All Chapters of THE ALPHA'S FORBIDDEN BRIDE : Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

“I HAVE ALREADY COUNTED.”The words remained in the chamber long after the voice fell silent.Aria watched First Creator carefully. The ancient being had faced forgotten records, accusations, and truths she had spent ages avoiding, but this was different. She looked at the door as though she had encountered something she had once promised herself could never exist.Kael moved closer to Aria and their child.“Who is behind that door?” he asked.First Creator shook her head.“I don't know.”“You recognize the voice,” Aria said.“I recognize the words.”“That isn't the same thing.”“No.” First Creator swallowed. “It isn't.”The door stood at the end of the passage without a frame to support it. Its pale surface held no markings, yet the darkness behind it seemed deeper than the space around it.Their child approached the broken black line in the center of the chamber.“The countdown started again when the voice spoke,” they said. “But it changed.”The Witness examined the marks suspended

For several moments, nobody spoke.The silver doorway had vanished, leaving the empty scale suspended in the chamber. Yet the image of the two identical figures remained in everyone's mind.One stood before them.The other had appeared on the distant world, holding the dark circle and addressing First Creator as though their meeting had been delayed rather than interrupted by the birth of creation.Both had claimed a connection to the warning.Both had spoken as though they remembered what happened before the beginning.And neither had explained why there were two.Kael broke the silence first.“We need to know whether the figure standing here is the same one we saw over there.”The newcomer turned toward him.“I cannot give you the answer you want.”“Can you give us an honest one?”“Yes.”“Then do that.”The figure regarded Kael for a long moment.“I remember the warning. I remember the place where it was spoken. I remember watching First Creator make her choice. But I do not remembe

“DO NOT LET ME REMEMBER WHAT I CHOSE.”The voice rose from beneath the broken table, carrying First Creator's exact tone.Aria tightened her hold on the ancient being's arm. First Creator had gone completely still, her eyes fixed on the darkness below the split stone.“That was my voice,” she whispered.“Yes,” the Witness replied. “But that doesn't prove it belongs to the person standing here.”First Creator looked at the Witness.“You think it could be another memory?”“I think we must allow that possibility without deciding it is true.”The darkness beneath the table stirred again.“DO NOT LET ME REMEMBER.”Their child stepped away from the edge.“Why is the voice asking us not to remember?”First Creator shook her head. “I don't know.”“Could it be afraid of what happened?”“Perhaps.”“Could it be trying to stop us from learning something important?”“Perhaps.”The child looked at the Witness.“Then we shouldn't assume either one.”Kael nodded. “Agreed. We need to find out whether

“WHO GAVE YOU PERMISSION TO OPEN THE FIRST DOOR?”The voice crossed the silver thread and entered the chamber like a question that had been held back for longer than anyone could measure.Nobody answered immediately.The waiting figure stood on the other side of the open doorway, its attention fixed on the thin thread extending into the darkness. For the first time since the door had opened, it looked afraid—not of the people standing before it, but of what might happen beyond them.“They found us,” it whispered.The child looked at the thread.“Who are they?”The figure hesitated. “Those who waited with me. Those who waited differently. Some wanted this door opened. Others believed it should remain closed. And some stopped believing that anyone would ever ask them what they wanted.”“Then we shouldn't answer for them,” the child said.A faint tremor passed through the foundation beneath their feet.The silver thread tightened.From beyond the doorway came another voice, sharper than

First Creator did not open her eyes.The voice beneath the floor had spoken only one sentence, yet the words had reached a place inside her that no forgotten memory had touched before.YOU LEFT SOMEONE OUTSIDE BEFORE YOU EVER BEGAN.The child remained beside her, holding her hand without demanding that she explain what she had remembered.Kael stood near Aria, watching the dark line between the two circles. The Witness had moved away from the symbol, and even the foundation seemed reluctant to disturb the silence.Finally, First Creator spoke.“There was someone beside me.”“Before creation?” Aria asked.“Yes.”“Who?”First Creator shook her head slowly.“I remember their presence. I remember that they stood beside me when I made the first choice. But their face…” She pressed her free hand against her forehead. “Every time I try to remember it, I see the space where they stood instead.”The Witness approached carefully.“Could your memory have been altered?”“Possibly.”“By someone el