Mated To The Crippled Alpha-Chapter 27: My Mothers Tears

My plan had been simple quiet, careful. I only wanted to nudge Lewis into uncovering the truth about the statue himself.

But nothing in this world ever went according to plan.

The moment I stepped too close, everything inside me shattered. The pull was instant and violent. My wolf instincts screamed, but my body wasn’t my own anymore. It felt like claws tearing through my soul confusion, pain, helplessness. I could feel Riley’s body rejecting me, her spirit fighting to return.

No. Not yet.

There was still so much left undone.

I hadn’t gotten justice. I hadn’t protected the ones I loved. I couldn’t leave this world with so many regrets.

But the truth was harsh I didn’t belong here. Not fully. I was a foreign soul wearing another’s skin.

Still, I had to try. Even if this was my last moment, Lewis deserved the truth. Riley deserved freedom.

Each step toward that statue felt like wading through heavy fog. My wolf instincts howled in warning, but something stronger called to me. A bond dark, ancient tugged at my core, dragging me closer.

My chest tightened. The air grew cold and thin. Then Lewis was suddenly in front of me, gripping my arms with Alpha strength. The calm mask he always wore was gone. His golden eyes burned with something fierce panic.

"Riley," he said roughly. "What are you talking about? Who’s in there?"

His scent cedar and rain flooded my senses. It was grounding and dizzying all at once. But I couldn’t speak. My throat locked, my lungs refused to work. I could feel my spirit tearing loose, the bond between me and this body unraveling strand by strand.

Time was slipping away.

I forced my lips to move, my voice trembling. "Save her... she’s trapped... inside the statue. Please... help her."

The last word broke apart on my tongue, and then everything went dark.

When I opened my eyes again, I wasn’t standing anymore. I wasn’t anywhere.

I was floating weightless, cold, unseen.

I had no scent. No heartbeat.

I wasn’t Riley. I wasn’t Elena.

I was just... a spirit caught between worlds.

The statue’s power gripped me like a cage. I could feel the stone around me, pressing close, swallowing my voice. I was trapped.

Down below, I could still see them. Lewis stood in the snow, holding Riley’s limp body against his chest. Her red coat blazed like fire against the pale frost. The faint red mark between her brows glowed softly, like a dying ember.

To anyone else, it might’ve looked peaceful.

But I could smell his fear from here.

"Riley!" Lewis’s voice thundered across the clearing, full of command and desperation. "Stay with me! Talk to me!"

No answer.

Theo knelt beside them, checking her pulse. "Her wound hasn’t opened. I think she just passed out," he said carefully. "Should I get the healer?"

Julian and Camilla appeared soon after. Their scents bitter and uneasy filled the air.

"What happened?" Julian asked, pretending to sound calm.

Camilla was quicker, her voice sharp but trembling. "You saw it, Alpha Lewis. She’s been acting strange since she arrived. We only helped her inside. Then she ran off on her own. We didn’t touch her."

Lie.

Even from inside the statue, I could feel the sourness of her aura, the rot beneath her words.

Lewis’s jaw clenched. He didn’t look at her, but his silence was enough to make Camilla flinch. Everyone knew that when an Alpha like him went quiet, it wasn’t mercy it was a warning.

After a long pause, he spoke, voice low and commanding. "Theo, take her to the med wing. Call her mother."

Not her father.

Never him.

That small choice said everything. Lewis had seen enough of Riley’s life to know where her loyalty and her pain lay.

Snow began to fall harder, flakes clinging to his hair and shoulders as he stood there, watching the vehicle disappear down the road. For a moment, he looked less like an Alpha and more like a man haunted, lost.

My chest ached as I watched from inside my stone prison. I wanted to reach for him, to tell him he wasn’t wrong to believe me. To tell him I was still here, even if he couldn’t see me.

But I couldn’t.

Through Riley’s body, I had tasted something I never truly knew before a mother’s love. It was soft and warm, like the glow of a dying ember in a frozen night. For a brief moment, I’d been loved. Seen. Safe.

And now, that ember had gone out.

