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Lahat ng Kabanata ng Bewitching the Alpha: Kabanata 1 - Kabanata 10

120 Kabanata

CHAPTER 1: The Treaty

I stared at the dregs of my tea, watching a single tea leaf swirl in the dark liquid. It looked like a drowning beetle. Fitting."Lilura."The name wasn't spoken; it was pushed into my mind, a psychic nudge that felt like a cold finger pressing against my temple. I flinched, my hand jerking, sending a splash of lukewarm Earl Grey onto the scratched wooden table."I’m coming," I muttered to the empty room, grabbing a rag to wipe the spill. The amethyst glow in my eyes flared briefly, a reflex of irritation, before dimming back to a dull purple.You didn’t keep Elder Sibal waiting. Not if you wanted to keep your standing in the Coven of Whispers, and certainly not if you wanted to keep your mind intact.I grabbed my coat—a heavy, wool thing that had seen better decades and stepped out into the mist. The streets of Oakhaven were gray, paved with cobblestones that always seemed slick with moisture. We were the buffer zone, the neutral ground between the human world and the Hollows, and the

CHAPTER 2: First Sight

I was following Guilermo. He was prowling; I was struggling. He moved through the dense undergrowth with an insulting lack of effort, the heavy muscles of his back shifting beneath his dark shirt like tectonic plates. He didn’t look back to see if I was keeping up. He knew I was. Predators always knew where everything was in their territory.We broke through the final line of trees, and the main compound sprawled out before us properly this time. From the edge of the woods earlier, I had seen the structures. Now, walking through the center of it, I felt the sheer weight of the life here.It was an assault on the senses.The Coven of Whispers was a place of silence. We moved in hushed corridors; we spoke in riddles; we touched only when necessary for a ritual. Contact was a transaction.Here, contact was a language.I walked past a group of four men wrestling near a massive fire pit. It wasn’t a fight; it was play, but it was violent. The sound of flesh hitting flesh, the grunts of exer

CHAPTER 3: Fake Luna

I stood on the porch of the Pack House, my hand still throbbing. Not from an injury, but from a memory. The ghost of Guilermo’s touch was still buzzing in the pad of my finger. I rubbed it against the rough wool of my coat, trying to erase the sensation, but it was like trying to rub a stain out of silk. It was woven in.I needed to get to work. The northern wards wouldn’t fix themselves, and the longer I stood here hyperventilating about a biological anomaly, the longer I had to stay in this wolf-infested forest.I reached into my satchel, checking my supplies. Salt, iron filings, a chalk stick made of compressed bone, and the most important item: a vial of Aetheric Oil. It was a volatile binding agent, expensive to brew and notoriously difficult to stabilize. Without it, Guilermo’s blood would just be blood; with it, his blood became a key to lock the metaphysical doors of his territory."You’re still here."The voice was sugar-coated glass.I didn’t turn immediately. I finished coun

CHAPTER 4: Territorial Disputes

The forest didn’t want me here.That wasn’t poetic personification. It was a tangible pressure against my skin, a static hum that grew louder with every step I took toward the northern ridge. The trees here were ancient, their roots twisting out of the ground like arthritic fingers, slick with moss and malice. They snagged my boots. They caught the hem of my coat.I was twenty minutes into the hike, and I was already breathing hard. My lungs burned with the cold dampness of the air, and the makeshift bandage on my hand was throbbing in time with my heartbeat.I felt hollowed out. Sibal’s drain earlier that morning had taken the cream off the top of my power, but the telekinesis back at the Pack House had scraped the bottom of the barrel. I was running on fumes, adrenaline, and spite. Mostly spite.A twig snapped behind me.I didn’t stop. I kept walking, forcing my legs to push through the knee-high ferns. "If you’re going to stalk me, Alpha, you could at least be quiet about it. You’re

CHAPTER 5: Smell

Waking up felt less like rising from sleep and more like being dredged from the bottom of a lake.The first thing I registered was the heat. It was everywhere. A thick, suffocating blanket of warmth that seeped into my frozen bones. It was a stark contrast to the biting wind of the ridge, and for a moment, panic flared in my chest. Had I fallen into the fire?My eyes snapped open.I wasn’t in the fire. I was lying on a massive leather sofa that smelled of age and pipe tobacco. Above me, rough timber beams crisscrossed a shadowed ceiling. To my right, a stone fireplace roared with a blaze that could roast a boar, casting flickering orange shadows against the log walls.I tried to sit up, but the room tilted violently. A groan escaped my lips before I could stop it."Stay down."The command came from the corner of the room, low and rough, like gravel grinding together.I turned my head, the movement making my neck pop. Guilermo was sitting in a winged armchair, his long legs stretched ou

