Semua Bab The Alpha's Hidden Debts: Bab 1 - Bab 10

Sera's Pov"Sera."I stopped halfway across the yard. Della. She had followed me out of the hall, her shawl pulled tight around her shoulders, her breath making small clouds in the cold air. She looked at the bag on my shoulder and then at my face and I watched her put it together in real time."Where are you going?" she said."For a walk.""With a bag.""Della.""Don't Della me." She stepped closer, dropping her voice. "Talk to me. Where are you actually going?"I looked at her. She was one of the few people in this pack who had ever been genuinely kind to me, without any angle or agenda That almost made it harder."I'm leaving," I said.Her face fell. "Tonight? Sera, you can't just walk out tonight, it's dark. The border is two miles out and you're human. At least wait until morning. Please.""I can't stay in that building tonight, Della.""Then stay at mine. Come on, just come inside. We'll talk and figure something out together.""There's nothing to figure out." I adjusted the bag

Sera's Pov "You're awake."I opened my eyes. The voice came from the corner of the room. A woman sat there, older, somewhere in her sixties, grey hair pulled back, the kind of face that had seen enough of everything to stop being surprised by most of it. She had a cup of something warm in both hands and she was watching me with calm unhurried eyes.I sat up slowly and looked around. Clean wood ceiling, simple furniture, A window letting in pale morning light. It smelled like pine and cold air. No pack smell, no territorial markers pressing against my skin the way they always did in Ironmoor. Not a cell. I had been in a cell once, I knew the difference immediately."Where am I?" I said."Northesk lodge. Guest room, second floor." She said it simply, no drama attached to it. "You've been out about six hours.""Six hours." I pressed my fingers to my temple. "Who brought me in?""Riven. Carried you himself, wouldn't let anyone else near you." She took a slow sip from her cup. "I'm Mara."

Caden's PovThe bedroom was exactly as she'd left it.I stood in the doorway a long moment before going in. I had walked into this room a thousand times without thinking. Tonight I thought about it.Her side of the bed was made, smooth, untouched, the way it had been every morning for three years because she always woke before me and made the bed before I was fully conscious. A small habit I'd never commented on, and apparently never stopped noticing, because its absence sat in the room now like something physical.Below, the hall was still loud. A new Luna. A reason to celebrate. Simple, to everyone but me.I crossed the room and sat on the edge of the bed. I didn't know why. She hadn't taken anything that was mine. I knew that before I checked, because that was who she was. She wouldn't take a single thing that wasn't hers, even leaving in the dark with nothing.A memory surfaced. Not the kitchen this time. Earlier than that. Her first month here, before I'd let myself think about h

Liora's PovIronmoor's dining hall was smaller than the great hall, which I'd been grateful for at first. Fewer eyes. Fewer wolves tracking my every movement like they were waiting to see if I'd do something wrong.I'd been wrong about that too. Fewer eyes just meant the ones that remained looked harder.I sat at Caden's right. That was where I was supposed to sit, where the mate of an Alpha sat, and I'd learned the geography of this hall quickly because I'd learned the geography of every room I walked into quickly. It was a skill I'd had for a long time, longer than I liked to think about. Know where you're supposed to be. Know where the exits are. Know how to look like you belong somewhere even when you don't feel it.I felt the bond the moment I'd walked into the gathering two nights ago. It had hit like something physical, a pull low in my chest, instant and undeniable, and every instinct I had told me this was right, this was real, this man across the room was mine in some fundam

Sera's PovI didn't know about the message for a full day.I found that out later, the way you find out most things in a pack, sideways, after the fact, pieced together from things people don't quite say. Riven had it on his desk for a day before he called me in. I didn't know that when I walked into his study that afternoon. I just knew, the moment I saw his face, that something had shifted.He was standing at the window, not sitting, which was unusual. He turned when I came in and gestured at the chair across from his desk."Sit down," he said. Then, before I'd even moved, "Actually, just come here first. I want to show you something."I crossed to the desk. A single sheet of paper sat on it, plain, formal, the kind of letter that had been drafted carefully and then redrafted, every word weighed before it was allowed to stay."This came yesterday," he said."Yesterday.""I sat with it for a day before I called you in." He said it plainly, no apology in it, but no hiding either. "I w