All Chapters of Alpha's Blood Contract: Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

ELARAI lay in his bed for hours after he left, staring at the ceiling while my skin continued to tingle from everywhere his mouth had touched me.No matter how many times I closed my eyes, I could still see his face hovering over mine. He had looked at me as though he wanted to cross a line he had been forcing himself to respect, and the memory of it left my entire body restless.I could still feel the warmth of his hands, the pressure of his lips, and the way my heartbeat had fastened. I turned onto my side, then onto my back again, trying desperately to force myself to sleep, but the silence only made the memories louder.Eventually, I couldn't take it anymore. I got out of his bed and wore one of his black sweatpants, tightening the waistband around my waist with a knot because they were far too loose for me.Then I stole his black shirt as well, slipping it over my head and allowing the soft fabric to fall almost to my knees. His scent filled the clothes, and for a moment I stood

ALARICI had just walked into the infirmary to check on Stephanie's wound myself, mostly to confirm what I already suspected. She was here on Lucien’s orders. He wanted her to spy on us for him and let him know if Elara was in this Pack before he went to war.But she didn’t let me ask even a single question before she threw herself into my arms and began bawling.Her arms locked around my neck before I could react, her face pressing into my shoulder, her whole body shaking with sobs that came a little too fast, a little too rehearsed.“ Alaric… ” She sniffled. “ I am so sorry. I was so scared, and I didn't know where else to go, and I know I don't deserve your kindness, but…please help me… ”I stood there, stiff, my hands hovering uselessly at my sides, every instinct in me screaming to shove her off. But before I could do that, I heard the familiar footsteps getting closer to us.My body felt the familiar prickle down my spine, the same one I always got whenever Elara was close, like

ALARICFaeralac Lake was cursed. It was said that whoever fell into it always ended up drowning. People believed Advina’s vengeful soul still floated beneath the surface.It was the spirit of a mother who was killed during the Great War years ago. The mother had not reached her daughter in time and had lost her before her eyes in the same lake.Now, she was out to get whoever dared to get into that water, which was once painted red with her blood and her daughter’s blood.The curse was true to some extent, because whoever had fallen into the lake, or mocked and tried to prove the curse was a lie…had always ended up dead. No one had ever resurfaced from those calm waters.And I watched her go under the same lake before my body even understood what was happening.One second she was standing there on the edge of the cliff, startled by my voice, and the next she was falling backward into the black water below, her arms flailing uselessly against the air.Panic set in my veins as I leapt f

ALARIC Esme. I had not said that name out loud to another living soul in over a decade. It had been sitting in my chest since the second Elara gasped it in the water, since the moment I pulled her limp body out of that lake and heard a name I had buried so deep I sometimes convinced myself I had imagined it as a child. I had not told Elara that I already knew it. I had not told her that hearing her say it had nearly stopped my heart harder than watching her stop breathing had. I found the Pack historian exactly where I expected. He was buried in the archive wing of the library, surrounded by scrolls older than half the trees on our land, a magnifying glass balanced on the tip of his nose. “ Alpha… ” Old Fenwick looked up, startled, when I shut the door behind me harder than necessary. “ I was not expecting— ” “ Esme. Tell me everything about that girl again! ” I said, cutting straight through whatever pleasantry he was about to offer. “ I need you to tell me everything you know a

ELARA “ Esme. ” The word had barely left her lips before her eyes rolled back, her whole body going slack against the pillow again. “ No. ” My heart lurched violently. “ No, no, wait— ” I grabbed her shoulders, shaking her gently at first, then harder when nothing happened. “ What did you say? What do you know? Please, wake up. Tell me what you meant. ” Her head lolled limply under my hands, her breathing shallow but steady, her body simply too weak to hold onto consciousness a second longer than it already had. “ Please. ” My voice cracked, rising louder than I intended. “ Please, you have to wake up. You have to tell me. Who is Esme? How do you know that name? ” Nothing happened. My desperation just grew. I was haunted by this name and what it meant to me even when I was asleep, awake or even on the verge of death. I shook her again, my grip tightening on her thin shoulders, panic and desperation tangling together until I could barely tell one from the other.