The Alpha Who Chose Wrong Chapter 09
EVANDER POV
Nerys did not return to Ironwood.
I stopped asking.
That was the first useful thing I did with my regret.
I changed the laws that had allowed her mother to
control her medication without an outside review. I removed bloodline requirements from the Luna
selection policy.
I also opened an independent office for wolves abused
inside their own families.
None of it earned me Nerys.
It was not supposed to.
Eight months after I went to Seattle, Northlake hosted
a regional emergency medicine summit.
I attended the leadership meeting in the same building.
I knew Nerys would be there.
I did not approach her.
She stood onstage in navy medical scrubs and explained how pack clinics could detect illegal wolf
suppressants. Hundreds of people listened.
She no longer lowered her eyes when a room watched her.
After the session, her scent disappeared into the
underground parking garage.
Another scent followed.
Odette.
She had escaped transport two days earlier while being
moved to a secure treatment facility. Ironwood
security had been searching across Colorado.
I mind–linked every guard in the building and ran.
I reached the garage as Odette shifted.
Her golden wolf struck Nerys from behind.
Nerys hit the concrete, rolled, and began to shift.
Odette went for her throat before the change was complete.
I threw myself between them.
Claws tore across my chest.
The first strike opened four deep lines from my shoulder to my ribs.
The second caught my side as I turned.
I smelled chemicals on Odette’s claws. Bitter. Metallic.
Something designed to slow a wolf’s healing.
She had not come to challenge Nerys.
She had come to make sure neither of us walked away.
My wolf burst free.
I drove Odette into a concrete pillar. She snapped at my
injured side and ripped the wounds deeper. Blood
covered the floor.
Then a dark silver wolf hit her.
Nerys was larger than Odette.
Stronger too.
She pinned her sister without biting her throat.
Odette twisted beneath her and snapped at Nerys’s
front leg. Nerys moved faster. One heavy paw held
Odette’s neck against the concrete,
Her dominance filled the garage.
Every Ironwood wolf in the room lowered its head.
Nerys could have killed her sister.
She chose control.
The strength I had demanded in a Luna had been inside
her all along. It did not come from violence. It came from knowing when to stop.
Northlake guards arrived and used restraint collars
designed for violent shifts. They dragged Odette away.
I changed back on the concrete.
The wounds across my chest would not close.
Odette had coated her claws with a chemical
anticoagulant from the transport clinic.
Nerys dropped beside me in human form.
“Medical bag!” she shouted.
Her hands pressed against my chest.
“Stay awake, Evander.”
I looked at her.
“You called me Evander.”
“This isn’t the time to be stupid.”
“I missed that.”
“His blood pressure is dropping,” she told the medic
beside her. “Start a line.”
They loaded me onto a stretcher.
I caught her wrist.
She went still.
I released her at once.
“Saving you doesn’t change my answer,” she said.
“I know.”
“Taking those claws doesn’t buy forgiveness.”
“I know.”
Her eyes filled, but she did not look away.
“Then why did you do it?”
“Because this time, I saw the truth before someone forced me to.”
I survived surgery.
Nerys remained at the hospital until the surgeon said I would live.
When I woke, Soren sat beside the bed instead of her.
“She saved your life,” he said.
“I know.”
“She also asked me to make sure you understand that medical care is not forgiveness.”
Despite the pain in my chest, I almost smiled.
“That sounds like her.”
Soren studied me.
“She doesn’t need another man deciding what her kindness means.”
“I know that too.”
For once, knowing had to be enough.
Before leaving Northlake, I signed Nerys’s permanent release from every Ironwood claim, duty, and
inheritance rule. I also abolished the old Alpha right to challenge a former mate’s pack transfer.
There would be no command left for me to use.
No law to drag her home.
I sent the papers to her office without a note.
Then I returned to Colorado alone.