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The Rival’s Snare

Penulis: S.A Akinola
last update Terakhir Diperbarui: 2025-09-21 00:50:56

The fortress halls buzzed with whispers when I returned from the Alpha’s summons. They didn’t know what had passed behind that iron door, but their eyes followed me like wolves scenting blood.

Raven.

That’s what Cain had called me. That’s what they would call me now.

The name clung to me like a mask, but even a mask could crack under too many stares.

The mess hall was crowded, the air thick with smoke and sweat. Warriors leaned over long tables, their laughter sharp and cruel. The moment I stepped inside, silence rippled through the room.

A rogue among wolves.

I ignored their stares, heading for the corner where a tray of bread and meat waited. My body screamed for rest, but I needed strength. If I showed weakness, they’d tear me apart.

I had just torn a piece of bread when a shadow fell across the table.

“Raven, is it?”

The voice was female, low and smooth, but with an edge like broken glass.

I looked up.

She stood tall, wrapped in dark leathers that hugged her curves like armor. Her
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  • Bound to the Alpha Who Killed Me   The Ethics of Monsters

    LYRAThe forest doesn’t go back to normal.That’s the first lie my mind tries to tell me—that because the thing dissolved, because the air settled and the clicking stopped, we’re safe again.But absence leaves residue.I feel it like a pressure behind my thoughts, a subtle tension in the bond where something could be shaped again.Cain feels it too. I don’t need to look at him to know—his posture is too still, his attention too sharp.“That wasn’t restraint,” I say quietly. “That was rehearsal.”He nods once. “For us. Or for it.”The heart between us gives a slow, heavy beat.Neither answer comforts me.“What we did back there,” I continue, choosing each word with care, “we didn’t just prevent violence. We modeled behavior.”Cain exhales through his nose. “You think that makes us responsible for what comes next.”“I think,” I say, throat tight, “that if it learns ethics through us… then our failures become design flaws.”The Devourer listens.It always does.CAINMercy feels different

  • Bound to the Alpha Who Killed Me   The God That Dreams of Teeth

    CAINThe first thing the dream makes is sound.Not a voice.A rhythm.Click.Pause.Click.Like teeth tapping together in anticipation.The heart reacts before I do—tightening, not in hunger, not in warning, but in recognition. Something aligns inside it, like a lock accepting a key it never should have been shaped for.Lyra stiffens beside me.“You hear that,” she says quietly.“I feel it,” I answer.The forest doesn’t change all at once. It doesn’t tear open or distort. It simply… accommodates. Space bends subtly, making room for something that wasn’t there a moment ago.The Devourer speaks, reverent now.A prototype.The air thickens.And then it steps out of nothing.LYRAIt looks wrong in the way unfinished things look wrong.Not monstrous—incomplete.Limbs that suggest function without elegance. A spine too articulated, like it was designed by someone obsessed with movement but unfamiliar with grace. Its mouth is the worst part—too many joints, too many possible shapes, teeth ar

  • Bound to the Alpha Who Killed Me    What Dreams Leave Behind

    LYRAThe strangest part isn’t the emptiness.It’s the silence.I wake without the soft disorientation that used to follow sleep—the fading images, the emotional residue, the sense that something private had just brushed against me and slipped away. Now there’s nothing to shake off.No warmth.No fear.No half-remembered symbols clinging to my ribs.Just consciousness snapping cleanly into place, like a switch flipped by someone else’s hand.Cain notices immediately.“You didn’t drift back,” he murmurs. “Usually you linger for a second.”“I don’t have anywhere to linger from,” I say.The words sound calm. Reasonable.They scare me anyway.The heart between us beats slow and full, like something digesting. Not strained. Not hungry.Processing.I close my eyes experimentally.Nothing waits for me there.

  • Bound to the Alpha Who Killed Me   The Hunger That Learns

    LYRAThe first thing it takes is sleep.Not violently.Not all at once.Just… piece by piece.I notice it when my thoughts begin to blur around the edges, when resting beside Cain no longer quiets my mind but sharpens it. The bond stays calm—too calm—like a held breath that never releases.The heart beats.Steady.Neutral.Watching.I close my eyes.The moment my awareness dips, pressure blooms behind my sternum—not pain, not fear. A subtle tightening, like fingers curling inward.My eyes snap open.Cain is already awake.I feel the question in him before he speaks it.“It didn’t let you drift,” he murmurs.“No,” I whisper. “It tightened when I stopped paying attention.”The Devourer doesn’t speak.It doesn’t need to.It’s learned a new lever.CAINStarving a predator doesn’t make it weaker.It makes it smarter.The Devourer stops reaching for the obvious—fear, lust, separation. Those are noisy now. Easy to detect. Easy to deny.So it goes quiet.It starts working in gaps.Moments bet

  • Bound to the Alpha Who Killed Me   The Shape of Obedience

    CAINObedience, I realize, isn’t submission.It’s predictability.The Devourer doesn’t want us broken, it wants us readable. Every time we panic, every time we cling or recoil without thinking, it feeds. Not just on emotion, but on certainty. Cause and effect. Stimulus and reward.So I stop reacting.I sit with Lyra, close enough that the bond doesn’t tighten, far enough that it doesn’t purr. Our shoulders touch, not pressed, not pulled away. Neutral.The heart beats.Once.Twice.No punishment.No pleasure.Just awareness.Lyra notices instantly. I feel the shift in her focus like a breeze changing direction.“It didn’t…” she murmurs. “It didn’t respond.”“No,” I say quietly. “Because we didn’t give it anything it could use.”The third thread hums, faintly displeased.Good.I test again.I don’t look at Lyra.Not away, elsewhere. I keep my body angled toward her, my breath synced with hers, but I let my attention drift to the forest. To the weight of the earth beneath us. To the smel

  • Bound to the Alpha Who Killed Me   The Rules of the Cage

    LYRAThe worst realization comes quietly.Not with pain.Not with fear.With clarity.The heart between us isn’t just reacting anymore.It’s observing.I feel it in the subtle adjustments—the way the pressure eases when Cain’s hand rests at my waist, the way it tightens when my thoughts drift too far from him. It isn’t punishing randomly.It’s measuring.“Cain,” I whisper, barely moving my lips. “Don’t… don’t pull away. Just—stay where you are.”He stiffens slightly, then stills. His breath evens out a fraction.The heart responds.Not with relief.With interest.I swallow. “It’s learning us.”His jaw tightens. “I know.”Because I feel it too—through him. His mind mapping sensations like terrain. Alpha instinct turning terror into strategy.The Devourer doesn’t interrupt.That scares me more than when it speaks.CAINPredators that talk too much are careless.This one isn’t.It let us hurt ourselves.It let us try to escape.Now it’s watching what we do next.I lower myself carefully,

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