THE ALPHA'S BRIDE IS A ROGUE

CHAPTER 6- THE CHOICE

Ravenna couldn't take her eyes off the final word.

Mother.

Her hands clenched around the paper until the edges curled. Six years of pretending Elara was gone — burying the questions, the memories, the part of her that still waited for her mother to walk back through a door — undone by one line of familiar handwriting. Her mother couldn't have written this. She wasn't alive. Ravenna had known that for six years, and yet here it was in her hands anyway.

The script was unmistakable. She'd seen it a hundred times as a child, scrawled on scraps left beside her meals, tucked under her pillow, slipped into her hand whenever Elara had to disappear somewhere.

"It's hers," she whispered.

Ronan looked at the note. "You don't know that."

She turned on him, eyes stinging. "I know my mother's handwriting."

He didn't argue. Somehow that scared her more than if he had.

She read the line again. If you want answers, come alone. Every possible reason this could be a trap ran through her mind at once — and it probably was one. Whoever had been outside knew her name, knew about the pendant, knew about Elara, and had somehow slipped a letter past a fully guarded packhouse without anyone noticing. But if there was even a fraction of a chance her mother was alive, she couldn't walk away from it.

She turned toward the dark trees. "I'm going."

Ronan's face hardened. "No."

"You don't get to decide that."

"You're not walking into the forest alone because of a letter."

"It's my mother."

"You don't know that."

She stepped toward him. "Then help me find out."

He went still for a moment. "I will."

She frowned. "How?"

"By coming with you."

"It said alone."

"Then whoever wrote it can explain why they think you'll just do as you're told."

She wanted to argue, but something in his tone stopped her. He wasn't giving orders like an Alpha right now — he sounded like someone who actually believed the danger was real.

"You know where we're supposed to go," she said, watching his face.

His eyes dropped to the pendant. "Your mother used to meet someone in the eastern forest."

Her breath caught. "Who?"

"I don't know."

"You always know just enough to make me ask more questions."

"And you always ask the ones you're not ready to hear the answer to."

"Try me."

Before he could respond, another howl tore through the night outside. Ronan's head snapped toward the window. "We're leaving. Now."

Lyra stepped in before he could say more. "Ronan, the warriors won't let her past the gates."

"They won't know."

Ravenna eyed him. "You're sneaking me out of your own pack?"

"I'm keeping half my warriors from following us."

He crossed to a wooden cabinet and pulled it aside, revealing a narrow passage hidden behind it. Ravenna stared at the opening. "You have a secret exit."

"Every Alpha should."

"Convenient."

He looked at her. "Stay close."

She followed him toward the passage, but paused for one last look back at the packhouse. Leaving frightened her in a way she wasn't used to. She'd survived alone for years by trusting no one — trust had always felt like a weakness she couldn't afford. And yet here she was, walking into the dark forest behind an Alpha, because some part of her believed he understood that whatever was happening had started long before she ever crossed his border.

The passage let out into the trees several minutes later. Cold air cut across her skin as Ronan led the way, eyes scanning the dark, Ravenna close behind with the pendant pressed against her chest. It had stopped burning, but the heat still lingered under her fingers.

They walked in silence until the trees opened into a clearing. A weathered stone stood at its center, covered in markings worn smooth by time. Ravenna stopped cold.

She knew it. She didn't know how.

Her breathing went uneven as she stepped closer. The symbol carved into the stone was the same one etched into her pendant.

Ronan watched her. "You've seen this before."

"I haven't."

"Then why are you looking at it like you have?"

She reached toward the stone, fingers stopping just short of the surface. Dizziness swept through her, and her mother's voice rose up again — clearer this time than it had ever been.

If they find you, don't let them take you to the Alpha.

She yanked her hand back.

"What happened?" Ronan asked, watching her closely.

She looked up at him. "My mother warned me about you."

For the first time since she'd met him, real fear crossed his face.

Before either of them could say anything else, a low growl rolled out of the darkness behind them. They turned together.

A pair of eyes appeared between the trees. Then another. Then another.

Ronan moved in front of her without thinking.

But one figure broke away from the tree line alone — an older woman, walking toward them with tears already tracking down her face. She looked straight at Ravenna and spoke words that hit like a shockwave.

"Elara told me you would come."