Lahat ng Kabanata ng Ruin Me, Alpha: Kabanata 41 - Kabanata 50

The cell door clanged shut behind me, echoing like a death knell. I sank against the cold stone wall, Gideon's shocked face still burned into my mind. Guards had hauled me away, their grips bruising, but I didn't fight. Not yet. Twenty-seven days. That's what Devon had said. Twenty-seven days until i lose yhe chance to ever see him again. My throat ached from that realisation. I do not know why it did. Day one blurred into night. No food, just stale water from a dripping faucet. I paced, replaying Devon's kiss, his plea. “Come back, Irene. I'll wait.” His voice haunted me, obsessive, unyielding. I slammed my fist into the wall, knuckles splitting. “Shut up,” I muttered to the empty air. By day two, hunger gnawed. A guard shoved in a tray—bread, gruel. “Traitor,” he snarled. I snatched the bread, tore into it. “Tell Gideon I want to see him.” He laughed, slammed the door. Day t

I opened my eyes, and my head pounded like someone had smashed it with a rock. Everything around me was blank—pitch black, like I'd fallen into a bottomless hole. I blinked hard, trying to make sense of it, but there was nothing. No walls, no floor, no light. Just endless void. I spun around, arms flailing. "Hello? Where the hell am I?"A flicker appeared in the distance, and then a woman materialized right in front of me. I jumped back, heart slamming. It was her—the witch who'd given me the grimoire, the one who'd warned me about Devon's memory wipe. Her eyes gleamed with that same eerie glow, her lips curling into a smirk."You," I snapped, stepping forward. "What did you do? The ritual—Devon opened his eyes, but then everything went black!"She tilted her head, chuckling softly. "Oh, sweetheart, the ritual worked just fine. Devon's back in the land of the living, memory of you scrubbed clean. But I forgot to mention someth

The elevator doors were five steps away.I had my hand halfway up, ready to press the button, ready to leave the Alpha wing before my legs betrayed me, when a voice sliced through the corridor.“Irene.”I stopped.I didn’t turn.I didn’t need to.I knew that voice.I inhaled once. Exhaled once. Then I turned slowly.Astrid stood there.Not in her usual bouncing, dress she always clad herself in in the frozen world. Not in trousers with pockets full of notes and crumbs. She was dressed in a knee-length dress, fitted, elegant, the kind of thing that screamed Luna without begging for attention. Her hair was pulled back neatly. Her shoulders were straight. Her eyes—God.Her eyes were calm.Cold.Ambitious.This wasn’t the hy

The world snapped back into place with a violent lurch. Noise crashed into me first. Laughter. Music. Clinking glasses. Wolves talking over one another. I sucked in a sharp breath. The time loop restarting. Again. My heels were planted on polished marble. My fingers wrapped around a cold bottle of champagne. My hair—black, sleek, unfamiliar—fell over my shoulders. The dress clung to me. I downed the champagne in one go. The burn hit my throat, but I didn't care. I slammed the bottle down on a nearby table and marched straight through the crowd, ignoring the stares. No waiting for speeches. No mingling. Straight to Devon's room. I pushed open the door to his bedroom without knocking. The light flicked on under my hand. I paced for a second, then sat on the edge of his bed, legs crossed, waiting. The door opened. Devon halted in the doorway. His eyes swept over me, but I didn't give him time to speak. I lunged, claws out, straight for his chest. My hand plunged in, fingers clo

Three empty wine bottles sat on the nightstand like a graveyard of good intentions. I sat cross-legged on the mattress, completely naked, holding a half-full glass of the dark red vintage. My hair was a disaster, a tangled mess of jet black waves cascading over my shoulders, but I didn't care. Devon lay back against the headboard of his bed, one arm thrown casually over his eyes, the other balancing his own glass on his chest. He was naked as well and I was on my thiry-forth time loop. The sheet was pooled around his waist, barely covering him. He looked infuriatingly composed for a man who had just been murdered by me in twenty-four different timelines. "Seventy-four," he said, his voice rough, vibrating in the quiet room. I took a long sip, letting the alcohol burn my throat. "Excuse me?" He moved his arm, revealing those icy grey eyes. They were focused on me, heavy and lidded. "That's how many times you tried to kill me but in the loops and the real world. I counted." I sc