บททั้งหมดของ Chasing the Riot: The Alpha's Second Chance: บทที่ 61 - บทที่ 70

Helena's pov The world narrowed to just sounds of broken glasses, a hiss and then the smell of ozone and burnt metal. I was still on the ground, Jarett’s weight on me, his heart slamming against my ribs like he could push his own blood into me and keep me alive. “Helena. Hey. Look at me.”I blinked. His face was above mine, half in shadow from the SUV. And he wasn’t… he wasn’t fully him. His eyes were gold, His jaw was tight and I could see the line of his canines, longer than they should be. One hand was braced beside my head and from the knuckles, claws had pushed out. Black, curved, deadly. He’d shifted halfway. I’d never seen him do it like this and not outside a full moon, not without pain. For half a second, terror shot through me. Not because of him. Because of what it meant. That we were past pretending this was normal. That the thing in me had teeth now too. Jarett saw me flinch. His expression cracked. The gold bled out of his eyes. The claws retracted with a sound

Helena's pov The SUV was silent for the first hour out of the lodge. Snow started falling somewhere past the tree line and it stuck to the windshield in thin white lines that the wipers couldn’t quite keep up with. Darius drove in front of us. Two enforcers behind. And in the middle, me and Jarett, not touching, not speaking, the thread between us pulled so tight it felt like it might snap. I couldn’t take it anymore. “Pull over.”Jarett didn’t look at me. “We don’t have time.”“I said pull over.”He did. Gravel crunched under the tires and the engine cut off and suddenly it was just the sound of snow hitting metal and my own breathing. “Tell me,” I said. “All of it. I don't want any more silence, and any protection from things I already survived.”He kept his eyes on the steering wheel. His knuckles were white. “Helena—”“Don’t.” My voice cracked but I pushed through it. “You don’t get to say my name like that and then shut down. You made me part of this the second you kissed me

Helena's pov We didn’t chase Vanessa. I couldn’t. My legs felt like they belonged to someone else after Drexus’s confession. Jarett kept his arm around me all the way back to the SUV and Drexus didn’t ask questions, which was the only reason I didn’t break down in the backseat. But I couldn’t stop seeing that photo of my mom laughing and Drexus’ arm around her. My phone buzzed again at 2 AM, it was the same unknown number from Vanessa. This one was a text this time of a location pin and a photo attachment. I opened it to see. Sitting at a table in some downtown café I didn’t recognize, across from two men I’d never seen before. One had Council rings on both hands. The other had the kind of eyes that didn’t blink enough. Between them on the table was a file with my name on it. Under the photo was one line: "I wasn’t the only one watching you."“Jarett,” I said. He was already awake. He read the text over my shoulder and his whole body went rigid. “She wants you to come alon

Helena's pov I thought Brent was just weak. I thought he was a regular human who got seduced by a powerful wolf, a foolish man who lost his mind over a pretty face. For months, I beat myself up trying to understand how our marriage fell apart. I blamed Vanessa for her cruel games, I blamed Brent for his fragile ego, and deep down, I even blamed myself. I thought he was caught in the crossfire of a world he did not understand.I was wrong. Brent was not a victim. He was an actor, and he had been playing me from the very beginning.I sat on the cold hardwood floor of Brent’s private office, my back pressed against the desk. The room was dead silent except for the quick, shallow sound of my breath. Scattered around me were black folders I pulled from the hidden safe behind his wall art. I only found the safe by accident, looking for an old spare key, but what I found inside has completely shattered my reality.My hands shook as I read the wire transfers again. The numbers were clear.

Helena's pov The rage burning in my chest was no longer something I could contain. It swept through my veins like liquid fire, consuming every fragment of fear, every lie I had ever been told, and every human defense I had spent twenty-six years carefully building. Lucian’s voice still echoes in my head, a lingering poison mocking my pain, but the golden crest clenched in my hand snaps under the sudden, terrifying pressure of my strength.My heart hits my ribs like a battering ram. A white-hot agony violently ruptures through my spine, throwing me to my knees on the wooden floor of the cabin.I screamed, but the sound tore out of my throat as a raw, guttural growl.The shift was not smooth. It is a terrifying execution of human flesh. My bones cracked and shatter in rapid succession, snapping out of place only to violently reassemble into something far larger, far denser. My skin felt as though it was ripping apart from the inside out, every nerve ending screaming in absolute agony