Lahat ng Kabanata ng Unexpected Mate: The Cruel Alpha’s Little Wolf: Kabanata 171 - Kabanata 180

Sleep refused to come. I lay awake long after the estate had fallen silent. Moonlight filtered through the curtains, stretching pale silver across the bedroom floor. Normally... The quiet comforted me. Tonight... It only gave my thoughts more room to wander. Kael's words replayed endlessly in my mind. "I want you to stop." Not... Be careful. Not... Take someone with you. Stop. Completely. I turned onto my side. Closed my eyes. Opened them again moments later. The image refused to leave me. The way he'd stood by the window. The way his voice had changed. Most of all... The look on his face. Fear. I had never seen it before. Not during council meetings. Not even when Manda had walked into my office and warned us that people had begun noticing my questions. Yet tonight... After hearing what I'd found... He'd looked as though something inside him had finally fallen into place. And whatever it was... It terrified him. I sat up

The estate was unusually quiet the next morning. Perhaps it always was. Perhaps I had simply never noticed before. Sunlight poured through the tall windows as servants moved quietly through the corridors, beginning another ordinary day. Everything appeared exactly as it should. And yet... Nothing felt ordinary anymore. I stood beside my window, absently smoothing the sleeve of my dress. Kael had already left for the council chambers shortly after breakfast. Before leaving... He'd reminded me once again to stay away from the investigation. He hadn't raised his voice. He hadn't ordered me. He'd simply looked at me with that same quiet seriousness and said, "Please." That single word had stayed with me far longer than I cared to admit. I wanted to listen. I truly did. But the more I tried to push everything aside... The more one thought refused to leave me. If the pattern had returned after fifteen years... Why now? There had to be a reason.

The folded paper remained exactly where Vera had left it. I told myself not to touch it. I failed. My fingers found it almost without thinking. The paper felt ordinary. Light. Unremarkable. Yet my pulse quickened as I unfolded it. There was no letter. No explanation. Only a place. And a time. Tomorrow. Four o'clock. Old Riverside Chapel. At the bottom... Five words had been written in the same careful hand. Come alone if you care. I stared at them until the ink blurred. Then, with a sharp breath... I folded the paper again. "No." I whispered. "No." I carried it to the fireplace. Held it above the empty grate. All I had to do was strike a match. One match. Kael would never know Vera had come. Neither would I. The questions would remain unanswered. Life would continue. My hand refused to move. With a frustrated sigh... I lowered the paper instead. I locked it inside the top drawer of my desk. Out of sight. That shou

The restraints were removed only after the third locked door. Not because they trusted me. Because there was nowhere left to run. The corridor stretched ahead in cold grey concrete. No windows. Only evenly spaced lights fixed to the ceiling. Every few metres... Another security camera. Another steel door. Another keypad. This place wasn't abandoned. It wasn't temporary either. People had built this. Planned it. Paid for it. One of the men gestured forward. "Inside." The heavy door swung open. I stepped through cautiously. The room surprised me. It wasn't filthy. Or underground. There was a narrow bed against one wall. A small table. A chair. A bathroom tucked behind another door. Everything was clean. Almost painfully so. The only thing missing... Was any way out. The single window sat too high to reach. Its thick bars disappeared behind reinforced glass. The door closed behind me with a heavy metallic thud. Then... T

I lost track of time sometime during the night. Without a clock... Without windows low enough to see the changing sky... The hours blurred into one another. Sleep came in short, restless bursts. Every unfamiliar sound pulled me awake again. By the following morning... My body felt heavy. Breakfast arrived as silently as the previous day's meals. The same younger guard. The same expressionless face. The same refusal to answer questions. This time... I didn't ask any. He seemed almost surprised. The tray had barely touched the table when another voice spoke from the corridor. "Bring her." The younger guard stiffened immediately. "Yes, sir." He stepped aside. A second man entered. One I hadn't seen before. He was taller. Broader. His face remained unreadable. "Come with me." "I don't believe I have much choice." "You don't." He answered simply. My wrists weren't bound this time. Not immediately. One guard walked ahead of me.