Alpha Xander's Undoing Chasing my Unknown Mate Back novel Chapter 50

Chapter 50

Chapter 50

Rory

I woke with dirt under my nails.

55 vouchers

The softest hum of birdsong floated beyond the shack’s walls, and the early sun cut pale streaks across the wooden planks of the floor. Xander was already up, I could tell. The air still carried the heat of his body beside mine, the quiet echo of his presence like the warmth left in a blanket after it’s been wrapped around you too long.

But I couldn’t stay wrapped anymore.

The walls were closing in. The silence–though it had offered a strange kind of safety the night before–now felt heavy, oppressive. I was losing time. Losing myself. And if I stayed here, tucked away in the folds of a ruined cabin while the world spun into fire outside… then what was all of this for?

I sat up slowly, careful not to jar the healing burns beneath the oversized hoodie Xander had pulled over me hours before. My hands ached. My chest still throbbed faintly, though my accelerated healing had dulled most of the pain. What lingered wasn’t physical. It was buried somewhere deeper.

Xander walked in then, carrying a bucket of water and a scowl on his face.

“You’re up early,” he said, setting it down.

“I’m not the one who left a girl lying naked on a rotting mattress in a shack,” I said dryly, arching an eyebrow.

He grunted, lips twitching in reluctant amusement. “I left a note.”

“There was no note.”

“Well, then I meant to.”

I almost smiled. Almost.

But I couldn’t. Not fully. Not with the things burning in my mind.

“I can’t stay here,” I said finally, cutting through the easy silence.

Xander looked up sharply. “Rory-”

“I mean it,” I pressed. “I know you think we’re safe. That hiding here gives us time. But it doesn’t. Every second I spend doing nothing, something inside me twists tighter. I can feel Zerina. And it’s not just dreams anymore. She’s in me–awake. Watching.”

He stared at me, jaw tight.

“Safe,” I continued, “has never been in my vocabulary.”

His

eyes flicked

away. He ran a hand over the back of his neck like he was physically restraining himself from

13:45 Tue, Sep 16 N

Chapter 50

:

ลน

46

55 vouchers

snapping. “And what’s your plan, exactly? Just march back into the Academy where the Venatorum are sniffing around every hall? Where aristocrats are already whispering about the Chaos wolf?”

I said nothing.

That was my plan.

He exhaled through his nose, then stilled as something shifted in his expression.

A moment later, his eyes clouded. His head tilted.

A mind-link.

I waited, watching the way his jaw tensed. The flicker of his fingers as he clenched them once, then released.

When he spoke, his voice was clipped.

“My father’s summoning me back to the estate.”

“What?” I frowned. “Now?”

He nodded once, sharply. “Now.”

“Is this about me?” I asked.

“Everything’s about you,” he said, and it wasn’t cruel. Just a bitter truth.

I waited, expecting him to say I could come too. That we’d figure this out together.

Instead, he walked to the doorway, half–turned, and said, “You stay here. Do not leave until I come back.”

I opened my mouth to argue, but he held up a hand. “I’m serious, Rory. Only Dhara knows where we are. If you walk out that door, you’re risking everything.”

“I’m not some broken heirloom you can keep in a drawer,” I said.

“I know.”

But he left anyway.

I waited until I couldn’t hear the sound of his footsteps anymore.

Then I left.

***

The Academy loomed above us like it always had–its towers sharp against the pale morning sky, its arches yawning wide like secrets waiting to swallow someone whole.

Matt crouched beside me behind a cluster of hedges near the northern wall. “You’re sure her stuff got moved to the Archive Tower?”

13:45 Tue, Sep 16 N

Chapter 50

…

:

46

55 vouchers

I nodded. “A professor mentioned it in passing. Said they had to ‘store sensitive items‘ after Eden’s death. Which means they sealed everything.”

He whistled low. “Bold move, sneaking back in here. Even for you.”

I gave him a tight smile. “Since when have I not been bold?”

He snorted. “Point taken.”

We waited for the right moment, then slipped through the narrow maintenance door Matt had somehow bribed open with a single charm and a dangerous smile. The interior hall was colder than I remembered. Empty.

Too empty.

I hated how this place made me feel now. Like something haunted the bones of it. Like Eden’s memory lingered not just in people’s silence–but in the stone itself.

We climbed the spiral staircase of the Archive Tower, our footfalls muffled against the worn steps. At the top, the sealed chamber waited–a heavy iron–bound door with runes glowing faintly along its frame.

Matt produced a small crystal and held it up to the seal. The runes flickered. Hissed.

He grinned.

“It won’t last long,” he said. “Maybe thirty seconds.”

“Then we go fast.”

He pressed the crystal to the lock. There was a hiss–a pulse of light–and the seal unraveled.

The door swung open.

Inside, the air felt older. Thicker. Like we’d stepped into something preserved. No dust, no cobwebs. Just silence and rows of shelves filled with boxes, scrolls, and relics, each labeled in tight cursive on parchment slips.

We moved quickly.

It didn’t take long to find it.

A box.

Labeled: E. Steele – Personal Relic – Sealed by Order of Headmistress Varra.

My heart slammed.

I opened it.

Inside was a pendant–silver, old, etched with spiraling runes I couldn’t read. Beside it, a small diary bound in violet leather, nearly falling apart at the spine.

13:45 Tue, Sep 16 N

Chapter 50

Matt looked over my shoulder. “That’s it?”

“Let’s find out.”

I reached for the pendant.

The moment my fingers touched it, everything tilted.

I wasn’t in the Archive anymore.

I was somewhere else.

55 vouchers

Warm light filtered through gauzy curtains. A dorm room. Familiar and strange at once. The air carried the scent of lavender and ink. A girl sat at a desk, scribbling into a journal.

Eden.

My heart seized.

She looked older. Tired. Her eyes had shadows under them, and her hair was tied back in a rough braid. She spoke aloud as she wrote, voice low and hurried, like she was racing time.

“They’ll come for her eventually,” she murmured. “Once the symptoms start. She won’t take that poison forever. Once the dreams get worse.”

She paused, flipping to a new page.

I moved closer.

I wasn’t really there–I knew that. This was a memory. A vision preserved by the pendant. But it felt real.

Eden’s pen scratched across the page.

“She’s the threshold. I see it now. The rune matches. The way the moonlight reacts to her. It’s already begun.”

She lifted her hand–and on her palm glowed the same symbol that had burned onto my skin days ago.

Verify captcha to read the contentVerify