All Chapters of What The Alpha Lost: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

(Damon's POV)The clinic parking lot looked like a battlefield.Liam was on the ground near the front door, unconscious, his face covered in blood. The front door was hanging off its hinges. Supplies were scattered across the gravel, bandages, bottles, the remnants of the sandwich he'd brought for Amara, now crushed into the dirt.And Amara was gone.I stood at the edge of the carnage, my chest heaving, my hands shaking. I'd run here the moment I'd gotten the alert, the clinic had been in my sight when I'd felt it, the disturbance in the pack bonds, the sharp spike of fear that could only be hers.I was too late. Too late again.“No. My wolf surged against my ribs, snarling, clawing, demanding blood. We find her. We tear them apart. We bring her home.”“I know.”“Then why are you standing here? Move!”But I couldn't move. Because the moment I started moving, I'd have to admit what was right in front of me.She was gone. Valerie had taken her.---My father arrived ten minu

(Damon’s POV)The cabin door didn’t stand a chance.I hit it shoulder-first, wood splintering around me, fragments flying through the air like shrapnel. The sound was deafening, cracking timber, snapping locks, the scream of hinges giving way but I barely heard it. All I could hear was my own heartbeat. All I could see was the room beyond.The room where she was. The room where they were trying to kill her.I registered the scene in fragments. The dirt floor. The shadows in the corners. The bodies of rogues scattered across the space, some standing, some moving, some already shifting. The blood on the ground. The overturned table. The knife…The knife at her throat.A rogue stood behind her, his arm wrapped across her chest, a blade pressed against the pale skin of her neck. Amara’s eyes were wide, but not with fear. With fury. Her hands were bound behind her back. Her face was bruised. Her lip was split.And she was looking at me like I was the only thing in the world that ma

(Damon’s POV)The pack gathered at dawn.Not by accident, I’d chosen the hour deliberately. Dawn was the time of reckoning. The time when darkness retreated and truth came to light. The time when judgments were made and justice was served.The clearing behind the pack house had been transformed. Wooden benches arranged in a semicircle. A raised platform at the center, where the Alpha’s chair sat empty, my father’s chair, the one he’d occupied for decades. Beside it, a smaller chair for the Luna. My mother sat there now, her back straight, her silver hair braided, her grey eyes fixed on the space where Valerie would stand.I stood at the edge of the clearing, my arms crossed, my jaw tight. Amara was beside me, not behind me, not tucked away in safety where I wanted her. Beside me. Where she belonged.“You don’t have to watch this,” I said.“Yes, I do.”“It’s going to be ugly.”“She tried to kill me. She kidnapped me. She threatened everyone I love.” Amara looked at me. Her grey

(Damon's POV)The dawn came too fast.I hadn't slept. Neither had Amara. We'd spent the night tangled together in my bed, not talking, not touching, just breathing. Listening to each other's heartbeats. Pretending that the world outside didn't exist.But it did exist and somewhere at the border, a new Alpha was waiting.---"You're not going alone."Amara's voice was quiet but firm. She was dressed in dark jeans and a sweater, her hair pulled back, her grey eyes fixed on me. The bruises on her face had faded to yellow-green, remnants of Valerie's cruelty that would take days more to heal."I heard you the first time," I said."Then stop looking at me like you're going to leave without me."I sighed. She knew me too well."The message said 'come alone,'" I reminded her."The message was from someone who wants something. They'll make exceptions.""Amara""Damon." She stepped closer. Took my face in her hands. "I almost died in that cabin. I spent hours tied to a post, wond

(Damon's POV)The pack house was empty when we returned.Not abandoned, just quiet. The kind of quiet that comes after a battle, when the wounded have been healed and the dead have been buried and the living are too exhausted to do anything except sleep.My father was in the medical wing. My mother was beside him. Maya and Liam had gone to the eastern sector to check on the clinic.Amara and I were alone.She stood in the center of my bedroom, still wearing the clothes she'd escaped in torn, dirty, stained with blood that wasn't hers. Her hair was tangled. Her wrists were raw from the ropes. There were shadows under her eyes so deep they looked like bruises.She was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen."You're staring," she said."I'm admiring.""Admiring what? I look like I've been dragged through a war.""You have been dragged through a war." I crossed the room. Stopped in front of her. "And you survived. You escaped. You fought.""I ran.""You survived." I reached o