Alpha Xander's Undoing Chasing my Unknown Mate Back novel Chapter 16

Chapter 16

*Rory*

I didn’t think. I just moved,

Pushing through the office door without knocking, I entered just in time to see the scene unfolding before me.

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Xander stood near the headmistress’s desk, freshly showered and changed, but still radiating pure fury: His wet hair was disheveled, and his broad shoulders were tense, his body poised as if ready to launch into an attack.

Across from him, Headmistress Varra–still the scariest woman I had ever seen–actually looked pale. Pale.

I didn’t know how Xander had managed to make the most terrifying woman in the Six Packlands look shaken, but somehow, he had.

And then there was my father.

He looked… annoyed, like he had been interrupted from something far more important than discussing the death of his only living daughter.

When he saw me, though, his expression cracked. His eyes widened with an emotion I had never seen before, something I refused to name, before he abruptly stood.

“Aurora. You’re-”

“Alive,” I finished flatly, crossing my arms. “Yeah, I’ve already had this conversation.”

A flicker of irritation crossed my father’s face at my tone, but he said nothing about it. Instead, his gaze flicked toward the white folder on the desk–the

one stamped in red.

It was one of those folders I’ve seen before–the ones that usually held reports. The green stamp meant good news. The gray stamp meant it was redeemable but not awful. The red stamp meant it was bad news that couldn’t be fixed.

He had been called in to receive the news of my death.

A meeting that had evidently been crashed by Xander.

“What the fuck kind of medicine are you giving her?” Xander’s voice cut through the tension like a blade, sharp and deadly.

I froze. I had never heard anyone talk to my father like that before. People had done less and lost their lives for it.

But instead of lashing out, my father’s jaw simply ticked.

“Only what’s necessary to keep her alive.”

Xander’s nostrils flared. “Wolfsbane. You’re feeding her wolfsbane. That’s poisonous. Too much of that and she can actually die.”

Headmistress Varra gasped but said nothing.

Something like realization flickered across Xander’s face. And then it twisted into something even worse. His head snapped toward me.

“On our wedding day.” He hesitated, and I already knew what he was about to ask “You weren’t drunk, were you?”

I swallowed hard, my eyes unintentionally betraying me as they flicked toward my father.

Xander growled, his anger snapping back into place.

“What is this sickness she has?” he demanded. “There must be another way to treat it than blatantly poisoning her every single day!”

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11:10 Sun, 31 Aug

Chapter 16

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“Mr. Grayson, please lower your voice.” Headmistress Varra’s voice was calm but firm. “You’re speaking to an Alpha, and you’re in my office.”

Xander’s gaze snapped to her, and I swear to the moon, the headmistress flinched.

He pointed a finger at her, his voice dropping into a dangerously low register.

“You don’t have any respect from me,” he said in a quiet, lethal tone. “You lost that when you sent us–only us–into the Deserted Lands to die.”

A beat of silence.

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My father’s head whipped toward her. “What?”

But no one answered him.

Varra’s face drained of all color.

I have done no such thing!” she snapped, her usual composure cracking. “Each bus driver was given a specific location to drop off each pair. I don’t know-”

“We didn’t travel in a bus,” I cut in sharply. “And yes, we were flung into the Deserted Lands and were attacked twice by rogues.”

“WHAT?!” My father bellowed as his eyes bulged.

Varra’s expression twisted into something panicked, something uncertain–but Xander? Xander wasn’t done.

His eyes, sharp and calculating, narrowed as he turned back to my father.

“What. Is. The. Sickness?” His voice was cold, merciless.

My father stiffened. “It’s deadly-”

“What is it?” Xander demanded, stepping closer. “She’s my wife now. I have a right to know what my wife is sick with!”

I felt my stomach twist that I quickly pushed down. Not because of the words themselves. But at how wrong they felt.

Because that’s all I was to him, wasn’t I? A wife. A contract. A bargain.

Nothing more.

My father squared his shoulders, his posture stiff, unwavering.

“You will ensure she takes her medicine.”

It wasn’t a request.

It wasn’t a plea

It was a command.

“Because if she dies,” my father continued, his voice eerily calm, “so does this alliance.”

And just like that, he turned and walked out of the office. But not before giving me one final look–one final moment to make sure I was really there.

ོའ འ ར

And then he was gone.

Xander was fuming.

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