The Lost Pack (Paige) novel Chapter 225

** Ryder’s POV **

We don’t celebrate. We don’t howl with victory cries or shake ourselves clean of blood and fear. We simply settle, our shoulders relaxing after carrying too much weight.

Maybe all that will come later.

The pack moves quietly. Not in shock or grief, but in assessment. Enforcers regroup, bloodied but standing.

Healers move with practised efficiency, hands glowing, voices calm. Leo walks between fallen hunters, checking them, issuing clipped orders, keeping everyone steady and controlled.

He doesn’t look triumphant. He looks exactly the way a Gamma should after a battle… focused, alert, already thinking three steps ahead. I watch him for a moment before turning back to the centre of it all.

Paige is sitting on the porch steps, wrapped in a blanket too thin for the night air. Callen crouches in front of her with his forehead pressed to her knees. Parker sits on the step beside her, one hand resting lightly at the small of her back, grounding her. Remy paces a short distance away in wolf form, restless but contained, his eyes never leaving her.

She looks small like this. Not weak, but spent. It’s better than I expected though. With every other large power usage like this, she has been drained to the point of unconsciousness, but not this time, because this time shehas the four of us fuelling her too.

I wonder if that’s why we were chosen for her in the first place? Four of the most powerful members of a pack, the only pack with two Alphas and two Betas. The only ones with the energy to keep her on her feet without being drained.

The bond hums low and steady, but beneath it there’s a quiet ache that wasn’t there before. The kind you don’t notice until the adrenaline fades. I step closer, and Paige Lifts her head to study me.

“You’re hurt,” she says softly.

1 huff a quiet laugh. “You should see the other guy.”

Her mouth curves into a small smile, but it doesn’t reach her eyes. She’s still half elsewhere, awareness pulled inward now that it no longer needs to be stretched across the land.

“You scared me,” I admit.

Callen’s head lifts at that, his eyes sharp. “She held back.”

“I know,” I say. “That’s what scared me.”

Paige swallows, her fingers tightening in the blanket. “If I hadn’t…”

I crouch in front of her before she can spiral, hands settling on her knees, grounding us both.”You did exactly what you were meant to do,” I say firmly.”

Nothing more. Nothing less.”

The bond flares warm at that, steadying. Paige exhales slowly, leaning into it.

Around us, the pack finishes its checks. No deaths. All injuries on our side are already stabilised. The hunters’ bodies have been removed from the inner grounds, those still alive restrained and guarded, stripped of weapons.

Leo approaches quietly, stopping a respectful distance away.

“Everyone is accounted for,” he reports. “Healers say everyone will recover.”

Paige looks up at him then, really looks, and something soft passes between them. Respect. Gratitude.

Understanding.

“Thank you,” she says.

Leo inclines his head once. “You gave us time. That made all the difference.”

He hesitates, then adds, “The land responded to you. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Paige lowers her gaze. “I didn’t tell it what to do.”

Leo shakes his head, with a small smirk on his face. “That might be more unsettling.”When he moves on, I stay where l am, watching the pack regroup without fear, without confusion. They don’t look shaken. They look… certain. That settles something deep in my chest.

Paige’s focus starts to slip not long after we get inside to warm up and discuss next steps. It’s subtle at first. The way her gaze lingers too long on nothing. The way the bond tightens, not with pain, but with strain, like she’s being pulled in two directions at once. There’s a stillness to her that isn’t just exhaustion.

I feel my wolf bristle.

Before I can move, Callen’s voice cuts through the mind-link, calm but sure.

“I’ve got her.”

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