All Chapters of A Second Chance For Alpha Ayden: Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

AYDENSamantha makes her way toward the vehicles."That's Naomi," Samantha says loudly, already running before I've understood who she means.I remember the name from the radio report, the bakery's night manager. She's conscious when the warriors lift her down, one arm wrapped in blackened, hastily applied bandages, her face striped with fear and tiredness, but she’s alive, thankfully."Samantha." Naomi's voice cracks with relief the moment she sees her. "I tried to save so many things. I couldn't reach anyone in time…I'm so sorry.""You are safe Naomi," Samantha says fiercely, gathering her into a careful embrace. "That's the only thing that ever mattered. Not the recipes or the building.” “You." Samantha pulls away and tells Naomi.Sharon appears within moments, already directing the healers toward proper care for the burn.I watch Samantha stay close through the entire process, holding Naomi’s good hand while the wound is cleaned and rewrapped properly.“I thought the healers atten

SAMANTHA"Say it again," Ayden orders the messenger, his hand gripping the boy's shoulder hard enough that I can see the effort it takes him not to shake the words out of him faster. "What did you say?"The messenger, barely older than a cub himself, swallows hard. "Alisa woke up screaming an hour ago calling for both of you.” He says, “The nursery guard says nothing came near her…she just woke from a nightmare and wouldn't want anyone near her but her parents.”“The nursery guard also said to tell you she's safe, Alpha.”“She is just a little bit frightened ybbut wanted you to know before you heard it from someone else." He finishes.I feel my knees nearly give out from dread rushing out of me all at once, replaced by something almost as overwhelming. "We'll head to the packhouse soon," Ayden says to Lucian, voice steadying even as his hand finds mine, gripping tight. "Once the wounded are stable enough to move."Lucian nods and moves off to organize the warriors. Ayden and I are n

AYDENThe messenger collapses before he finishes his sentence. It’s the collapse that tells me exactly how bad the remaining hours are about to get."Ravenclaw," he manages, blood-soaked and swaying on his feet before two of my warriors catch him under the arms. "Their eastern border village. Stormfang hit it an hour before dawn. Alpha Kael wants Moonclaw to know before the reports reach him secondhand and he assumes the worst.""How bad?" I ask, though something in the messenger's face already tells me the answer won't be small."Eleven dead…try wounded. They burned the granary and half the eastern homesteads before Ravenclaw's warriors even reached the tree line." He swallows hard. "Alpha Kael is requesting an emergency audience. Today, if you can manage it. He said to tell you he's done sitting on the fence."I send warriors to escort the messenger to Sharon for treatment and call the council together within the hour, my mind already racing through everything Ravenclaw's sudden wil

AYDENFrois's postscript won't leave me alone.‘Tell Ayden he'll understand why once he sees who's standing beside Ronan Thrynn at that clearing.’I've read the line so many times in the last two days that I've started hearing it in Frois's own voice. I sent three separate scouting parties toward Stormfang's border since the message arrived, and every single one returned with the same maddening answer. It is either increased patrols or a camp bristling with more warriors than usual, with absolutely no sign of who Ronan intends to bring to that clearing that would justify a warning like that one."You're going to wear a groove into that paper if you keep unfolding it," Darius says, dropping into the chair across from me in the war room, with two cups of something bitter and strong in his hands. He slides one across the table toward me without asking if I want it, which after two days of near-constant planning together, has become its own strange, wordless form of trust between us."I d

AYDENFrois is alive.Not chained, not dragged forward as a prisoner the way I half expected, but standing at Ronan Thrynn's right shoulder with the unhurried composure of a man who has chosen exactly where he wants to be standing, and something about that ease frightens me more than any weapon Ronan's warriors are carrying."Alpha Hogan," Ronan calls across the clearing, his voice carrying easily over the mist still clinging to the grass. "I wondered if you'd actually come.""You demanded it," I call back, keeping my pace even as Darius's warriors fan out silently along the tree line behind us, exactly as planned. "I don't make a habit of ignoring ultimatums dressed up as invitations."Ronan smiles, and it's the kind of smile that never once reaches his eyes. He's younger than I last saw him. He had sharp angles and restless energy, nothing like the calculating, patient predator his reputation suggested. That unsettles me more than confidence would have. A patient enemy can be outlas