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Alle Kapitel von The Alpha Forgets : Kapitel 61 – Kapitel 70

76 Kapitel

61

61 By the time Decker stepped into his office, there was no trace of blood left on him. Not on his hands. Not on his clothes. Not on his skin. But it hadn’t left him. It lingered in the way he moved, controlled, deliberate, like every step had purpose. It lived in the stillness of his expression, in the quiet weight of his presence that pressed into the room before he even spoke. Morgan was already there. Of course he was. Seated comfortably in one of the chairs as if he belonged there, one leg crossed over the other, hands resting loosely against his knee. Megan stood near the window, her attention drifting lazily over the grounds outside. Both of them turned when Decker entered. And both of them felt it. The shift. Morgan’s eyes sharpened immediately. “That didn’t take long,” he said. Decker closed the door behind him with a soft click. “No.” Morgan leaned back slightly, studying him. “Something happened.” Decker didn’t sit. Didn’t offer pleasantries. “Silver Claw.” Megan’s

62

62 The call came through a number Decker didn’t recognize. That alone was enough to make him pause. He stared at the screen for half a second, something in his instincts sharpening not alarm, not exactly… awareness. Then he answered. “Decker.” A familiar voice came through the line. “Nice to know you answer unknown numbers.” Decker’s expression didn’t change. “Matthew.” On the other end, Matthew let out a quiet breath of something that might’ve been approval. “Took you long enough to realize you needed help.” “I didn’t realize,” Decker said flatly. “Tony convinced me.” Matthew huffed softly. “Smart man.” Decker leaned back in his chair, eyes flicking briefly toward the closed office door. “How did you get this number?” A pause. Then. “That,” Matthew said calmly, “is part of the point.” Silence settled. Heavy. Intentional. “You’re not as secure as you think,” Matthew continued. “Your internal systems, your communications, even your private lines there are gaps.” Decker’s jaw t

63

63 Decker made the decision before breakfast was even over. He didn’t ease into it. Didn’t circle it. Didn’t present it as a possibility. He set his coffee down, looked across the table at Tony, then at Lotty, and said, “The Luna ceremony happens in two days.” Silence dropped over the small morning meal. Tony’s eyes lifted first, sharp and immediately approving. Lotty blinked once. Then again. Across the room, Megan, who had joined Morgan for breakfast at Decker’s invitation because apparently he enjoyed chaos, went perfectly still. Decker didn’t look at her. He kept his eyes on Lotty. “I want you in position,” he said. “Formally. Publicly. No more uncertainty.” His voice lowered slightly. “And I want you in the pack link before anyone else decides to test what you are to me.” That last part landed hard. Because it was true. Too true. Lotty set her fork down slowly. Two days. The ceremony. The pack. The title. The responsibility. She should have hesitated more. Should have needed

64

64 The envoy arrived before noon. No warning. No request for the audience sent ahead. Just three wolves from Silver Claw riding hard through the outer gates under a white flag that meant message, not mercy. By the time they were escorted into the packhouse, half of Dark Mountain already knew where they came from. And why. Lotty felt the shift in the air before anyone told her. She was in the main hall with Garrick, going over the ceremony schedule for what felt like the tenth time, when Decker’s presence flared hard through the bond sharp, focused, immediately alert. She looked up. Garrick was already watching the front doors. “Silver Claw,” he said. Not a question. Lotty’s stomach tightened. Of course. The note Decker had sent had landed exactly the way it was meant to. And Alpha Jacob was not the kind of wolf who let humiliation sit quietly. A moment later, Tony appeared in the archway leading from the front hall. “Decker wants you there,” he said to Lotty. Garrick stepped awa

65

65 The next day did not begin quietly. It began with motion. Voices in the halls before sunrise. Footsteps that didn’t slow. Doors opening and closing. The low hum of a pack preparing for something important, something public. Something permanent. Lotty stood in the center of her room for a moment, just taking it in. “This is insane,” she muttered under her breath. Behind her, the closet doors were already open, fabric laid out across the bed from options that weren’t nearly good enough for what she was about to become. A Luna. In one day. She dragged a hand through her hair and exhaled. Then there was a knock. “Come in,” she called. The door opened and Lotty blinked. Two women stepped inside. Warriors. That much was obvious immediately. Not just from the way they moved, but from the way the room shifted slightly when they entered. Presence. Confidence. Control. One had dark braided hair pulled tight at the back of her head, sharp eyes that missed nothing. The other was taller,

