All Chapters of The Alpha's Regret The Enemy's Claim: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

The canyon was silent. The wind had died, and the shadows had stopped moving, leaving only the smell of dust and blood and something older, something that clung to the rocks like a memory no one wanted to claim. I stood in the middle of it all, my chest heaving, my hands still curled into fists, my body trembling with an exhaustion that went deeper than muscle and bone. Vane lay on the ground, bound and unconscious. His power was broken. His bond was severed. His influence had shattered into pieces so small I wasn't sure anyone could ever put them back together. It was over. It should have been over. But something was still wrong. I could feel it. A cold spot in the air that wouldn't fade. A presence that had been there and then gone. The figure at the edge of the canyon. The one who had watched without speaking, without moving, without giving me anything to hold onto. They had vanished into the shadows before I could see their face, but I could still feel the weight of their gaze

The clearing had gone quiet, the kind of quiet that settled into your bones and made you hyper-aware of every small sound, the rustle of leaves in the wind, the distant call of a night bird, the soft, even breathing of the others as they slept. I sat with my back against the rough bark of a fallen tree, my knees drawn up to my chest, my eyes fixed on the vial in my hand, the dark liquid inside catching the last glow of the dying embers. Xavia sat across from me, his back against a tree, his arms resting on his knees. He had been quiet since he agreed to give his blood. Not silent, but quiet in a way that felt heavy, like he was carrying something he couldn't put down. I watched him for a long time. The way his jaw tightened when he was thinking. The way his hands stayed too still in his lap. The way he didn't look at me. "Xavia." He looked up. "I'm sorry," I said. "For what?" "For asking you to do this. For making you choose between your bond and my parents." He was quiet for a

Morning broke gray and cold over the mountains, the sun hidden behind thick clouds, the fire long dead, the camp still quiet. I woke slowly, my body stiff from sleeping on the hard ground, my mind foggy from a sleep that had not been restful. For a long moment, before the memories caught up with me, I felt normal. I felt whole. I felt like I had before the rejection, before the exile, before the second bond, before everything. Then I remembered. The emptiness hit me like a wave. It was not the sharp pain of the bond breaking, not the tearing sensation that had ripped through me the night before. It was something quieter and deeper, a hollow space where something used to be, a silence where there used to be a hum. I lay there for a long moment, staring up at the gray sky, trying to understand what it meant to be without the bond. Trying to understand what it meant to be without him. I sat up slowly and looked around. The others were still asleep. My mother was curled against my fath

The clearing went quiet after my father spoke, no one moved, no one breathed—the words hung in the air like smoke, thick and choking. The capital. Hidden in the old temple. Under the altar. I stared at him, my mind racing. The capital. The heart of the Council's power. The place where everything was controlled, where every decision was made, where every wolf was watched. Going there was suicide. We all knew it, but the journal was there, the truth was there, and I was not going to stop until I found it. "How do you know this?" I asked, my voice steady. "She told me," he said. "Before they took her. She said if anything ever happened to her, if she was ever captured, I was to find the journal and protect it. She said it was the only thing that could bring them down." "Then why didn't you go get it?" He looked away. "I was afraid." "Of course you were." "Elara—" "No." I held up my hand, and he stopped. "I'm not doing this again. I'm not listening to another apology, I'm

We moved through the capital like ghosts, sticking to the shadows, sticking to the alleys, sticking to the places where the light didn't reach. The city was quiet this late at night, the kind of quiet that made every sound feel too loud, every footstep feel like a shout. The wind carried the smell of cold stone and smoke, and somewhere in the distance, a dog was barking. Xavia walked in front, his hand resting on the hilt of his blade, his eyes scanning every corner. My mother walked beside me, her hand wrapped around my arm, her breath coming fast and shallow. She was scared. I could feel it in the way she held me, in the way her fingers dug into my skin, but she didn't say a word. She just kept walking. The temple rose in front of us like a mountain, its spire cutting into the night sky. It was ancient. Older than the Council. Older than the packs. It had been built before the bond system, before the Alphas, before everything. It had been built when wolves were free. And now, it