Alle Kapitel von The Alpha's Vengeful Heiress : Kapitel 11 – Kapitel 20

CHAPTER 12SERA POVWater came up out of me, I could finally draw in the air. I turned on my side and coughed hard repeatedly until my ribs hurt.My vision was blurry at first, I squinted my eyes against the sunlight and it finally came to focus on Kade's face being closer to mine than it should have been, and he pulled back the second I stirred.I blinked confused.My whole body felt like it belonged to someone else."Don't move too fast," his hand went to me, almost holding me down.I moved anyway, pushing myself up onto my hands, away from him, putting space between us."What happened?" My voice came out wrecked."You were drowning and I pulled you out.""Hm." I muttered, nodding and still confused. My head was pounding. My throat felt raw enough that swallowing hurt.I sat there for a moment with my knees pulled up, water dripping off my hair onto the rock, and tried to remember what had happened in that cave. I remembered stepping into the water, and the cold that followed. Afte

CHAPTER 14SERA POVThe healer laid the nine charts out across the table, and I went through them one at a time, reading the numbers out loud so she could catch what I missed."Weight, forty-one kilos. Onset four days ago.""That's the boy in bed three," she said. "His fever broke this morning, then came back worse."I nodded. "Next."We went through all nine like that, fast, no time for anything but the facts. When I was done I had six full doses and three patients who weren't going to get one unless I found more medicine somewhere I didn't have it."Split it," I said."Split it how far?""Eight ways. Reduced dose for everyone instead of a full dose for six and nothing for three."The healer looked at me like I'd suggested something dangerous, because I had."Reduced dose means reduced chance for all of them," she said. "You'd be trading a sure thing for a maybe, times eight.""I'm not going to pick three people to save and tell the other six their numbers just didn't work out tonigh

CHAPTER 16SERA POVRowan found us before dinner, moving fast enough that Kade was already standing before he'd said a word."He took the bait," Rowan’s jaw was hard. "Left the estate an hour ago. Told the gate he was picking up supplies.” He shook his head. “He's not picking up supplies.""Where is he now?" Kade asked."The old mill road. Meeting someone."We took one vehicle, no lights, and Rowan parked it well short of the mill so the engine noise wouldn't carry. The three of us went the rest of the way on foot, until we could see the clearing behind the old grain store.Fenwick was there. So was another man, someone I didn't recognize, leaning against a truck with the engine still running."That's him," Rowan whispered. "That's who he's been meeting."I watched Fenwick reach into his jacket and pull something out. An envelope, thick enough that I could see it from where we stood."Money," Kade said, low.Rowan's jaw tightened. "For information?"We moved closer, staying low, until

CHAPTER 18SERA POVI found the boy from bed four still wearing the scarf the next morning, even though the infirmary had warmed up enough overnight that nobody else needed one."You know you can take it off," I said, checking his temperature. "It's not cold here."He pulled it a little tighter around his neck, like he thought I might try to take it from him. "My mom used to make me one every winter. This one's better."A smile curved on my lips. I ruffled his hair lightly, finished checking his chart and let him keep it.Kade was three beds down when I straightened up, going through his own version of morning rounds, the ones he did most days now, quiet and mostly wordless, just checking faces and asking healers short questions before he said anything else.He caught me watching and nodded toward the scarf. "He hasn't taken it off since you gave it to him.""I noticed."Kade looked at me for a moment longer and something in his expression made me look away first, which annoyed me mor

CHAPTER 20KADE POVThe call came in less than a day after the statement went out.I recognized the voice before he finished his first sentence. The same flat tone from two years ago, the one that had told me to bring Sera to the Council and then hung up when I refused."Alpha Kade Hawthorne.""You have a short memory," I said. "Last time we spoke, I told you she wasn't going anywhere. That hasn't changed.""We remember perfectly well. That's rather the point of this call." A pause, unbothered, like he had all the time he needed. "Two years ago you rejected a mating bond in front of three hundred witnesses. Now you've publicly staked your pack's name and reputation on the same woman's private company. The Council finds the contradiction interesting.""There's no contradiction. I'm protecting pack interests. The antiviral has saved lives.""Of course. And I'm sure that's the only reason." Something in his tone made it clear he didn't believe a word of it, and didn't need to for this co