All Chapters of Bound To The Ruthless Alpha: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

The news about Mira spread through the pack like wildfire.I stood beside Julian in the main hall as warriors dragged in the evidence one piece at a time. Letters written with her hand. Maps with patrol routes carefully marked out. Small notes listing the exact times my aura had flared the brightest. She had been feeding the rivals information for weeks, all while smiling at me over dinner and pretending to be a loyal member of this pack. The proof was laid out on the long wooden table for everyone to see, and still part of me could not fully believe it.Julian’s face stayed completely stone cold. But I felt the rage boiling through the bond like water in a pot about to overflow. His hand rested on my lower back, his fingers pressing in just a little too hard. Protective. Possessive. Both at the same time.One of the older warriors stepped forward and cleared his throat. “Alpha, this is not something small. She gave them detailed information about the girl’s power. If she reaches the

“They saw the red light rising above the pack!”The words hit me like cold water.Julian was already on his feet, pulling me up with him before the echo of the shout faded. His hands gripped my arms and his eyes swept over my face fast and urgent.“Can you stand?” he asked.“Yes.” My legs were shaking but I would not say that.He grabbed the blanket from the bed and wrapped it around my shoulders in one quick motion. His own body was bare and tense, every muscle coiled and ready. He crossed to the door in three strides and slammed his fist against it twice.“Open it.”The lock scraped and the heavy door swung inward. Two guards stood outside, their faces drawn tight with worry. Beyond them the corridor was already filling with warriors moving fast and speaking low.Julian stepped out and I followed close behind him. He did not tell me to stay. I was glad he did not try.“How many?” he demanded, grabbing the nearest warrior by the arm.“We counted at least twenty scouts at the eastern

“They want to trade her.”Ethan said it flat and fast and the words landed in the watchtower like something thrown from a great height.Nobody moved for a full second.Then Julian turned slowly and looked at Ethan with the kind of stillness that meant he was working very hard not to react. “Say that again.”“A rival messenger just crossed the eastern line under white flag. He is asking to speak to the alpha directly.” Ethan paused. “He says they will release Selina’s mother. Unharmed. In exchange for Selina.”The silence after that was deafening.I felt the bond react before my brain caught up. A hot sharp pull in my chest followed immediately by Julian’s presence in it, heavy and dark and closing off fast like a door being shut from the inside.“No.” Julian said it without looking at me.Just that. One word. Flat and final like a stone dropped into still water.“You have not even heard the full terms yet,” I said.He turned to me then. His eyes were not angry. That would have been ea

“You were going to use me as bait.”I did not phrase it as a question because it was not one.Julian stood across the small room with his arms crossed and his jaw set and he did not deny it. That was the thing about him I had learned to read over these weeks. He never lied outright. He just went quiet in a way that confirmed everything.“You were going to let me walk into that meeting alone,” I said. “ But You were going to have wolves positioned around that bridge without telling me. Using me to draw them out.”“It would have worked,” he said.“That is not the point.”“That is exactly the point. Your mother gets out. The rival alpha exposes his position. We take the advantage and nobody on our side loses anything.”“Except me,” I said. “I would have been standing in the middle of that bridge not knowing your wolves were thirty feet away in the trees. Not knowing the plan. Just standing there thinking I was alone.”Something shifted in his face. Not guilt exactly. More like a man who

The footsteps stopped.And the woman who walked through that door was not what I expected.I do not know what I had built in my head. Someone fragile maybe,Someone worn down by fifteen years of walls and silence or Someone who would need holding up when she finally stood in the same room as her daughter.But The woman who came through that door needed none of that.She was tall and strong and had a straight back,her dark hair was threaded with grey and her face carried the kind of lines that only come from years of holding onto something like a heavy secret. She moved like someone who had survived long enough to stop being afraid of small things.Her eyes found mine and stopped there.They were exactly like mine. Same shape, Same colour. Something I had not known to look for and could not look away from now.Her mouth opened and then closed. Then, barely above a whisper, she said my name.“Selina.”Just that. Nothing else. But the way she said it, like she had been whispering it to h