THE ALPHA'S LAST CHOICE のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 31 - チャプター 40

The fire swallowed everything—stone, steel, even sound—until all I could hear was the relentless thunder of the shard in my chest. My body shook as flames licked along my arms, spilling into the air like serpents freed from chains. For a heartbeat, I saw nothing but ruin stretched before me: Damian lying broken in the ash, Marcus’s blood staining the earth, Angela’s eyes dimming into silence. The shard promised victory if I gave it what it wanted, but every image of triumph was painted in the loss of those I loved most.Damian’s voice cut through the roar, ragged and raw. “Selena! Come back to me.” His hands still gripped my face, refusing to let me fall away, golden eyes blazing with the kind of devotion the shard could never mimic. That look tethered me even as fire tried to rip me free, a fragile thread against a storm threatening to consume us both.Kayden’s laughter carved through the battlefield like a blade. “Yes. Burn for me, Selena.” His words twisted with the shard’s hunger,

The vision tore itself from me like shattered glass, leaving my body trembling as though I had walked through fire and come out half-burned. The chamber blurred before my eyes, and only the sound of Damian’s voice anchored me, ragged and desperate as he caught me before I could collapse. His scent wrapped around me, grounding and dangerous all at once, but the shard was still there, pulsing inside my chest like a living wound. Its hunger whispered, clawing at the edges of my soul, but this time it wasn’t only my blood it reached for.I felt it stretching outward, sensing, searching, latching onto something that made my breath stutter in terror. It wasn’t Angela’s steady magic, nor the faint echoes of the council’s distant spells—no, the shard had found another thread entirely. Damian stiffened as though he, too, felt the weight of something unseen tugging at him, his golden eyes widening in confusion. And then I knew with a cold certainty: the shard recognized him.Damian’s grip tighte

The name the shard hissed lingered like smoke in my skull, curling through every thought I tried to form. It was not Damian’s name, nor mine, but something alien and old, something that clawed against the edges of memory. I staggered back, breaking contact, the bond’s glow flickering and then dimming to an ember against my chest. Damian reached for me instantly, his eyes sharp with alarm, though he tried to soften his grip as if I might shatter in his hands.“I saw something,” I whispered, though my voice cracked on the words. My palms were cold despite the fire that should have been coursing through me. The image of those blackened eyes and that cruel smile pressed against my mind like a scar I couldn’t erase. Damian’s thumb brushed my cheek, rough and trembling, but his touch steadied me enough to breathe again. “It wasn’t you, Damian—it wasn’t anyone I know.”His brow furrowed, the lines deepening in shadow as torchlight guttered in the chamber. “The shard is showing you pieces of i

Damian’s hands trembled against my shoulders, the faintest quiver beneath all that strength. His eyes searched mine as though he could drag the truth out through sheer will, the gold in them flickering like the last light before dawn. The sound of my name still lingered in the air between us, soft and broken, and I could feel the bond thrumming like a frightened heartbeat under my skin. My lungs burned as if I’d brought the nightmare’s fire back with me.“I’m fine,” I lied, though the words barely scraped past my lips. The shard pulsed once, slow and deliberate, as though mocking the lie. Damian’s gaze dropped to the glow beneath my collarbone, his jaw tightening with worry that mirrored my own. I wanted to tell him it was nothing, that I hadn’t seen what I saw—but the image of him burning, his body collapsing in that infernal light, still clung to my mind. I flinched when his thumb brushed my cheek, grounding and unbearable all at once.“Selena,” he said quietly, “what did you see?” H

Damian’s breath caught in his throat as the glow faded just enough for him to see her clearly. Selena’s body was trembling, but the fire that bled from her eyes didn’t die—it pulsed, alive, restless, almost sentient. Gold light spilled from her skin in thin streams, running like veins of molten sunlight. The chamber itself seemed to respond, the ancient symbols carved into the walls flaring with light as if bowing to her presence. He’d seen power before—but nothing like this. This wasn’t just magic. This was divinity reborn.He didn’t dare touch her again. His wolf crouched inside him, half in awe, half in terror. “Selena,” he whispered, his voice rough with disbelief. “What did you do?” Her gaze shifted to him, and for a fleeting second, he saw the girl he had once rejected—the softness in her eyes, the quiet pain she used to hide. But it vanished in an instant, replaced by something unearthly, something ancient. The fire inside her wasn’t just burning; it was watching.“I didn’t do t