All Chapters of Rejected by the Alpha, Claimed by the Beast : Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

90 Chapters

The Fisherman’s Nightmare

The vents were a different kind of hell.In the simulations, when I crawled through dark spaces, I was a wolf-queen. My eyes could see in the dark, my muscles never tired, and my skin was tough enough to ignore the scrape of jagged metal. But here, in the cold, hollow bones of the Aethel-Group facility, I was just a girl.My knees bled as they dragged against the rusted floor of the shaft. Every breath felt like I was inhaling needles of dust. My heart, which had once powered a world, now felt like a trapped bird beating against the cage of my ribs."Left at the junction, Kaima," Caspian’s voice whispered. It was tinny, bouncing off the metal walls. "Hurry. They’re running a thermal sweep of your cell. They’ll know you’re gone in seconds.""I'm... trying," I gasped. My fingers felt weak. The skin on my palms was peeling from the heat of the nearby machinery.I turned left. The air grew warmer here, smelling of salt and something sweet—like rotting fruit. It was the smell of the nutrie

The Seed of the Sun

The hand that held us wasn’t made of flesh, but it wasn't cold metal either. It felt like compressed starlight, a solid vibration that hummed against my skin. Ms. Sterling stood amidst the swirling ash of the collapsed laboratory, her navy blue suit miraculously untouched by the soot and blood. But her face—her face was a canvas of shifting violet light."Sterling?" Rowan gasped, his voice cracking. He was still leaning on me, his physical body thin and trembling from the years of being a "donor" in a tank. "What are you?"The woman’s eyes didn't blink. They glowed with the intensity of a dying star. "I am the Witness," she said. Her voice was no longer the sharp, corporate snap of an auditor. It was a chorus of a thousand whispers, layered and ancient. "And I am the bridge. The Aethel-Group thought they could use me to balance their books, but they forgot that every auditor eventually finds a debt that cannot be paid."She set us down on a piece of jagged concrete. Around us, the was

The Red Interest

The rain didn’t feel like a blessing anymore.A moment ago, it was the first real water of a new world. Now, as it lashed against my face, it felt like cold, wet needles. My skin, once glowing with the violet warmth of the Origin, was now pale and shivering. I looked down at my hands. They were just hands. Small, shaking, and covered in the gray grime of the wasteland."Rowan," I whispered, my voice caught in the wind.He didn't answer. He was staring at the man in the navy blue suit.The Auditor stood perfectly still at the edge of the new, red-leafed forest. The trees were growing with a violent speed, their roots cracking the concrete like a slow-motion explosion. These weren't the soft, violet maples of my dreams. These trees were jagged and sharp, their bark the color of dried blood.The man didn't look like a scientist or a corporate executive. He looked like an old-fashioned clerk. He held a silver pen in one hand and a thick, leather-bound ledger in the other. His face was a m

The Teeth of the Debt

The world didn't slow down just because I was ordinary.In the simulation, I would have seen the wolf’s muscles bunching. I would have smelled the ozone of its digital heart. I would have moved faster than the eye could follow, a blur of violet light and fury. But here, in the real world, my heart just thudded against my ribs like a trapped bird. My legs felt heavy. The air was thick with the scent of pine and impending death."Rowan, move!" I screamed.Rowan didn't move. He stood there with that same gentle, confused smile. He looked like a man watching a puppy run toward him in a park. He didn't see the silver fire in the wolf’s eyes. He didn't see the way its claws uncurled like surgical scalpels from its paws.I didn't think. If I had thought, I would have been too afraid to move. I lunged forward, my bare feet slipping on the wet grass. I didn't tackle the wolf—I tackled Rowan.I slammed into his chest, the impact knocking the wind out of both of us. We tumbled backward into the

The Great Liquidation

The silver-suited woman didn't look like a god. She looked like a billionaire on vacation. Her suit was made of a fabric that shimmered like liquid mercury, and her face was so perfectly symmetrical it felt uncomfortable to look at. She held her white staff like a walking stick, tapping it against the gray ash of our world as if she were checking the quality of the soil."It’s such a shame," she said, her voice echoing with a strange, musical quality. "The 'Origin' series used to be our highest-rated content. The drama, the romance, the constant threat of deletion—it was a masterpiece of narrative engineering. But lately? The ratings have dropped. The audience finds the 'Self-Discovery' arc a bit... repetitive."I stood my ground, my hand gripping Rowan’s. My fingers were cold, and my heart was screaming, but I forced my voice to stay steady. "We aren't a show. We aren't content. We are people."The woman laughed. It wasn't a mean laugh; it was the laugh of someone explaining a simple