66

66 Tony didn’t go looking for Decker right away. After handing Adam’s gift to Lotty and seeing the way her face softened when she understood what it was, he gave her a moment. She deserved that much. Maybe more. The packhouse was buzzing around her preparing for the Luna ceremony, moving furniture, carrying flowers and candles and lengths of dark fabric through the halls but for a second, she had gone still. He knew that look. Not because he was close to her. He wasn’t. Not really. But he had known of her for years, in the way wolves who paid attention knew the names that mattered in nearby packs. Adam’s sister. The girl Decker had surprisingly been half-haunted by for a decade. The woman who had somehow stepped into this mountain of politics and blood and survived long enough to change the shape of it. Tony wasn’t Lotty’s friend. He wasn’t trying to be. But he cared whether she lived. Cared whether she was broken by what this pack demanded of her. And in some strange way, that ma

67

67 The morning of the Luna ceremony began before sunrise. The packhouse had never truly gone quiet the night before, but by dawn the restless preparation had turned into something steadier. Purposeful. Final. Flowers had been set, candles laid out, ceremonial cloth draped across the great hall below. The kitchen had been working since midnight. Warriors moved in polished lines instead of rough patrol rhythms. Even the air itself felt different. It was not just another day in Dark Mountain. It was a claiming. A crowning. A line being drawn in front of the whole pack and every watching ally. And Decker woke with something close to peace sitting beneath everything else. Not softness. Not ease. Just certainty. He stood at the window of their room while the sky slowly lightened over the mountain, hands braced against the frame as he looked out over the grounds below. Wolves were already moving through the yard. Guards rotated. Servants crossed between buildings with trays, flowers, and

68

68 The great hall of Dark Mountain had been transformed by evening. It still carried the heavy bones of the mountain, dark wood beams, stone walls, iron lanterns but tonight it held something older, something ceremonial. Candles burned in long rows along the walls and at the front of the room, their light catching on dark silver draping and the carved crest of the pack set high above the raised dais. Fresh greenery had been woven through the railings and along the edges of the central aisle, giving the room a faint scent of pine and cedar beneath the warmer smell of wax and packed wolf bodies. Every chair was filled. The highest-ranking members of the pack sat in ordered rows nearest the front council members who had survived Decker’s first reckoning, senior warriors, household heads, lead healers, old bloodlines that still mattered enough to be noticed. Behind them, over a hundred wolves stood shoulder to shoulder. Watching. Waiting. The atmosphere in the hall was unlike anything

69

69 The celebration began the moment the ceremony ended. Not politely. Not gradually. One heartbeat the great hall still held the solemn weight of vows and witness and howling pack voices echoing against stone and the next, Dark Mountain came alive. The doors were opened wide, and wolves poured in from every corridor and courtyard path, from the lower houses and outer grounds and nearby dens. The high-ranking seats near the front of the hall no longer mattered. Rank softened for one night beneath music and firelight and the kind of collective joy that only came when a pack had survived something and decided, all at once, to breathe. By full dark, the hall and the grounds beyond it were crowded. Hundreds more had come. Families. Children. Older wolves with walking sticks and sharp eyes. Teenagers trying to look older than they were. Mated pairs with infants on their hips. Warriors still in ceremonial black, already loosening collars and jackets as wine and ale flowed more freely. Th

70

70 As the night stretched on, the celebration softened. The music didn’t stop but it slowed, shifting from lively dances to something deeper, more rhythmic, more intimate. The louder voices faded into clusters of quieter conversation. Children had long since been carried off to beds or curled up asleep on chairs, wrapped in blankets and laughter that had finally worn them out. The great hall still glowed with candlelight, but the edges of it had grown calmer. Full. Satisfied. Dark Mountain had celebrated. Now it was settling. Lotty stood near one of the open archways, the cool night air brushing her skin as she looked out over the courtyard. Lanterns swayed gently, and a few stubborn groups of wolves still lingered outside, unwilling to let the night end just yet. Behind her, the hall hummed with the last of the celebration. Beside her Decker. He hadn’t left her side all night. Not once. Even now, as things quieted, his presence remained steady and close, one hand resting lightly

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