All Chapters of The Alpha I Saved Ruined Me: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

44 Chapters

021: Warning Dressed as Nothing

Warning Dressed as NothingTalia’s POVNobody sat next to me. There was space on both sides of where I had sat at the back of the gathered crowd, a deliberate clearing that people maintained without making it obvious they were maintaining it. I had stopped finding it remarkable. It was just the shape of how I existed in this place.I watched the execution ground from my spot and tried to work out what Valik was doing.The animals were the part I couldn’t place. His mother’s horse, standing calmly at the edge of the ground like it had been brought somewhere perfectly normal. Monica’s kitten in the basket. The dog. None of it made sense. What was he trying to do?Then two guards walked in carrying a wide bowl between them, water sloshing slightly with their movement, and set it down near the center of the ground.The second guard was holding a bottle.I recognized it before I had finished looking at it. The same bottle that had been sitting on my table when I left my room.I was shocke

022: Blood that doesn’t count

Blood That Doesn’t CountValik’s POVI stood in front of my mother’s chamber. The door was ajar, I could see the over-decorated in the way that it announced her importance. I knocked once and walked in without waiting.She was at her dressing table, a maid combing her hair with a wide comb. She looked at my reflection in the mirror first, then turned around fully, and the surprise on her face was genuine enough that she didn’t have time to replace it with something more composed.“Valik.” She waved the maid away. The girl slipped out through the side door without a sound. “This is unexpected… ever since you brought that girl into this pack, you have never visited my chambers… now that you killed my horse, you suddenly appear”“Why are you helping Monica target Talia?” I asked.I had learned a long time ago that conversations with my mother went better when I don’t give her the chance to manipulate emotionally like she always does.She looked at me for a moment, thinking of what to say

023: The People He won’t Protect

The People He Won’t ProtectTalia’s POVI heard everything Valik and Cassian discussed from the corridor. I hadn’t meant to be there. I had been coming back from the direction of the main hall when I heard Valik’s voice and Cassian’s through the stone passage.I stood there for a moment after the footsteps faded.Then I turned around and went back to my room.I sat on the edge of the bed and looked at the wall and tried to find the part of me that was surprised. Nothing shocks me anymore here, What had I expected?He had walked past a body on a mountain ledge without breaking stride. He had sat at his desk while I told him about poison delivered to my room and looked at me with the same face he wore for everything. He had made promises about protection in a wedding hall that he had kept in the most stupid and useless sense of the word.Humans were being taken, killed and disposed of along the edges of his territory like they were something he was aware of but not responsible for. And

024: The Party I didn’t Ask For

The Party I Didn’t Ask ForTalia’s POVI was almost at the door when a hand caught mine.I spun around immediately, my body making the decision before my mind caught up, and found myself looking at a woman I didn’t recognize.She was smiling at me. Openly, warmly, with the kind of smile that didn’t have anything calculated behind it.“Sorry,” she said quickly, releasing my hand. “I didn’t mean to frighten you. I just didn’t want you to walk past without saying hello.”I looked at her. She was around my age, bright-eyed, with an energy that felt completely out of place in this pack.“Who are you?” I asked.“Aurora,” she said.Her name was very unfamiliar as I had never heard about her before now.“I don’t know you,” I said carefully.She laughed, kindly. “I’m Valik’s sister. I’ve been away for some months, I just returned today.”I stared at her.Valik had a sister. Somewhere in all the days I had spent in this pack being dragged through corridors and burned and threatened and managed,

025: What Nobody Says Out Loud

What Nobody Says Out LoudValik’s POVI was halfway back to my room when Monica came in at the end of the corridor.She was walking toward me with the particular unhurried movement of someone who had somewhere to be but was choosing not to rush, and the smile that appeared on her face when she saw me was the warm, pretentious kind that lived several layers above whatever she was actually thinking.“I received your gift,” she said, stopping close enough to make the conversation feel intimate whether I wanted it to or not. “The dress is lovely… You have good taste, Valik.”“It’s courtesy,” I said. “Besides, it was sent by my mother.”The smile stayed but something behind her eyes adjusted.Her gaze moved past me briefly, down the corridor to where I had come from, and I watched her think it through. “Were you coming from Talia’s room?” she asked.“That’s not your concern,” I said.“Valik…”“Monica.” I kept my voice even. “If you have nothing that requires my attention, I advise you to

