All Chapters of The Alpha's Regret: His Secret Hybrid Heir: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

Getting Maya down three flights of stairs without anyone noticing was harder than it sounded.Xander went first to check the corridor. Then Garrett appeared from nowhere to block the view from the main hall. Elena carried Maya, who had been told they were going on a secret adventure and was treating the whole thing with the seriousness of a military operation."Do I have to be quiet?" Maya whispered loudly."Yes," Elena whispered back."Like really quiet or just normal quiet?""Really quiet.""What if I sneeze?""Then you sneeze quietly."Maya thought about this for the length of the corridor, then: "What if a bug flies in my mouth and I cough?""Maya.""I'm just asking."Xander glanced back at them with an expression caught between amusement and desperation. Elena mouthed she's your daughter at him.He turned back around fast.The Shadow Cellar entrance was behind a false wall in the pack house's old storage level—a section of the building most people forgot existed. Xander pressed a

The next two days had a rhythm to them that Elena wouldn’t have expected.Wake up before dawn. Slip Maya down to the Shadow Cellar while the morning patrol shift was still yawning and changing over. Train until Maya’s focus started to fray—she was four, after all, and no amount of ancient power could change that. Eat whatever Garrett smuggled down in the canvas bag he’d started bringing twice a day. He’d stopped asking questions and started packing better snacks—apple slices with peanut butter, small cheese wheels, even a couple of chocolate squares wrapped in foil. Elena took it as a sign of genuine friendship. Or at least quiet solidarity.Train some more. Push until Maya’s small shoulders slumped and her silver pulses grew shaky. Then back up before the evening patrol swept the halls. Repeat.It wasn’t comfortable. The stone floor stayed cold no matter how many blankets they piled down. The torches needed constant replacing—every few hours one would sputter and die, forcing them to

The Main Hall had never looked like this before.Elena had been in it a handful of times—once for a formal dinner years ago when she'd still been hopeful about what being Xander's mate might mean, and a few times since returning, always passing through quickly with her head down.But now it was transformed.The usual tables and chairs were gone. In their place, a large circle had been drawn on the floor in white chalk, maybe twenty feet across. Around the edges stood the seven Elders in their formal robes. Behind them, Council enforcers in their gray uniforms, stone-faced and watching. And beyond that, pack members. So many pack members. Standing room only, packed against the walls, all of them here to see what the Alpha's secret daughter could do.The air was thick with competing Alpha presences—the Elders trying to establish dominance, Xander radiating his own power in response, Varen's cold authority cutting through it all like a blade.Elena's wolf wanted to crawl into a corner and

"Absolutely not."Elena said it for the third time, standing in front of the wardrobe with her arms crossed.Xander stood on the other side of the room looking like a man who'd aged five years in the past hour. "I don't have a choice. He specifically asked to meet her.""Then tell him no.""I can't tell him no. That's not how this works.""Then learn how it works differently." Elena's voice was sharp. "You're the Alpha. Tell him she's sleeping. Tell him she's sick. Tell him literally anything except 'yes, come meet my four-year-old daughter who you clearly already suspect is something you want to destroy.'""Elena—""No." She moved between him and where Maya sat on the bed, pretending to read a picture book while obviously listening to every word. "I didn't keep her alive for four years just to serve her up to a purist Alpha at a dinner party."Xander rubbed his face. "If I refuse, it's an insult. He can use it as grounds to break negotiation before it even starts.""So let him break i

Two in the morning.Elena had everything packed. Two bags—one with clothes and essentials, one with the journal and whatever food she could grab from their room. Maya was dressed in layers, her training cuff tucked in her pocket.They'd waited until the pack house went quiet. Until the last of the summit guests retired. Until even the night patrol changed shifts.Now.Elena opened the door carefully. The hallway was dark and empty.Garrett waited at the bottom of the servants' stairs, exactly where he'd said he'd be. He had a larger pack on his back and was wearing dark clothes meant for the forest."Ready?" he whispered.Elena nodded.They moved quickly through the lower levels. Maya was quiet, holding Elena's hand tight, not asking questions. She understood this was serious.The storage level was darker than the rest of the building. Older. The air smelled like dust and forgotten things.Garrett led them to the passage entrance—the same one they'd used to escape Silas's warriors earl