Alpha Xander's Undoing Chasing my Unknown Mate Back novel Chapter 113

Chapter 113

Chapter 113

* Xander*

Snow came before the storm. It always did.

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By the time the first flakes started drifting past the window, soft as ash, the Academy had gone quiet. Not the usual kind of quiet–this one was heavier, the kind that hummed in your bones and made the world feel smaller. The wind pressed against the glass like it was trying to get in.

Rory sat near the fire, legs tucked beneath her, the glow painting her hair in shades of ember and gold. I’d seen her in every kind of light–sunrise, battle, moonfire–but never like this. She looked tired, but peaceful. The kind of peace I hadn’t seen in her since before Solstice.

She turned her head slightly when she noticed me. “You’re pacing.”

“I’m thinking,” I said, though it was a lie.

“Thinking usually doesn’t sound like footsteps.”

I stopped, rubbing the back of my neck. “Neither does worrying, but here we are.”

A soft smile curved her mouth, faint but real. “Come here, worrywart.”

I crossed the room and dropped beside her, close enough that the fire’s warmth brushed against both of us. Outside, the storm was building. I could hear it—the first deep groan of the wind rolling through the peaks, the brittle crack of ice forming on the trees.

She reached her hand toward the flames, palm hovering just above the light. “When I was little, my father used to say storms reminded us who we were,” she murmured. “He said the snow made the world start over, even if just for a night.”

I watched her fingers twitch, like she wanted to touch the fire and feel something more than heat. “Do you believe that?”

Her eyes flicked to mine. “I used to. I don’t know anymore.”

The fire popped, sending a scatter of sparks toward the chimney, I leaned forward, elbows on my knees, studying her profile. “You’ve been quiet lately.”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

“I say it like it’s not you.”

She sighed, the sound soft and fragile. “It’s hard to know who that is right now. Without the bonds…. it’s like my chest forgot how to feel full.” She hesitated, voice almost breaking. “Sometimes I wonder if I’m even the same person anymore.”

I turned toward her, reaching up to brush a strand of hair from her cheek. “You are.”

12:06 Sat, Oct 11

Chapter 113

Her lashes fluttered, eyes wet with something she tried to hide. “How would you know?”

“Because I was there when you became her,” I said simply. “And she’s still right here.”

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She tried to look away, but I caught her chin, forcing her to meet my eyes. The fire reflected in them, twin shards of light flickering over green. “You’re my wife, Rory,” I said quietly. “Bond or not, you’re still mine, and I’m yours.”

Her breath caught, shaky and unsure. “You make it sound so easy.”

“It isn’t. Nothing worth keeping ever is.”

She gave a soft, trembling laugh that broke somewhere near the end. “You always say the right thing, you know that?”

“I’ve had practice.”

She tilted her head. “Practice?”

“Talking to stubborn women who don’t realize how much I love them.”

Her eyes widened a little, then softened. “You love me.”

I smiled faintly. “That wasn’t a question.”

She shook her head, biting her lip. “You make it sound like something I don’t deserve.”

“Maybe you don’t,” I said, voice low. “But I don’t deserve you either, and that never stopped us before.”

The silence that followed was the kind that didn’t need to be filled. The firelight flickered across her face, and for a long time, we just sat there, breathing in sync, listening to the storm crawl closer.

Outside, the wind howled through the shutters. She shivered, and without thinking, I shifted closer. Her body leaned into mine like it was muscle memory. My arm came around her shoulders, and she melted against my chest with a quiet sigh.

“Warm enough?” I murmured.

“Almost.”

I pulled her tighter. “Better?”

She tilted her head, looking up at me. “Getting there.”

Her voice was so soft it barely reached over the crackle of the fire, but it hit harder than anything else. I could feel her heartbeat against mine, faint and uneven, and I realized how long it had been since I’d heard it this

close.

She shifted slightly, hand sliding over my chest, fingers tracing the pattern of my scars. “These still bother you?”

12:06 Sat, Oct 11

Chapter 113

“Only when you stop touching them.”

Her eyes lifted to mine, slow and steady. “Smooth.”

“I try.”

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Her smile deepened, small but real, and before I could say anything else, she leaned in and kissed me.

It wasn’t frantic, not like before when every kiss had felt like proof we were still alive. This one was slow, aching, tender. Her lips moved against mine like a question she was afraid to ask, and I answered it the only way I knew how–by pulling her closer, by kissing her until the world outside didn’t matter.

When we broke apart, her forehead rested against mine, her breath warm and uneven.

“I missed this,” she whispered.

“Which part?”

“All of it. The quiet. The way you hold me like you still believe I’m whole.”

I cupped her face, my thumb brushing away the tear she didn’t mean to let fall. “You are whole, Rory. You just don’t see it yet.”

She exhaled shakily, her fingers curling into my shirt. “I want to believe that.”

“Then let me believe it for both of us,” I said.

Her eyes fluttered shut, and for a heartbeat, everything stilled–the wind, the fire, the ache that had lived in both of us since the Solstice.

And then it happened.

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