Semua Bab The Alpha's Lost Mate.: Bab 141 - Bab 147

Dominic sat with Caius's request for nearly a week before he brought it properly to Sophie, turning it over alone first, the way he'd learned, this past year, not to do with decisions that touched their whole family, and it was that same habit, catching himself mid-deliberation, that finally pushed him to stop circling it privately and actually say it out loforthI keep going back and forth, he admitted, finding Sophie in the studio one evening. "Caius wants an answer soon, and I don't think I can give him one honestly until I've actually talked it through with you.""Tell me what's pulling you in each direction," Sophie said, setting aside her sketches."Part of me wants it," Dominic said. "Genuinely. I think about what this family survived, and I think about how much of it could have gone differently if some other Alpha had simply had somewhere to turn before internal manipulation calcified into full crisis. Caius says this smaller territory is watching a dispute unfold that looks u

Dominic Steele stood in the quiet warmth of his spacious home office, holding the slim leather-bound handset of his private desk phone firmly against his ear. Beside him, Sophie sat on the edge of the dark mahogany desk, her slender hand resting lightly over his forearm. The soft, golden light of the late afternoon filtered through the sheer curtains, carrying with it the distant, muffled sounds of laughter from the lower patio where Helena and Ethan were still finishing their afternoon tea. That lingering sense of peace filled the room, giving Dominic a steady, grounded calm. A stark contrast to the instinctive, hyper-vigilant bracing that every unexpected phone call had once demanded from him during the darkest months of the crisis.On the other end of the line, Caius Holt’s senior administrative aide was speaking in a hushed, rapid cadence, relaying a series of delicate updates directly from the regional council chambers in the capital. Dominic listened attentively, his dark eyes

Dominic Steele had expected, reading the urgent message from Caius Holt’s administrative office regarding Callum Draven’s newly appointed successor, that the unexpected request would carry some hidden, dangerous complication. He had assumed it was merely another round of careful political maneuvering clever disguised as goodwill. As he sat down at his polished mahogany desk and picked up the heavy landline receiver, dialing the direct private number Caius had provided earlier that morning, he found himself genuinely braced for a conversation considerably more fraught, tense, and hostile than the one that actually unfolded.The telephone line connected on the third ring with a soft electronic click, followed by the sound of a steady, youthful breath."Alpha Steele," the young voice on the line said smoothly. The tone was formal, yet entirely devoid of stiff, bureaucratic arrogance. "Thank you for taking my call so promptly. My name is Torsten. I know my predecessor gave your family ev