All Chapters of THE ALPHA'S RELUCTANT BRIDE : Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

Chapter 71Zara stood in front of her children as the door exploded inward. Masked soldiers poured into the basement. She did not think. The gold in her eyes flared bright and the first man who reached for Elias dropped with his throat torn open by her bare hands. She moved faster than she had ever moved in her life. Claws she did not know she possessed ripped through body armor. Blood sprayed across the camera that was still rolling.The bond flickered once in her chest. Weak. Fractured. But Damien was still alive somewhere in the medical wing. She felt his pain like a distant echo. She kept fighting.Adaeze grabbed Liora and pulled her toward the back exit. Zara took Elias by the hand and followed. They reached the tunnel that led to the old escape route. Three more soldiers blocked the way. Zara killed two before they could raise their weapons. The third shot her in the shoulder. She barely felt it. She tore the gun from his hands and used it to finish him.They burst out into the

Chapter 73Zara ran through the white corridors with blood still wet on her hands and the gold in her eyes burning so hot it felt like her skull might crack open. Every step sent a fresh wave of fire through her veins as the gas Lucian had released began its work. The power that had woken inside her only minutes earlier was already fighting the serum, twisting and thrashing like a living thing that refused to die quietly. She could feel it trying to climb higher, trying to force a full shift her body was not ready for, while the poison dragged it back down with equal force. The result was pure agony, a war fought under her skin that made her vision blur and her lungs seize with every breath.The bond flickered in her chest like a dying radio signal. Damien was close. She could feel the exact moment he entered the building, the sharp spike of his rage and the deeper undercurrent of terror for her and the children. She sent back whatever strength she had left, a single wordless message

chapter 75Zara woke up to an empty side of the bed and the sound of Damien's voice, low and controlled, coming from somewhere down the hall. That tone. The one he used when something was wrong and he did not want her to know yet.She pulled on his shirt from the floor and followed it.He was in his study, phone pressed to his ear, back straight in a way that meant every muscle in him was braced. When he saw her in the doorway he did not wave her off the way he used to. Two years of marriage had taught him better than that."I will call you back," he said, and hung up."Who was that.""Adaeze." He rubbed a hand over his jaw. "There has been an incident at the northern territory line. Wolves from another pack crossed without permission. Two of ours were hurt."Zara felt her stomach drop, the old fear that never fully went away even after everything they had survived together. "Hurt how badly.""They will heal. Wolves heal fast." He said it the way he always did, calm on the surface, an

Chapter 77The howl faded into the trees, but nobody in that living room moved for a long moment. Zara felt Damien's hand find hers, steady even though his eyes were somewhere far away, already three steps ahead in whatever plan was forming behind them."That was not a warning call," Marcus said quietly. "That was a summons.""For who," Nadia asked."For whoever else Sable has recruited." Damien's voice had gone flat and even, the tone Zara recognized from the very first day she met him, the one that meant the calm was a choice, not an absence of feeling. "He would not risk exposure over one border test. If he is calling wolves together tonight, he already knows we are on to him.""Then we move faster than he expects," Marcus said, reaching for his jacket."No." Damien's hand came up, not sharp, just final. "You stay here with Nadia and the children. If Reyes has been watching this family for six months, she may already have people positioned near this house. I need you protecting wha

Chapter 79The council chamber had never felt small to Zara before. She had stood in it a dozen times over the years, planned the gala that had been held in its outer hall, learned its marble floors and its high windows well enough to walk them blindfolded. Tonight it felt like the walls had moved closer overnight, pressing in on every side.Thirteen elders sat in a curved row at the front of the room, Adaeze among them, her expression unreadable in the way Zara had learned meant she was already three moves ahead of everyone else present. Damien stood at the center of the floor, dressed like the CEO he was rather than the alpha he had been in those woods two nights ago, though the bruise along his jaw had not fully healed and made the point anyway.Zara stood beside him. Not behind him. Beside him. That had taken years to earn and she was not giving the position up now."Councilwoman Reyes has not been seen since the incident at the northern border," Adaeze said, opening the session w