Alle Kapitel von MATED TO MY BESTIE'S ALPHA DADDY: Kapitel 111 – Kapitel 113

The growl is still vibrating in my throat when my eyes finally wrench open, raw and unfamiliar, like someone else borrowed my voice box for a moment and forgot to give it back properly.The ceiling above me is white, too bright, humming faintly with fluorescent light, and my whole body aches in that deep, bone-tired way that tells me I haven't moved in days. My throat is sandpaper. My chest feels like it's been stitched shut from the inside out, which, I realize slowly, it probably has."Ray?" Ivy's face appears above me so fast I barely register the chair scraping back. "Oh my god, Ray, you're awake, you're actually awake—""Ivy." My voice comes out a broken rasp, barely recognizable as my own. "Why does my throat hurt more than my chest?""Because you were growling." She laughs, wet and startled, swiping at her eyes with the back of her hand. "A full minute before you even opened your eyes. Scared the life out of all of us.""I was growling?" I blink, trying to make sense of that. "

"I'm listening," I say, keeping my voice level despite the cold unease crawling up my spine. "What debt?""Ten years ago, my pack lost half our northern border in a single season." Osric settles into the chair beside my bed, utterly unhurried, a man accustomed to rooms rearranging themselves around his comfort. "A hostile coalition pressed down from the ridgelands, picked off our outer territories one by one, and the Council of that era did nothing but write concerned letters while my people died defending land that used to be safely ours.""What does that have to do with Zephyr?""Zion Blackwood offered warriors. Resources. Border patrols strong enough to finally push the coalition back where it belonged." His eyes don't waver from mine, flat and unflinching. "In exchange, he wanted something more permanent than a handshake. A blood tie between our packs, sealed the old way, binding enough that no future Alpha on either side could walk away from the alliance when it became inconvenie