All Chapters of Son Of The Betrayed-An Alpha King Wolf Shifter Romance: Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

AnalieseHours had passed since I’d heard the stranger's voice, but sleep still wasn't happening. I rolled onto my back and stared at the ceiling for what felt like the thousandth time. The digital clock beside my bed glowed 3:42 a.m. in bright red numbers.Every time I closed my eyes, I saw the cabin, the ropes,, and the stranger’s voice beyond the darkness. And Takoda. Especially Takoda.My stomach immediately tightened, though it wasn’t because of the rescue, because he'd tracked me through the woods, or because he'd kicked a cabin door off its hinges, although all of those things deserved some attention. No, my brain had apparently decided to focus on the fact that the man had shifted out of wolf form and burst into the cabin completely naked.W

~Takoda~Grandma Dawson closed the front door behind me. The latch settled with a quiet click, barely loud enough to matter, yet the sound moved through the old house like a lock turning somewhere deeper than wood and brass.Warm air pressed against the cold clinging to my jacket. Coffee sat on the table and the odor of bacon grease lingered within the kitchen, as well that of burnt toast, old pine floors, and cinnamon. Beneath it all was the scent of the four Dawson women who had spent generations living in a house built over secrets.Analiese stood a few feet away from me in the front hall. I didn't look at her immediately, which was a mistake. Not looking at her had become a separate kind of attention, one that sharpened everything else. The shift of her sleeve over the rope burns, the way she held her right arm too close to her body, and the faint hitch in her breathing when I stepped past the threshold, were all impossible to ignore. My wolf noticed all of it, and so did I.Grand

TEN YEARS LATER~Analiese~White dogwood petals swirled across the concrete paths of the campus courtyard each time the spring breeze hit the upper branches, scattering across sidewalks packed with students rushing toward the lecture halls. Loud laughter drifted from the stone steps of the student union building, mixing with the deep, rhythmic toll of the chapel bell. Bright sunlight struck the brick structures, highlighting the dark ivy crawling up the decades-old mortar lines.The valley town looked perfectly peaceful under the blue sky, a visual contrast to the deep mountain ridges towering along the horizon limit.I shifted a heavy stack of hardback research journals higher against my right hip, navigating my boots around three students huddled over a campus map near the lawn. The noise of overlapping conversations rose and fell around my shoulders—bits of summer travel plans, final exam details, and graduation schedules forming a steady loop of background static."Morning, Dr. Daw

Hand hesitating for only a fraction, I opened the door, the hinges throwing a low creak down the empty corridor. The man in the hallway turned slowly, his weight shifting from one weathered boot to the other as though he had all the time in the world and expected everyone else to adjust to his pace. His broad shoulders squared under a dark jacket that looked like it had seen mountain rain, blood, and several bad decisions.My posture tightened against the doorframe, my chest dropping in a shallow breath as I tracked his features. It wasn't Takoda. For one suspended second, a sharp disappointment moved so quickly through my ribs that my eyes nearly bypassed the man standing entirely in front of me. Then recognition settled into my jaw, locking my teeth.Rowan. He stood older now, the lines around his eyes deeper under the hallway lights. His once-easy posture had refined into a controlled, unmoving block of shadow, the boy who had laughed too loudly around bonfires and teased Takoda wi

Ten years of aging had changed the geometry of his face, hardening his features under the fluorescent light. The boy from the mountain pass had vanished entirely. The man standing at the bottom of the risers carried the specific kind of heavy quiet that made even an enemy reconsider the breath inside their lungs.His eyes moved first to track Rowan's position, then swung to lock onto Carter, before rising to fix entirely on my face. The surrounding world did not fade away into a romance novel blur; it sharpened into a painful clarity where every single sound became too clear. I heard the crisp rustle of Professor Smith's wool sleeve, the faint, high-pitched hum of the lighting fixtures overhead, and the thud of my own pulse beating once, hard, beneath my ribs.Takoda's features didn't soften at the sight of me, and his lips didn't part to speak my name. He didn't smile, but his gray irises dropped briefly to scan the folder in Professor Smith's arms, then returned to meet my stare wit