THE ALPHA’S UNWANTED PLUS-SIZE MATE

Chapter 14

Clara’s pov

The note was under my door when I came upstairs after closing.

No envelope. Just a single folded piece of paper, plain white, slid under the gap like whoever left it didn’t want to be seen. I stared at it for a full ten seconds before I picked it up.

Marnie’s voice floated up the stairs. “You coming back down for the till count or am I doing it alone?”

“Be right there.”

I unfolded the paper.

Something is waking in the old bloodlines. Yours is not quiet. Stay out of the deep woods. They are already listening.

No signature. No date. The handwriting was careful, almost too neat.

The heat in my chest, the one that had been flickering since the clearing rolled hard enough that I had to lean against the doorframe.

My wolf went completely still, focused on the words like they carried a scent I couldn’t catch.

I shoved the note into my pocket, went downstairs, and finished the close with Marnie like nothing had happened. She noticed anyway.

“You’re quiet,” she said while we counted the cash drawer. “Quieter than usual.”

“Long day.”

“You’ve had longer. What’s different tonight?”

“Nothing.”

She stopped counting and looked at me over the top of the bills. “Don’t do that. You’ve been off since those travelers came through talking about Moonridge, and now you’re white around the mouth. Talk or don’t, but don’t stand there and lie to my face.”

I met her eyes. “Someone left a note under my door. Anonymous. Warning me to stay out of the woods.”

Marnie’s expression sharpened. “What kind of warning?”

“The kind that mentions bloodlines and things listening. That’s all I’m saying.”

She was quiet for a few seconds. “You want me to call the sheriff? Or at least walk the block with you?”

“No. It’s not that kind of threat. Not exactly.” I finished stacking the tens because I needed something to do with my hands. “I’ll handle it.”

“You keep saying that. One of these days I’m going to stop believing you can handle everything alone.”

“I know.”

She let me go with another hard look, but she didn’t push further. I locked the front door behind her, checked it twice, and went back upstairs.

The note was still in my pocket. I took it out, sat on the edge of the bed, and read it again. Something waking in the old bloodlines. Yours is not quiet. Stay out of the deep woods. They are already listening.

The same woods where the power had answered me. The same heat that left my hands tingling and the dreams full of gold light and a silver thread.

I needed air that wasn't on the four walls of this room.

I walked the two blocks to Theo’s even though the coffee shop was closed. The light was still on in the back. I knocked once.

He opened the door in a T-shirt and the same black apron, hair messy like he’d been cleaning the machines.

“You’re supposed to be off the clock,” he said, then got a proper look at my face. “What happened?”

I stepped inside and put the note on the counter between us. He read it once, then again slower. His mouth tightened.

“Where did this come from?”

“Under my door when I got upstairs. No one saw who left it. At least no one who’s talking.”

Theo’s eyes lifted to mine. “Old bloodlines. That’s not random diner gossip or traveler talk.”

“No.”

“And the woods warning. After what you told me about the clearing and the heat getting stronger out there.”

“Yeah.”

He set the paper down carefully. “You going to listen to it?”

“I don’t know.” I leaned both hands on the counter. “The heat’s been getting stronger since I went out there. The dreams too. If something’s waking, it’s already started. Hiding in my room isn’t going to shut it off.”

“Walking straight into the deep woods after a note like this isn’t smart either.”

“I didn’t say I was going tonight.”

“Good. Because I’d have to lock the door and sit on you until you changed your mind.”

That almost pulled a real smile out of me. Almost. “I’m not reckless.”

“You’re stubborn. Sometimes that’s the same thing and you know it.” He tapped the edge of the note. “You recognize the handwriting?”

“No. Nothing familiar.”

“Anyone from the pack who might still be tracking you? The one who keeps writing the letters?”

The burned envelopes and the one I’d kept flashed through my mind. “Possible. But this doesn’t sound like him. Too direct. Too much like a warning instead of another apology or explanation.”

Theo nodded slowly. “Then someone else knows something about whatever’s happening to you. And they want you to stay small and quiet and out of those trees.”

“I’m tired of staying small and quiet.”

The words came out harder than I expected. The heat in my chest answered with another slow, deliberate pulse, like it agreed.

Theo watched me for a long moment, eyes steady. “Okay. Then we figure it out without you disappearing into the woods alone in the middle of the night. You keep me in the loop.

Every flicker, every dream that feels different, every new piece of paper under your door. No editing the version you tell me. Deal?”

“Deal.”

I stayed another twenty minutes while he made a late coffee neither of us really needed.

The ordinary sound of the machines and the clink of the cups helped push the edge off the fear. The note in my pocket still felt like it was breathing.

Walking back to the diner I kept to the main street lights.

The dark edge of the woods sat beyond the last houses, quiet and waiting.

My wolf watched it the entire way home, alert but not afraid. That almost worried me more than the note itself.

Upstairs I locked the door, checked the windows, and sat on the floor with my back against the bed.

The note lay open beside me. Something waking in the old bloodlines. Yours is not quiet.

I pressed my hand flat over the heat in my chest and felt it answer, steady and alive, the same way it had in the clearing when the power first flickered through my hands.

They could warn me.

They could tell me to stay out of the woods.

But whatever had started the night the bond snapped, and kept growing through every letter, every dream, every step into those trees, I wasn't going to go back to sleep just because someone slipped a note under my door.

I closed my eyes and let the warmth stay.

For the first time I didn’t try to push it down.