All Chapters of Rejected by my Alpha, claimed by his mate: Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

The entire fortress trembled.Dust rained from the ceiling as something deep below us groaned awake.Not an earthquake.Something breathing.My wolf froze instantly.Every instinct inside me screamed.Run.The Black Wolf watched my reaction carefully, satisfaction darkening his expression.“Yes,” he said softly. “You can feel it now.”I backed away slowly.“What is that?”The King moved immediately between us.“Do not answer him.”But the Black Wolf only smiled wider.“The First Seal,” he whispered.Another violent tremor split through the fortress.This one stronger.Stone cracked beneath our feet.Somewhere in the distance, people screamed.Kael shifted back into human form first, blood dripping down his arm from the fight.“We need to leave. Now.”Nobody argued.Darius shifted beside me seconds later, breathing hard as he stared directly at my wolf form.Shock still lingered in his eyes.Not fear, never fear, just wonder, possessiveness. and relief.The bond between us pulsed viole

The gate groaned open.Slowly.Violently.Ancient gold symbols flickered across its surface as black smoke poured from the growing crack beneath the fortress.And something behind the gate laughed.Not loudly, not wildly, but softly.Like it already knew we had lost.Cold spread through my entire body.Every instinct screamed at me to run.But another feeling fought against it now.Pulling.The gate was pulling me.Not physically.Something deeper.Blood calling to blood.The whispers inside my head became deafening.Come home.My wolf stirred violently beneath my skin.Not afraid.Recognizing.Darius grabbed my hand instantly.The contact grounded me hard enough to breathe again.His golden eyes locked onto mine.“Stay with me.”Simple words.But the desperation beneath them nearly shattered me.Because he felt it too.The pull.The way something ancient was trying to take me away from him.The Black Wolf watched us silently.Then finally, “It has begun faster than expected.”Kael lo

The voice shattered me.Not because it was loud.Because it was human.Not some ancient monster whispering promises from beyond the gate.Not power, not madness, just grief, a raw and unbearable one.And suddenly, I understood something horrifying.The First Queen hadn’t failed because she was weak.She failed because she loved too deeply.The realization nearly crushed me.The Original watched my expression carefully from behind the gate.“Oh,” it purred.“She finally understands.”“Stay out of her head,” Darius snarled.The creature’s massive eye shifted lazily toward him.“You were always her weakness.”Rage exploded through the bond instantly.Not mine, but Darius’s.His wolf slammed violently against the surface of his skin, desperate to tear the creature apart despite the impossible distance between them.But beneath the rage, was fear.He was terrified.Not of dying, but of losing me again.That word hit me hard enough to steal my breath.Again.The First Queen’s memories flash

Silence consumed me.Not outside, but inside.The moment Darius’s heartbeat stopped, something inside my soul tore open.Pain exploded through the bond violently enough to bring me to my knees beside his body.I couldn’t breathe.Couldn’t think.The world blurred around me beneath waves of unbearable grief.No.No no no no, this wasn’t happening.His blood covered my hands.Warm, too warm.The Original watched me carefully from across the ruined chamber.Waiting and hungry.The gate behind it groaned wider.Black smoke flooded the fortress faster now.The Originals were feeding on my grief exactly the way they fed on the First Queen’s.I felt it happening.The seal weakening.The darkness growing stronger.The whispers returned instantly.Bring him back.My pulse shattered.The creature smiled wider.Open the gate.My wolf screamed beneath my skin.Not words but pain.The same agony the First Queen felt centuries ago crashed through me so powerfully I almost lost myself inside it.I u

The fortress collapsed behind us as we escaped into the night.Stone thundered down the mountainside while smoke and dust swallowed the ancient ruins whole.The seal disappeared beneath tons of rock.Buried again, hopefully forever.Cold air hit my face hard outside the mountain, but the kingdom beyond us looked worse than I expected.Fires burned across parts of the lower city.People ran through the streets below carrying the injured.Wolves shifted through the chaos trying to restore order while healers rushed between bodies laid across the stone roads.The battle hadn’t stayed underground.The creatures that escaped before the seal closed had reached the city.And people paid for it.Guilt settled heavily in my chest.Darius walked beside me slowly, one arm around Kael’s shoulders for support despite Kael complaining the entire time.“You’re bleeding on me.”“You’re welcome.”“You died.”“Barely.”“That’s still inconvenient.”Under different circumstances, I might’ve laughed.Inst