Ch 4: Alpha Lowell

Alle's POV

"Where is she now?" I asked. "How can I meet her?"

Mary didn't answer immediately.

The moment I finished speaking, her fingers stopped moving. She had been holding the edge of her dress, but now she simply stared at her hands as if the answer she carried was something she wished she could keep hidden.

"Mary?"

She looked up slowly. "I wish you didn't ask me that."

My brows pulled together. "What happened to her?"

Mary took a breath, but even then, she hesitated "Alpha Lowell killed her.”

I waited for her to correct herself, to tell me she had misunderstood something, but Mary only looked back at me with the same sadness in her eyes, and I knew she was telling the truth.

"That isn't possible," I said quietly, shaking my head. "I would remember something like that."

Mary watched me for a moment, her brows slowly drawing together. "What do you mean?"

I looked away, my fingers tightening around the edge of my dress. I couldn't explain why those words felt impossible, or why hearing about Lowell's mate felt like discovering a chapter of my own book that I had never written.

How could I tell her that I had spent years creating Alpha Lowell's story, yet there were pieces of his life that I had never written?

"I need some time alone."

"Margaret-"

"Please."

Mary stayed silent for a moment before finally nodding.

"I'll have food brought to you."

After she left, I closed the door behind her and turned the lock, the quiet click filling the room as I walked back to the bed and opened up the book again.

"There has to be something.”

I opened the first page and found the words waiting for me, exactly as I remembered typing them, from the scenes I had created to the characters whose lives had once existed only on my screen.

I continued reading, searching for anything that could explain what was happening.

Hours passed.

The servants knocked several times, but I didn't answer. Mary called my name more than once, but I remained inside.

I couldn't stop reading because I knew that somewhere in these pages was the answer and I had to find it.

Three days passed before I finally reached Chapter 101, and my fingers slowed as the title on the page caught my attention: "Alpha Lowell's Nemesis".

I stared at the words for a moment, a strange feeling settling over me because I had no memory of ever writing that chapter until now.

Hesitantly, I continued reading.

The chapter ended with twelve seers who had gathered beyond the territory borders after receiving the same vision.

A prophecy.

The first words alone made me sit straighter.

The Alpha who would unite the werewolves would eventually become the reason everything around him was destroyed.

He would raise his hand against his own blood.

His brothers would fall because of him.

I continued.

Nine women, different generations chosen by the Moon Goddess, would stand beside him.

Nine would carry the title of his mate and they would die by his hands.

My fingers tightened around the book. "How did I forget this?"

Before I could wallow in my misery, a knock pulled me away from the pages. "My lady?"

I didn't answer.

A second knock followed, this time more urgent. "Please open the door.”

I kept my eyes fixed on the book, refusing to move until I understood what I was reading.

"Not yet," I whispered.

The voices outside fell quiet for a moment before another one spoke. "Lady Margaret, you've barely eaten in three days."

My fingers slowly loosened around the page as I looked toward the window.

Three days?

I stared at the fading light outside, trying to remember when I had last slept or eaten, but the answer wouldn't come.

I had been so focused on finding the missing pieces of the story that I hadn't realized how much time had passed.

The knocking continued for a few more seconds before suddenly stopping, and the silence that followed told me someone else had arrived. A different voice came from the other side of the door.

"Margaret."

I slowly lifted my head toward the door, noticing how everyone outside had gone quiet the moment he spoke.

"If you do not open this door, I will break it."

I closed the book.

"One."

Mary's voice followed. "Please don't. She hasn't been herself since she returned."

"Two.”

I stood from the bed as the footsteps outside remained steady.

"Three."

Then I heard a bang, followed by the door shattering. The wood scattered across the floor as a man stepped inside.

He wasn't Lowell, but I knew him because I had written him long before Alpha Lowell's story existed, back when the rejected manuscript about the seven powerful Alpha brothers was still the story I carried.

My eyes moved across his face as the memories returned, and I recognized him as Alpha Norman, Lowell's eldest brother.

He looked at me for a moment before finally speaking. "So you're finally here.”

I didn't answer because memories began returning one after another, bringing back the seven brothers, the prophecy, and the twelve seers that I had once created, while my fingers tightened around the book in my hands.

Norman noticed my plight and he asked. "What is it?"

I looked at him and without diluting words, I said. "The seers."

He frowned almost immediately. "What about them?"

"They're outside the northern border right?"

"How do you know that? Have you gotten your memory back?"

I ignored the question. "Are they still alive?”

For a moment, he said nothing; Then he answered. "Yes."

I stepped closer. "Take me there."

His face didn't move, but his pupils moved from Lady Mary to me. "Absolutely, no."

"You have to." I countered.

"It has to be a very good reason for you to leave the boundary and into a rogue zone only a psychopath can go. So, tell me why."

Sadly, I couldn't answer because they were the only ones who could explain why my own story had secrets from me.

