All Chapters of The Alpha Banished Mate : Chapter 131 - Chapter 140

ARIA POV The door closed behind us with a soft, heavy click that sounded far too loud in the quiet room. For a long moment, I just stood there. Breathing. Trying to hold myself together. Everything in my body ached. Not just the sharp, burning pain in my muscles from training… but the deeper ache too — the one that lived somewhere in my chest, heavy and tight and tired. Jason was still near the door, watching me. Always watching me. Like he was afraid that if he looked away for even a second, something bad would happen. Maybe he wasn’t wrong. I swallowed hard, wrapping my arms around myself. The room suddenly felt too big… too quiet… too suffocating. “Jason…” My voice came out small. Smaller than I wanted. Smaller than I felt. He was beside me instantly. “Hey,” he said softly. That one word almost broke me. I shook my head quickly, but it was too late. My vision blurred, and before I could stop it, tears slipped down my cheeks. “I… I need to leave here,” I whispered.

ARIA POV For one long second… I thought about fighting. The thought didn’t just pass through my mind. It stayed. Hovered. Pressed. My fingers twitched at my sides as I stared at Donald across the moonlit space between us. The night air felt sharp in my lungs, and something hot and restless stirred low in my chest. I could feel it. That dangerous pull. That whisper of power. If I moved fast enough… If I struck first… Maybe— Donald’s lips curved slightly, like he could hear every reckless thought in my head. “Careful, Aria,” he said quietly. My stomach tightened. Then I noticed them. I hadn’t seen them at first. But now… Now I did. Shadows moved behind him. Not one. Not two. Several. Guards. My breath hitched. They stepped forward slowly, boots quiet but heavy against the ground. Their faces were hard, unreadable, their bodies tense like they had been waiting for a signal. Waiting for him. Donald didn’t even look back at them. He just kept his eyes on me.

The moment the door opened wider… Everything inside me tightened. He stepped fully into the room, his boots slow and steady against the stone floor. The same calm walk. The same cold control. My father. For a few seconds, neither of us spoke. We just stared at each other across the distance — me inside the cage, him standing free outside it. The unfairness of it made heat rise in my chest. His eyes moved over me carefully, taking in every detail — my tangled hair, my tired posture, the untouched tray of rotten food still sitting on the floor. His jaw tightened slightly. Then finally, his voice came. Low. Controlled. “Why did you try to escape, Aria?” Just like that. No greeting. No concern. Only accusation. My fingers curled slowly around the cold bars beside me. My voice came out rough but steady. “Because I’m not staying here any longer.” The words hung sharp in the air between us. For a brief second, something flickered in his eyes. Not anger. Not yet. Some

I lost track of time again. The cage had a way of swallowing hours whole. At first, I tried to count. I really did. I counted my breaths. Counted the cracks in the wall. Counted the slow, painful beats of my heart. But somewhere along the way… I stopped. Because time inside that cage didn’t move normally. It dragged. It stretched. It pressed down on my chest until breathing itself felt like work. My fingers were raw. I hadn’t even noticed when it started. But at some point, I began scraping the wall. Over. And over. And over again. Not because I thought I could break it. Not because I believed I could dig my way out. But because I needed to do something. Anything. The rough stone bit into my skin each time my nails dragged across it. Small flakes of dust fell to the floor beneath my hand. Scrape. Scrape. Scrape. The sound was soft but sharp in the quiet cell. My breathing was slow now. Controlled. But inside me, everything still burned. Donald’s words. M

Walking out of that cage felt strange. Not like freedom. Not like relief. Just… strange. My legs were weak at first, like they didn’t fully remember how to carry my weight properly. The stone floor beneath my feet was cold, but after everything that had happened, even the cold felt better than the damp prison air. My father walked ahead of me. Calm. Controlled. Like nothing unusual had just happened. Like he hadn’t kept me locked away for days. I followed him slowly, my eyes moving everywhere at once. The castle halls were still just as massive as I remembered — maybe even bigger now that I was seeing them clearly again. Tall black pillars stretched up toward the high ceiling, and the torches along the walls burned with steady orange flames that flickered gently as we passed. The air smelled faintly of smoke and old stone. My arms folded tightly across my chest as we walked. I didn’t like this silence. Didn’t like how calm he was acting. Didn’t like how I had no idea