#Chapter 22 The Alpha is Dead

Selene’s POV

“Selene, are you ready?” Odette is knocking on the dressing room door, her kind voice unusually somber.

“Yes.” I call, smoothing my skirts. “You can come in.”

The door pushes open, and my mother-in-law’s lovely face peeks inside. She sidles through the narrow opening, approaching me with a wistful expression. “Oh my darling.” Odette murmurs bleakly, her eyes shining as she studies my reflection. “I really thought you two would make it.”

“I thought we might too” I admit, keeping my gaze high to ward off tears. “For a while.”

Her hand closes around mine, squeezing gently. “What happened, Selene?” She asks gently.

All at once it hits me that I’m not merely losing my husband, but the only parental figures I’ve known since my mother died. I swipe at an escaped tear, “It’s what Bastien wants.”

Odette frowns, the edges of her warm brown eyes crinkling beneath the weight of her drawn brows. She opens her mouth to speak but before any words can escape, all the blood drains from her face in a frenzied rush, leaving her white as a sheet. Her eyes go wide and her body crumples, bowing and bending against her will. Her mouth gapes open in a breathless gasp, emitting a strangled cry.

“Odette!” | exclaim, catching her by the arms so she does not fall. “What’s wrong?

Her mouth is opening and closing soundlessly, her body trembling beneath my hands. “It’s Gabriel.”

Before I can stop her, Odette rips herself from my hold, flying out of the room and down the hall. I race after her, blood rushing in my ears. I’ve never seen someone look so anguished, so afraid.

the moment they see the look on Odette’s face. She bursts into Gabriel’s

do not need to see her stumble back against the door frame, sinking to the ground with shaking limbs. I do not need to hear the screams that follow, or the weeping. I do

is lying in Gabriel’s blood, her body thrown atop his, wracked with violent, heaving sobs. The Alpha stares sightlessly up at the ceiling, his skin a garish shade of

hand tightly over my mouth, trying to hold back my own grief. I can’t fall apart, not when

to stop them. He shouldn’t have to see this, he

our huddled bodies. The stench of death is thick

of heavy running footsteps meet my ears, and I know my prayers have not been answered. Bastien towers in the doorway, looking suddenly very young despite his

lip trembles, I could cry from the look on Bastien’s face alone. He looks so lost, a child adrift in a sea of uncertainty. I can see the little boy he once was, the one who looked to his

roars with fury and despair. I

now. The sight of my indomitable husband broken and

waist and he hauls me into his lap, squeezing me like a security blanket while he pulls his mother into his other side. We lie in a tangled heap

in a blur. Aiden is there, grasping Bastien’s shoulder and gently telling him we need to move so the investigators can sweep

feet. I stand protectively at his side while he attempts to rouse Odette, trying to pull her from Garbiel’s body as tenderly as possible. She won’t budge. She bares her fangs and snarls at her son, clutching her

Bastien assert his dominance over countless pack members over the years in precisely this way – I’ve experienced it myself on a handful of occasions – but to see it happening to Odette breaks my

Kane is here. Bastien and I help Odette to her feet, and Aiden asks Dr. Kane to administer a sedative. While the doctor speaks with her, I pull Bastien aside. His

face in my hands, pulling his attention to my face. “I’m going to get her cleaned up

hips, his grip so strong I fear I might bruise. His head shakes slightly from right to left, and I think he’s going to refuse. Instead he pulls me into the circle of

lips to his cheek. “I

the help of the doctor’s sleeping pills, I return to the Alpha’s office. Gabriel’s body has been removed and though the once-cozy space is now full of crime scene tape and evidence markers, it

ago is gone, replaced by a leader with the weight of the world on his shoulders. He looks up when I enter, a questioning expression on his handsome

asleep.” I

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