Semua Bab The Alpha's Hidden Clause: Bab 1 - Bab 10

The contract smelled like old coffee and desperation.My desperation, specifically. His coffee.Alpha Kael Blackwood didn't look at me when I walked into his study. He was reading something on his phone. A stock report, maybe. Or a message from someone he actually cared about.The room was all dark wood and colder than any building had a right to be in October. Rain streaked the floor-to-ceiling windows behind his desk. A fire crackled in the hearth ten feet away, but I couldn't feel it. Couldn't feel anything except the knot in my stomach and the empty growl I'd been ignoring since yesterday.My hands shook as I stopped in front of his desk.Not from fear.From hunger.I'd given my last protein bar to Lila that morning. Told her I'd eaten already. She was eight. She believed me. That was the worst part."Sit." Kael didn't look up.I sat.The leather chair swallowed me. I was too small for it. Too small for this room. Too small for the house I'd walked through to get here — all marble

The ultrasound room was in the basement.I hadn't known the house had a basement until Dr. Hayes led me down a narrow staircase behind the kitchen. The walls were stone. Cold. Damp. Every step echoed like a heartbeat.Kael followed three paces behind.He hadn't spoken since the word atypical.I didn't ask what he was thinking. I was afraid of the answer."This way." Dr. Hayes opened a door at the end of the hall. "The equipment is old, but it works. Alpha doesn't allow many people down here."The room was small. White walls. A single metal table. An ultrasound machine that looked older than me.And on the wall — photographs.Dozens of them.Black and white. Grainy. Ultrasound images, years old, pinned to a corkboard like trophies.My stomach turned."Are these...?""Every heir born to this pack since 1987," Dr. Hayes said quietly. "Alpha's father started the collection. Alpha continued it."Kael said nothing.I looked at the images. Little smudges that had become children. Children wh

Kael found me in the library the next morning.I was reading again. Something about pack hierarchy. Something about the Rite of Ascent. I'd been up since 4 AM, unable to sleep, my mind spinning with words like champion and death circle and forfeit."You're up early," he said from the doorway."You're not sleeping either."He walked in. Dark sweater. Darker eyes. He looked like a man heading to his own funeral."The challenge," I said. "Tell me everything."---Kael sat across from me. Elbows on his knees. Hands clasped."The Rite of Ascent is how alphas have been chosen for centuries," he began. "Two wolves enter a circle of stones. Only one leaves.""Fight to the death?""Usually. Sometimes the loser yields and is banished. But the council's champion won't yield." His jaw tightened. "They want me dead.""Who is the champion?""His name is Marcus." Kael's voice flattened. "He was my father's beta. He trained me when I was a boy. He's the one who found my family's bodies after the rebe

Three days passed after Kael told me about the challenge.Three days of training. Three days of watching him prepare to fight for his life. Three days of pretending I wasn't terrified.The Rite of Ascent was tomorrow at dawn.I hadn't slept in forty-eight hours.---It was 2 AM when I heard it.A creak. Not the house settling. Not the wind.Footsteps.Soft. Deliberate. Stopping right outside my bedroom door.My heart slammed against my ribs.I didn't move. Didn't breathe. Just lay there in the dark, staring at the sliver of light under the door.The footsteps didn't move away.Someone was standing there. Listening.---I thought about calling out for Kael. His room was three doors down. But if I screamed, whoever was out there would run. And I needed to know who it was.I needed to see their face.Slowly, silently, I slid out of bed. My bare feet touched the cold floor. I didn't make a sound.The footsteps shifted.They knew I was awake.I reached the door. Pressed my ear against the

We left at midnight.Kael, Dorian, and me. Marta stayed behind with Lila, guarding the house with a shotgun and a promise."If you're not back by dawn," she said, "I'm coming for you."Kael nodded once. Then we slipped into the woods.---The old pack house was two miles north.Abandoned for years. Boarded windows. Collapsing roof. The council used it for things they didn't want in official records.Like holding hostages.Like torturing information out of people.Dorian led the way. His hands shook, but his feet were steady."He's in the basement," Dorian whispered. "There's a door on the east side. One guard. Maybe two.""Leave the guards to me," Kael said."What about me?" I asked.Kael looked at me. "You stay behind me. Always.""I can help.""Your job is to stay alive. That's how you help."I wanted to argue. But his face was stone, and his eyes were steel, and I knew this wasn't a conversation.So I nodded.And followed.---The east door was unguarded.Too easy.Kael held up a h