Claiming the Last Alpha She-Wolf

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Chapter 18

~Kael’s POV~

~Hours into the celebration~

The clinking of goblets, the rise and fall of laughter, toasts raised in booming voices that echoed beneath the vaulted ceiling of the Alpha Hall—I heard none of it.

Darian and Lucien were seated to my left, responding when needed, smiling in all the right places.

Talon made a joke about wolf blood and Shadowfang mead. It earned a round of howls. Riven even smirked.

But I couldn’t focus. I was barely there, barely paying attention to what was being said.

Not with the empty space in the room or with the bond tugging at my chest like a damn leash.

Deep within, my wolf paced in my head, reprimanding me for locking my mate just to punish her.

I didn’t want to pay him any heed, but the longer I stayed apart from her, the louder this silence became.

I stood up abruptly. My chair scraped back on the polished stone floor. Conversation faltered, just for a second—but I didn’t explain. I didn’t have to.