Alpha Xander's Undoing Chasing my Unknown Mate Back novel Chapter 104

Chapter 104

Xander

The ridge still smelled of blood.

Not fresh, not sharp, but the ghost of it lingered in the soil and in the air, reminding us what it cost to stay here. Mona lay bundled in her cloak, her face pale but steadier than last night.

69

Dhara had been up half the night forcing a healing brew down her throat, while Matt and I took turns checking the perimeter. Now the fire was nothing but smoke and ash, and the forest around us felt like it was holding its breath.

“We can’t keep running blind,” Dhara said, her tone clipped. She tightened the laces on her boots with quick fingers, then stood with her arms folded. Her golden eyes cut to me. “If we want to help Rory, we need knowledge. And the only place with records worth a damn is the Academy.”

The words dropped into the quiet like a stone into deep water.

I didn’t answer at first. I knew where this was going.

Matt adjusted the straps on his pack, his jaw tight. “She’s right. If there’s anything about bonds being cut and reforged, it’ll be in the archives. Or Vallin will know.”

Rory stirred from where she sat near Mona, chains looped around her ankles so she wouldn’t trip on the uneven ground. Her wrists were raw again, rubbed open from yesterday’s march. She kept her eyes on the dirt as she whispered, “Going back there is suicide.”

Her voice was small, but every head turned.

Mona let out a weak laugh that dissolved into a cough. “Since when has suicide stopped us?”

Nobody laughed.

“We don’t have a choice,” Dhara said firmly. “Durnham has too much of a head start. If we try to track him without something stronger than a ghost–thread, we’ll lose. If we want her whole again, we go back.”

Her whole again. The words cut like a blade.

Azrien pressed against my ribs, hot and insistent. He wanted speed, blood, something to rip apart, but he didn’t argue. For once, he agreed with Dhara.

Rory shook her head, hair falling in her face. “It’s half–abandoned. Half–broken. The wards are cracked, and the Venatorum know who we are now. You think they won’t have eyes there? Walking back into those halls is asking to be hunted.”

“I’d rather die in those halls than let you walk hollow the rest of your life,” I said before I could stop myself.

The words came out raw, sharper than I meant, but I didn’t take them back.

12:41 Thu, Oct 2

Chapter 104

469

155 Veuchen

Rory lifted her face. Her green eyes were ringed with exhaustion, but behind it was a spark I recognized. Not the girl broken in chains. The girl who had stared down Solstice runes and dared them to burn her..

She straightened, her voice quiet but carrying. “Then we go. If there’s a chance–any chance–that my bonds aren’t gone forever, then I’ll take it. I’d rather risk it than live like this.”

Silence fell. Dhara’s brows furrowed, but she didn’t argue. Matt looked away, jaw tight. Mona’s pale lips curved into a ghost of a smile.

That was it. Decision made.

We packed what little we had. Dhara gathered herbs into cloth wraps, her movements sharp. Matt slung rope across his chest and tucked an extra blade into his belt. Mona insisted on walking, though her steps wavered. “I’m not being left behind,” she muttered, stubborn as ever.

Rory tried to lift her own pack, but I was already there, taking it from her and slinging it over my shoulder. She scowled faintly. “I can carry it.”

“I know,” I said, and didn’t hand it back.

Her mouth twitched like she wanted to argue, then she sighed and let it go.

The trail wound through roots and stone, the forest dim even with morning light bleeding through. Branches clawed at our shoulders, the ground slick from last night’s mist.

Mona stumbled once, and Matt was at her side in an instant, his hand steadying her elbow. Dhara walked ahead, eyes scanning every shadow.

I stayed at Rory’s side. Her steps were slower than I liked, but she kept moving, jaw set, chains rattling with each stride. Every sound in the forest felt sharper after the dungeon she’d been dragged from – I saw it in the way she flinched at bird calls and snapped twigs.

“You’re not weak,” I murmured when her steps faltered.

She didn’t look at me. “I feel weak.”

“Then let me be strong for you until you don’t.”

Her eyes flicked to mine then, and something in her expression softened. She leaned the smallest bit closer, and Azrien hummed inside me, finally quiet for once.

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