relief. Lotty felt the shift too. The air changed the moment the wolves recognized their Alpha