Rejected By My Brother’s Alpha Best Friends のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 41 - チャプター 50

TRISTAN'S POV"I could come with you." Elena leaned against my car door, arms crossed, sunglasses pushed up into her hair. "Extra hands never hurt when you're wrangling three four-year-olds into car seats.""I've got it.""You say that like you've done this before.""I have. Plenty of times." I checked my mirrors out of habit, though the driveway was empty. "You don't need to babysit me babysitting them.""I wasn't offering to babysit you." She smiled, easy, though something behind it lingered a beat too long. "I like the girls. And I like you. Sue me.""Next time." I said it too fast, and we both knew it.She didn't push, though her eyes stayed on me a second longer than the moment required, like she was filing the deflection away for later. "Drive safe.""Always."I pulled out of the driveway with her still watching from the porch, and I spent the first mile trying not to examine why turning her down had cost me more than it should have.It would have been easy to say yes. Easier, p

HUNTER'S POVWe made it to the hall in under twenty minutes, which should have been impossible given the location.The Prescott council chamber sat two hours outside the city under normal circumstances, buried deep in restricted pack territory, accessible only by private roads most of us hadn't used in years. Tonight the drive collapsed into a blur of motorcades and cleared intersections, security running interference the entire way.By the time we arrived, three other Alpha convoys were already pulling in behind us. The Knight family had come from four hours north. The Flower Pack territory sat even further, past the old borders most maps didn't bother marking anymore.Nobody should have made it here this fast. Everyone had.The hall itself felt like stepping into another century — stone walls, high windows, a long table clearly built for exactly this kind of gathering and rarely used for anything else. Axel and Darius flanked me as we took our seats. Across the table, my father sat

TRISTAN'S POV"There's been another attack. This time at the Prescott house. Two of our guards are down."The words hadn't fully landed before Axel was already on his feet, chair scraping back hard against the stone floor. Across the table, the older Alphas erupted into a fresh wave of murmurs, though none of it registered past the roaring in my own ears."The girls." His voice came out sharp, immediate. "Are they safe?""Unconfirmed." The security officer's voice cracked with strain. "Ambulance already dispatched from the scene. That's all I have."My stomach dropped through the floor."Which hospital," I demanded, already halfway to the door."Mercy General. Fifteen minutes out from the estate."Alexander was already moving, barking orders at his own security detail, phones coming out around the table in a wave. "I want a helicopter in the air in five minutes. We are not driving two hours while my granddaughters are in an emergency room."Nobody argued. Nobody wasted a single second

BRIELLE'S POV"—confirms Darius Knight as a match."The words hit me sideways, sound and meaning arriving a half second apart.Darius went completely still beside the doorway, color draining from his face like the doctor had struck him."Me." His voice came out barely audible. "I'm—""We need to move fast." The doctor was already turning, all business now. "Mr. Knight, this way. We'll draw immediately."Darius didn't move at first. His eyes found mine across the corridor, wide, stunned, searching for an answer I didn't have to give him."Go." My voice cracked on the single word. "Please. Go."He went.I don't remember the next twenty minutes clearly. Tristan's arm stayed locked around me the entire time, Axel pacing a tight line in front of us, his shoes squeaking faintly against the tile every time he turned, Hunter still sitting against the wall with his knees pulled up, silent and shaken in a way that didn't fit the man I'd first met weeks ago. None of us spoke. There wasn't anythi

AXEL'S POV"I have whiskey at my place." I said it mostly to fill the silence. "Better than hospital coffee, at least."Penelope managed a small, watery laugh. "That's the least convincing sales pitch I've ever heard.""I'm not known for my sales pitches.""No." Hunter's mouth twitched, the first real humor he'd shown all night. "You're known for terrible liability clauses and being tall."That pulled a real, small smile out of her, and I counted it as a win.The drive to my apartment passed mostly in silence, Penelope staring out the window while Hunter drove, neither of us knowing what to say to fill the quiet. My mind kept circling back to Darius standing in that corridor, jaw set, telling her the truth without flinching. I didn't know if I'd have had that kind of courage in his position.We ended up at my place twenty minutes later, the three of us sprawled across my living room the way we used to as teenagers, except now there was whiskey instead of stolen beer, and considerably