The Alpha Who Never Loved Me (Serena and Kieran) novel Chapter 165

Chapter 165

Serena

The light was on in the kitchen when I opened the door, and something warm was on the stove.

He was trying again.

I stood in the entrance and watched him wondering why he was bothering himself. I walked in and set my bag by

the door.

Kieran was at the counter in a grey shirt with his sleeves rolled up. He looked up when he heard the door, and for a moment he looked the way I remembered, easy, present, like he’d been there a while and was glad I’d arrived. He looked nothing like the man that had ruined my life. .

“Dinner’s ready,” he said. “I made-”

“I ate at work,” I said. “Thank you.”

His shoulders came down slightly. He turned back to the counter, stood there a moment, then plated his own food

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and came to sit across from me.

“You said you’d give me a second chance,” he said, as if he was reminding me like I was him that forgot about vows.

“I did,” I said. “I’m here, aren’t I?”

He held my gaze. Then he picked up his fork.

We sat without talking. The apartment was contained at night, the two of us inside with the city pressing at the windows.

“Tell me about Elan,” I said.

He looked up.

“You said you’d explain,” I said. “I took that case. I can’t walk away from a patient because my husband doesn’t like his family.”

“Why are you still on this?” he said. “We agreed-”

“We agreed to try again,” I said. “That doesn’t mean I drop my work without a reason. If you want me to stop treating him, give me one.” I held his gaze. “Tell me what 27

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happened between you and Elan.”

He set his fork down. Both thumbs pressed into the edge.

of the table and he stared at them for a moment.

He cleared his throat.

“I don’t know where to start,” he said.

“Start from the beginning,” I said.

He was quiet for a moment. Then he looked up and started.

“Elan is my mother’s step-brother,” he said. “His pack and hers were linked long before she married my father. His pack was never truly strong. When she became luna of Crimson, it gave Elan’s family standing they hadn’t held on their own. And my father used the mate bond

to build Crimson into what it is — that bond was the

—

foundation, and Elan’s family rode it.”

“And then?”

“His pack came under attack,” Kieran said. “Rogues. Sustained, organized. Elan came to my father and asked

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for help. They were family, linked through the luna, years of alliance between them. He had every reason to expect it.” He looked at his plate. “My father calculated that Elan couldn’t win. The rogues outnumbered him, they were coordinated. He decided that sending Crimson into a losing war would cost more than the alliance was worth.”

My jaw tightened.

“So he said no.” I said.

“He said no,” Kieran said. “And he forbade my mother from helping either. No soldiers, no money, no support.’

I looked at Kieran across the table and I understood this

story.

I knew this particular calculation. I knew what it felt like to be weighed by someone with the power to help you and found insufficient. To be told, one way or another, that

what you were asking for wasn’t worth the cost.

“How did Elan take that?” I asked.

“He told my father they would regret it,” Kieran said. “Then he left. Disappeared for almost two years ” He 4/8

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reached for his water. “When he came back, the pack was his again. The rogues were gone. He’d rebuilt it from nothing and kept building until Healmsworth became what it is today.”

“Using witches,” I said.

“Using witches,” he said. “He went to a coven and made an arrangement. Nobody knows the full terms. Whatever he gave them was enough to turn the war. And then, not long after, his wolf went quiet.” He looked at me. “People say he gave it. That the witches took it as payment.”

I thought about Elan in his wheelchair. His face in our first session — proud and guarded, already braced for the version of this story that people always told about him. I thought about my tests and what they showed, and I sat with what I knew and what Kieran didn’t.

Elan’s wolf was dormant. Weakened. But present and alive and recovering.

Whatever he gave to those witches, it wasn’t his wolf.

I said nothing.

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Working with witches wasn’t a crime. It was badly frowned upon in pack culture but there was no law. The judgment was simpler than law: you’d taken a shortcut. You’d bought what you hadn’t earned through strength or suffering.

I thought about a man whose pack was under attack. Who went to the people with every reason to help him and was told no. Who went to the next option and made

the deal he could make and was called dishonorable for

surviving.

“And Crimson?” I asked.

“Crimson could have moved into the territory,” Kieran said. “Let the rogues do the damage and then step in. It would’ve been clean. But we couldn’t move against Elan’s pack without moving against my mother’s line. So we stayed still. After Elan had rebuilt Healmsworth, my mother’s connection to his pack was formally severed. Her origins there cleared from the record. The tie is gone.”

I stood up. “I don’t see anything wrong with what he did,” I said. “He asked the people who were supposed to help him. They said no. He found another way. That’s not 09:10

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