All Chapters of Rejected By My Alpha: His Second Chance : Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

Dawnlight poured through the windows of the medical bay, bathing everything in gold that felt too peaceful for what was to ensue. I hadn't gotten much sleep, my mind spinning from everything the survivors had shared. Five hundred enemies. Two days. An army of shadow and demon marching right for us.But as I entered the medical bay, I was met with something I didn't anticipate: laughter.Selara sat up in bed, arguing with the healer about getting up and walking. Kieran was demonstrating something with his fingers that had Lyssa giggling despite bandages covering half of her torso. Even Cassia, whose eyes had harbored so much old sadness yesterday, smiled at something Torin had said."There she is," Selara said when she spotted me. "Sister, tell this woman that I'm more than capable of walking to breakfast. I've endured worse than a couple of stab wounds."The healer, an older woman named Clara whom I'd seen on occasion concerning Magnus's stronghold, gave me a long-suffering look. "Tel

I woke up to darkness, already racing in fear before I even had my wits back. For a moment, I couldn't remember why terror should press so heavily in my chest, then memory crashed back. One day. We had only one day before enemies descended on us with very definite intent to kill everyone who carried my bloodline.Nyra churned in my mind, more wakeful than usual. 'The air is foul,' she said. 'Bitter, like a storm that's building but will not break.'I slept in my small cabin, listening to the settlement stir early around me. Footsteps on the outside of the door, whispered conversations, the murmur of someone tending a fire. No one had rested well, by how early the crowd was awake.When I finally emerged from the tunnel, the sky was beginning to light, stars fading as daylight arrived. The valley appeared peaceful in the predawn hush, but peace felt tenuous, as if glass on the brink of shattering."You're up early," Selara said, moving aside from the survivors' shared living space. Dark

No dramatic hesitation before the impact, no moment to freeze and mutter a prayer. The demons just bashed into our line like a wave of corruption personified, and then there was only blood and screaming and chaos.The first that discovered me shouldn't have been able to move as it had. Its form warped mid-spring, joints twisting in the wrong direction, extra limbs extending from its body to swipe at three defenders simultaneously. I watched it tear through a Northern Claws warrior's throat before Garrett's massive body bore into it, his claws tearing into rotting flesh that failed to bleed normally."Formation Thane! Let us take formation!" Magnus roared somewhere to my left, Thane was no use if enemies could slide up walls and ceiling-less air felt almost wrong.Selara's hold in my hand clenched, her solidness holding fast as our combined power flared alive. I felt Kieran next to me, felt the seven of us bond through blood and requirement. The collective

The invading forces stopped half-way to our lines. Instead of charging, they simply stood there, hundreds of defiled beasts and their masters standing in line like some twisted parade."What are they doing?" Garrett snarled, his massive form tense beside me on the wall."Playing games," Morwyn replied, her purple eyes slitted. "Witch games. Observe."A single figure emerged from the line of the enemy, coming towards us with deliberate slowness. Middle-aged woman, female, attired in robes that seemed to absorb light into themselves, more than reflect it. She radiated power in waves that I could sense even from this distance."White flag tactic," Commander Lydia said. "They're negotiating.""Or they want us to think they are," Kieran snarled. "Witches do not negotiate out of any honest motive. Witches manipulate."Magnus moved forward, eyes like winter-blizzard frost as he measured the approaching form. "Bring her close enough to h

No sleep that night, just fragments of it broken by visions I couldn't remember and a feeling of presence that still lingered out there beyond our walls. When finally I gave up the attempt, the sky was lightening on the horizon, dawn creeping in with reluctant inevitability.Outside my hut, the camp was stirring. People trudged along with weariness evident in each step, but determination sustained them. I watched workers shoring up defenses, saw healers ministering to the wounded, noticed guards switching duties with smooth professionalism."You don't look so great yourself," Selara said, materializing beside me with two cups of something hot. "Couldn't sleep either?""Every time I close my eyes, I see Finn." I removed the cup from her, grateful for the warmth. "Always wondering who's next.""We all are." She sipped at her own drink, her eyes distant. "Marin used to say war teaches you to count the living and not the dead. That to dwell on whom yo