บททั้งหมดของ The Alpha's Rejected Mate: บทที่ 11 - บทที่ 20

The afternoon passed without word.Sienna stayed in the room beside Lucas’s. Meals arrived. The lock turned only for that. The bond told her he was still at the eastern edge of the territory, the pull stretched thin and sharp with focus. She did not try to sleep. She sat near the window and watched the courtyard below as patrols crossed it in pairs.Just before dusk the connecting door opened.Lucas stepped through. Mud marked his boots. A thin scrape ran along his forearm where something had caught him. He closed the door and leaned against it for a moment as if the wood were the only thing holding the day in place.“They found the place where the last set of tracks originated,” he said. “Old ridge path, same as before. But this time there were two scents. One deliberately covered. One that wasn’t.”Sienna stood. “Whose?”“One of ours. A junior scout named Reed. He was assigned to the southern rotation two nights ago. He hasn’t checked in since this morning.” Lucas pushed away from t

Lucas reached the private wing within minutes.Sienna heard him in the hallway before the lock turned. He stepped inside, took in the nail and the strip of cloth on the floor, and closed the door hard enough that the frame shook.“Don’t touch it,” he said.“I didn’t.”He crouched, examined the cloth without lifting it, then stood. The bond was a hard, steady pressure under her ribs. His control was still in place, but the edge underneath it had sharpened.“That’s from the shirt you wore the first night,” he said.“Yes.”Lucas pulled the radio from his belt and spoke two short orders. Footsteps answered almost immediately. Harris entered with another scout. They bagged the nail and cloth without comment and left again. The door locked behind them.Lucas stayed where he was.“The locker watch found a second note,” he said. “Same handwriting as the ones Reed used. It named this floor and this room. The timing matches.”Sienna crossed her arms. “So the source has access to the private win

The lockdown held through the morning.Sienna remained in the room beside Lucas’s. The connecting door stayed open. She could hear him when he returned briefly to change clothes and speak in short, low sentences to Harris on the radio. The bond never fully eased. It sat like a wire drawn between them, carrying every shift in his focus.Just before noon Harris appeared at the hallway door.“Alpha wants you in the study. Both of you.”Lucas was already moving. Sienna followed him downstairs. The study door closed behind them with a solid sound. Harris remained outside.Lucas did not sit. He stood behind the desk with a single sheet of paper in his hand.“Cole’s body was found an hour ago,” he said. “North drainage ditch. Same method as Reed. Throat cut. No usable scent. He had this in his pocket.”He turned the paper so she could see it.A rough sketch of the private wing. Her room marked. The connecting door marked. A short line of text underneath in the same hand as the earlier notes:

Dusk settled clean and cold.Sienna stepped out of the private wing beside Lucas. She wore dark, fitted clothes that left her arms free. No jacket. Nothing that would catch or slow her. Harris and two other scouts took positions a short distance behind them. The rest of the pack was already gathering on the open ground beyond the main path.Wolves stood in loose groups. Some had already shifted. Others waited in human form, breath visible in the cooling air. Conversation dropped as Lucas and Sienna reached the edge of the gathering.Elena stood near the front with two seniors. Her eyes moved from Lucas to Sienna and stayed there.Lucas did not raise his voice.“The run proceeds as planned. Full circuit along the inner markers. Pairs on the outer edges. No one breaks formation without signal.” He paused. “Sienna Hale runs under the claim. She stays on my left. That is not a request.”A few heads turned. No one spoke against it.The first shift began at the front of the group. Bones rea

Night settled without easing the tension in the house.Sienna remained in the room beside Lucas’s. The connecting door stayed open. Harris took the first watch in the hallway. She heard him shift his weight at intervals but never leave his post.The bond told her more than the silence did. Lucas stayed downstairs for a long time—first near the cells, then in the main hall. The pull carried sustained focus and the low grind of controlled anger. When it finally moved back toward the private wing, the cut along his ribs still registered in short, dull flares.He entered through the connecting door just after midnight. The bleeding had stopped, but the skin around the wound looked tight and dark. He closed the door to the hallway side and leaned against it for a moment.“Dren gave one more detail,” he said. “The dead drop at the ridge path wasn’t only for him. He saw signs of at least two other collections in the past week. Different footprints. Same method of covering scent.”Sienna stoo