All Chapters of The Mate Games: Chapter 191 - Chapter 193

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

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.