All Chapters of The Orphaned Alpha: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

Sam’s POV I sent Zion a message before sunrise from Edric’s territory. The protected network could carry our status without exposing the site: we had arrived, would remain several days, and had reached no confirmed conclusion. I added that the northern cooks still feared pepper more than any reasonable person should. The last line was for Rain and Odett. Zion would pretend it did not belong in a report. Orian would read it aloud, and Jess might send seasoning with the next supply case. I could almost hear Odett laugh. Then I remembered how long it had been since I had heard her. Commander Halden stepped into the borrowed workroom carrying two sealed record boxes. Snow clung to his shoulders and melted onto the stone floor while he lowered them beside the evidence ledger. The witch investigator and vampire representative followed him inside without speaking. “The originals are still unavailable,” Halden reported. “King Edric’s archivist provided verified copies of the gate re

Odett’s POV The revised emergency rules waited on my desk when I woke, covered in enough notes to make the original proposal look unfinished. I read the section about unverified orders twice before adding one more question in the margin. The protection marks around my room remained pale, and Lorilie stayed comfortably present inside my mind. ‘You have checked those marks four times,’ Lorilie observed. ‘Three,’ I corrected. ‘You checked the one beside the window twice,’ she reminded me smugly. I closed the proposal before Lorilie could count again. I had slept without a nightmare, yet I still treated a quiet morning as something to verify. At least the Academy work waiting on my desk gave my thoughts somewhere ordinary to go. Joshy met me outside the family dining room with two books tucked beneath his arm. He looked awake only because Mom had placed a mug of coffee in his hand before allowing him near anyone. Aunt Jess sat at the table guarding an empty plate with an expre

Odett’s POV Two days after Selene spoke through the moonlight, I still heard her words whenever the room grew quiet. A path is not a command. I had believed in that path since childhood, and Lorilie had grown tired of watching me carry the question from breakfast to lessons to combat practice. ‘It counts as one problem you keep carrying into different rooms,’ she observed. ‘That makes it more efficient,’ I replied silently. ‘That makes it heavier,’ Lorilie corrected gently. I could hardly argue while climbing the Academy steps with four books and our proposal against my chest. The assessment was less than three weeks away. Fifth-years had stopped arguing in the courtyard because they were doing it inside study rooms instead. Joshy waited beside the classroom door with Nolan and Cassian. He had already divided our revision list into sections and marked the founding process in blue. Nolan stared at the pages as if color-coding had personally offended him. “You added anothe

Sam’s POV Morning light reached the narrow windows while the ledger still lay beneath four protection spells. We had compared it to the copy through most of the night. Every blurred line kept the southern road beyond Edric’s gates a little farther away. Kyron paced as I checked an entry for the third time. He knew I would not abandon the review. He also knew how often I looked up at the window whenever a vehicle passed below. ‘Reading it again will not make the annex appear,’ he observed. ‘Neither will staring south,’ I answered silently. ‘I can do both,’ Kyron replied without apology. Commander Halden stood across the table with one hand braced beside the copied gate records. The witch investigator, Maris, examined the original binding through a glass marked with pale detection runes, while the vampire representative, Celene, recorded every page number we were allowed to inspect. Edric’s archivist watched all four of us as though breathing too close to the book might coun

Odett’s POV Sam’s message arrived a day after its dispatch mark. Dad read the official page at breakfast while Mom unfolded the family note. Neither looked frightened, though I watched their faces until Lorilie told me to stop inventing reasons for the delay. I knew their calm should have reassured me. My mind was already filling the silence with explanations, each worse than the last. Lorilie dismissed them as quickly as I made them. ‘You are building disasters out of their eyebrows,’ Lorilie warned. ‘Dad has a very informative forehead,’ I replied silently. ‘His forehead says he needs more coffee,’ she corrected dryly. Dad folded the official report and placed it beneath his hand. The twins continued arguing over the last honey biscuit until Mom divided it without looking away from the family message. Neither Zerina nor Zander noticed how carefully Joshy and I had stopped eating. “Sam and the team are safe,” Dad told us with reassuring firmness. “But he is not coming