All Chapters of Her Second Chance Alpha: Chapter 111 - Chapter 120

FREYA The tunnels felt wrong the second we stepped inside them. It wasn't the darkness itself. I'd been in dark places before and come out fine. It was the air, so thick and cold in a way that had nothing to do with any actual temperature. It felt like the whole shaft was holding its breath around every single one of us. My Keeper senses screamed the entire way down. The seal was still somewhere far below us, but I could feel it pulsing faintly against my ribs anyway, like a second heartbeat. Every step took us closer to something I still didn't have words for, and every single step made that pulse a little weaker than the last. We hit resistance almost immediately, barely ten minutes into the descent. Gwyneth's guards came at us out of narrow side passages, faster and stronger than any wolves I had ever fought before. It felt as if something had been done to sharpen their instincts past its natural limit. Their eyes had a strange shine to them, like they weren't fully themsel

FREYAThe ground split open behind Gwyneth with a sound like the whole world cracking down the middle, and something stirred beneath it. I felt it before I even understood what I was feeling; a darkness that felt like it had actual weight and hunger, pressing hard against my entire body.I understood, in that instant, exactly what Selene had been trying to warn me about during all those long nights back in the training room. This wasn't some old story wolves told their pups just to keep them from wandering off into abandoned mines after dark. It was real. It had been sleeping down here this whole time, waiting patiently. And now, because of us, it was finally waking up.Around me, wolves who had faced down mercenaries and rogues without flinching were backing away from the crack in the floor, their courage failing them for the first time. I didn't blame them. Every instinct in my own body screamed at me to run too, but running wasn't an option for me because Micah was still in her arm

ETHANI didn't think. I didn't even hesitate. The second Freya dropped out of sight, I threw myself after her, straight over the edge and into the dark.It didn't feel like falling. That was the strange part.Falling had a rhythm to it, but this had none of that. It felt like drowning.I couldn't see anything. I couldn't really hear anything either, just this low pressure in my ears like being underwater, and under all of it, a kind of hunger that wasn't mine pressed in from every direction at once."Freya!" I shouted, though the sound barely made it out of my mouth before the darkness swallowed it completely.I found her a few feet below the surface, or what I assumed was the surface, because down there it was hard to tell up from down at all. She was suspended in the dark like something was holding her there on purpose. She wasn’t falling or moving, just hanging in place with her eyes open and unfocused, her mouth saying words I couldn't hear no matter how close I got.I grabbed her

ETHANWe regrouped back at the pack house with nothing to show for the whole mess except wounded men, a war council that was furious with me, and a boy still missing somewhere out there with a woman none of us had managed to track down. It wasn't exactly the kind of homecoming that inspired confidence.Dorian didn't hold back once we were all in the same room. He never did."We nearly lost half the men I brought with me for absolutely nothing," he said, furiously pacing in front of the fireplace like the room was too small to hold whatever he was feeling. "No Gwyneth. No Micah. Just a hole in the ground and a pile of injuries.""We know what we lost," I said, keeping my voice level even though every part of me wanted to snap back at him. "You don't need to remind us.""I'm considering pulling my men out entirely," he said. "This operation is a disaster, and I won't lose my men for a fight that isn't even mine."I couldn't fully argue with him, as much as I wanted to. He wasn't wrong.

ETHANFreya barely slept that night, and when she finally did, it wasn't peaceful. I woke up twice to her crying out beside me, calling Micah's name into the dark like she was trying to reach him. Both times it took a long time to calm her down, and I just lay there afterward staring at the ceiling, hating how helpless I felt.I'd spent my whole life being the strongest person I knew. The strongest Alpha with the strongest bloodline. The kind of man other Alphas stepped back from without even meaning to. But none of that mattered against an enemy like Gwyneth."You're awake," Freya said the third time, her voice choked up with a lot of emotions."I keep waking up before you even start crying," I said. "It’s like some part of me already knows it's coming."She didn't say anything to that. She just curled closer into my side, and I held onto her. Neither of us slept much after that anyway.Orin arrived right at dawn, before either of us had bothered getting dressed properly, holding a p