Chapter 542 - CHAPTER 541 — The Alpha Without a Bond

At 1:40 in the morning, the emergency medical wing of Regina Royal Estate smelled of antiseptic, damp wool, and the faint metallic trace of blood, while rain whispered against the tall windows overlooking King's Avenue. Alessandro De Luca sat upon the edge of an examination bed with his shirt unbuttoned at the collar and his injured shoulder wrapped in fresh bandages, his posture rigid enough to suggest that he was attending a council meeting rather than struggling to remain conscious. Beyond the glass partition, healers hurried between beds occupied by wounded wolves, yet the sounds that had once reached him without effort—the restless thoughts of his Pack, the distant awareness of a patrol returning home, the instinctive recognition of a wolf calling for help—had dwindled into an emptiness he could neither understand nor endure.