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Lahat ng Kabanata ng Alpha Kael : Kabanata 11 - Kabanata 19

19 Kabanata

011

IVY’S POVI didn’t sleep.Not really.I lay on a bed that wasn’t mine, in a place that didn’t feel real, staring at a ceiling carved from stone instead of cheap plaster, listening to a silence that wasn’t silence at all.It breathed.Shifted.Watched.Every creak of the hall, every distant echo, every whisper of wind slipping through broken doors—it all felt like a countdown.To what, I didn’t know.But my body did.It stayed tense.Ready.Wrong.I turned onto my side, pulling the rough blanket tighter around me.Didn’t help.Nothing helped.Because even when everything else went quiet—He didn’t.The bond pulsed.Slow.Steady.Constant.Kael.Somewhere in the hall. Awake. Moving. Thinking.Always thinking.I squeezed my eyes shut.“I hate this,” I whispered.The bond didn’t respond.Of course it didn’t.It just… existed.Like a second heartbeat I never asked for.After a while—minutes, hours, I couldn’t tell—I gave up.Sleep wasn’t coming.Not tonight.I pushed myself up, swinging my

012

KAEL’S POVInside.They were already inside.That changed everything.I didn’t waste time asking how.Didn’t waste breath on questions that wouldn’t keep anyone alive.“Where?” I demanded.The scout swallowed hard. “East corridor—near the lower halls. They’re not hiding anymore.”Of course they weren’t.This wasn’t infiltration.This was escalation.I turned, already moving. “Seal the inner gates. Wake everyone. No one moves alone.”The wolf nodded and took off without another word.Behind me, I heard Ivy’s footsteps hesitate for half a second.Then follow.Good.At least she was learning.The hall blurred past as I cut through the corridors, muscle memory taking over. Stone walls, torchlight, shadow—this place was carved into me. I knew every turn, every choke point, every place an enemy could use against us.And right now—They were using all of them.A distant crash echoed from below.Metal on stone.A scream followed.Short.Cut off.I didn’t slow.“Kael—” Ivy’s voice came from be

013

IVY’S POVI didn’t go back to the room.There was no point.Sleep felt like something from another life—something soft and normal and completely out of reach now. The walls of the Blackthorn hall didn’t make it easier. If anything, they made it worse.Too quiet.Too heavy.Too full of things I didn’t understand.I leaned against one of the cold stone pillars, arms wrapped around myself, trying to steady my breathing. My hands still tingled faintly—leftover sparks crawling under my skin like restless insects that refused to die.I hated it.I hated all of it.The powers.The bond.The way my life had turned into something I couldn’t control.Footsteps echoed behind me.I didn’t need to turn to know who it was.“You should rest,” Kael said.I let out a quiet, humorless laugh. “You really like saying that.”“You really like ignoring it.”“I’m not tired.”“That’s a lie.”“So is ‘everything is under control,’ but here we are.”A pause.Then—“You’re getting sharper,” he said.I glanced ove

014

KAEL’S POVHumans didn’t belong this close.Not to the forest.Not to us.And definitely not to my territory.Yet there they were.I saw them before we reached the outer wall—lights cutting through the trees in steady beams, too controlled to be lost hikers, too deliberate to be ignorant. The scent hit next. Metal. Oil. Cold intention.Armed.Organized.Prepared.I slowed my steps, raising a hand slightly.Behind me, the wolves stilled instantly.Good.At least that hadn’t changed.Ivy stopped beside me, her shoulder brushing mine. The contact sent a low pulse through the bond—steady, alert.She felt it too.The tension.The shift.“They don’t look like hunters,” she murmured.“No,” I said quietly. “They look like something worse.”Because hunters came for sport.These ones came for purpose.And purpose made people dangerous.We reached the edge of the clearing.The north wall loomed ahead—stone rising high, old and unyielding. Beyond it, through the iron-barred gate, I could see them

