All Chapters of The Three Alphas’ Rejected Mate: Chapter 171 - Chapter 180

Kael's POV I noticed it before I let myself hope about it—longer stretches where Lily just sat with me, talking, without that unnerving distance ever pulling her under. Today made three visits in a row like that. "You keep coming back," she said, cross-legged on her bed the way she always sat, watching me with an alertness that felt sharper than usual, more present. "I used to only see you when something bad was about to happen." "Maybe I just like the company." "Maybe." A small, genuine smile, the kind I'd rarely seen from her. "I like yours too. You don't flinch when I say strange things. Everyone else does." "I've had practice not flinching at strange things," I said. "It's been that kind of year." She laughed—actually laughed, quick and surprised, like the sound had caught even her off guard. It was such an ordinary, unguarded thing that something in my chest ached at hearing it, some old grief and new hope tangled together too closely to separate. "Can I ask you somethi

Rebecca's POVThe village looked smaller than I remembered, the way places always do once you were now grown into someone the version of you that lived there wouldn't fully recognize.Half the buildings were still scarred from Jeremy's first visit—new timber rested awkwardly against old, the kind of rebuilding that happens when a place runs out of people to do it properly. I recognized the bones of my own childhood in the shape of the streets, even where the details had changed. The well Camille and I used to sit beside. The path to the Podds' old home, still cordoned off, still half-collapsed.I'd seen him once before, years ago, in the chaos of a door breaking open and a mark burning too hot to bear. This was different. This time there was no chaos to hide behind, no fight already underway to keep my hands and my fear both occupied. Just him, standing alone in the center of the village I grew up in, waiting for me like he had all the time in the world.Looking at him up close n

Rohan's POVSedric found new reasons to challenge every decision I made lately, and I'd stopped pretending it surprised me."You're overextending the eastern patrol again," he said, loud enough that half the yard slowed to listen. "Same mistake as before. Some of us actually learn from our failures.""The eastern route is still the most vulnerable point since the assault. That hasn't changed since last time either.""Convenient how your reasoning never does." He crossed his arms, something almost lazy in his posture, like he'd rehearsed this particular needling enough times that it cost him nothing anymore. "Funny how the man who nearly got us all killed guarding the wrong side once still gets to decide where we're weak."I felt the old fury climb up through my chest, familiar now in a way that scared me more than it used to—not because it was new, but because it was becoming easier every time to let it win. I made myself breathe through it instead, counting the way Lira had onc

Matthew's POV We kept watch over her in shifts, though none of us actually slept when it wasn't our turn. Rebecca's breathing stayed steady, at least. That was the only mercy in it. Her skin had gone pale in a way that scared me more than I let show, and every so often her lips moved around words too faint to catch, like she was carrying on some conversation none of the rest of us had access to. "Her mark's still glowing," Ezekiel said quietly, crouched beside her for what had to be the hundredth time that day, watching the faint silver light pulse slow and steady beneath her collar. "Whatever she's doing, wherever she's gone, some part of her is still actively working at it." "Working at what." "I don't know yet." He didn't look up. "I intend to find out." Tyler hadn't said much of anything since we'd made camp, sitting close enough to touch her, one hand resting near hers like proximity alone might anchor her back to us faster. The messenger reached us near midday, breathles

Selene's POV The magic slipped through my fingers faster than I could hold onto it, thinner with every hour that passed. "Something's wrong," I admitted, more to myself than to anyone listening. I pressed my palm flat against Rebecca's chest, searching for the thread I'd found before, coming up with less of it each time I reached. "It was working. Now it's fading again. The same thinness I felt with Mae, except it wasn't there an hour ago, and now it is." "What changed," Ezekiel asked, already crouching beside me, his sharp mind working through it before I'd finished explaining. "Distance, I think." I closed my eyes, chasing the sensation rather than trying to force it. "The farther Mae rides, the harder this gets. Whatever links the two of them, it doesn't seem to care that they're on opposite sides of this now. It's like trying to hold two ends of the same thread while someone keeps walking further away with one of them." "Can you fix that," Matthew asked, tension coiled tigh