All Chapters of The Orphaned Alpha: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

Odett’s POV The report delivered beneath the holiday lights changed the rest of winter break. By morning, three Royal Guard vehicles waited in the courtyard, and Orian had redrawn the patrol schedule. Mom tried to keep the younger children occupied, but even Zander stopped complaining when she sent them upstairs. I watched Dad’s office door and wondered what Sam had written. Sam was alive. Dad had told me that much, and I repeated it whenever my thoughts strayed toward the dreams. His report had arrived, but no letter came with it. Each guard who entered the office made it harder to believe there was nothing else I needed to know. ‘They are still hiding something,’ Lorilie said with a restless growl inside my mind. ‘I know,’ I replied silently with growing frustration as I continued watching the closed office door. Joshy joined me with two mugs of hot chocolate. He had stopped asking about the night I woke screaming Sam’s name, but he had not forgotten it. When another guard

Odett’s POV The next afternoon, our instructor gave the fifth-years a winter shortage to solve. Three small communities had been cut off by a storm, and the surrounding territories held enough food and medicine to help them. We had to find a way to share it before the roads closed. Joshy’s map showed a road through the western forest. Mine warned that its bridges would not hold the supply trucks. Nolan’s group knew the temperature would fall before night, but none of us understood that the others had different reports until we began arguing. “Why would you give us different information?” I asked with a frustrated frown as I compared Joshy’s map to mine. “Because leaders never receive the same report at the same time,” the instructor answered calmly while walking between the tables. “Are you defending separate answers or putting your information together?” she asked. Nolan’s team argued over which report was newer. Barrett wanted wolves to move everything overland; Cassian

Odett’s POV The sealed case held no new evidence from an attack, Dad told us before I could ask. It carried travel records from Sam’s team and another account of the borders they could not cross together. I felt relief first, then shame that a delay could make me grateful simply because no one had been reported missing that day. Dad put the witness accounts away before we entered. What he gave us showed who had approved each crossing and which members of Sam’s team were allowed through. I searched the names until I found his. Joshy and I added the new delays to our timeline. In three months, the team had lost nineteen days at borders. Some rulers made them wait; others admitted Sam but turned away the witch or vampire who needed to examine the scene with him. “How are they supposed to examine evidence together if half the team has to remain outside?” I asked with a frustrated frown. “They cannot,” Uncle Orian answered with a tired expression. “That is why King Arnald reque

Odett’s POV Three mornings later, a coven near Arnald’s eastern border missed a protection check. Storms sometimes damaged boundary spells, so one missed call could mean very little. When the second call went unanswered, Arnald sent a patrol with a witch and a vampire investigator. I watched the departure time appear on Dad’s desk and hoped there were people waiting to answer the door. The team carried a document bearing both Arnald’s seal and the coven’s verification spell. For once, the guards let every investigator cross together. We still did not know what had happened to the coven, but no one would have to stand at a border while a colleague went in alone. “They lost eleven minutes,” Uncle Orian said with cautious approval after comparing the departure and crossing times. “The old procedure would have cost them at least half a day,” he added. “Eleven minutes is still a delay,” I replied while adding it to our timeline. “It is also an honest one,” Dad reminded me with

Odett’s POV I recognized the nightmare before I recognized the place. The smoke did not move, and no wind crossed the field. I reached for Lorilie, expecting her familiar weight beside my thoughts, but the place where she should have been felt empty. I searched again for my wolf. She had stayed with me through every dream before this one, even when neither of us understood what we saw. Now I could not find her, and the silence seemed to press harder each time I called. ‘Lorilie?’ I called. Nothing answered. Beyond the smoke, I recognized the field where Black Claw had held a mating celebration two months earlier. I had stood beneath blue-and-silver lights while the Alpha’s oldest son and his mate greeted guests they had known for years. I remembered the music most clearly. There was none now. The ground had burned black and split beneath my boots. Cracks cut through the places where people had danced, and smoke stood among the trees without drifting. I looked for the tables