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I’m not giving up

Author: Author Calypso
last update Last Updated: 2025-05-31 20:15:29

ALTHEA

I wake with a jolt, my skin burning hot, my body shaking like a leaf in the wind. My breath rasps in and out, shallow and sharp. The world swims before my eyes, trees bending, twisting, dancing like shadows in a fire. My throat feels dry as ash.

I reach out blindly, fingers digging into the cold earth. Caroline is gone. No trace of her beside me, just crushed grass where she might’ve slept and a bitter scent in the air, like betrayal.

I try to stand, but my legs won’t listen. My feet are bare, I must’ve kicked off my boots during the fever. The ground bites at my soles, rough and freezing. I stumble forward, arms stretched out like a broken puppet. The forest spins. I blink, trying to see straight, but the trees blur together.

I walk, or maybe I crawl. Time doesn’t feel real anymore.

Leaves whisper my name. Althea. Althea. Mocking me. Pulling me deeper.

My breath hitches when I see him.

Asher.

He stands beneath a crooked tree, one hand clutching his side. Blood stains his shirt
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  • The Mate Games   A barricade

    ALTHEAI don’t realize I’ve fallen asleep until my head bumps against something hard, the sharp jolt pulling me out of the darkness. My eyes blink open, disoriented, the dim, swaying interior of the van slowly taking shape around me. For a moment, I forget where I am, what’s happening, and then it all comes back like a crashing wave, the kitchen, Mara, Asher’s return, the frantic escape.I shift upright, pressing my palm to my forehead. My neck aches, stiff from the way I must have been leaning. Around me, the others are slumped against crates and one another, their breathing deep and even. Martha’s chin rests against her chest, lips parted. Sophie curls on her side, her hand tucked under her cheek. Even Theo, who seems to run on nothing but stubbornness and rage, has his head tipped back against the wall, eyes closed.Everyone is asleep.Everyone except Asher.He sits across from me, his back straight, his face pale in the weak moonlight leaking through the slits of the van’s boards.

  • The Mate Games   Gone

    ALTHEAThe silence is unbearable. Every tick of time feels louder, sharper, cutting through the air like a blade. Theo’s pacing is the only sound in the room, his boots striking against the kitchen floor, back and forth, back and forth, until the rhythm drills into my skull.“Where the hell is the prince?” he mutters, his voice low but sharp as a whip. His jaw clenches, the tendons in his neck taut as steel. “I told him clearly what was at stake. If we’re caught, we’re all dead.”His words make my stomach twist even tighter. I don’t know what to say. Maybe I was foolish to believe this plan would ever work. Maybe I let myself hope too much, as if fate would suddenly bend in our favor just because I wanted it badly enough. That was my mistake. Nothing has ever come without blood in this kingdom. Why would now be different?Theo stops long enough to glance out the narrow window, shadows sliding across his face. “We have less than five minutes now,” he says, his voice clipped and final.

  • The Mate Games   Dragged away

    ASHERThe moment Theo unlocks my door, I know exactly where I need to go. There’s no hesitation, no pause to consider whether it’s reckless. Maybe it is, but I can’t leave this place without answers. Too much has been hidden from me, twisted into half-truths and silences. My whole life I thought I understood what I was, what I carried inside me, but it turns out even that was a lie. I’m done walking blind.So before I follow Theo and Althea toward freedom, I turn in the opposite direction. I have one mission, and it won’t wait.The halls are dim, lit only by flickering torches pressed into stone brackets. Every sound feels too loud, the scuff of my boots, the rasp of my breath, even the pounding of my heart, but I move anyway. Two guards are stationed at the far end of the corridor outside his chamber, their attention half-fixed on each other as they mutter under their breath. I press myself against the wall, creeping closer, waiting for the perfect moment.It comes when one of them s

  • The Mate Games   Where’s Asher

    ALTHEAThe silence after Aaron leaves feels like a wound, raw and bleeding. His words still echo in my skull, refusing to fade no matter how hard I try to push them out. You belong to me.I press both hands to my stomach, trying to steady the shaking. The air feels colder than before, heavier, as though his presence still lingers even after he’s gone. For a moment, I almost think I might be sick.I don’t have time for this.When the knock finally comes, a sharp, deliberate sound against the door, I nearly jump out of my skin. My heart lurches to my throat, and I swear it skips a beat before crashing into a rhythm so fast it hurts.Theo. It has to be him this time.A relieved breath slips from my lips, shaky and uneven. Up until this moment, I’ve been a wreck, pacing like a trapped animal, wondering if something had gone wrong, if Asher had changed his mind, if Aaron had somehow destroyed everything before we even had a chance to try.I snatch up my cloak from where I’d laid it across

  • The Mate Games   You’ll never escape me

    ALTHEAThe day drags like chains tied to my ankles. Every hour feels stretched too thin, every sound sharper than it should be. My nerves buzz under my skin, restless, like they know what’s at stake. Everything has to go perfectly tonight. One mistake, one wrong move, and it isn’t just my life that ends, it’s Theo’s, it’s Asher’s, maybe even the kingdom’s.Theo’s words from yesterday cling to me like burrs I can’t shake off. The king… awake. The thought still unsettles me. For so long, I thought he was little more than a shell, a ghost breathing but not truly alive. And yet, he’s been awake, hidden away by Madeline’s lies. Kept silent, not for protection, but because they’re waiting. Waiting for the Red Moon. Waiting for the moment to crown Aaron and twist me into their weapon, using me to unleash powers I don’t even fully understand.I shudder, remembering the cold knot of dread in my stomach when Theo told me. Once, not so long ago, the thought of eternity with Aaron would have made

  • The Mate Games   Don’t be late

    ASHERI no longer attempt to measure time here.In this room, the hours blur together, bleeding into each other until day and night lose their meaning. The window lets in light sometimes, harsh streaks across the stone floor, but even that does little to tell me anything of the world outside. All I have is silence, and the steady drip of my own weakness as it grows heavier inside me.I don’t know what’s happening beyond these walls. I don’t know if the palace still stands strong or if Aaron and his mother have already wrapped their claws around it. The not knowing eats at me, gnawing through whatever scraps of patience I have left.After speaking with Althea… after sleeping with her… if anything, she’s managed to dig deeper beneath my skin. I don’t want to admit it, but I can’t stop thinking about her, the way she looked at me, the way her voice broke when she said she wanted to help. And still, goddess help me, trust doesn’t come easy. Not with her. Not after everything.I keep turni

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