My Alpha Husband Forgot I Was The Blackridge Reaper Chapter 12
Walk Beside Me
Three days later, heavy rain falls over Blackridge.
The Pack Council’s judgment is posted throughout the territory.
Adrian Hale conspired with rogues and attempted to assassinate the Alpha.
He is sentenced to death.
Caleb Cross receives the same sentence.
Ivy Cross helped plan the assassination and concealed Caleb’s identity inside Blackridge.
She receives the same sentence.
The night before the executions, a prison guard tells me Ivy cries until sunrise.
She calls only one name.
“Adrian.”
Adrian hears every cry from the cell beside hers.
He never answers her.
Every Hale asset connected to the conspiracy is seized.
The surviving members of the Hale family are expelled from Blackridge.
Richard Hale’s hair turns white almost overnight.
As the guards escort him beyond the border, he repeats the same words again and again.
“I never should have let him marry the Alpha’s daughter.”
Not one wolf asks for mercy on his behalf.
Not one.
Knox leads the Twelve Enforcers against the remaining Cross rogues.
They eliminate every cell inside Blackridge in three days.
Quickly.
Cleanly.
When the Alpha of Red Moon Pack learns what happened, he withdraws his warriors from our border before dawn.
On the seventh day, my father asks to see me alone.
He stands at the window of his study with his back to me, watching the rain.
“Do you regret it?”
“Regret what?”
“The last ten years.”
He turns around.
“Your mother asked you to be kind, so you kept your claws sheathed for ten years.”
His expression hardens.
“And this is what your kindness brought into our home.”
I smile faintly.
“I don’t regret it.”
“Mother asked me to try.”
“I tried for ten years.”
I meet his eyes.
“They were the ones who did not deserve it.”
My father is silent for a long moment.
Then he reaches out and rests one hand on my shoulder.
For ten years, this male who loves me as much as he fears me has not touched me.
“Then stop trying for wolves who don’t deserve it.”
His hand tightens once.
“From now on, live however you want.”
I leave his study.
The rain is still falling.
Knox stands beneath the covered stone walkway outside.
The roof is narrow, and half of his shoulder is soaked.
He has left the dry side open for everyone passing through.
He has always been like this.
When he sees me, he immediately lowers himself onto one knee.
Just as he did when we first met ten years ago.
I reach down and pull him back to his feet.
Knox freezes.
In ten years, I have never stopped him from kneeling.
“Let’s go,” I say.
“Home.”
He follows three steps behind me.
Just as he always does.
I stop.
“Walk closer.”
Knox freezes again.
Then he takes two steps forward.
The rain falls harder.
There is just enough dry space beneath the roof for two people to walk together.
Afterward, the rumors return.
The Blackridge Reaper is ruthless.
The Alpha’s daughter should never be crossed.
But now every rumor ends with one more line.
Her Enforcer captain stayed within thirty paces of her for ten years.
Through every storm.
Without missing a single day.
Some wolves call it loyalty.
Others call it something more.
No one dares to ask.
They do not need to.
The answer is in those two steps.
Not too close.
Not too far.
Just right.