All Chapters of The Alphas Second Chance Mate : Chapter 81 - Chapter 90

Elaris's POVThe council guards unlock the door at mid-morning. Elaris has had but a few hours sleep and the sound of the bolt being pulled free has a sharper edge to it than she expects. She sits for a few moments before rising, refusing to let the guards see how little rest she has had.Neryss is waiting in the corridor, her face pale and set. She carries a small bundle, containing Elaris's last few clothes and the few personal possessions that she had been allowed to retain. There is no palace servant waiting to escort her, no healer, no representative of Averic.One of the guards reads aloud the order for her departure, making her exile official, rather than personal.When he finishes, he asks if she is ready.Elaris looks at the bundle in Neryss's arms."I have nothing else here."The words startle her, are truer than she expects.Neryss quietly replies, "Then we should leave before someone decides to take even this."Elaris takes the bundle from Neryss herself.For the first tim

Elaris's POVNeryss snuffs out whatever light remains.The house falls almost entirely black.Neither of us moves toward the door.We listen.The whistle does not come again.There is only the faint movement of branches outside and the occasional creak of the old house settling for a few minutes.Then footsteps.Not hurried.Not searching.They move away from the house toward the main road.Neryss waits until the sound has disappeared."do you think they saw us?""I don't know.""Do you think they knew we were here?""I don't know that either."She stays near the door with her blade drawn.I fight down the urge to peer through the window.If someone wanted to know whether or not the house was occupied, giving them movement would answer the question.So we wait.Eventually, the night grows quiet again.Whatever passed near the house is gone.For now.We do not open the house until full morning.Neryss checks the threshold first.Nothing is there.No note.No disturbed earth obviously e

Elaris's POVI'm still sitting by the fire with my hands on the child inside my abdomen as Averic finishes speaking. I don't get up to offer him a seat, water - or even a polite pretense that his presence is welcome.He confessed that he was wrong about the medicine, the threats, the evidence, and me. He finally put together the puzzle that I've been trying to show him for weeks.It doesn't change the nights I spent being watched,doesn't change Maevra's deathor the fact that when I needed him to believe me, he chose the proof over me.I let the silence stretch, surprised that Averic doesn't try to fill it.He stands near the doorway with his hands at his sides, no indication that he expects me to reassure him that it's all right, that I forgive him for doing the one thing I asked him not to do.Neryss stays near the wall with her knife still in her hand, though she lowers it a fraction.Neither of us moves toward himFor once, Averic seems to realize he can't command this room like

Elaris's POVThe next morning I wake before Neryss, but I lie still for longer than usual.There is no dramatic pain.That almost makes it worse.My body just refuses to obey the speed I expect from it.When I finally sit up I have to pause before standing, my muscles feeling drained rather than sore as if I had run through the night even though I was on the cot the whole time.I drink the herbal mixture the outer healer left me on her last visit,it is bitter enough for me to grimace but for a short while I feel better.The heaviness lifts enough that I can prepare breakfast and fold up the blankets, but there is still that strange hollow feeling underneath it all, like my essence is stretched thin.Not empty.Not yet.Just that I can almost see the places where strength should be.I refuse to name the feeling so instead I break up the morning into manageable chunks.Eat.Rest.Drink.Walk.Rest again.Scene 2Neryss observes without making a show of it.She begins to tackle the heav

Elaris's POVAveric arrives back before it is fully dark over the house.I hear the horse first,but this time there is the sound of a second set of hooves trailing after him.Neryss moves towards the window, but I already know who has arrived.Averic walks inside with a woman carrying a large leather medical bag.She is older than the healers I have known at the palace, her hair streaked with silver and her clothes simple enough to suggest that she has spent most of her time healing the sick rather than advising the council.Averic tells me that she is a senior healer from a neighboring pack,"she has no position in this territory, no reason to answer to our council."The woman looks at him briefly."I answer to patients."Averic moves aside to allow her to see closer, and her eyes narrow over my stomach before she checks my skin color."We should begin."There is no fuss, no reassuring words, just determination.The examination is not as short as I expect it to be.She takes my puls