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She’s been pretending

Author: Author Calypso
last update Last Updated: 2025-07-30 21:35:26

ALTHEA

My breath catches.

I don’t move, not right away. His words still echo in my head, and I can’t shake them off.

“She has the answers.”

Asher’s grip had gone slack the moment he said it. His hand dropped from my wrist like all the strength in his body had fled at once, and just like that, he was unconscious again. Pale. Still.

But not gone.

I stand by his bedside a little longer, watching the slow rise and fall of his chest, the way a faint line creases his brow even in sleep. He looks… younger like this. Less haunted.

It doesn’t help the way my chest twists.

I should go.

I finally take a step back, my feet dragging as I leave the room and close the door quietly behind me. The corridor is colder than I remember. The air stings. My thoughts are all jumbled, pulling in too many directions at once.

He killed my mother.

But he’s not the monster I wanted him to be.

And now I can’t decide what hurts more, that I believed he was. Or that he might not be.

My steps echo down the hallway as
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  • The Mate Games   The wrong grave

    ASHERThe dream doesn’t leave when I close my eyes again.It waits.Lurking just beneath the surface, like it always does.Like it never really left.This time, it doesn’t start in the forest. It starts earlier, before the screaming, before the blood. I’m younger. Ten, maybe eleven. Cale is next to me, his arms crossed, a crooked grin tugging at the corner of his mouth like he knows something I don’t. We’re in the courtyard behind the palace, hiding from the guards. The sun is out. The sky is blue, and for a moment, it almost feels normal.“Bet I can climb higher,” he says, already grabbing hold of the old fig tree we used to scale when we were bored or trying to escape lessons. I chase after him, laughing. My foot slips once, bark scraping my palm, but I catch myself before I fall. When we reach the top, we sit in silence for a while, legs dangling off a branch, watching the world move beneath us.“You ever think about running away?” I ask.Cale glances over at me. “All the time.”“W

  • The Mate Games   For our legacy

    ALTHEAI’m shaking as I leave Madeline in Aaron’s room.Even though the truth is burned into my memory now, sharp, cold, unmistakable, I keep walking. Down the corridor, slower this time, like maybe if I give myself enough time, I’ll make sense of it all. But no matter how many steps I take, it still feels like the floor could give way beneath me.Amelia.Not Madeline.She’s the shadow behind everything, the whispers, the rebellion, the lies. And Aaron… he’s her weapon. Her son. Her legacy.But not the only one.My fists curl at my sides as I take the next turn. I know where I need to go, even if my heart is still racing and my mind’s caught somewhere between disbelief and fury. There’s one more person tied to all this. Someone I should’ve seen through from the very beginning.Elise.Her name settles bitter on my tongue.She’s always been there. Always circling the edges of everything, too quiet, too polished, too knowing. At first I thought she was just another ambitious beta, drawn

  • The Mate Games   Madeleine’s truth

    ALTHEAWhen I step inside Aaron’s room, the air shifts.He’s not here.Instead, Madeline is standing by the table, her hands folded neatly in front of her, as if she’s been expecting me. The pale light from the lanterns catches on her hair, and for a moment, she looks like a painting, still, perfect, untouched by time.But something feels wrong. Too still. Too composed.She lifts her chin, eyes meeting mine like she’s already read my thoughts. “He’s not here,” she says calmly, not waiting for me to ask. “He’s gone to check on our guests.”“Guests?” I ask, though I know what she means.“Prisoners,” she corrects with a small, deliberate smile. “But I thought calling them guests might make it sound a little more… civilized.”I close the door behind me, slower this time. “You always this poised when someone walks into your son’s room uninvited?”Her eyes glimmer slightly. “You’re not just anyone.”I take a few steps forward, but I don’t sit. I can’t. Not with the storm in my chest. Not wi

  • The Mate Games   A family picture

    ALTHEAI don’t turn as I leave Aaron’s room.Even though the mark is burned into my memory now, dark and unmistakable, I still find myself walking down a different corridor, slower this time, thinking maybe I imagined it all. Maybe I didn’t see what I think I saw.But I know that’s not true.And instead of turning back, I keep going. Past the servants carrying trays, past the guards at the corners who don’t meet my eyes. My legs carry me, almost on their own, until I find myself outside Asher’s room.I slip inside, and sit beside him. My mind a maze of thoughts. But I snap back into reality when his voice comes through, tired. “Gray.”His eyes lift slowly to meet mine, and the expression on my face must be worrisome, because for a second, something flickers there, surprise, maybe, or worry, but he masks it quickly.“I just wanted to check on you,” I say.He raises an eyebrow. “Did you find out anything?”“No.” I shake my head. “This is… personal.”He leans back in his bed, watching me

  • The Mate Games   The identity of the black wolf

    ALTHEATheo’s voice is calm, but I can feel the tension underneath.My heart is still racing from everything Asher’s mother just told me, but I force my face into something neutral. Steady. My hands feel cold.“I just came to check on her,” I say, slipping the words out carefully, like a note passed through locked doors. “She looked unsettled yesterday. I wanted to make sure she was all right.”He raises an eyebrow, glancing between me and the room behind me. “You sure she didn’t unsettle you?”I manage a light laugh. “It’s hard not to be, around her.”Behind me, I hear her voice shift—thin and frayed, climbing back into the cage she’s lived in for years.“She speaks to the stars, you know,” the Queen says loudly, her voice carrying into the corridor. “They sing to her when the lights go out. Poor girl. Poor little thing. She’s going to be the end of us all.”I glance back once and she’s already turned away from the window, rocking slightly in her chair, muttering something under her

  • The Mate Games   Memory loss

    ASHERThe light fades again.Not all at once, but slowly, like someone pulling a curtain over my mind, dragging me back under. I fight it. I try to hold on to the sound of her voice, to the warmth of her hand on my skin, but it slips through my fingers like smoke, and I fall. And suddenly, I’m not in that room anymore.I’m back in the woods.Again. It’s the same dream.The cold is sharp in the air, and the trees tower over me, unmoving and ancient. My paws press into the earth, the forest floor soft beneath me. I hear footsteps—no, pawsteps, beside mine. Cale. He’s running next to me, just like before, his black fur a blur in the corner of my vision. He barks once, that same wild, laughing sound, and I want to bark back. I want to believe in this moment again.But I know what’s coming.I always do.The woods give way to the clearing, and just like before, we hear her. The song. That voice. The girl.And just like last time, we follow it.I don’t want to.I don’t want to see it again.

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