All Chapters of The Alpha's Greatest Regret: Chapter 221 - Chapter 230

LISA'S POVThey gave me an hour with my daughter, and the sun was already dropping when we started up the hill.Two of the female guards walked close enough to catch me if I ran. Four more moved through the trees on either side. Callum stayed out front and let me walk on my own feet instead of somebody's arm. He'd fought this — I'd heard him through the door, making his case to whoever would still listen — and now he wouldn't look at me.We passed the stalls, shuttered early. The training ground stood empty, the young ones sent inside so none of them would have to watch a woman walk to her grave.Nine years I'd known that road. I'd be dead on it before the light cleared the treetops.The cemetery climbs the slope above the compound, oldest stones at the bottom, newest higher up. Cora Maren's sat four rows below my daughter's, plain, her name and her dates and nothing under them, the ground still sunk in the middle where it hadn't finished settling. I had to walk past it to reach Lily.

ALICE'S POVJohn was dressed and sitting on the edge of the bed when I came in, and for the first time in three weeks there was color in his face."Ready to get out of here?""More than ready." He reached for the bag Morwen had packed. "One more night looking at that ceiling and you'll have to admit me for something else."I opened his shirt and checked him one last time.Four claw lines ran across his ribs and up under the collarbone. They were closed now, pink at the edges, no heat in the skin, no sign of infection. Three weeks ago John Marlow was lying open on his own office floor with my hands inside him, and I didn't think he'd live through the night."You're healing better than you have any right to," I said. "So you're going home and you're resting. No shifts. No investigation work. No stairs you don't have to climb.""Yes, Doctor." He almost smiled. "You've told me that once or twice already.""I'll tell you again before you're out the door. I know what you're like."We packed

BENJAMIN’S POVAlice passed close enough that her shoulder nearly brushed mine, then went down the row of light switches one after another, steady as she's been through six weeks of nothing but bad hours. I followed her out and waited on the step while she locked up.The walk up to the house was quiet. I kept my pace to hers, my body turned a little toward her, my eyes on the dark between the buildings the whole way. She didn't argue about any of it. She never once told me she could look after herself.I spent the whole walk waiting for her to change her mind — to stop at the crossroads and cut toward her own house, tell me she'd thought better of it. She did neither.The guards at the front door stepped aside as we came up the steps. I took her through the corridors, past the council chamber, past my office— neither of us turned a head toward it — past the hallway to my own floor, to a door she could have found blindfolded.Her old room.I opened it and stepped back out of her way."

Alice’s POVAfternoon dragged like afternoons do. When the last patient left I sat at my desk and watched the light fade off the square.Lisa’s either dead at the bottom of that river or she’s alive somewhere downstream, and nobody in this whole territory can tell me which.Locked up at six. Rell and Tomas were standing in the exact same spot I left them nine hours ago. Neither of them said a word about it.“Back to the Alpha House, Doctor?”“Yeah. Back to the Alpha House.”Walk up was cold and quiet. Cooking smoke hung low over the houses. Windows lit up yellow one by one as we climbed.Front door opened before I could knock. One of the staff stepped back to let me in.“Doctor Watson. Alpha’s in the dining room.”House was warm. Smelled like roasted meat and fresh bread. My stomach flipped so hard I put a hand on it.Walked down the hall. Door was half open. I pushed it wider and just… stopped.Benjamin was setting the table.He’d changed out of the formal shit into a plain shirt wit

Alice’s POV The staff on the door already knew. News like that moves through a compound faster than smoke.Benjamin was in his study.Neither of us said anything at first. It wasn’t awkward. It was the other kind—where both people have way too much to say and no idea how to start.“So,” he said. “This is goodbye then.”“My brothers have waited three years for me to come home. They’ve been patient about it. They’re out of patience.”He crossed the room toward me slow.“Is there anything at all that would make you stay?”I already had the answer ready and still needed a second to get it out.“My place is with my family, Benjamin. They’ve lost enough already.”“Alice—”“And Blue Moon doesn’t need me now. You’ve got Morwen. She’s ready. I’ve left her everything I know.”“I disagree with the first half of that.” He stopped a few feet away. “The pack still needs you.”He waited a beat. “So do I.”The confession wasn’t romantic. It was honest. Raw. And coming late.My eyes filled with tears.