All Chapters of REBORN BEFORE THE APOCALYPSE: The First Female Alpha: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

Aurora's POV“Ivy, get down!”The wolf jumped. I was too far away. But Caden was not. He stepped between them and raised one hand.“Enough.”He did not shout. The wolf hit the road, slid, and stopped at his boots with its ears flat. Then it backed away, whining like a scolded dog.I grabbed Ivy and held her so hard she gasped. She smelled like smoke and the strawberry shampoo I had bought last week.“Mom, you’re crying.”“I know, baby.”“That won’t hold it long,” Caden said. “Come on.”“What did you just do?”“Walk first. Ask later.”We got to the shelter, it was an old school gym on the east side, with boards over the windows and chains on the doors. Caden knocked three times before someone pulled the chain and let us in.Inside, two hundred and ten people lay on cots under a few weak lights. A generator hummed behind the stage. Children cried softly, and the adults pretended not to hear.“I went to look for you,” Ivy whispered. “Everyone ran and I couldn’t find you.”“You did the r

Caden's POVI stood across the street from the lab with a cold cup of coffee and a photo in my pocket.Her name was Aurora Blake. My father had given me the file three weeks ago. Watch her, he said. Don’t talk to her, and don’t let anyone see you.I did not ask why. I never did, with my father.She came down the street in a grey coat with a little girl’s hand in hers. She stopped at the school gate for a long time and kissed the girl’s hair. Then she looked up and down the street as if she was checking for something no one else could see.Something in my chest pulled tight, like a rope tied to her.I had seen her face in that photo a hundred times. It was not the same as watching it move.‘This is only a job,’ I told myself.I did not believe it.*******Aurora's POVI took Ivy to school myself the next morning. I walked her to her classroom door and told her teacher that no one else could pick her up. The teacher gave me a strange look but didn’t care.“Why are you staying?” Ivy aske

Aurora's POVI made it to the hospital in seventeen minutes, and I do not remember most of it.Gloria's voice came with me the whole way. 'You are lying to us, Aurora.' I turned on the radio to get rid of it. A man was reading football scores. Nothing about the fever cases. Nothing about any warnings. The city was going to bed like it was any other night, and I was driving through it at twice the speed limit.'She can wait,' I told myself. 'Ivy is safe. Nothing else matters tonight.'The last time I saw the front lobby of this hospital, people were sleeping on the floor between the vending machines, and someone had chained the doors from the inside. Tonight a woman sat at the desk eating crackers, a boy held an ice pack on his wrist, and a television played with the sound off. Nobody looked up when I ran in.Nina was waiting by the elevators in blue scrubs, with her mask pulled down under her chin and her hair coming loose. We had sat next to each other in class for four years. In all

Aurora's POV"Just a glass of water," I said."The glasses are in the cupboard by the sink." Damian pushed the second cup toward me with one finger. "Sit down, Aurora. You look tired."I sat. I did not touch the coffee."I heard you on the stairs last night," he said. "Twice."So he had not been asleep. I thought of him lying there with his face to the wall while I stood in the doorway."I could not sleep.""Your dad told me you ran out in the middle of dinner. He was still in the living room when I got home.""Nina called from the hospital. It was work.""At that hour?" He said it softly, as if he was worried about me. "You carry too much. Let someone else handle it.""You were not at dinner. My family asked where you were.""The office ran late. Then I came home and you were gone. I waited up as long as I could."His office had told me he was on leave. I wanted to say it. But then he would know I had called, and he would wonder what else I had checked."I'm sorry I worried you," I sa

Aurora’s POVHe said it like he had practiced it.I should have been afraid. I was not. I was angry, and I did not know where it came from.“How do you know my name?”Caden looked at me, and then he looked away at the building. “I read it somewhere.”“Where?”“I don’t remember.”“You said it like you did.”“This is private land, Dr. Blake.” He had used my title too. I had never told it to him. “You should not be here.”“Your family’s trust owns it. I found that in a county record.” I kept my voice level. “I wanted to see what a Blackwood was keeping behind a fence.”His jaw moved. “That is none of your business.”“Then why are you here?”He did not answer that either. A small wind went across the gravel and pushed the paper cup off the post. It rolled between us and stopped against my shoe.“Somebody gave you my name,” I said. “Who was it, Caden?”I had not meant to say his name. His eyes cut back to me.“Who told you mine?”“It was on the trust papers.” It was a lie, and I thought he