Silence surrounded me again cold, endless, empty. The only thing that touched me was the whisper of the wind and the sting of snow against stone.

Not far away, I watched as Julian stood beside Lewis. His scent was full of unease, his tone even but forced. "Once Aunt Riley recovers," he said, "we’ll talk about the new den. I have a few matters at the pack office to handle first..."

Lewis cut him off sharply, his voice low and commanding. "Where did this statue come from?" 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

The shift in dominance was immediate. Julian stiffened, surprised by the Alpha’s tone. "Elena liked it," he said after a moment.

He wasn’t lying. He truly believed that the sculptor had chosen my face as a tribute. In the Hale Pack, everyone knew Julian and I had been close raised side by side, bonded by years of loyalty and familiarity. To him, it made sense.

But Lewis... he wasn’t like the others. His instincts ran deep sharper than most wolves I’d ever met. And I knew he was still holding on to the words I’d managed to whisper before everything went dark.

He would chase even the faintest scent of truth. Especially one tied to death and secrets.

My body my real body had never been found. That alone would keep him searching.

Lewis stared at the statue for a long while, snow gathering on his shoulders. His expression was cold, unreadable.

Camilla shifted closer, her sweet scent tainted with nervousness. "Is something wrong with it, Alpha Lewis?" she asked, her voice just a little too casual.

He didn’t answer right away. Instead, he brushed away a layer of snow from the statue’s surface. Beneath it, a strange hue appeared not stone gray, but faintly pink, like skin turned cold.

My heart clenched.

To anyone else, it was just a sculpture. But to me, it felt alive. I could feel him touching it touching me through the connection that still bound my spirit here.

Lewis’s jaw tightened. "It’s nothing," he finally said, voice calm but clipped. He turned away. "I’m heading out."

No.

My spirit flared in panic.

He was leaving? He didn’t believe me?

"Please..." I whispered into the void, though no sound reached him. "Please don’t give up on me."

Camilla let out a breath of relief, her body relaxing. "Julian, weren’t you saying something about work?"

Julian nodded absently. Lewis’s voice remained cool and distant. "I’ll visit other properties before deciding on the den."

And with that, they turned to leave.

My panic grew into pure despair. I tried to move, to scream, to break free of this prison of enchanted stone but I was bound too tightly. The magic around me pulsed like chains, dragging me deeper.

Why? Why bring me back to life just to cage me again?

I curled into myself, pressing my hands to my knees, the stone pressing cold against my cheek. The ache inside me was unbearable.

Then

Footsteps.

Strong. Purposeful. Familiar.

I looked up.

Lewis.

He’d come back.

Harris followed close behind him, along with a few wolves from the pack’s investigation unit. Lewis sat in his wheelchair, the moonlight catching the sharp lines of his face. His aura burned brighter now fierce, focused. Alpha energy rolled off him in waves.

For the first time in so long, I felt something close to hope.

You came back, I thought. You always were the only one who listened to the truth others refused to see.

He stopped before the statue before me his gaze hardening. "Check it," he ordered quietly.

Harris frowned. "Alpha, we’ve seen cases where bodies are hidden in stone or concrete," he said carefully. "But those always reek after a while. This statue... there’s no scent of decay. We already checked it before."

Lewis didn’t look away. His voice dropped, low and dangerous. "That’s what happens when an investigator relies too much on his nose. A clever wolf could use chemicals to mask the scent completely."

The others froze, eyes darting between each other. The Alpha’s words carried weight command instinct. His gaze darkened further as it fixed on the statue’s face. On my face.

"Think about it," he said. "What if the body was here all along? Right in front of us. Would any of you notice?"

The air turned thick, heavy with tension.

Even Harris a seasoned tracker looked shaken. The investigation had gone cold for weeks, every trail leading nowhere. But now, Lewis had found a new scent a new truth and he wasn’t about to let it go.

He leaned forward, his voice cold as frost. "Start breaking it open."

And though I couldn’t speak, my spirit trembled with a single thought

Lewis had heard me.

He had felt me.

And for the first time since my death... I wasn’t completely alone.