Todos los capítulos de Alpha’s Forbidden Mate: Capítulo 51 - Capítulo 60

Someone—probably Morgan, who had a sense for these things—left a card table in the lobby, right under the only working light, with a deck of battered cards and half a dozen mismatched mugs. Within two days, it became the new heart of the building: all comings and goings filtered through that circle of cautious play. Carolina tried to keep her distance, but every night when she passed through on patrol, she’d find herself drawn to the glow, the low arguments about suits and rules, the precarious peace that held them together.Tonight, Finch presided over the spread, knees tucked up and arms folded with a warlord’s assurance. Xander was across from him, trying to look disinterested while losing spectacularly. Morgan and Gem hovered at the edge, drawing on each other’s hands with scavenged gel pens. The new strays—the children and their not-dad—watched from the wall, not part of the table but anchored by its gravity, soothed by the hum of ritual.Finch glanced up as Carolina entered. His

The city was a bruised cathedral that morning, sun pale and unslept, and Carolina found herself alone in the upstairs kitchen except for the rumble and click of the old coffeemaker. She ignored it, tracing circles in the moisture on the counter. The echo of yesterday’s storm was still alive in her nerves, and she wondered if the other former fosterlings were still dreaming, or if they had become adept, like her, at waking early and expecting nothing.Xander’s knock was polite, almost clinical. “You up for a perimeter check?” His silhouette had that impossible calm, even after nearly losing a finger to the windowseals during the worst of it.Carolina nodded, grabbed her jacket, and followed him through the service stairs. They walked without conversation, boots soft on the wet cement, heatless sun flattening the varied grays of the world. At the second alley, Carolina said, “Finch think there’s movement in Sector D?”Xander flicked her a glance. “Not unless the ghosts have tools now.”

He found her on the fire escape, shins dangling over chipped ironwork, the sun gone deceptive low and the city peeled into strips of orange and cooler navy. Xander, carrying their dinner—cold beans from a can, plus a sliver of cheese he must’ve pilfered—sat beside her without asking, the steps groaning under his weight.She took the can, swallowing with a grateful nod. “We’re almost out,” he said, picking at the fraying edge of his shirt’s cuff. “Pancake week didn’t help.”“We’ll improvise.” She set the can between them, propping her elbows on her knees. “Always do.”He raked a hand through his hair, caught a bit of paint in the process—still staining his knuckles and the roots. “What happens when they come?” He didn’t say who. He didn’t need to.“I’ll kill them. Or you will.” The flatness in her tone was practice.He smiled, not wide, but deeper than before, the private grin that lived for her. “Reckon you could do it?”She looked at him, serious. “What’s one more body?”He shrugged,

They slept light, woke before the sun. When Carolina rolled over, Xander had already washed and dressed, hair still damp, boots laced tight and double-knotted like habit. She propped herself on an elbow, eyed the ink and old splatter on his hands, the careful way he pocketed a blade and closed the sheath with his thumb. He noticed her, grinned crooked, and tossed a shirt to where she sprawled across the blankets.She pulled it on, tried to ignore how the cotton still smelled vaguely of the cleaning solvent Xander used for everything that wasn’t alive. They had fifty-three minutes before the new shipment hit the market, and the plan was simple: Get in, get the goods, get out before anyone with a badge or a grudge got curious.Lyra trailed them as far as the stairwell, hissing reminders at Carolina’s back: Don’t talk to strangers, keep your face down, remember the code if you get grabbed. Carolina gave a tight, deadpan salute. Xander waited till the girl vanished, then said, “She’s more

The fever hit in the small hours, icy and savage and impossible to blame on anything but the world outside. Carolina woke in a freeze-sweat with Wyn’s face barely a foot from hers, lamp burning a hole through the attic dark.“You’re burning,” Wyn whispered, the hand on her forehead a contrast of cool and bone-deep worry. “I told you, they probably dosed the vials we scored.”Carolina shoved upright, tried to scrape sleep and the night’s gluey secrets from behind her eyes. Xander was already up, dressing with angry efficiency and a bandage ghosting his eyebrow where she’d bitten it open hours ago. The attic rocked a little on its stilts. Downstairs, a kid hollered, and the building’s pipes answered with a scream.“Nothing works,” Wyn muttered, flipping over the blister packs, shaking powders into tins. “All of it’s cut or worse. We’re gonna have to try something else.”She was about to close her fist around the note of panic in Wyn’s voice, flatten it, when the window exploded inward a