Defying the Rogue Alpha
Chapter 172: Recovering

Chapter 172: Recovering

"This is exactly what they were afraid of," Dennis muttered, his arms crossed tightly across his chest. He looked directly at Lucas, eyebrows raised. "That the power would get to your head and you wouldn’t want to answer to anyone."

"Can we take a break first?" Zoe interjected. She leaned into Dennis, her body still recovering. "I don’t know about you guys, but I haven’t had a proper meal or sleep in weeks." She sighed and added, "I can’t even remember what a bed feels like."

Lucas raised a hand. "I second that."

Ava, however, wasn’t laughing. Her eyes had gone serious, distant even. She turned toward Zoe. "Where is Herod?" she asked.

"In the dungeons," Lucas replied slowly, watching her with mild suspicion. "Why?"

But Ava didn’t answer him. Her focus had zeroed in on Zoe now, her expression softening as she crossed the short distance between them. "Zoe," she began, "there’s something I need to tell you. And then I swear, you can go take the longest, most luxurious nap in the entire history of naps. I’ll personally fluff your pillow."

Zoe’s brows furrowed. She sat up straighter, instantly catching the worried lines around Ava’s eyes. "What’s going on?"

Ava took a breath. This wasn’t something she wanted to blurt out but there was no perfect moment to detonate a truth bomb, so she dropped it. "Zoe... you are the Princess of the North."

The room fell into stunned silence.

"What are you saying?" Zoe asked cautiously.

"I’m saying," Ava replied, each word a slow unfolding, "Herod is your father. Not Alaric."

Zoe blinked. "I’m sorry, come again? You’re telling me the sadistic, power-hungry sorcerer who raised me isn’t my dad... and the man who sentenced me to death is?"

"Yes," Ava confirmed.

"And you know this how exactly?" Zoe asked, straightening further now.

"A maid told me," Ava said with a slight wince, like she knew how that sounded. "I know, I know, vague castle gossip isn’t usually a great source of genealogy but it makes sense. Alaric and the Queen had something to do with hiding the truth."

Zoe’s face twisted.

"So what you’re saying is... Alaric, the man who made me train until I bled, who punished me for breathing wrong wasn’t my biological father," she repeated slowly. "And the man who actually is my father is Herod, a disgraced Alpha King?"

"Yes," Ava said again.

"I..." Zoe started, trembling like the edge of a falling leaf. Her eyes were wide, her breath uneven. She looked like a person who had just learned they’d been living surrounded by lies.

Dennis stepped in immediately. "Sweetie, you don’t have to think about anything right now." He wrapped his arms around her and stroked her back gently, grounding her. "There’s time. We’ve got plenty of it. You don’t have to solve your whole life today."

Zoe clung to him like he was her last solid anchor. "It can’t be... it just can’t be," she murmured into his shoulder. "Herod? Him?" She blinked furiously.

"What you need is sleep."

She groaned lightly but nodded.

Dennis helped her to her feet as gently as if she were made of glass, and as they exited the mating tent, his hand never left her waist.

Inside the tent, Ava let out a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding. She turned to Lucas, her eyes searching his face.

"I don’t think it’s over," Lucas said, catching her hands in his, squeezing them. "Not with Alaric still out there."

"No," Ava admitted, leaning into his warmth. "But we’re together again."

He pulled her closer until their foreheads touched. "I am never letting you out of my sight ever again. In fact."

They stood in silence for a moment, the aftermath of battle still humming in the air around them, but their bond offering a kind of fragile peace.

"And besides," Lucas added with a smirk, "I’m not even counting this as a real mating ceremony. We do not have good luck with those."

Ava snorted. "Our first one, Dorian was the problem."

She tilted her head. "Do you feel... different? I mean, do you feel like you gained any powers from all this?"

Lucas gave it some thought. "Somewhat. I still feel like me. But Manic? Manic feels... sacred. Like I should bow to him."

Ava blinked. "So, wait. You didn’t get the powers, your wolf did?"

Lucas shrugged. "Apparently."

*****

Kade stood at the top, the wind tugging at his coat, his hair messy from the battle but untouched by time. The spot he’d chosen to bury his father overlooked the entire forest range. It was quiet for a man carrying the weight of legacy, betrayal, and grief all rolled into one.

He’d dug the grave himself. It felt necessary, personal. Something intimate between father and son, even if their relationship had been anything but warm.

As he stared at the pile of freshly packed earth, he whispered, "What a life you lived, old man..."

Dorian, once Beta of the North, had fought side by side with Lucas. Trained the fiercest warriors. Led hunts. Won battles. Gave stirring speeches.

And now? Buried in foreign soil, beneath a nameless stone, with no loyal men around him. No fanfare. No songs. No one to remember him but the son he’d tried so hard to change.

"Was it worth it?" Kade asked the wind. "All that ambition? All that power-chasing? Was it worth dying alone, far from your people... from your honor?"

A hand touched Kade’s shoulder. It was a touch that reminded you that you weren’t as alone as your grief tried to make you feel. He didn’t even need to look to know who it was. But he did anyway. Dennis stepped up beside him on the left, his usually playful face uncharacteristically solemn. No words passed between them. Just a quiet nod of shared understanding, a gesture between warriors.

Kade turned his eyes back to the sky. The stars above glittered. The cold breeze whispered through the trees, but even the wind seemed to hold its breath.

Then, the heavy, purposeful sound of footsteps crunched in the grass behind him.

Alpha Lucas stepped to his right side, his presence filling the silence without needing to speak.

Kade blinked rapidly as his eyes watered. Dammit, not now. He tried to hold it in, clenching his jaw until it ached. But the ache in his chest, the sting behind his eyes, it all pressed too hard. "You didn’t have to come, Alpha," he croaked, forcing his voice to be steady. It wasn’t.

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