All Chapters of I teamed up with my ex-husband’s rival Alpha: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

The sunlight reflecting off the surface of the lake suddenly seemed too bright, casting sharp, cold shadows across the stone terrace.I stood frozen with my phone gripped tightly in my hand. The automated robotic voice from my mother’s voicemail still echoed in my ears. My parents were creatures of absolute routine. For thirty years, my mother had opened her bakery doors at seven in the morning without fail. She kept her mobile phone charged on the flour-dusted counter by the cash register so her regular customers could call in orders for bread and pastries. My father kept his phone clipped to his belt while he worked under cars at his repair shop. Neither of them ever turned their devices off during business hours.Dominic did not tell me I was imagining things. He did not tell me that cell phone towers occasionally dropped signals or that older people sometimes forgot to pay their bills. His expression shifted instantly from relaxed warmth to sharp, focused vigilance."Tell me exact

"He took them," I whispered. My voice sounded thin, stripped of all the confidence I had built over the past several weeks. Dominic did not snatch the paper from my hand. He gently wrapped his fingers around my wrists, lowering the note so I was forced to look up away from the table and into his face. His eyes were hard, sharp, and blazing with a calculated, lethal fury."Sienna," Dominic said, his deep voice dropping into a steady, resonant command that cut through the ringing in my ears. "Look at me. Do not look at the table."I forced my gaze up to meet his, my chest heaving with shallow, jagged breaths. "He used them because of me. Four years of keeping my distance so Julian wouldn't despise them, four years of letting my mother think I had abandoned her just to keep the peace—and he still hunted them down.""He hunted them down because he is a dying coward who has run out of weapons," Dominic said flatly. "He knows that on a fair battlefield, he cannot defeat you. This is not yo

Julian’s bloodshot eyes gleamed with a cold, arrogant satisfaction under the harsh glare of the halogen construction lights. The damp, freezing air of the cavernous shipping warehouse seemed to stand still as he looked at me, completely convinced of his own supreme intelligence."Because I was the one keeping you away from them, Sienna," Julian mocked, taking a slow, deliberate step closer. His expensive leather shoes scuffed against the wet concrete. "You only stayed away for four years because you were terrified of breaking my rules. I know how pathetic and sentimental you are."He paced a few feet to the left, his hands tucked into the pockets of his heavy dark trench coat, his gaze sweeping over my mother and father bound to their wooden chairs."I knew the second you mated with another Alpha and tasted a little freedom, the very first thing you would do is run back to those two old fools in the woods," Julian sneered, turning his attention back to me. His lips curled into a vicio

"Mom," I choked out. I broke away from Dominic’s side and dropped to my knees beside her chair. I wrapped my arms around her shoulders, burying my face in her neck. She smelled of sweet cinnamon, baking yeast, and cold terror, but her embrace was solid and real."Oh, my baby," my mother cried, her trembling fingers tangling in my short dark hair as she pulled me fiercely against her chest. "We’re alright, Sienna. We're alright.""You shouldn't have come to this place!" my father growled, pushing himself up out of the wooden chair. He ignored the dark, angry bruise swelling across his left cheekbone. His old mechanic's hands reached down, grabbing my arms to pull both my mother and me securely behind his broad frame. "That bastard had armed thugs! What were you thinking, walking in here alone?""I was thinking I wasn't going to let him use you to destroy my life," I said fiercely, standing tall beside him and wiping a stray tear from my cheek.The gray tactical smoke was beginning to c

The Obsidian medical wing was located on the secured basement level of the estate. It looked like a high-end private hospital, complete with sterile white walls and advanced monitoring equipment.Dominic laid me gently onto a crisp hospital bed. The burning sensation in my chest was growing stronger by the second. My breath came in short, ragged gasps. Every nerve in my body felt like it was waking up from a decade of deep freeze, vibrating with an overwhelming, agonizing energy.The automatic doors slid open. Dr. Aris rushed into the room. He was an older wolf with silver hair and sharp, intelligent brown eyes. He carried a leather medical bag in one hand and a thick, ancient leather-bound book tucked under his other arm."Alpha," Dr. Aris acknowledged Dominic with a brief nod. He moved straight to the side of the bed, pulling a penlight from his pocket. "Tell me her symptoms.""She collapsed in the study," Dominic said. His voice was tight with suppressed panic, his hand gripping mi