All Chapters of The Captain I Blame For My Brother’s death, Hides his Jersey: Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

CHAPTER 40LUCÍA'S POVThe text message that had landed on my phone barely a second ago was still glaring from the dark, illuminated screen of the makeshift office, casting a cold, steady light that seemed to mock the profound and suffocating silence filling the room. Three words. Short. Devastating.Come look at this. Now.I did not have to call twice, nor did I have to raise my voice to cut through the heavy midnight atmosphere. Camila and Tiago’s hurried footsteps echoed down the narrow wooden hallway almost instantly, shattering the quiet of the dead night with an urgency that twisted my stomach into hard, painful knots. The door swung open violently against the rough plaster wall. Camila stepped through first, her face drawn and pale, still wrapped tightly in the heavy wool shawl she had worn out on the porch hours earlier to catch some air and escape the oppressive walls of the farmhouse. Tiago came right behind her, filling the doorway with his imposing, broad-shouldered presen

CHAPTER 42 CAMILA'S POV The heavy wooden door of the farmhouse study clicked shut, sealing out the damp night air and the endless, low-frequency hum of the generator running outside. The adrenaline of the council session, which had sustained me through hours of hostile glares, biting procedural objections, and the suffocating weight of centuries of prejudice, finally evaporated from my bloodstream, leaving behind a cold, hollow ache in my joints and a tremor in my hands that I couldn't quite shake. I sank down onto the edge of the worn velvet armchair by the unlit fireplace, staring blankly at the dancing shadows cast by a single brass desk lamp. Provisional. The word echoed in the quiet corners of my mind, losing its dry legal neutrality and taking on the sharp, metallic edge of a blade pressed against my throat. I turned it over and over in my thoughts, weighing its worth against the reality of the pack world we were forced to navigate. How much protection could a status

CHAPTER 44POV: CAMILAThe drive to the eastern territories took us deep into the interior, far away from the coastal dampness of the farmhouse and past the rolling, overgrown acreage that separated Tiago’s jurisdiction from the older, more heavily guarded estates of the senior council veterans. Inside the cab of Tiago's truck, the silence was thick, heavy, and layered with decades of history I had no direct part in, though I could practically feel it vibrating off the dashboard.Tiago kept both hands locked firmly at the ten-and-two position on the steering wheel, his jaw set so tightly I half-expected the enamel of his back molars to crack from sheer pressure. He had spent the first ten miles replaying fragments of old memories—tales of his father and Alpha Ferreira sharing campfires during regional border disputes, hunting trips from winters long before my parents had even met, and summer festivals where Ferreira had apparently tossed a very small, very grumpy toddler version of Ti

CHAPTER 46The farmhouse kitchen smelled like burnt coffee and old wood, and Beatriz Cabral looked completely out of place in it, sitting at the scarred wooden table with her hands folded like she was waiting to be sentenced. I almost didn't recognize her at first. The last time I'd seen her, she'd been dressed like a weapon, every strand of hair in place, that cool little smile aimed at me across a press room full of cameras. Now her makeup couldn't quite hide the shadows under her eyes, and her blazer looked like she'd slept in it, which she probably had.I stood in the doorway for a second longer than necessary, half convinced this was some kind of elaborate joke the universe was playing on me. Six months ago, if someone had told me I'd be walking into a kitchen to sit down calmly with Beatriz Cabral instead of throwing a chair at her, I would have laughed in their face. Now here I was, pulling out a chair like we were about to discuss brunch plans instead of a war that had already

CHAPTER 48The farmhouse erupted into an argument almost immediately, the kind that filled every corner of the kitchen with raised voices and pacing bodies, and I found myself once again standing in the middle of it, trying to be the calm nobody else seemed capable of providing. It was a role I'd apparently been assigned by default this summer, the woman standing quietly between two stubborn men while the whole world threatened to tip over, and I was starting to wonder when exactly that had become my full time job.Tiago had barely finished reading Beatriz's message over my shoulder before Cam arrived, alerted by whatever internal alarm system he seemed to have installed for detecting bad news before anyone had officially told him about it. He took one look at both our faces and set his jaw in the particular way that meant he already knew he wasn't going to like whatever came next."Yesterday she was our enemy," Cam said flatly, planting himself squarely between me and the door like t