All Chapters of Bite Me Harder, Alpha: Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

The smell of fresh blood and bleach hits me first before I even open the infirmary door.My mother leans against the wall, her dark hair sticky with blood. She’s holding her side, but her sharp gold eyes lock onto me the moment I step in. Even half-dead, she looks the same terrifying Luna.“‘Bout damn time,” she rasps. Blood tints her teeth pink.Behind her, Maddox presses a bunched-up shirt against Isla’s thigh where a silver knife still sticks out. Tabitha helps, hands shaking as she tries to stop the bleeding.Elara nudges me. “Rowena’s fine. Stitched herself up before I even got here.”Of course she did. My mother used to be a midwife—she knows blood. She saved my father that way. Now she gives me that look, the one that says I’m an idio

I end up in Kieran’s bathroom, which is nice.The bathtub is deep, and the window looks out onto the woods. I lock the door, take off my bloodstained clothes, and turn the water up to a very hot temperature.Steam appears in front of the mirror straight away. I jump in before it’s even half full, with my knees pulled to my chest, and my skin prickling from the heat.I killed my father.A sob rips out of me, echoing off the tiles. I press my face into my knees and let it all out—ugly, snotty crying. Water sloshes onto the floor as I rock forward, arms wrapped tight around myself as I might unravel.He smiled when he died. That’s the part I can’t stop seeing.“Mom,” I whisper, voice cracking. “I’m sorry. I turned out exactly how he said I would.” Tears drip into the water. I scrub my hands raw, nails digging crescents into my palms until blood wells.For a second, I’m eight years old.Eight years old. I saw Dad at the kitchen table, Mom’s journals spread like evidence. I’d had nightmare

Kali’s grin sharpens. “While the Architects turn everything into a bloodbath, your father tries to start over, slowly poisoning you.”Kieran’s hand settles on the small of my back. His grip tightens once before he lets it ease. The ache he’s carried for years mixes with my own, twisting together until I can’t tell whose pain belongs to whom anymore.Laura’s fingers brush my arm. “Come on, kid. Got a lot to show you. Clock’s ticking.”Kali leads us down the basement steps. They’re damp and creak underfoot.The space is cramped. Shelves overflow with notebooks and vials. A laptop buzzes softly among them.One wall is covered in photos and notes, connected by a red string. Half the pictures show my mom. She looks younger and fiercer in them. The photos show her more alive than her journals ever did.“Lilian wasn’t trying to build better weapons. She was trying to make bonds that lasted—connections that stick. And your old man? He feeds the Architects just enough scraps to shut them up, n

Kieran holds me tightly. His heartbeat can be felt against my shoulder, where there is a fresh mark from a bite.Rowena glares across the table at Kali, her fingers digging into the wood. “You let me mourn you,” she spits out. “You let Kieran grow up thinking his aunt was dead. You made me bury an empty casket.”Kali doesn’t flinch. She leans against the wall, arms crossed. The scar on her face catches the light. “Better empty than with your body in it,” she says calmly. “They would’ve come for you next. Then him.” Her golden eyes flick to me. “Then her.”Mom’s real journal lies open on the table. The pages are crammed with messy notes and chemical diagrams. One line stands out, circled so many times the paper is wearing thin:The Bridge must be willing. Force breaks it. Choice completes it.“So all of this…” I swallow hard. “The suppressants. The car crash. The serum Dad gave the Architects… It was never about stopping a weapon, was it?

I stand at the edge of the courtyard where sunlight spills like blood across the stones. The pack celebrates. They laugh, they howl, they raise glasses to the Alpha and his hybrid mate while fresh graves still smell of turned earth behind us. My fingers tighten around the stem of a wine glass I have not touched. The liquid inside trembles.Sienna stands in the center of it all, glowing. Kieran’s hand rests protectively over her stomach where the pup grows. A pup. Their pup. The bond between them pulses so brightly I can almost see it in the air.I look away from them.I was supposed to stop this.For months, I fed Darius everything. Patrol routes. Weak points in the wards. The exact composition of the suppressants I once slipped into Sienna’s system. I tell myself it is necessary. That Kieran will never choose me, but at least I can survive. At least I can matter.Now, the pup changes everything.Sienna is innocent in this. She did not ask for the venom in her blood. She did not ask f