All Chapters of After I Left, the Powerful Alpha Gave Up Everything To Win Me Back: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

It was the dead of night when Iron Claw's wolves pressed to the Silver Mane border.Cain rolled over the Silver Mane checkpoints one after another. The border wolves saw who'd come and how many, and not one dared block him. By the time he set foot in the council hall, the whole stronghold was already under his heel.Magnus burst out of the inner room, his sleeping robe barely tied. He saw who it was, startled, then heaped a fawning smile onto his face.“Cain, what brings you here? Now that the girl's gone, there's nothing standing between you and Seraphine. Once you two are mated, our packs will be kin twice over—”Cain said nothing. He raised a foot and brought it down on the stone council table.The whole slab split down the middle and crashed into two halves.Stone fragments sprayed across Magnus's face. Not a wolf in the hall dared make a sound.“What I want,” Cain said, looking at him, “is the daughter you sold twice.”The smile froze on Magnus's face.“Three years ago I took her

I didn't remember.I turned the last twenty-odd years over and over and still couldn't place a wolf this tall, this broad, with a face this red.I waited for him to keep spinning the lie. Three years of being deceived had made me an expert at hearing the cracks in what a wolf says.But the thing Rowan told me had no cracks.The winter in the North ten years ago had been bitterly cold. He'd been a twelve-year-old pup, playing on a frozen rapids he had no business being on. The ice cracked, the whole pup went into the killing-cold water, about to be swept under. The only one on the bank was a passing sixteen-year-old Silver Mane girl, who jumped in without a second thought, dragged him out, stripped off her own fur cloak to wrap his shaking body, and before she left, ruffled his head. “Little pup, watch the ice next time.”I went still.That frozen river, that pup in the water, it rang a bell. That was the year I'd run off north in a temper, and yes, on the way I'd fished out one foolish

(Elara's POV)Since Cain wouldn't leave, I stopped avoiding him.Iron Claw and Thornwood were negotiating the terms of border trade. At a cross-pack occasion like that, Cain was there too.In the council hall, the wolves sat by separate tables. In front of the whole hall I poured Rowan's wine with my own hands, served his food, smoothed the collar that had come loose at his shoulder, every gesture intimate and easy, like the most devoted Luna there ever was, with her Alpha pinned to the center of her heart.A wolf from another pack ribbed us, asking how Thornwood's Luna got to be so clingy.Three years ago, at the welcome feast, Cain had given the best seat and the gravest looks to Seraphine, in front of the whole hall. I was his fated mate in name, and they'd put me at the very last table, like an unclaimed ornament, with not one wolf to offer me a toast. How I swallowed that cup of cold wine I'd poured myself that night, I remember down to the last detail.Now I returned the taste of

The day of the marking rite, the whole Thornwood pack was alive with it.I stood on the high platform of the Moon Goddess grounds in a snow-white rite-gown. Rowan stood at my side, so nervous his ears had gone red, sneaking his hand toward mine, and this time, I didn't push it away.The whole hall was smiling. This was a true celebration. No one had forced me, no one had tricked me. I had come here of my own will, step by step.The fire-basins were lit one by one. The elder was about to speak.Outside the gates came Iron Claw's banner-call.The laughter in the hall died down. Rowan tensed all at once and moved in front of me, the whole of Thornwood's wolves bristling.Cain walked into the Moon Goddess grounds alone, his Iron Claw elites all halted outside the field, not one stepping in.He came to the foot of the platform, stopped, and lifted his eyes to me.There was no more obsession in them, the kind I'd seen in the wind and snow. Only something sunk all the way to the bottom.“I wo

In the latter half of that night, Iron Claw and Thornwood, fighting together, drove the night kin back.But Cain had gone down in a pool of blood.The vampires' fangs and claws carried corpse-poison, deep and savage, tearing open his back and the root of his wolf. The healer knelt beside him and shook his head. A wound like this, even the strongest Alpha wouldn't last the night.I knelt at his side.I didn't know why I was crying. I'd said it myself: whatever feeling I had for him had died long ago.Cain forced his eyes open and found my face. Somehow, the corner of his mouth still pulled into the ghost of a smile.“Don't cry,” his breath was faint. “You're not… pretty when you cry.”Still stubborn. Even now.“Why did you take it,” I asked, my voice cracked. “This isn't your pack. And Rowan is a wolf you hate.”“He's the one you chose,” Cain said, as if that were the whole of the reason. “He loves you. Since you won't forgive me, all I can do is hope the rest of your life is free of wo