All Chapters of The Alpha Secret Obsession : Chapter 21 - Chapter 26

"I was seven years old," Caden said, "the last time I saw you before this school. I didn't understand what was happening. I only understood that something had gone very wrong, very fast, and that by morning your family was simply gone."Seraphina sat still, hands folded tight in her lap, bracing herself for whatever came next."Our fathers had been careful for years," he continued. "Meeting quietly, keeping the friendship out of formal record, because even then, my family understood what your father's bloodline meant if certain people ever found out. My father wasn't Prime Alpha yet — his own father held the position then, and he was harder, colder, the kind of Alpha who believed every rumor about the old hunts and took them as instruction rather than warning.""Your grandfather.""Aldric Ashveil." Caden said the name like it tasted bitter in his mouth. "He found out about the friendship. About your father. About what your father carried, and what carrying it meant for the territory's

The training ground Caden chose wasn't the courtyard where she'd failed so publicly weeks ago. He led her instead to a private clearing behind the east archive, walled in by old stone on three sides, distant enough from the main grounds that no one would witness whatever happened here."Nobody watching this time," he said, reading her hesitation before she voiced it. "Just us."She'd almost refused when he asked that morning. The schedule left on her desk still sat folded in her drawer, unexplained, the question of Maren still an open wound she hadn't found the courage to press on directly. But her wolf had been restless for days, pacing beneath her skin in a way that made sleep difficult, and some instinct told her that ignoring it wouldn't make it settle.You're not going to get quieter by being avoided, she thought toward the presence coiled low in her chest, half question, half apology.Something answered — not words, nothing so clean as that, but a warm, low current of agreement

The council chamber emptied slowly, elders filing out in tight, murmuring clusters, none of them meeting Caden's eyes as they passed. Marcus left last, alone, without another word to either of them, and something in the set of his shoulders told Seraphina this wasn't finished, only postponed.Caden didn't let go of her hand until they were well clear of the chamber doors."You didn't have to do that," she said quietly, once they'd reached the corridor outside. "Break with him publicly. Permanently, from the look on his face.""I did." His voice carried none of the careful measure he usually kept around difficult truths. "I've spent weeks watching him circle closer to exactly that decision, and I let myself hope he wouldn't actually make it. I should have stopped hoping sooner.""Caden—""I'm not doing this for your gratitude." He turned to face her fully, something fierce and unguarded in his expression that she hadn't seen even at the fountain. "I'm doing it because the idea of you r