Because they were the only people who might know why I was trapped inside my own creation.

Because if I told him the truth, I didn't know what the curse would take next.

"What's happening, Margaret? Tell me."

"Nothing."

His eyes remained on me, making it obvious he didn't believe a word I had said, so I lowered my gaze to the book in my hands before quietly holding it out to him.

"Read this."

Norman took it. He opened the first page. Then another. His eyes moved across the empty paper before he looked back at me.

"These pages are blank," he said.

I stared at him. "What?”

Norman turned the book slightly, showing me the pages. "There is nothing here."

My eyes moved from the blank paper to his face. "That isn't possible."

I took the book from his hand and looked down to find the words exactly where they had always been, from the prophecy to the chapters and every sentence I remembered writing, and as my fingers traced the page, it became painfully clear that I was the only one who could see the ink.

"Mary," I called. She stepped forward slowly, clearly unsure of what was happening. "Read

She accepted the book with hesitation. For several moments, she looked through the pages. Then she raised her eyes.

"Margaret..."

"Tell me you can see it."

Mary lowered the book. "I can't."

The room fell silent as I looked down at the pages again, and although the words were still there, I finally realized the book wasn't empty at all because it was hiding its contents from everyone except me.

"Take me to the seers."

Norman watched me carefully and I could only realize that they saw me as one crazy person and I had to let them know.

"I'm not crazy. I need to see the seers right now." I said.

"Why?" He asked.

Can you just let me see them?"

Norman heaved a sigh as all of them remained silent. After a while, he looked toward the broken door and then back at me.

"I don't know what happened to you, Margaret, but whatever it is, it is unreasonable to go outside the boundary by this time because it is a death sentence.."

He turned around and commanded the guards. "Prepare the horses."

Mary immediately stepped forward.

"Norman -"

"I'll take responsibility if anything happens"

"But the northern border -"

"I know.”

He looked at me. "And if she is wrong, we return immediately."

I held the book tightly against my chest, refusing to believe I was wrong, and less than an hour later, we left the territory in silence.

Norman asked questions several times, but I gave him little answer. Not because I didn't want to trust him, but because every explanation came with a risk I still didn't understand.

The black vein beneath my skin had already taken something from me once.

I didn't know what it would take next.

As the carriage drew closer to the northern border, the smooth road gave way to uneven ground and the trees grew sparse, but it was the thick column of smoke rising into the sky ahead that made my body go still.

"Stop."

Norman immediately looked outside. "What happened?" he asked, but I had already pushed the carriage door open before it came to a complete stop, ignoring him when he called my name as I jumped down and ran toward the thick column of smoke.

The building beyond the border was exactly as I remembered writing it, from its weathered stone walls to its isolated location.

But instead of welcoming the twelve seers, it

was now engulfed in flames, with fire swallowing the roof and thick smoke pouring through the shattered windows, forcing me to stop several feet away.

"No..." I muttered.

This wasn't supposed to happen yet because remembered this chapter, I knew this scene, and I knew the seers were never meant to die

before -

Then it finally dawned on me that I actually wrote this scene. I had written Margaret to arrive at this place too late, but now I was inside her body, experiencing the same moment I had once created with my own hands.

As I stood frozen, slow and steady footsteps came from behind the flames, and someone walked out of the burning building, making my breath catch in my throat; Exactly what Margaret felt.

The man stepped through the smoke as if the fire around him was nothing.

ALPHA LOWELL.

As I remembered, Margaret had run away from this place out of fear, but I needed to know what would happen if I made a different choice this time. Before I could stop myself, my feet moved, and I ran toward him.

"Why?"

My fist struck his chest, but he didn't move.

"Why would you do this?”

I hit him again, my tears falling before I even realized they were there.

"The seers... why?" I asked, my voice breaking as I stared at him.

Lowell looked down at me and I took a step backwards. Before I could take another step, his hand reached forward and closed around my throat.

My back hit his arm as he lifted me slightly from the ground.

"Do you have a death wish?"

His fingers tightened slightly around my throat as he looked at me, his face giving nothing away. I grabbed his wrist, trying to pull his hand away, but he didn't move.

The strength holding me in place was nothing like my own.

"Lowell." Alpha Norman's voice came from behind him.

Lowell's hand remained around my throat as Norman stepped closer and grabbed his arm.

"Leave her alone," he said.

For the first time, Lowell looked away from me and turned his attention to his brother. Norman held his gaze as the fire continued to burn behind them, leaving the two brothers standing face to face in silence.

"And what exactly do you think you'll do if I don't?”

His grip tightened around my neck, not enough to end my life, but enough to remind me that he could. My breath became uneven as he leaned closer.

"If I decide to kill both of you beyond these borders, no law, no council, and no one in this territory would dare question me."

His eyes moved between us. "So tell me, Norman, are you truly foolish enough to stand there and threaten me?”