All Chapters of Contracted to the Alpha Who Rejected Me: Chapter 61 - Chapter 70

The nightmare woke him just before dawn.I felt it through the bond first—a sharp, uncontrolled spike of distress that cut through sleep like a blade. Kael’s body went rigid beside me. A low, broken sound left his throat before he jerked upright, breathing hard, one hand clenched in the sheets.I sat up slowly.“Kael.”He did not answer at once. His eyes were open but unfocused, still trapped somewhere behind the dream. Sweat had gathered at his temples. For a few long seconds he remained completely still, as if any movement might pull the nightmare back over him.Then awareness returned. He dragged a hand down his face and exhaled through his teeth.“I woke you,” he said. His voice was rough.“The bond woke me.”He was silent. I did not reach for him immediately. Kael’s pride around weakness was old and deeply rooted. Crowding him too quickly would only make him rebuild the wall.After a moment he spoke again, quieter.“It is the same one I used to have after the rejection. I thought

We left Blackthorn at first light.The convoy was lean—two carriages, six trusted warriors, and the minimum support required for a clean journey. Kael had refused anything larger. A larger party would have drawn attention. Attention invited complications neither of us wanted.I sat across from him as the territory fell away behind us. He watched the road more than he watched me, but the bond carried a low, constant current of awareness. Every so often his gaze would return to my face, as if confirming I was still there, still within reach.The first hours passed in near silence. Kael was not cold. He was simply adjusting to the reality of moving through open land without the full weight of Blackthorn around him. I had seen him command rooms full of Alphas without hesitation. This quieter discomfort was different. It belonged to the man beneath the title.Near midday the convoy stopped to rest the horses beside a narrow river. Kael stepped down first and turned to help me from the carr

On the third morning, Maelen allowed a longer visit.My father’s color was better. He sat upright without assistance and managed a full conversation without the pauses that had marked the earlier days. The refined treatment was working. Progress remained slow, but it was no longer theoretical.Kael waited outside the treatment room as before. When I emerged after nearly an hour, I found him standing at the far end of the covered walkway in conversation with one of our warriors. The moment he saw me, he ended the exchange and came to meet me.“He’s stronger,” I said.“Good.” Kael’s hand settled briefly at the small of my back. “Maelen believes two more days will be enough to stabilize the improvement for travel.”We walked toward the guest quarters. The sky was clear and cold. A light wind moved through the compound’s outer trees. Kael remained close, but I felt a new current under the bond—something heavier than the residual watchfulness of the previous days.Inside the room, he close

The first full day back in Blackthorn felt different in a way I could not immediately name.Kael moved through the morning with his usual efficiency—meeting with Rylan, reviewing the reports that had accumulated in our absence, confirming that the territory had remained stable. Yet the quality of his attention had changed. He no longer seemed to be bracing against something unspoken. The final confession on the road had cleared a pressure that had lived between us for weeks.I felt the difference in the bond. It sat cleaner. Steadier.Near midday, a quiet complication surfaced.One of the senior ranking members, an older warrior named Harren who had served under Kael’s father, requested a private audience. He was respectful but direct. In Kael’s absence, a small group of traditionalists had begun questioning whether Selene’s growing authority in household and internal matters should continue to expand without further formal review by the senior circle. They were not openly challenging

Four days after the argument, Kael did something I did not expect.He asked me to come with him to the memorial stones.The stones stood in a quiet clearing beyond the western training grounds—simple markers for the wolves Blackthorn had lost in the border wars and the years of internal conflict that followed. Kael’s mother’s name was carved among them. So were the names of warriors who had died under his earliest commands. He almost never spoke of the place, and as far as I knew he visited it alone, if at all.“I have not been there since before the rejection,” he said as we walked the narrow path. “It felt cleaner to keep that part of the past sealed. Cleaner is not the same as better.”The clearing was empty when we arrived. Morning light filtered through the trees in long, pale shafts. Kael stopped in front of a particular stone near the center and remained silent for a long time. I stood beside him without pressing.“Her name was Elen,” he said eventually. “She died in the third