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Todos los capítulos de The Alpha’s Second Life: Capítulo 71 - Capítulo 80

85 Capítulos

71

"Don't move, Bianca."The words didn't come from my throat. They came from the room itself. The floorboards vibrated. Dust shook from the ceiling. Bianca’s body slammed into the stone floor as if an invisible hand had just crushed her spine. She let out a choked, wet sound—half-sob, half-grunt."Joshua, stop!" Richard’s voice was a ragged scrape. He was on one knee, his claws digging into the dirt, fighting the pressure. "You’re... you’re suffocating the whole pack."I didn't look at him. I couldn't. My vision was a jagged smear of violet and white light. The silver heat in my stomach was moving upward, a rising tide of liquid metal that made my skin feel like it was cracking. I looked down at Bianca. She was clawing at the floor, her fingernails ripping against the wood."You came here to bleed me." I stepped toward her. Each footfall sounded like a drum in a cathedral. "You wanted to sell the miracle.""Please" Bianca’s face was pressed into the dirt. Snot ran down her lip, mixing w

72

"Cover your mouths! Get back into the tunnels!"Richard’s voice cracked like a whip over the panic. Above us, the gray sky didn't drop water. It dropped dust. A fine, metallic mist that caught the morning light, turning the air into a haze of pulverized silver. My lungs burned at the first whiff. It wasn't just poison; it was a cage."Richard, wait—" I grabbed his arm. My fingers slipped against the sweat and grit on his bicep. "Don't shift! If you shift now, the intake will kill you in seconds!"He turned, his eyes already bleeding into that frantic Alpha gold. "My scouts are out there, Joshua! They’re hitting the dirt and they aren't getting back up!"Across the clearing, three of the Ridge guards had fallen. They weren't dead yet. They were worse. They were shifting involuntarily, their bodies caught in a spasming mid-point between human and wolf. The silver rain hit their open pores, sizzling. They clawed at their throats, coughing up thick, black bile that smoked when it hit the

73

"Get your hands off me, Richard! The door is going to blow!"Richard’s fist slammed into the granite slab blocking the tunnel. His knuckles split. Red blood sprayed against the gray stone, but the silver dust coating the rocks sizzled as it touched his skin. He let out a choked sound, pulling back. His palms were already blistering, the flesh bubbling where the toxic residue ate through his Alpha-thick skin."We can't sit here like rats, Joshua! If I don't break this, the heat will liquefy us before the feds even step inside!""You're just feeding the silver!" I grabbed his shoulder, yanking him back. "Look at your hands. You hit it again and you won't have fingers to shift with."The air in the cave mouth was shimmering. Not with light, but with the beginning of the thermal breach. The feds had planted the charges on the exterior of the seal. I could smell the ozone. The temperature jumped ten degrees in thirty seconds. Sweat broke out across my forehead, stinging my eyes. Behind us,

74

"Don't breathe, Richard. Just don't."I gripped his forearm. His skin was blistering. The silver mist outside the cave mouth wasn't just gray anymore; it was a hungry, vibrating static that turned the sunlight into a dull lead weight. Richard’s chest heaved. He didn't listen. He sucked in a ragged breath and his eyes didn't just turn gold. They bled."I have to get them out." Richard’s voice sounded like it was coming through a throat full of glass. "The scouts... they're still at the tree line. They're twitching, Joshua.""You step out there and you're a statue." I pulled his arm closer. I looked at the veins.Under the translucent surface of his skin, something was moving. It wasn't blood. It was a thick, silver sludge—the liquid-mercury we’d used to stabilize his shift back in the University labs. It was reacting to the vapor outside. Instead of poisoning him, the mercury was rushing toward the surface. It met the silver particles at the pores."What are you doing?" Richard tried t

75

The mercury had fully hardened, encasing him in a shell of solid metal. He’d taken the full force of the kinetic slug to keep me from being vaporized."Richard, please." I clawed at the metal.My fingers slipped.I looked at my hand.It was covered in violet blood.I looked down at my stomach. The light was gone. It was dark."No," I whispered. "No, no, no."I felt for a heartbeat. Nothing.I was alone in a crater of dust, shielded by a dead king.Then, the phone in the mud buzzed.I picked it up with shaking hands.Private Number: The baby isn't dead, Joshua. He’s just shifted. Look under the ribs.I looked.A small, rhythmic pulse was beating in my side. Not in my womb. Higher up.The child hadn't just survived.He’d migrated.I looked at the chrome wall of Richard’s body.A single, violet crack appeared in the metal."Richard?"The crack widened.A hand pushed through the metal.Not a man’s hand.A child’s hand."Father," a voice whispered.It wasn't a baby’s voice. It was the voic

