All Chapters of Chasing the Alpha I Once Rejected : Chapter 81 - Chapter 90

‎A splitting ache throbbed through Selene’s skull long before consciousness fully returned to her.‎‎At first, all she could hear was noise... Muffled male voices.‎‎She discerned the sound of the scrape of boots against wood, a bottle clinking somewhere nearby, and the smell of stale beer, cigarette smoke, damp wood, sweat. ‎‎The air itself felt dirty, thick enough to choke on. ‎‎Her lashes fluttered weakly before finally lifting, vision swimming in and out of focus beneath the dim orange glow of a hanging bulb overhead.‎‎For several seconds, she couldn’t understand where she was or why she was there.‎‎The ceiling above her looked old and stained. Wooden beams stretched across it, darkened by years of moisture and smoke. ‎‎She tried to move but her wrists only jerked painfully behind her.‎‎She was tied.‎‎Panic exploded awake inside her instantly.‎‎Selene sucked in a sharp breath and struggled against the iron chair she sat in, her pulse slamming violently in her ear

‎The abandoned warehouse where Dean had texted him to come to stood like a rusting carcass.‎‎Broken windows gaped darkly along the sides of the massive structure while old metal sheets groaned softly in the slightest blow of wind. ‎‎Kyle killed the engine slowly.‎‎For a moment, no one moved.‎‎Inside the vehicle, tension pressed suffocatingly against the air itself.‎‎The men seated with him instinctively checked their weapons one last time while watching Kyle carefully, waiting for orders. But Kyle remained still behind the steering wheel, his gaze fixed on the warehouse ahead.‎‎His subordinate who had gone to checkout Dean's supposed hideout still hadn’t called.‎‎That alone made Kyle doubtful.‎‎Either they had been discovered…Or something had gone wrong.‎‎And neither possibility sat well with him.‎‎One of the men beside him finally spoke carefully,“Boss… we should keep waiting for confirmation.”‎‎Kyle’s jaw flexed once,“No,” he answered at last after a long momen

‎Dean’s face darkened gradually as Selene’s words settled into the room like poison. At first, he looked merely angry, but the longer he thought of what she just said, the more something uglier began surfacing beneath the expression he wore. ‎‎The television screen beside them continued with its scrambled display flickering lights against the walls of the hideout and casting restless shadows across Dean’s bruised face and Selene’s tear-stained one.‎‎“You’d rather die than be with me?” Dean asked at last, though this time his voice lacked the earlier mockery. There was genuine disbelief beneath it now, mixed with wounded pride and growing fury.‎‎Selene lay restrained to the chair, her wrists raw from struggling against the ropes for so long. Her hair hung messily around her face, sticking against damp cheeks, but she no longer cared. The exhaustion inside her had gone beyond fear. It has gone beyond panic. ‎‎Watching that explosion moments ago had hollowed something out inside

‎Selene could not bring herself to argue against his words.‎‎Not when she was still trembling faintly in his arms.‎‎Not when his heartbeat, steady and warm, soothed the terror that had wrapped around her chest since the moment Dean abducted her.‎‎Her own heart beat softly now, no longer from fear, but from something deeper. Something that had quietly been growing inside her for far too long.‎‎As Kyle carried her out of the hideout, Selene lifted her gaze to look at him properly.‎‎The sight of him made her chest tighten painfully.‎‎His hair was a mess from the explosion and the shifting. Dust and soot stained his body. A cut stretched across his cheek where Dean had managed to claw him earlier, and another bruise was already darkening along his jaw. Even his hands were scraped and bloodied.‎‎Yet despite all that, he carried her carefully.‎‎Like she was the only thing in the world that mattered.‎‎Selene swallowed hard.‎‎He had gone through hell for her.‎‎Again.‎‎

‎Selene stared at him quietly after Kyle said he would explain.‎‎The living room had fallen into a strange calm after Liam left the house. The warm yellow lighting and the faint scent of antiseptic filled the silence between them.‎‎Kyle sat across from her on the couch, the first aid kit open on the table between them.‎‎For the first time since the warehouse, Selene was finally able to properly look at him without panic clouding her mind.‎‎And the more she looked, the worse he seemed.‎‎There were cuts along his arms she had not noticed earlier beneath the dark clothing. Burn marks stained parts of his body. The bruise near his ribs had deepened into an ugly dark shade, and there was a stiffness in the way he leaned forward that made it obvious every movement hurt.‎‎Yet he still sat there like none of it mattered.‎‎Selene’s chest tightened.‎‎“How did you survive that?” she asked quietly.‎‎Her voice came out softer than she intended.‎‎Because she had seen the explosi