All Chapters of Traded to the Ruthless Alpha: Chapter 71 - Chapter 73

ReyaI already decided that the scroll sitting in front of me is probably useless, yet my fingers continue to unroll it as if the paper might change it’s mind and suddenly offer something new. Most of the ink has faded into ghosts. Where letters remain, they speak of old territorial boundaries, disputes between packs that no longer exist, and trader routes through the northern mountains two centuries ago. Nothing about shadow children. Nothing that could possibly point me towards a hollow or a stone circle or a river that curves like a sleeping serpent. Still, I continue to read, because it is the one thing that I can do.After the dream, everything feels suspicious. Every map, every symbol, every neat coincidence that has nudged us along a particular path now looks like a hand guiding me where someone else wants me to go. Killian told me not to let the dream rule me. He is right. I am trying. But the girl’s warning, You are looking where they want you to look, continues to thread

KillianFor a long time we simply stay like this, Reya curled up against me, her cheek warm beneath my chin, the library around us is quiet except for the soft rustle of pages and the occasional creak of the old floorboards. Her shadows have settled too: one stretches across the floor like a lazy cat, another tucks itself beneath the table. They watch us with the same patient curiosity as the books. I run my fingers through her hair and feel something like peace settle over me. It is a small thing, and I know how fragile it is. The dream still hangs between us, the trader and the book and Cormac’s absence like a low, steady drumbeat under everything else. But for the moment she is here, and she is calm, and that is enough to make me breathe easier. “You’re very quiet,” I remark, because the silence feels too heavy for me to keep to myself. “You haven’t said a word in a while.” She tips her head and gives me that look, half teasing, half fond. “You usually complain when I’m quiet.