CHAPTER 6: Wolf Culture

The storm had broken sometime, leaving the world dripping and silent. We walked back to the Pack House in that silence. Guilermo didn't offer to carry me this time, and I didn't ask. I forced my legs to move, lifting my boots out of the sucking mud with a grim determination that had nothing to do with strength and everything to do with pride.My left hand was a heavy, throbbing weight at my side, wrapped in Guilermo’s torn henley and fresh gauze he’d found in the cabin’s emergency kit. But it was the rest of me that felt raw.Every time the wind shifted, carrying his scent back to me, my magic twitched. It was like a addict hearing the uncorking of a bottle. I kept my distance, walking five feet behind him, eyes fixed on the silver-streaked black hair curling at the nape of his neck.We breached the tree line, and the Pack House loomed ahead.It was bustling. The storm had delayed the morning patrols, and now the clearing was a hive of activity. Wolves in human form were hauling debris

CHAPTER 7: Drain

Stepping through the heavy oak doors was like walking into a vacuum. The air was still, filtered, and scented with dried lavender and beeswax. It was the smell of things that had been dead for a long time and were being kept pretty for display.After the assault of sensory input at Ironwood. The mud, the blood, the rain, the overwhelming scent of Guilermo, the silence here was deafening. It pressed against my eardrums.I walked down the main corridor, my boots leaving faint, muddy prints on the polished marble. I knew I would be reprimanded for it later. I didn’t care. My left hand was throbbing in time with my pulse, the makeshift bandage Guilermo had applied hidden beneath my sleeve, but the ache in my bones went deeper than the cut.I needed to sleep. I needed to curl up in my small, drafty apartment and sleep for a week."The Elder is waiting for you in the Solarium."The voice came from the shadows. A novice witch, young and pale, stood by the staircase. She didn’t look at my face

CHAPTER 8: Unexpected Defense

I didn’t sleep. You don’t sleep when your soul feels like it’s been scraped out with a rusted spoon. You just lie there, staring at the ceiling, waiting for your heart rate to climb back up to a rhythm that suggests you’re actually alive.By the time the sun dragged itself over the horizon, painting Oakhaven in shades of bruise-purple and gray, I had managed to pull myself upright. I drank three cups of black coffee, but it didn't help. The caffeine just jittered in my veins, having no magical reserve to latch onto.I looked in the mirror. My skin was the color of old parchment. My eyes, usually a vibrant amethyst, were dull, like stones found at the bottom of a river."Concealer," I whispered to my reflection. "And a high collar."I layered on the makeup to hide the dark circles and buttoned my coat to my chin to hide the fading bruises on my neck where Sibal had held me. I looked presentable. Fragile, but presentable.The walk to the Coven House was a blur of gray cobblestones and th

CHAPTER 9: Late Night Work

Outside, Oakhaven was a blur of gray rain and misery. Inside, it was hermetically sealed, smelling of expensive leather and that omnipresent, woodsy scent of the Alpha. The heater was blasting, but I was still shivering, my teeth chattering in a rhythm I couldn't control.We didn't speak for the twenty-minute drive back to the Ironwood territory. Guilermo drove with one hand on the wheel, his knuckles white, his jaw set in a line of granite. I sat in the passenger seat, curled in on myself, trying to keep my soul from leaking out of the cracks Sibal had left in my aura.When we pulled up to the Pack House, the rain was coming down in sheets."I’m taking you to the East Wing," Guilermo said, cutting the engine. "It’s quieter. No Ibbie. No patrols.""I have to work," I whispered, clutching my seatbelt. "The second anchor. The schematic needs to be redrawn before I can cast. If the geometry is off by a millimeter, the feedback will—""You’re not casting anything tonight," he interrupted,

CHAPTER 10: Slip

The library was warm, bathed in the soft, golden glow of the firelight. It was peaceful, a bubble of quiet in a world that had been nothing but noise and violence for the last two days.I was finishing the schematic for the third anchor point. My hand was steady now, the charcoal moving fluidly across the parchment. The food, the warmth, and the strange, silent companionship of the Alpha had done more for my nerves than any potion could have."Done," I whispered, setting the charcoal down.I stretched, my spine popping. It felt good. For the first time in forever, I didn't feel like I was about to shatter.Guilermo looked up from his book. He had been reading the same page for twenty minutes."The wind shear variable?" he asked."Calculated," I said, pointing to the rune cluster in the corner of the page. "I adjusted the binding angle to compensate for the drag. It should hold."He closed the book and stood up. "Good. We can inspect the site at dawn."He walked over to the desk to look

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