Alpha Xander's Undoing Chasing my Unknown Mate Back novel Chapter 64

Chapter 64

Chapter 64

*Rory*

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The days bled into each other, each one cut into the same pattern-training, eating when I remembered, trying to sleep, and waking with the nightmare of the Solstice.

Two days had passed since we’d last practiced with Mona and Dhara.

It wasn’t that I didn’t want them there. If anything, their presence was a kind of shield. But Xander was right- four wolves slipping into the same dark corner every night would light up Durnham’s radar faster than truth runes catching a lie.

He’d already been sniffing around, showing up in corridors he had no business walking, shadowing students in that casual, “I’m just checking in” way that fools no one.

So Mona, Dhara, and sometimes Matt had taken on their own mission: finding a way to shut the whole ritual down. Not just for me-for every gifted wolf who’d been hiding in plain sight, playing it safe until the Solstice announcement forced their hands.

The thought of them doing the harder work made something hot and guilty twist in my chest. I was in here training to survive it. They were trying to erase it entirely.

But we had only four days left.

Four days, and my hope was leaking out faster than I could plug the holes.

It wasn’t that I hadn’t improved. In the circle, I could now hold my hearing in that careful, heightened place without overshooting and making the runes flare. I could catch the sound of a dropped pen across the field like I could outside of the circle, but without using too much of Zerina’s power. That was the trick of it. Using only what I had and just enough of Zerina not to push me into the gifted or ‘inconclusive’ circle.

My scent control was better too-enough to find Xander’s soap in an area full of sweat and chalk and the faint earthy hum Dhara left behind when she’d been there earlier.

But it wasn’t the Solstice circle. The moon wasn’t full.

The runes weren’t fed by the ritual’s full power. I didn’t know if my carefully measured control would hold when it mattered.

The truth runes still lit up once in a while during practice, a sick, bright reminder that the circle could taste the difference between truth and performance.

Every time it happened, Xander made me reset. Every time it happened, my chest got tighter.

It was almost midnight on the second day when I finally let my knees give out and sat on the chalk-dusted ground. My hands dangled uselessly over them. I wanted to tell him I couldn’t do it, but I was afraid if I said it out loud, it would be true.

“You’re holding your breath,” Xander said from in front of me. He set the chalk down and came over, crouching so we were eye level.

13:11 Wed, Sep 17

Chapter 64

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I let out the breath, slow. “I can’t tell if I’m getting better or if the circle’s just… humoring me.”

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He studied me for a long moment. His eyes weren’t just on my face-they moved like he was memorizing the way I sat, the set of my shoulders, the tension in my hands.

“You’re better,” he said finally. “But you don’t believe it yet.”

“How can I? This isn’t even the real thing.”

“You think training on a smaller current doesn’t count?” He reached forward, his fingers brushing mine until they fit between them. “Rory, your control’s the point. Not the moon, not the size of the ring. If you can hold yourself steady in here, you can do it anywhere.”

I wanted to believe him. I wanted to take the warmth of his hand and make it into certainty. But the clock in my head was loud.

“Four days,” I said, barely above a whisper. “If I fail—”

“You won’t.” He said it so simply, like it wasn’t even an argument. “Because we’ll make sure you can’t.”

The “we” caught me.

The private side of him, the one no one at the academy saw, was careful with that word. When he said “we” to me, it didn’t mean his pack or his father or the Emerald Alliance. It meant him and me, no gaps.

He shifted closer, still crouched, his other hand coming up to cup the side of my face. His thumb brushed the edge of my jaw.

“You keep looking at this like the Solstice is the only day that matters. It’s not. Every day between now and then matters more. You’re going to walk into that circle knowing you can play it, not the other way around.”

A sound escaped me that wasn’t quite a laugh, wasn’t quite a sob. “You make it sound like a game.”

“I make it sound like a fight we’re going to win.”

He leaned in and pressed his forehead to mine. His breath moved against my cheek, and before I could stop myself, I leaned into him. His lips brushed my temple, my hairline, the curve just beneath my ear. Small, grounding touches that made my chest ache in a way that had nothing to do with fear.

I closed my eyes. “You don’t have to-”

“I want to,” he said, and kissed me softly, the kind of kiss that told me he wasn’t trying to distract me from the fear. He was trying to remind me there was something on the other side of it.

When he pulled back, his voice had gone low in that way that made it hard to think. “If you want Mona and Dhara to back off, I’ll tell them. If you want Matt to stay away, I’ll handle it. But you’re not walking into that circle alone. Not while I can still stand between you and it.”

I didn’t answer right away. My throat was tight. Finally, I said, “I’m not ready to give up yet.”

His mouth curved into something like a smile. “Good. Then we’re not done.”

13:12 Wed, Sep 17

Chapter 64

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We stayed there a moment longer, the chalk smudging under my palms, his hands still warm on my skin. And then I stood, because if I stayed any longer, I’d forget the rest of the world existed.

“I’m going to check on Mona and Dhara,” I said. “See if they’ve come up with anything.”

He didn’t try to stop me, just gave me that unreadable look that said he was measuring a dozen different possibilities and letting me go anyway. But I was glad that he was learning too-that coddling and controlling me wont let me trust him.

“Alright,” he said, grabbing the jug of water we always brought to wash the chalk away when Dharra couldn’t just yet, although she still did either after we finished or the next morning. Thankfully, there were less and less fire marks now, which meant the water would suffice until Dharra could do her thing.

The hallway outside my old room was quieter than I expected. Most doors were shut, maybe due to the late hour and that curfew that the school heads implemented.

My boots made almost no sound on the stone, but halfway to the east wing, another sound joined mine- softer, more deliberate,

“Miss Steele.”

I stopped before I could think. Professor Vallin stepped out from a door near the stairwell, the soft light catching the edges of his face. He didn’t look like he’d been waiting for someone. He looked like he’d been waiting for me.

“Walk with me,” he said.

Something in his tone made it clear it wasn’t really a request.

We moved down a side corridor, the shadows from the tall windows stretching across the floor like dark

water.

I didn’t trust him. I didn’t trust anyone in this academy since that day they sent Xander and I in the Deserted Lands.

So, I kept my guard up, even with Zerina quiet in my head and Xander right on the brink of my mind in case I call or even panic.

Vallin had always been hard to read-half mentor, half puzzle I hadn’t decided was worth solving.

“I hear you’ve been… preparing,” he said after a moment.

I didn’t answer. Let him fill the silence.

I still had no idea where he ‘heard’ these things, or even knew. But the fact that we hadn’t been in trouble meant he wasn’t going to say anything.

“Preparation is good,” he went on. “But it will not be enough. Not for you.”

I looked at him sharply. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

13:12 Wed, Sep 17

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