All Chapters of What The Alpha Lost: Chapter 41 - Chapter 46

(Damon's POV)The funeral was held at dawn.Three days after my father's heart stopped. Three days of numbness. Three days of waking up next to Amara and forgetting, for one perfect second, that he was gone.Then remembering. The pain never got easier. It just got different.The pack gathered in the clearing behind the pack house, the same clearing where Valerie had been judged, where battles had been planned, where generations of Blackwood Alphas had been laid to rest. My father's body lay on a pyre of oak and pine, wrapped in the Silver Creek banner, his sword across his chest.My mother stood at the head of the pyre, her silver hair unbound, her grey eyes dry. She'd been crying for days. Now she was empty. Hollow. The way I felt."Damon." Amara's hand found mine. "You don't have to speak.""Yes, I do.""You can grieve however you need to.""I know." I looked at her. "But he deserves to be honored. By me. By his son."She squeezed my hand. Then she let go.I walked to the

(Amara's POV)Three months passed like water through my fingers.Not quickly, not in the way time moves when you're running from something. Slowly. Deliberately. The way time moves when you're finally, impossibly, happy.I woke every morning in Damon's arms. I went to work at the clinic, my clinic, the one I'd built from nothing. I treated patients. Trained healers. Argued with suppliers and comforted frightened parents and held the hands of wolves who were dying.And then I went home.To him.To us.---"You're smiling," Maya said.We were in the clinic break room, sharing a pot of tea that had gone cold an hour ago. She was looking at me with an expression I couldn't read, part amusement, part something softer."I'm always smiling.""You're not. You're usually frowning about something. A patient. A supply order. Damon.""I don't frown about Damon.""You used to." She set down her cup. "Now you glow.""I don't glow.""You absolutely glow." She leaned forward. "It's ann

(Damon's POV)The border looked different at dawn.Not the peaceful, golden light of a new beginning. Something harsher. Colder. The kind of light that showed every scar on the land, every broken branch, every shadow where enemies could hide.Kael had chosen this place deliberately.Neutral ground. No pack advantage. Just him, and us, and the weight of everything we'd lost."He's not here yet," Amara said.She stood beside me, her grey eyes scanning the tree line, her hand resting on the blade at her hip. She'd insisted on coming not because she didn't trust me, but because she refused to hide.Our son is at home, I thought. With my mother. With Maya. With half the pack guarding his nursery.He's safe for now."He'll come," I said."How do you know?""Because he wants to see my face when he kills me."Amara's jaw tightened."He's not going to kill you.""No.""I mean it, Damon.""I know." I took her hand. "But we need to be prepared for anything."She nodded. The wind