The Weight of Silence

The darkness of the Dead Drive wasn't empty. It was heavy. It felt like walking through waist-deep water made of cold ink. Every time I took a step, the static hissed against my skin, trying to find a hole in my reality so it could pull me apart."Don't let go," I whispered, my voice barely audible over the low hum of the void.Rowan’s hand was a warm, solid weight in mine. He didn't say anything, but I could feel his pulse through his palm—fast and steady. He was terrified, but he was here. He was always here.The woman in the tattered mercury suit—the Glitch—led the way. She didn't walk so much as flicker. One moment she was ten feet ahead, the next she was right beside me, her cracked face glowing with that dying silver light."The Master-Key is at the **Index**," she said, her voice sounding like two stones rubbing together. "It’s the place where the Creator first signed the world into existence. It’s the very bottom of the drive.""And the Cleaner?" I asked, looking back at the a

The First Stone

The sun didn't have a volume knob.In the simulations, if the light was too bright, my mind would simply adjust the "exposure." But here, in the real world, the sun was a hot, heavy weight on my shoulders. It made the back of my neck sting. It made my eyes ache. It was beautiful, and it was exhausting.I stood in the golden grass and watched Rowan walk toward the other men. He moved with a light, easy step. The heavy burden of leadership, the constant fear of the Council, the scars of the "Donor" tanks—all of it had been wiped away. He looked like he belonged to the earth.I looked at the crumpled note in my hand: **[START FROM THE BEGINNING.]**"Hey! You okay?"I turned. A woman was walking toward me. She had messy brown hair and a kind face. It took me a second to recognize her. It was Selene. My sister. Or, the girl who had been my sister in the "Pack" module.Here, she was just a woman in a grey tunic. She didn't have her bow. She didn't have her wolf-senses. She looked at me with

The Script in the Soil

The sun didn't rise; it struck.In the old world—the world of pixels and violet ink—dawn was a gentle gradient, a carefully programmed transition from navy to gold. But here, the light was a physical blow. It hit the tops of the mountains and spilled down into the valley like liquid fire, dragging me out of a sleep I didn't want to leave.I sat up, my heart immediately hammering against my ribs. I looked at the spot where Malphas had been sitting.The rock was empty. The dirt where he had carved **[SUBSCRIBE]** was smooth, as if a hand had swept over it in the night. If it weren't for the lingering scent of dry grass and old paper, I would have thought it was another nightmare."Morning, Kaima."I flinched. Rowan was standing by the stream, his sleeves rolled up, splashing cold water on his face. He looked refreshed, his skin glowing in the early light. To him, this was the first day of the rest of his life. To me, it was day one of a new prison sentence."You're jumpy," he said, walk

The Disposal of Dreams

The floor didn't just open; it vanished.One second, I was standing on solid, cold metal, staring at the bored faces of people who had paid to watch our lives. The next, gravity became a hungry mouth. There was no transition, no slow tilt. Just the sudden, sickening realization that the air was no longer holding me up."Kaima!" Rowan’s voice was a jagged streak of terror in the dark.I reached out, my fingers clawing at the empty air. The wind roared past my ears, smelling of ozone, stale popcorn, and burnt plastic. I saw the lights of the studio—the "Sun" and the "Moon"—flicker and die far above us. We were falling through the bowels of a machine we were never meant to see.Around me, the other fifty survivors were screaming. They were silhouettes of panic against a faint, industrial red glow. Some were flailing; others were curled into balls, surrendering to the descent."Rowan!" I screamed back, my lungs burning.I felt a hand grab my ankle. It was a rough, desperate grip. Then, an

The De-Compiler

The Archive was the only place in the city that felt like it had a soul. It wasn't the "Soul" the Aethel-Group sold in their brochures—sparkling, bright, and perfect. This was a dusty soul. It smelled of vanilla, old leather, and the slow decay of paper. It was the smell of things that were allowed to grow old.Outside, the drones were screaming. I could hear the metallic thud of their landing gear hitting the pavement. The red light of their scanners bled through the cracks in the Archive’s boarded-up windows, painting the rows of books in stripes of crimson."You have to move quickly," the Librarian said. She didn't look at the door. She looked at the heavy iron door behind her. "The city's security is like an immune system. You are a virus that just stopped pretending to be a cell. It will flush the entire block with 'Total-Deletion' protocols if it has to."Rowan stood in the middle of the room, his eyes darting between the Librarian and the white room beyond. He still looked like

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