I Forgot I Loved You Alpha (Ellie and Nolan) novel Chapter 332

Chapter 332

Nolan POV

Grief hit me like a physical blow.

Not the sharp, immediate kind I’d felt when I thought Ellie was lost. Not panic or terror or the hollow dread that came with imagining a future ripped away before it could even begin.

This was colder.

It settled into my chest and stayed there, crushing, unyielding, stealing the air from my lungs in a way no blade

ever had.

I hadn’t been close to Alaric.

I’d respected him. Feared him, once. Fought him more than once-directly or indirectly. We’d disagreed on politics, on leadership, on how much power any one person should be allowed to wield.

But he had trusted me. He had protected my family when I couldn’t. He had supported us as we struggled to make a fresh start together.

And more than that-

He had loved Ellie.

I saw her fall to her knees beside his body, her scream breaking into something raw and animal that tore through the packhouse. I heard Cassian’s cry-hoarse, shattered, the sound of a son realizing there would be no more chances left.

And I knew.

Alaric had chosen this.

He had seen the end coming and stepped into it anyway, placing his body between Felicity and the people he loved without hesitation or regret.

Without asking for permission.

I would have done the same. When I took the blow meant for Cassian those months ago, it hadn’t even been a difficult choice.

I was sure that Alaric had felt the same way. He had saved his daughter, because there was no other choice that he would be able to live with making.

The weight of that choice slammed into me harder than any blow I’d taken all night.

Something inside me broke.

Felicity staggered to her feet, shrieking, clawing at herself like she couldn’t understand why the power had left her. The thing that had driven her-the storm, the madness, whatever dark current had been riding her bones- was gone now.

What remained was just her.

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Small.

Bleeding.

Human again in the worst possible way.

For a heartbeat, the world held its breath.

I stared at her. Blonde hair slick with blood and sticking to her face, bright eyes wild and searching, and her frame bent, hunched like she was still wound to strike.

She was dazed, but it wouldn’t last. I could see it in her face. She wasn’t going to stop. She was never going to

stop.

Then I moved.

I don’t remember deciding to kill her.

I remember the rage.

It flooded me so completely there was no room left for doubt or restraint or mercy. Every instinct I’d ever learned to temper, every hard-won lesson about leadership and consequence, burned away in the heat of it.

She had killed Alaric.

She had torn a father from his children. A grandfather from my sons. A pillar from the kingdom.

She had crossed a line that could never be uncrossed.

I wiped the blade in my hand on my pants. My grip tightened.

I saw Rae, still planted in the doorway between the boys and the chaos and tragedy outside.

I heard August and Ian whimpering, hoarse from their terrified sobbing.

Felicity lifted her head, looked away from the blood staining the ground, and stared at me. Her expression twisted, anger, fear, and something I couldn’t identify flitting across her face.

“Nolan-” she gasped, scrambling backward.

Too late.

I had her by the throat in an instant. Her back hit the wall with enough force to leave her breathless. My fingers pressed into her throat hard enough that she couldn’t even attempt to speak again.

I wouldn’t give her the chance to talk her way out of this. I wouldn’t let her make excuses for what she’d done.

People were dead because of her. My people.

“Murderer,” I growled, my eyes burning into hers.

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