บททั้งหมดของ Alpha Kael : บทที่ 11 - บทที่ 19

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

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

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

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

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