Semua Bab Alpha’s Deceptive Mate: Bab 41 - Bab 50

POV: LioraNight settled fully over Nightbane, but there was nothing restful about it. The darkness didn’t bring calm, it sharpened everything. Every sound carried further, every movement meant more. The pack had shifted into something quieter, tighter, as though everyone felt the weight of what was coming, even if they didn’t know the details.I stood in the war room with Kael, the door shut behind us, the rest of the world kept deliberately outside.Maps covered the table between us, marked and re-marked with ink lines, symbols, and notes that had been added over the last few hours. Patrol routes. Weak points. Terrain shifts. Every possible advantage and vulnerability laid bare.But the real focus wasn’t the map.It was the plan.Kael stood across from me, one hand braced against the table, the other resting near the edge as he studied the eastern sector again. The torchlight cast shadows across his face, sharpening the lines of his expression, making him look more like the Alpha th

POV: LioraWe were still a distance from the compound when the first sign of something being wrong became impossible to ignore.It wasn’t just the urgency in Kael’s pace or the way the warriors around us moved with sharpened focus. It was the air itself. The closer we got, the heavier it felt, thick with something that didn’t belong. Smoke. Faint, but unmistakable.My chest tightened.“That’s not from patrol fires,” I said, already knowing the answer.Kael didn’t slow. “No.”The single word carried more weight than anything else he could have said.We pushed harder, closing the remaining distance at a speed that burned through muscle and breath. The moment the compound came into view, everything inside me went still.Something had gone very, very wrong.The outer gates were open.Not broken.Opened.And that detail alone sent a cold, cutting realization straight through me.This wasn’t a breach.It was access.Inside the compound, movement was everywhere, but not the kind that came wi

POV: Liora The north wing felt different the moment we stepped into it.It wasn’t just the physical shift, the narrower corridors, the dimmer lighting, the way the stone walls seemed to close in slightly compared to the rest of the compound. It was the atmosphere. The air carried a tension that had nothing to do with confusion or fear.This was intentional, deliberate and controlled.Kael walked ahead of me, his stride steady, unhurried, but there was nothing casual about the way he moved. Every step carried purpose, every movement measured. Behind us, a small group of guards followed, carefully selected, just as he had ordered. I recognized most of them, wolves who had proven themselves more than once, wolves who would not hesitate if things turned.No one spoke.There was no need.We all understood what this was.Not a negotiation.Not anymore.As we approached the inner hall, the shift became more obvious. Two guards stood at the entrance, not ours. Their posture was firm, their e

Pov: LoiraThe alarm bell began to ring just as dawn’s gray light touched the stone walls of Nightbane.The sound rolled across the compound like a warning from the gods, heavy and urgent enough to send every instinct in me into immediate alert. At first strike I thought border breach, another attack at the perimeter, another test of our defenses. But when the second bell followed, deep, violent, unmistakable, my blood turned cold.Two strikes meant only one thing.Attack from within.For a fraction of a second, the world seemed to hold its breath.Then chaos erupted.I was already moving before conscious thought caught up, pushing into the corridor outside the infirmary where wolves rushed in every direction. Boots pounded against stone. Orders collided in the air. Someone shouted for eastern patrol reinforcements while another called frantically for healers. The atmosphere carried a different kind of terror than I had felt during border raids. This wasn’t the sharpened readiness of

POV: LioraI woke to the scent of cedar smoke and crushed wolfsbane.For a moment I did not know where I was.Pain drifted through me first, dull and heavy, before memory returned in jagged fragments. The courtyard. Matthias. Bram’s betrayal. The arrow. Kael’s arms around me. His voice breaking in a way I had never imagined possible.Then the rest returned.I had told him.Gods.I had actually said it.Because I love you.Heat rose to my face despite the weakness in my body.Of all the things I might have confessed while half dying, somehow those had been the words I chose.And he had answered.I love you too.I shut my eyes briefly as though I could steady the storm those words stirred.But it was useless.Everything had changed.Again.When I opened my eyes, dawn filtered through the infirmary windows in pale silver bands. The room was quiet except for the low crackle of a nearby fire.And Kael was there.Asleep in the chair beside my bed.His head rested against the edge of the mat