015

IVY’S POVI couldn’t shake the feeling.Even after the humans left.Even after the forest went quiet again.Even after Kael brought me back inside like nothing had just happened.Something had changed.Not outside.Inside.Me.I sat on the edge of the long wooden table, staring at my hands. They looked the same. Normal. Human. No glowing veins. No sparks crawling under my skin.But I knew better now.Because for the first time since this started—They’d gone silent.Not controlled.Not dimmed.Gone.And that terrified me more than the power ever had.“You’re too quiet.”Kael’s voice pulled me out of it.I didn’t look up.“So are you.”“That’s different.”“How?”“I’m supposed to be.”I let out a dry breath.“Right. Alpha things.”He didn’t respond to that.Of course he didn’t.I finally looked at him.He stood across the hall, near the fire again, like he always did—half in shadow, half in light, like he hadn’t decided which side he belonged to.Or maybe he already had.“You felt it to

016

KAEL’S POVDarkness didn’t slow me.It never had.The moment the torches died, I moved.Instinct. Training. Survival.My hand shot out—grabbing Ivy’s wrist before whatever was in the dark could take her.“Stay with me,” I ordered.Her grip tightened instantly.“I am,” she whispered, but her voice shook.Good.Fear meant she was still thinking.Still here.The air shifted around us.Not wolves.Not human.Something in between.Fast.Too fast.A shape lunged from the left—I turned, blade cutting through empty space as it vanished before contact.Not an attack.A test.They were circling.Waiting.“Hear that?” I murmured.A faint sound—movement against stone, too smooth for claws, too quiet for boots.“They’re not rogues,” Ivy said.“I know.”That made it worse.Because rogues I understood.These—I didn’t.A breath brushed the back of my neck.Too close.I spun—Nothing.But the bond flared.Warning.I pulled Ivy closer.“Don’t move unless I tell you.”“Not planning to,” she muttered.

017

IVY’S POVEverything was loud.Not outside.Inside.Too many voices. Too many thoughts that weren’t mine, pressing against my skull like hands trying to force their way in.I staggered, fingers clutching my head.“Make it stop,” I whispered—but I didn’t know who I was asking.The walls pulsed.Not moving like stone should—breathing. Expanding. Contracting. Like the entire hall had a heartbeat, and somehow—I was synced to it.“Ivy.”Kael’s voice cut through the noise.Sharp.Grounded.Real.I clung to it instinctively.But the moment I tried—The other voices surged louder.“No,” I gasped. “Don’t—don’t come closer—”Because I could feel it.If he touched me again—Something worse would happen.Something I wouldn’t be able to stop.“Fight it,” he said.“I don’t know how!”“You did before.”“That was different!”This—This wasn’t sparks.This wasn’t power I could push down or ignore.This was something deeper.Something opening.Something that had always been there—Waiting.The traitor

018

KAEL’S POVThe shadow shouldn’t have moved.Fire flickers. Walls breathe. Darkness lies.But shadows—Shadows follow.This one didn’t.It peeled itself off the stone like it had been waiting beneath the surface, like the wall had only been a skin it decided to shed.And when it stepped forward—The temperature dropped so fast my breath fogged.Every instinct I had screamed one thing.Kill it.But my body—Didn’t move.Not because I couldn’t.Because something in me knew—This wasn’t something you rushed.This was something you survived.“Ivy,” I said, low, controlled.No answer.I didn’t look at her.Couldn’t.If I took my eyes off that thing for even a second—We were dead.The traitor was still kneeling.Still smiling.Still breathing.Which meant—This was never the endgame.This was the beginning.The shadow took another step.Not fast.Not slow.Measured.Deliberate.Like it already owned the room.Its shape shifted as it moved—not solid, not stable. Edges stretching, reforming,

19

IVY’S POVSilence shouldn’t feel this loud.But it did.After the shadow disappeared, after the walls stopped breathing and the air settled back into something almost normal—I expected relief.Instead, I felt… empty.Not calm.Not safe.Empty.Like something had been ripped out of me and the space it left behind hadn’t decided what to become yet.Kael’s hand was still on my arm.Firm.Grounding.Too grounding.I pulled away.Not hard.Just enough.“I’m fine,” I said quickly.A lie.A bad one.His eyes narrowed slightly.“You don’t look fine.”“I didn’t ask how I look.”“You don’t have to.”I exhaled sharply, running a hand through my hair.“I just need a second.”“You don’t have a second.”“Great,” I muttered. “Love that for me.”He didn’t smile.Of course he didn’t.Marcus stepped forward from the edge of the room, where he’d been watching everything unfold in silence.“They felt it,” he said.Kael didn’t need to ask who.Neither did I.“The rogues?” I asked anyway.Marcus shook his

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