026: The Woman in the Mirror

The Woman in the MirrorTalia’s POVThe maids came with the dress just before evening.They worked in silence, which I liked even though I still struggle to understand what happened all of a sudden, no words meant no insults, threats, or small cruelties dressed as conversation. They simply moved around me with practiced silence, lacing and adjusting and smoothing without making eye contact, they handled me like I’m an object that can break at the slightest touch.The dress was deep green, simple in cut, better than anything I had worn in my life. I stood still and let them work.When they were done, they sat me in front of the mirror and began working on my hair.I looked at my reflection while their hands moved through it, and for a strange, disorienting moment I didn’t recognize the person looking back at me.The face was mine but my eyes looked different. They were the eyes of someone who had been somewhere very difficult for a long time and had stopped expecting it to get better.

027: The Honour Dance

The Honour DanceTalia’s POVThe host spoke clearly in the ballroom, like the voice of someone who had done this work many times and knew exactly how to command a room.He introduced Valik first. The people clapped for him, with respect for someone who commands genuine respect rather than just fear. Then he called Aurora, who smiled and acknowledged it with ease, making herself comfortable in her own skin. Then he introduced Monica.She stepped forward when her name was called with pride and grace. She had been waiting for this moment, a moment to show the world that she is the best and no one can ever match up to her standard. The crystal bead on her dress shined brightly as it caught the candlelight, her expression graciously humble when she was nothing but a snake in a green grass. Then a woman I didn’t recognize stepped up beside her.She looked older, but has the same facial structure with Monica and the same controlled elegance. She was undoubtedly Monica’s mother, from the way

028: The Cost of Silence

The Cost of SilenceValik’s POVImmediately I took Monica’s hand, I saw Aurora walk out through the side door. That’s how she does whenever something doesn’t sit well with her. I said nothing and let the music resume.I didn’t want to dance with Monica, I wanted to follow Talia but my mother always has a way of making me look helpless because she knows the deepest of things that would make me go numb and follow in her direction.Monica held me tight and close, dancing perfectly well and smiling at the same time. She was obviously trying to get everyone’s attention on her, the way she carried herself on the floor, the slight elevation of her chin and her carefully arranged posture… She was performing for the room and for her mother and she was doing it effectively. “Not even a compliment?” she asked, after the first turn.I looked at her. “The dress suits you.”She smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “You can do better than that, Valik. My mother is watching. She doesn’t like it whe

029: What Aurora Knows

What Aurora KnowsTalia’s POVI was sitting on the edge of a chair in Aurora’s room. She met me at the hallway after the embarrassment I got at the party and brought me to her room.She had more in her room, small book collection, fabric draped over the chair back, a worn book on the table, a candle burned down to a short stub on the windowsill. It felt lived in. The cold air coming in through her window felt so refreshing as if it was different from the one that comes inside my room. I held my injured hand in my lap and said nothing.Aurora didn’t bother me either. She walked around the room collecting a cloth and a small jar, then she sat down across from me, and began to tend to my hand without asking permission first. She treated my hand carefully and she paid attention to how I reacted to the medicine she poured on top of it… I didn’t say anything to her, whether this is genuine or not, I didn’t know and I didn’t have the strength to argue.“He’s been looking out for you more th

030: The Road that Comes for Us

The Road That Comes for UsTalia’s POVCassian took the note from my hand before I knew what was happening. He read it quickly, processed it and he looked at me.“What is this about?” he asked. “What have you been doing in the human faction?”“What you and Valik refused to do,” I said. “Paying attention to what’s happening to them.”He folded the note and held it. “If Valik finds out about this, he will go crazy. He might kill you, you understand that?”“I’m already dead, Cassian,” I said. The words came out truthfully. “I died the moment I was brought through those gates. Everything since then has just been me trying to survive and walk amongst people who want me killed, so… Step aside.” I met his eyes. “I won’t,” he said. “That will be over my dead body.”“Cassian.” Aurora’s voice came from beside me, patient and calm. “Move away from the door.”He looked at her. “Aurora, You know what happens if something goes wrong out there. You should be the one advising her not to do such”“I’

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