Todos los capítulos de A Second Chance For Alpha Ayden: Capítulo 41 - Capítulo 50

AYDENWe follow the sound down two flights of stairs, my heart hammering with every step, until we reach the packhouse kitchens and find the source of the mystery. Alisa, perched on a stool at the counter, humming determinedly to herself while the young warrior assigned to watch her tonight looks up with an expression somewhere between sheepish and apologetic. A half-finished mug of warm milk sits in front of her, and the whole scene is so aggressively ordinary that I nearly laugh out loud from sheer relief."She said she couldn't sleep," the warrior explains quickly. "She wanted warm milk, the way Sharon makes it. I thought the kitchen was secure enough for a few minutes."Relief crashes through me, immediate and overwhelming, followed closely by exhaustion at yet another false alarm in a week that's given us far too many real ones to spare much patience for the fake variety."Alisa," Samantha says, equal parts relief and exasperation, "You scared us half to death.""I was hungry," A

SAMANTHAThe lawyer's arrival throws the corridor into immediate, controlled chaos, Lucian materializing to intercept him formally, demanding proper credentials before allowing him anywhere near the holding cells. Ayden moves to join the confrontation, and I follow close behind, my earlier tenderness with him hardening quickly into wary alertness. The lawyer stands perfectly still through all of it, unbothered, his leather case held loosely at his side like he has all the time in the world."This is highly irregular," the lawyer says smoothly, entirely unbothered by the hostile reception. "My client has every right to counsel. I trust Moonclaw respects basic legal protocol, even during wartime.""Your client is suspected of treason and conspiracy with a hostile pack," Ayden says, his voice carrying dangerous authority. "Basic legal protocol will be respected. Nothing more generous than that."The lawyer's smile doesn't waver, and something about his composure, his utter lack of concer

SAMANTHAI wake Ayden a second time, and this discovery pulls him fully upright despite the pain still radiating from his shoulder, every trace of tiredness burning away in an instant. He mindlinks Lucian immediately, and within the hour, warriors are sweeping every corridor, every guest room, every space where someone might have accessed a device capable of sending that message from somewhere inside Moonclaw's own network.The search turns up nothing definitive by dawn, no device, no obvious culprit, only the unsettling confirmation that whoever threatens us has walked these halls freely enough to send a message from inside them. I lie awake long after Ayden finally drifts back into medicated sleep, staring at the ceiling, running through every face I've encountered since arriving here, wondering which one might be capable of exactly this kind of quiet, patient menace.Exhausted beyond words, I finally allow myself a few hours of broken sleep, and by the time I wake properly, morning

SAMANTHAI don't sleep after the meeting ends. I tell myself I will, that I'll lie down beside Ayden for even an hour before the ceremony. Still, instead, I find myself standing outside Alisa's new room in the east wing, watching her sleep through the cracked door, memorizing the rise and fall of her small chest as if it were something I could lose simply by looking away.Sharon finds me there sometime before dawn, wrapped in one of Ayden's spare shirts because I never got dressed properly after the council session, and she doesn't say anything at first. She just stands beside me, watching Alisa sleep too, her presence steady in the way it's always been since we were girls."You're doing the thing where you go quiet instead of falling apart," she says eventually. "I remember this…you get very calm right before you're about to fall to pieces.""I'm not going to fall to pieces.""I didn't say you were. I said you look like you might."I lean against the doorframe, tired in a way that ha

SAMANTHAWe send word to Frois immediately, and his guard reports back within minutes that the Elder has decided, on his own, to wait until after the ceremony to finish what he started. "Today has so much to offer…" he told the guard. "Whatever I have to say can wait till tomorrow." I don't love the delay, but I understand it. Some truths deserve more time than a rushed morning already crowded with ancient law and formal acknowledgment. I catch one more glimpse of him through the window, still standing there a moment longer, before he finally steps back and draws the curtain closed.There's no more time to dwell on it regardless. By midmorning, the packhouse has transformed into a hive of ceremony preparation, and I find myself pulled into a security briefing that immediately sets my teeth on edge."We recommend Alisa remain in a sealed room throughout the proceedings until the exact moment she's called forward," the head of Ayden's security detail explains, spreading a diagram across