All Chapters of They Both Wanted Me: Chapter 131 - Chapter 140

The challenge came three weeks after Aldric's funeral. Kael had been avoiding the pack as much as possible, spending his days in the forest and his nights in his father's empty cabin. The elders had stopped pressuring him to make a decision about leadership, but the weight of their expectations still pressed against his chest every time he walked through the settlement. Wolves watched him with a mixture of hope and doubt, wondering if the alpha's son would ever become the alpha the pack needed. Gunnar was the one who finally forced the issue. He was an older wolf, past his prime but still strong, with a sc

The scouting mission never happened. Kael and his wolves were still hours from the eastern border when they heard the screaming. It drifted through the trees, thin and distant, carried on a wind that smelled of smoke and blood. Kael's heart lurched in his chest. He had heard wolves scream before—in battle, in grief, in the final moments of a life violently ended. But this was different. This was a whole settlement screaming. "The western camp," Torvin said, his voice tight. "They're attacking the western camp." Kael didn't hesitate. He turned and ran, his paws pounding against the forest floor, his p

Selene's descriptions of the hybrid grew more detailed with each passing day, as if the moon was feeding her information in fragments, piece by piece, like breadcrumbs leading Kael toward a destination he couldn't yet see. Lena was not just a woman with golden eyes and dark hair. She was a librarian, living in a small apartment in a city called Lychwood, surrounded by books she used to escape a life that had given her nothing. She had no family, no friends, no one who would notice if she disappeared. She was twenty-two years old when the moon first showed her to Selene, though the visions jumped forward and backward in time, showing her as a child, as an adolescent, as the woman she would become. She had been passed between foster homes throughout her childhood, never staying anywhere long enough to form attachments, never bein

The healers had done everything they could, but Selene's body was failing faster than their magic could repair. The visions had drained her of strength, of color, of the spark that had made her the pack's most revered priestess. Her skin was pale, almost translucent, and her storm-gray eyes had lost their sharpness, replaced by a distant, unfocused gaze that made Kael's chest ache every time he looked at her. She had refused to stay in the healers' tent, insisting on returning to her own cabin, where the walls held memories of Aldric and the fire kept her warm. Kael had carried her there himself, settling her into the bed she had shared with his father, propping her up with pillows so she could see the window and the forest beyond. 

The journey to the mountains had to wait. Rina's report had confirmed that the Silver One's alliance was real, but Kael knew that wolves and vampires standing together would mean nothing if the packs themselves were divided. Seraphine had been building her army for centuries, corrupting wolves, turning them against their own kind, spreading her influence across the continent. The Northern Pack could not stand alone. Kael sent messengers to every pack within a month's travel, calling their alphas to a war council. He chose the meeting place carefully—neutral ground, a clearing in the forest where generations of wolves had gathered to settle disputes and forge alliances. It was far enough from his own territory that no one could accuse him of trying to dominate the proceedings, but close enough that he could retreat if thin