Todos los capítulos de The Wolfless Bride No One Wanted, Except the Alpha: Capítulo 31 - Capítulo 40

ELIRABy morning, the whole estate was buzzing. Servants and candidates traded half-formed rumors in corridors and courtyards, the particular hushed excitement of people who'd seen something they weren't sure they should have.I heard fragments of it everywhere. The Alpha is waking. The Alpha spoke. The Alpha looked right at the wolfless candidate, and something changed in his face. Each version grew a little more elaborate than the last, the story reshaping itself with every retelling until I barely recognized it as the same three seconds I'd actually witnessed.Niar found me in the small courtyard behind the kitchen gardens, my usual place to think when the estate got too heavy."Laron's called an emergency meeting with select Council members," she said, sitting beside me. "This morning. Behind closed doors.""About last night.""Obviously about last night." She glanced around before lowering her voice, even though we were alone. "One of the kitchen girls overheard two elders talkin

RURIKThe three seconds I'd spent conscious in that ballroom stayed with me long after the sedation dragged me back under, playing over and over in the fragmented, half-lucid haze that passed for thought these days.I remembered the crowd first. The overwhelming press of scent and sound and light after six months of near-total isolation, so intense it had nearly knocked me back under on its own before I'd even found her in the room.But then I'd found her, standing close beside my chair in that plain gray dress that stood out starkly against every silk and jewel surrounding her, and something in my mind had sharpened despite everything working to drown it out.I remembered her eyes most clearly. Wide, startled, searching mine with a desperation that mirrored exactly what I felt in that same instant. Three full seconds of real, unfiltered connection after six months spent reaching for her only through fog and distance and the thin, fragile thread of a bond neither of us fully understood

ELIRANaya was waiting outside my door the next morning, arms crossed, an expression on her face I hadn't seen since we were children. Something almost sulking under the usual polished composure."We need to talk," she said, before I could even ask why she was there."About what?""About last night. About the fact that half this estate spent this morning talking about you instead of me." Her voice carried an edge I remembered from childhood, the particular resentment she'd always saved for moments when attention went somewhere she hadn't planned for it to go. "Do you have any idea what it was like, standing in that ballroom in the most expensive gown I've ever worn, watching everyone completely forget I existed the moment the Alpha opened his eyes?"I almost laughed at the sheer nerve of it, that she'd manage to make even this moment about her own wounded vanity. "I'm sorry my presence inconvenienced your evening.""Don't be sarcastic with me." She followed me into my room, uninvited,

ELIRADorian found me again that evening, this time in the small courtyard behind the kitchen gardens, my usual retreat when the estate grew too heavy. I understood right away he'd followed me on purpose, waiting until we were fully alone before approaching."I'm not finished," he said, blocking the narrow path back toward the main house."I told you our conversation was over.""You can't just walk away from three years, Elira. Not like this. Not without even hearing me out properly."Something in his tone had shifted since that afternoon. The pleading edge replaced with something harder. More entitled. My spine straightened instinctively."I heard you fine," I said. "You want money. I said no. There's nothing left to discuss.""You owe me that much, at least." His voice rose slightly, frustration bleeding through his usual careful composure. "Three years of my life, Elira. Three years building a business with your help, only for everything to fall apart the moment you left.""You did

ELIRANiar found the second piece three days later, arriving at my door just after sunset with a look on her face that told me right away she'd found something."I need to show you something," she said, before I'd even fully opened the door. "But not here. Somewhere private."We went to the empty chapel yard, the same quiet corner of the estate that had become our unofficial meeting place for conversations too dangerous to have anywhere someone might overhear."What did you find?" I asked, once we'd settled on the familiar stone bench.Niar pulled a folded piece of paper from her sleeve, handling it carefully, the way one handles something fragile. "I have a cousin who works in the Nightswirl record keeper's office. Not close family, but enough of a connection that she was willing to do some quiet digging when I wrote asking about sealed records connected to the Montrose name."My heart began hammering. "And?""She found a matching entry in the Nightswirl archives. Not the sealed one