Alpha Xander's Undoing Chasing my Unknown Mate Back novel Chapter 103

Chapter 103

Chapter 103

*Rory*

The first thing I noticed when I woke was the quiet.

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It wasn’t dungeon–quiet, heavy and choking like mildew and rust. This was the kind of quiet that only comes after a storm – raw air, damp earth, the hush of a forest that had been unsettled and was now catching its breath.

My cheek was pressed to Xander’s jacket, and for a dizzying moment I almost let myself believe that everything awful had been a dream. But then I shifted and felt the raw ache on my wrists, the bruises burning under my skin, and the memory of chains came rushing back.

I pushed upright slowly. The ridge curved around us, sheltering us in its bowl of stone. Smoke from last night’s fire lingered faint in the cold morning, more ash than flame. Mona lay stretched on a bedroll near the embers, her face pale but breathing steadier than it had hours ago. Dhara was curled on her side, one hand still gripping the hilt of her blade even in sleep. Matt sprawled close to Mona, his snores soft but uneven.

Xander was the only one awake.

He sat a few paces from me, back straight, eyes fixed on the treeline like he could force the forest to confess where our enemies had gone.

His knuckles were still bloodied from the fight, his shirt torn, shoulders tense. Azrien pressed close in him, so close I could feel it even without my wolf – a hot ripple of presence, dangerous but steady, like a bonfire refusing to die down.

I dragged myself over, chains scraping across the ground louder than I wanted. His head turned instantly, eyes flashing with that sharp alertness that only dulled once he saw me.

“You should be resting,” he said, low.

“So should you.” I eased down beside him, my body grateful for the heat radiating off his.

For a few moments we just sat there, shoulders brushing, watching the pale dawn bleed through the trees. Then his hand came up, brushing hair from my face, his fingers warm against my jaw. The gentleness of it cracked something inside me.

I leaned into his palm, my throat tightening. “I don’t know how to do this,” I whispered.

His brows drew together. “Do what?”

“Breathe. Stand. Pretend like I’m whole when I’m not. Zerina’s gone, Xander. The bond between us is gone. I’m half a person walking around in skin too big for me. I feel… empty. Like someone scooped out everything and left only glass.”

He didn’t flinch from the words. His thumb stroked slow along my cheek. “You’re not empty. You’re here. You’re breathing. You’re alive. That’s not nothing.”

I shook my head, blinking hard. “It feels like nothing. I reach for her and there’s nothing. I reach for you and

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Chapter 103

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there’s nothing. Just silence. It makes me want to claw myself open just to find proof I’m still me.”

His hand caught mine before I could dig my nails into my palm. “Then we’ll claw it back together,” he said. steady as stone. “If there’s a way bonds can be cut, then there’s a way they can be tied again.

If a door can open, it can close. I don’t care what it takes, I don’t care what it costs whole again. Even if it kills me.”

I’ll fight until you’re

The raw certainty in his voice unraveled me. A sob slipped free before I could swallow it down. He pulled me against him, arms crushing tight like he could hold me together with sheer will.

“I’m broken,” I whispered into his shirt. “So broken.”

His hand slid up to cup the back of my head, his breath warm against my hair. “No. You’re not broken. You’re scarred. There’s a difference. Scars mean you lived. And I’ll take every scar with you, as long as you’re here.”

I shut my eyes, clinging to him like I hadn’t since the Solstice. For the first time in weeks the silence inside me didn’t feel like it was swallowing me whole. It still hurt, but pressed against him, it didn’t cut as sharp.

Hope flickered. Fragile. Reckless. But alive.

We kissed not frantic like the night of the Solstice, not desperate like last night’s reunion, but slow and grounding, mouths meeting like we had all the time in the world. His hand stayed at my jaw, his thumb smoothing across skin that had been bruised too long. When I pulled back, my chest ached, but the ache was softer now.

“I don’t know how long I can do this,” I admitted.

“Then you don’t do it alone,” he said simply.

***

A soft scrape broke the moment.

Dhara pushed herself up, hair a mess, eyes sharp despite her exhaustion. She eyed us, then the treeline, then the ash of the fire. “We need a plan,” she said flatly. “Because Durnham isn’t finished. He’ll come again.”

Xander’s arm stayed firm around me as he answered. “Then we’ll be ready.”

Dhara’s gaze cut to me. “Your tether’s gone. That means two things. One, Durnham can’t track you by it anymore. Two, neither can we. If we’re going to keep ahead of him, we need a different advantage.”

Her bluntness stung, but it was truth. I wiped at my eyes, sitting straighter. “So what do we do?”

Matt stirred awake then, rubbing at his face. “Old records mention wolves who lost their bonds but found ways to reforge them. Dangerous rites. Not common, but it’s there.”

“Where?” Xander pressed.

“Council archives,” Matt said grimly. “Which means we’d have to get past their wardens.”

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Chapter 103

Dhara tilted her head. “Or find someone who already knows what’s in those archives.”

Silence fell. We all thought of Vallin.

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