All Chapters of Traded to the Ruthless Alpha: Chapter 101 - Chapter 110

Reya: For several seconds nobody moved. A small hand clung to the broken earth, pale fingers digging into the soil. Killian stood in front of me, holding me back even though the shaking had stopped. My shadows did not share his hesitation. They surged around his boots and reached toward the crack. “Wait,” Killian said. His voice was aimed at me, but I had already stepped beside him. “That is a child,” I said. “I can see that,” he answered. “Then move,” I said. His head snapped toward me. “Reya.” “We cannot leave them down there,” I said. “I did not say we were leaving anyone,” he replied. A cough came from below. The child’s fingers slipped. “No.” I dropped to my knees. Killian caught my arm, but I pulled free. The crack was wider than it had looked. Beneath the broken earth lay worked stone, an old wall, and the remains of a collapsed ceiling. This was no natural cave. Someone had built something beneath Blackwood. My pulse began racing. “Can you hear me?” I called. Fo

Reya: For several seconds, I could only stare into the broken ground. The opening widened. Something enormous shifted below. I mistook the pale curve for stone until a black pupil turned toward me. Killian’s arm tightened around my waist before I realized I had frozen. “Reya.” His voice sounded far away. The eye ignored the warriors, the clearing, and the healer carrying Mira away. It fixed on me as if it had waited long enough to recognize me. Killian pulled me another step back. “Stay with me,” he ordered. I forced myself to look at him. Fear showed beneath his hard expression. “I can feel it.” “No. I mean it’s inside my shadows.” Something pressed against my shadows. It felt nothing like my connection to Mira or the other children. This presence was ancient and heavy, as if what slept beneath Blackwood knew me. My shadows leaned toward the crack. “Stop.” They did not. One stretched farther, then another. “Call them back,” Killian said. “I am trying,” I answered. The sh

Killian: I wanted Sophia dead. The thought came clean and sharp, without guilt. For a few seconds, it drowned out the tremor moving beneath Blackwood. She stood beyond the ruined training ground as if she had not just told us Reya’s shadows were locks, that we had trained her the wrong way, and that another seal was already breaking somewhere north. Reya stayed beside me, too still for comfort. Her shadows had drawn close to her feet, but she kept glancing down at them. Sophia had done in minutes what weeks of training had begun to undo. She had made Reya doubt herself again. “You are leaving,” I told her. Sophia’s black eyes settled on me. “That would be unwise.” “I was not asking.” Reya touched my arm. “She came because she wanted us to hear this.” “That does not mean she gets to stay.” Sophia’s mouth curved. “If Reya continues training the way you taught her, she will open the remaining seals faster.” Reya’s fingers tightened around my arm. “That is exactly what she want

Reya: For several seconds I could only stare at the mark forming beneath my skin. The lines were thin at first, dark enough to see but faint enough that part of me wanted to believe they might fade if I stopped looking. Instead they deepened beneath my collarbone, curling into the shape Sophia had described until the circle closed and five narrow lines divided it from within. The mark could only mean one thing: the fifth door. It was not buried beneath mountains, hidden under a forgotten sanctuary, or sealed below a dead pack. It was inside me. My hand rose toward my chest, but Killian caught my wrist before I could touch the mark. “Don’t.” I looked at him. His face had gone pale under the anger, and that frightened me more than if he had shouted. Killian always seemed larger when he was furious, his presence sharp enough to fill whatever space he occupied, but this was different. He looked afraid to touch me. That hurt. “Killian.” “I don’t know what it does.” “It’s under m

Killian: I learned to recognize fear long before I learned how to lead. It showed itself in the smallest ways: a tight throat, restless hands, a gaze that slipped away when it should have met mine. The eldest Council member wore his fear openly, no matter how hard he tried to hide it. But he was not afraid of Reya or whatever waited beneath the seals. He was afraid of what she might remember. That was the only reason I agreed to the blood memory ritual. I did not trust the Council woman who claimed she knew the ritual. I did not trust Sophia either, and I had stopped believing stories told by men who benefited from keeping the truth simple and convenient. Still, the elder's face told me more than their histories ever had. Whatever waited in Reya's blood terrified him, and that was reason enough to uncover it. “We are not doing this here,” I said, my voice carrying across the eastern road. The Council woman frowned and warned me that the memory might fade if we moved. I gave her tw