All Chapters of The Alpha Who Killed My Family Is My Mate: Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

The passage narrowed the moment they entered it. Kael felt it closing in before he saw it, the walls pressing tighter with every step, the air growing heavier as the corridor twisted ahead of them like something alive and shifting under its own will. “Keep moving,” he said, his voice steady even as the ground shifted again beneath them. Rylan was already ahead, cutting through the turns without hesitation, reading the movement of the walls like he could predict where they would close next. “Don’t slow down,” he threw back. “It’s tightening.” Behind Kael, Donovan dragged Faolan forward, her weight pulling harder with every step. She wasn’t keeping pace anymore. She was being carried. “Stay with me,” Donovan muttered, his breath rough now. Faolan didn’t answer immediately. Her head had dipped again, her body going slack for a second before she forced herself upright with a weak sound that barely passed for a response. “I’m here,” she said, but it came out thinner than before. Ka

The ground gave way without warning. One moment, Kael had a solid footing; the next, the stone shifted violently, cracking open beneath their feet as if something deep within the territory had finally snapped. The tremor didn’t fade the way the others had. It rolled through the walls with a force that kept building, dragging a harsh grinding sound behind it as the entire structure began to tear itself apart. Rylan reacted first, cutting forward through the only stretch that hadn’t split yet, forcing the others to move with him before the path disappeared completely. There was no time to check direction, no space to think through the next turn. The corridor was no longer guiding them. It was collapsing faster than they could outrun it. “Keep moving,” Kael said, his voice steady even as the floor dipped again under their weight. Behind him, stone broke loose from the ceiling and crashed down hard enough to shake the air out of his lungs. Dust surged forward in a thick wave, cutting

They did not make it far. The forest thickened again, roots cutting across the ground in uneven ridges, branches closing in tighter the deeper they pushed. It should have slowed them. It didn’t. They kept moving anyway, forcing their way through it because stopping still felt worse than whatever waited ahead. That lasted only a few minutes. Kael heard it before he saw it. A shift behind him. Not loud. Not sudden. Just wrong enough to pull his attention back. “Stop.” This time, the word came without restraint. Donovan didn’t argue. That was the first sign. He usually would. He would push, insist, carry past the point where anyone else would have stopped. Not now. He lowered Faolan, but the movement lacked the control he had forced earlier. His arms shook as he eased her down, and when he finally let go, he stayed crouched beside her, one hand still pressed against her like he didn’t trust the ground to hold her. “She’s fine,” he said. No one answered him. Lilith moved in i

They kept moving, but the shape of the group had changed in a way none of them could correct by simply pushing forward. The path opened ahead of them, wide enough to move faster, clear enough that nothing forced them to slow, yet the pace never returned. It settled into something uneven, held together by effort rather than instinct. No one called it out. No one tried to fix it. They all felt it. Kael took the front without saying it, his focus set on the terrain ahead, but his attention refused to stay there. It kept pulling back, measuring distance, tracking rhythm, marking every small break in the way they moved together. They were still a unit. But they no longer moved like one. Rylan ranged wider than before, cutting through the trees in longer arcs, his attention split between the forest and the group. He checked the perimeter more often, but each time he returned, his gaze lingered on them a second longer than necessary, like he was confirming something he didn’t trust. L

The quiet didn't last. It never did.Kael let them have a few minutes anyway. It was just enough time for their heart rates to slow and for Lilith to finish the immediate patchwork on Faolan. He stood on the edge of the group, his focus already pulling away from the huddle and reaching toward the boundaries. Something felt wrong, but it wasn't the kind of wrong that came from a sudden threat. It was the skin-crawling sensation of a familiar place being touched by a stranger.He walked toward the nearest boundary marker without a word. He knew every knot in the wood of these trees, every dip in the terrain. When the marker came into view, a deep notch in an old oak. He stopped.It was still there, but it was strange.Kael crouched, his fingers tracing the edge of the cut. The scent was theirs, but the application was different. It had been smoothed over, the edges of the carving pressed down as if someone had spent time studying the mark before replicating it. This wasn't a breach by a