76

"Don't look at me like that, damn it!" Vance roared, his voice cracking, morphing into a guttural, wet snarl.His knuckles popped, white bone pushing through bruised skin. He doubled over, gasping for air that tasted of copper and burning hair."Commander? Your eyes—" Sergeant Miller backed away, his rifle barrel wobbling toward the mud."Forget my eyes! Secure the perimeter!" Vance grabbed his own throat, his nails raking deep furrows into his neck."He's turning," Miller whispered, his face draining of color. "He’s one of them. The Hybrid. We have orders, men. Fire!""No! Hold your fire!""General, you aren't human anymore!" Miller’s finger tightened on the trigger."I said hold! That is an order!""Orders changed the second your skin split, sir.""Wait, Sergeant! Look at him!""He's a monster, Richard. He's exactly what we came to burn out of these hills.""He's the only one who knows how to calibrate the frequency dampeners! You kill him, you kill us all when the next swarm hits!"

77

"Stand still, Joshua. If you move, you die.""Is that a threat or a diagnosis, Richard?""It’s a fact. The Silver-Rain is shifting again. Look at the way it’s catching the light. It’s not just falling; it’s hardening.""It’s beautiful, isn't it? Like diamonds falling from a dead sky.""It’s poison. If one of those shards touches your skin, it’ll liquify your nervous system before you can blink.""I don't think so, Richard. Reach out. Let it touch you.""Are you insane? I'm not touching that death-dust.""You trust me, don't you? After everything we've seen in the mountain, after the Gravekeepers, after Vance?""I trust you to keep me alive. I don't trust you to play with atmospheric toxins.""Look at my hand. It’s not burning. It’s not melting.""How? You’re standing in the middle of a chemical storm. You should be nothing but a puddle of goo.""I'm not standing in it, Richard. I'm breathing it.""That’s impossible. You're a human—at least, I thought you were.""Labels are for machine

78

"Put it on the screen, Danielle. Now.""I’m trying, Joshua. The military firewalls are thicker than a fortress wall. They know what we’re doing.""Break them. Use the Shadow Lab’s bypass. If you don't broadcast the shift, nobody in the capital will believe this is happening.""It’s going through. Every news feed in the country just flickered. We’re live.""Look at them. They’re staring at the screens in the streets. They aren't looking away.""General Vance, you’re on every television in the nation. How does it feel to be the star of the show?""You think this scares them? You think showing them a dying man turning into a beast will end their war?""It’s not just a man, General. It’s the truth.""The truth is whatever I say it is. Cut the feed, Sergeant! I gave you a direct order!""The signal isn't coming from the base anymore, sir. It’s coming from everywhere.""Danielle, show them the footage from Sector 4. They need to see the nursery.""Joshua, if I broadcast the nursery, there’s

79

The fleet hung in the low clouds like an iron shroud, engines whining a frequency that made the very marrow in Richard’s bones ache. A single, jagged missile broke from the lead destroyer, its exhaust plume cutting a clean, white scar across the bruised sky."They aren't stopping," Richard gasped, his knees buckling under the weight of the air itself. "They ignored the signal. They ignored the treaty. Vance’s signature is just target practice to them.""They don't care about the ink," Joshua said, though his voice was little more than a dry rattle. He stood at the edge of the ridge, his hands trembling as he hoisted the parchment high. "They care about the silence.""The shield is gone, Joshua! My mercury is spent! We’re going to be vaporized!""Watch the sky.""I am watching the sky! I’m watching a missile turn us into ash!""Watch closer."The missile surged, closing the distance, its warhead glowing with a parasitic, hungry red light. Richard threw his arms over his face, waiting f

80

The cabin shuddered, the air growing thick with a static charge that made the very hairs on Richard’s arms stand rigid. Joshua sat on the edge of the cot, his hands pressed flat against his belly, his breath coming in sharp, shallow stabs. Hours ago, he had been showing a mere hint of a curve, but now, the swell was pronounced, heavy, pressing against the worn cotton of his shirt with a terrifying, rapid acceleration."It’s happening again," Richard said, his voice straining to remain steady, though his wolf was pacing deep behind his eyes, whimpering at the scent filling the room. "You’ve skipped months. This isn't biology, Joshua. This is a distortion.""He’s hungry, Richard. He’s eating the time, pulling the nutrients from the very air to sustain the growth.""My wolf won't stop growling," Richard admitted, stepping back, his eyes fixed on the shifting, pulsating weight beneath Joshua’s skin. "He’s terrified. Every time I get close, I get this scent—something ancient, something tha

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