Chapter 153 Chapter 153

Chapter 153 Chapter 153
Taylor's POV

Six months had passed since graduation, and for the first time in longer than I could remember, life actually felt steady.

Hunter had started seeing someone new, a girl named Priya from outside the pack entirely.

And it was someone who worked at a bookstore near the training center and had no idea about coverings or bonds or any of the chaos that had defined our year.

He seemed lighter around her, easier, laughing in a way I hadn't heard from him in months and I was genuinely happy for him.

Asher and I had settled into something comfortable and warm, evenings spent together without the shadow of danger hanging over every quiet moment.

My work with Willow and the bloodline had paid off too.

Doran still surfaced sometimes under stress, but I had learned to breathe through it now, to guide the strength instead of letting it explode without warning.

I thought, foolishly maybe, that we'd finally reached a calm after the storm.



Then a call came on a Tuesday evening, Maria's voice was tight and urgent through the phone.

"The Alpha King's been in an accident," she said.

"His car went off the northern road, he's alive, but critical."

I grabbed my jacket immediately, calling Asher on the way out the door, my heart pounding with a fear I thought I'd left behind months ago.

The hospital wing at the palace buzzed with chaos by the time I arrived, guards and healers moving fast through the halls.

Hunter was already pacing near the waiting room with Asher already there, both of them pale and shaken.

"What happened?" I asked, reaching them fast.

"They don't know yet," Hunter said, his voice tight.

"The road was clear and no other vehicles were involved. He just... lost control, apparently, and went straight through the barrier."

"That doesn't sound like an accident," Asher said grimly.

"No," Hunter agreed. "It doesn't."

We sat together for hours, waiting for updates, the three of us bound by fear all over again despite the peace we'd all worked so hard to build.

Priya showed up at some point, quiet and gentle, sitting beside Hunter without pushing him to talk, simply offering steady presence the way good partners did.

Finally, near midnight, a healer emerged with news.

The Alpha King had survived, stable for now, but the injuries were severe enough that full recovery would take months, if it came at all.

"He's asking for both of you," the healer said, looking at Hunter and Asher.

"Now, if you're able."

They disappeared down the hall together, and I sat with Priya in the quiet aftermath, exhausted and unsettled by how fast the calm we'd built had shattered.



My phone buzzed while I waited, a message from an unfamiliar number that made my stomach drop instantly.

Have you heard of it? Word's spreading that Elias Whitman didn't survive his last mission. Confirmed by two separate sources close to the northern border patrol. So sorry for your loss.

I stared at the screen, my whole body going cold.

"Taylor?" Priya's voice, gentle and concerned.

"What's wrong?"

"My father," I whispered. "Someone's saying he's dead."

I called Mom immediately, my hands shaking so hard I nearly dropped the phone twice trying to dial.

"Mom," I said the second she picked up.

"Have you heard anything about Dad?"

Silence stretched too long on the other end.

"Where did you hear something happened?" she asked finally, her voice careful in a way that scared me more than anything.

"A message," I said. "It was anonymous and saying he didn't survive his last mission." My voice cracked.

"Mom, is it true?"

"I don't know," she admitted, and I heard her own fear bleeding through the careful calmness she was trying to maintain.

"I haven't heard from him in almost two weeks. That's not unusual for him, but with everything happening tonight, with the King's accident..."

"It's connected," I said, understanding that it was arriving fast and terribly. "Someone's testing us again. Just like Kessler did."

"I called Maria the second I saw the message too," Mom said. "She's trying to confirm anything she can. Taylor, I need you to stay calm. We don't know anything for certain yet."

I hung up, my whole body trembling, grief and fear tangling together so tightly I could barely breathe.



Maria saw me an hour later, her expression carefully neutral in the way that told me she didn't have good news, but didn't have confirmation of the worst either.

"I can't verify the rumor," she said.

"Nobody officially has confirmed anything about your father. The sources claiming to have information trace back to accounts we don't recognize, similar to the burner networks Kessler used before."

"So it might not be true," I said, hope and dread warring hard in my chest.

"It might not be," Maria agreed carefully.

"But I want you to understand something, Taylor. This feels deliberately timed and the King's accident tonight, this rumor spreading at the exact same moment, both designed to hit this family when we're already reeling and unable to think clearly."

"You think someone planned both?" I asked.

"I think it fits a pattern we've seen before," she said grimly.

"Someone studying exactly how Kessler operated and using the same playbook, panic, grief, confusion, all timed to strike at once."

Hunter and Asher emerged from the King's room then, both looking exhausted, grief and worry etched deep into their faces.

"He's stable," Hunter said. "For now but Maria, we need to talk. He said something strange before we left and about the succession happening sooner than any of us planned."

"There's more," I said, my voice shaking. "Someone's spreading a rumor that my father is dead, tnight. The same night as the accident."

Hunter and Asher exchanged a look, understanding settling grimly and heavily between all of us.

"This isn't a coincidence," Asher said quietly. "Someone new is testing us. Right when we're weakest."

I stood there in the middle of that quiet hospital hallway, exhaustion and grief pulling hard at every part of me.

I understood with sinking certainty that the peace we had all worked so hard to build this past year had just been shattered completely, replaced once again by the cold, familiar fear of not knowing who to trust or what was coming next.