Alpha Xander's Undoing Chasing my Unknown Mate Back novel Chapter 72

Chapter 72

*Rory*

I woke to heat.

:

40

55 vouchers

Not the normal kind, not the warmth of blankets or the steady furnace of a wolf’s body pressed close, but the kind that sits behind your eyes and under your skin, a fever that belongs to the marrow itself.

My mouth was dry, my throat raw, and when I tried to swallow it tasted like ash had been left on my tongue.

The ceiling above me wasn’t the infirmary’s. It was dark stone veined with cracks like rivers.

The air smelled faintly of smoke and cedarwood, sharper now as I shifted and realized the weight holding me down wasn’t stone but fabric.

Heavy blankets, too many for one bed, and beneath them the ghost of someone’s scent. Xander’s.

I turned my head slowly, every nerve aching, to find him slumped in a chair beside the bed. His long frame looked too big for it, his head tilted against his fist, his jaw shadowed from exhaustion.

He wasn’t asleep-not really. His eyes snapped open the moment I moved, swriling like the deep ocean on a stormy night.

I always admired how his eyes always seemed to tell just what mood he was in.

“You’re awake,” he said, voice strained. Maybe relief. Maybe joy. Something closer to vigilance, like he’d been holding his breath for hours and wasn’t sure if he should let it go now.

Before I could answer, another voice cut through the low hush of the room.

“About damn time,” Mona said, though the bite in her tone couldn’t hide the tremor.

She sat cross-legged at the edge of the bed, her boots kicked off, her face pale in the dim light. There were shadows under her eyes, deep and bruised, but her mouth was still quick, still restless. “Do you know how long I’ve been waiting to call you stupid again? Don’t you dare make me wait like that.”

It was then that I realized we were in my old room. Xander just didn’t seem like he left.

I tried to smile, but it hurt too much. My lips felt cracked, my skin still raw, and the faint hum in my throat wasn’t mine. It pulsed like an ember under flesh, beating to a rhythm that wasn’t entirely my heart’s.

Dharra was in the corner, perched on the low table with her knees drawn up, parchment stretched across her thighs. Not just parchment-the parchment, the strip she’d torn from the circle. She held it with both hands like it might explode, her burned palms swaddled in linen. Even with the wrappings, the skin looked angry and blistered. Her eyes flicked up when she realized I was watching her.

“Don’t move too much,” she said softly. “You’re scorched from the inside out. It’s going to take time before your aether steadies again.”

13:15 Wed, Sep 17

Chapter 72

40

EL 55 vouchers

Zerina stirred at the word aether. A brush of smoke, a growl low in my skull. Not whole-fragmented, broken into shards of thought that stabbed instead of flowing.

‘He touched us. He carved into us. He meant to hollow us out. He meant to-

I clamped down, my chest seizing as the ember at my throat pulsed again, searing against bone. Xander was on his feet instantly, crouched by the bed, his hands braced against the mattress.

“Easy,” he murmured, his voice stripped of all the sharp edges it had when aimed at anyone else. “You’re safe. He’s gone.”

Safe. The word didn’t feel real. My body still carried the bindings, the taste of iron in my mouth, the memory of Durnham’s calm smile. The chamber was gone, but he wasn’t. Not really.

“What happened to him?” My voice rasped, and I hated how weak it sounded.

“Gone,” Mona said, spitting the word like it was poison. “Slipped away in smoke. Coward.”

“If you remember, Varra says she’ll handle him,” Dharra added, but her eyes stayed fixed on the parchment, her lips pressed thin.

I did remember. Though it all was hazy.

I turned my head toward the door then, as if summoned by the mention, and there she was. Varra leaned against the frame, her arms crossed, her expression sharp as carved stone. She had changed robes since the chamber, but there was still a burn along her cheekbone, like the seal itself had tried to resist her intrusion.

“You should not be awake yet,” she said. Not unkind, but clipped, a voice that carried command even in quiet.

I licked my crack ed lips, the taste of ash thick on them. “Yet I am.”

Her jaw tightened. “Right.”

“Have you come with news that Durnham’s head is on a platter?,” Dharra said, voice trembling emotion, which was so unlike Dharra. It just proved how pissed he made her. Dharra didn’t hate anything or anyone, yet Durnham has somehow managed to wound her soul.

“No.” Varra’s gaze shifted, just barely, and for the first time I thought I saw something behind her armor- guilt, or maybe shame. “This academy has always had enemies. It seems they have seeped deeper than I thought.”

“That’s it?” Mona snapped, shoving off the bed to stand between us. Her hands curled into fists, runes still faintly smudged on her wrists from her own imprisonment. “That’s all you have to say? He strung her up in a circle like a lamb, burned her until she screamed, and you’re going to file it under ‘enemies in the walls?”

“Mona,” Dharra murmured.

“No.” Her voice broke, fierce and furious. “She almost died. Again. And we’re supposed to trust that someone who didn’t even notice it happening under her nose will fix it?”

Varra’s eyes

darkened, but she didn’t lash back. “I said I will handle Durnham. And I will.”

13:15 Wed, Sep 17

Chapter 72

:

40

55 vouchers

Verify captcha to read the contentVerify