Mated to Her Alpha Instructor (Eileen and Regis) novel Chapter 242

Mated to Her Alpha Instructor

Chapter 242

Across the clearing, Nina remained standing. Alone. She stared at the spot where her mother had dissolved, clutching something small and dark–a handkerchief, I realized. Stained with old blood.

I wanted to go to her, to offer… something. But I was barely upright myself, and Eileen needed me more.

“Kieran.” My voice came out rougher than intended. “The girl. She helped save us all.”

He rose smoothly, already moving toward Nina with careful, non–threatening steps. When he reached her, he said something too quiet for me to hear. Nina’s shoulders hitched once, but she didn’t look away from that empty space.

The moon broke through the clouds fully now, flooding the ravine in silver light. It touched Eileen’s tangled hair, making it shine, and she stirred in my arms.

“Regis.” Barely a whisper.

“I’m here.”

“Take me home.”

Home. Not “back,” not “away.” Home.

I pressed my lips to her forehead, breathing her in. “Always.”

Eileen’s body went limp in my arms the moment the danger passed, her strength finally giving out. Through the bond I felt her exhaustion–bone–deep, absolute–but underneath it, steady and strong, our daughter’s heartbeat. Both of them safe.

I didn’t wait for Kieran. I was already moving.

The journey back to camp passed in fragments–warriors clearing a path, healer’s voice barking triage orders somewhere behind me.

I didn’t stop until I’d been at the medical station, laid Eileen on a cot, and Cora’s healing light was already moving over her.

“Exhausted, but stable,” Cora said after a long moment, her voice carrying the quiet certainty of someone who’d seen far worse. “The baby too. She needs rest. That’s all.”

The tension in my chest didn’t fully release, but it loosened enough to breathe. I sank onto the stool beside Eileen’s cot and took her hand. Her fingers were cold.

“You should rest too,” Cora said, not unkindly, when the second hour had passed and I still hadn’t moved. “I’ll watch over her myself. The moment she stirs, you’ll know through the bond before I could even send for you.”

She was right. I hated that she was right.

I pressed a kiss to Eileen’s forehead, breathing in her scent one last time.

“There’s more.” Kieran gestured toward the treeline, where two warriors stood guard over a line of captured rogues. “The ones we took alive–they’re talking. Or trying to. The drug suppresses their ability to shift back, but the healers managed to get coherent answers from a few.” His expression darkened. “They all have congenital defects. Weak wolf forms, incomplete shifts, some who never developed their wolves at all. They were promised strength, power, a place in a new order.”

“The night I was attacked,” I said, more to myself than Kieran, “in the Whispering Woods. The shadow wolves that ambushed me–they weren’t random. Cornelius wanted to slip his soldiers into our territory. But he never expected me to be back alone that night, one day earlier than expected.” I remembered the way they’d moved, coordinated, deliberate. “And I walked right into an opportunity to get rid of me. He could kill two birds with one stone–slip his soldiers in and take me out.”

Kieran’s hand landed on my shoulder, steadying. “But you didn’t die. And you met-”

“Eileen.” Her name grounded me. She’d been there, terrified and heartbroken, stumbling through the forest. She’d found me dying and saved my life, and in doing so, saved everyone. If I’d been killed that night, if Cornelius’s plan had succeeded…

I couldn’t finish the thought.

“What else did we get from them?” I asked, forcing myself back to the present. “Did the interrogation turn up anything?”

“Already working on it.” Kieran stood, brushing ash from his hands. “But Regis… the rogues we captured, they’re not responding to interrogation the way we expected. It’s like they’re broken. Whatever Cornelius did to them, it wasn’t just physical.”

I nodded grimly. Eileen had mentioned the same thing when she’d analyzed the infected wounds weeks ago–that the corruption ran deeper than tissue damage, that it seemed to alter something fundamental in the wolves themselves. If Cornelius had access to witch magic, to lanthe’s abilities…

Gods. How long had he been planning this?

I understood now how crucial Eileen had been to us all.

“Eileen,” I said instead, voice rough. “She saved us all before any of us even knew we needed saving. From the very first night–and she had no idea.