All Chapters of The Alpha's Proxy Bride : Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

Claire’s POV"You actually think you can hide in my kitchen?"I do not turn around. I keep my back to the hallway and spin the heavy wooden spoon through the boiling pot. The chicken broth bubbles. Fat globules pop and hiss against the stainless steel. The scent of rosemary and crushed garlic rises with the steam, thick enough to coat the back of my throat. It smells like a home. It smells like a lie."The Grand Luna is dead within the week, Claire," Nella whispers from the doorway.Her breath is shallow. I hear the quick, uneven patter of her canvas shoes on the linoleum as she steps inside. She is an Omega, just like me, but she lacks discipline. She fingers the frayed hem of her dirty apron, her knuckles white."She is not dead yet," I say. My voice is level. Flat. I keep my gaze locked on the tumbling carrots in the pot."She might as well be," Nella says, her voice dropping an octave as she glances over her shoulder. "The healers say her blood is turning to black sludge. It is th

Nixon’s POV"If your team misses a single text on those ten devices, I will replace all of you by sunrise," I said.My voice cut right through the steady drone of the computer cooling fans. The technical basement smelled of hot metal, plastic insulation, and old coffee. Blue light from the wall monitors washed over three technicians. Their fingers hit plastic keys in a flat, rapid rhythm. On the long table between us lay ten mobile phones in thick evidence bags. Each bag had a white strip of tape with a name written in thick black ink. Ten of my trusted inner circles. One of them had helped clear the path to put my mother in a medical bed.Blair, the head of the department, did not look up. He used his middle finger to shove his sliding glasses back up the oily bridge of his nose. "The initial sweep is running now, Alpha. We are pulling every log, every deleted message, and every bank transfer.""Do not stop there," I said, crossing my arms tight over my ribs. "Check the hidden applic

Scout’s POV"You actually thought I gave a single damn about you."Claire spat the words directly into my face. The girl who had held my hand while I cried was gone. This creature standing ten feet away in the flickering candlelight was a stranger. A predator.I backed up one step. My heel hit the edge of the heavy rug. My heart hammered a frantic rhythm against my ribs, a dull, thudding warning. I kept my eyes locked on her hands. Specifically, on the blue residue staining the tips of her fingers. The wolfsbane. The poison she had been slipping into the pack’s tea for weeks."Why?" My voice came out as a raspy whisper. I needed to buy time. I needed to find an exit. "You swore an oath to the North Pack. You knelt before the Alpha.""Oaths are for fools." Claire didn't shout. Her voice was flat, devoid of the bubbly warmth she used to fake so well. "And Nixon is the biggest fool of all.""Rory paid you." It wasn't a question. The rival Alpha’s shadow hung heavy over the entire territo

Scout’s POV"Let her go, you savage bastard, or I will carve her throat to the spine!" Claire screams, her weight pressing the jagged shard of glass harder into the skin under my jaw.The doors do not just open. They splinter. The oak frame cracks with a sound like a gunshot, and Nixon fills the space, his face stripped of anything human."Get off her," Nixon says.His voice is too quiet. It is a dead, flat whisper that freezes the air in the room, but his movement is a blur of brute speed. Before Claire can drag the edge across my windpipe, his hand locks around her forearm. Bones pop. A wet, crunching snap echoes against the bare walls as he twists her wrist until the glass drops from her limp fingers."Nixon, stop!" I choke out, my hands scraping against the floorboards as I try to push my weight backward away from them.He ignores me completely, his fingers migrating up to Claire’s throat, pinning her against the plaster with enough force to leave her heels dangling inches above t

Scout’s POV"You should have minded your own business, bitch."Claire spat the words as she lunged, the jagged glass shard catching the moonlight. I backward-stumbled, the gravel ripping through my slippers. The impact knocked the wind from my lungs in a wet, ragged gasp. Before I could roll, her weight crashed into my chest, heavy and smelling of copper and sour sweat.The shard came down.Once.Twice.The cold metal bit deep between my shoulder blades, sliding past skin and scraping hard against bone with a sickening, wet crunch. I opened my mouth to scream, but only a hot bubble of blood bubbled up. Claire leaned over me, her mouth twisted into a wide, toothy grin that tore her nice-girl mask completely in half."This is how garbage gets handled," she whispered.The glass plunged down a third time, straight toward my throat.I bolted upright with a choked shriek, my palms slamming out into the dark. My fingers clawed at empty air, searching for a face to rip, a wrist to break. My h