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Chapter132 In Search Of New Rhodes
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2024-10-29 19:42:56The topic of Bren’s studies swirled around in Ava’s head for days after their meeting in the Berkeley library ended. It was the sort of information that could mean nothing or everything depending on how just a few missing details panned out.
If Bren’s library books were correct, the Northeastern Alliance had been built on a lie. If her hunch was correct, one of the United States’ largest free regions had been built on genocide.As if there weren’t enough of that in this country’s history, Ava sighed.But this was something that had always bothered her during her studies growing up. Red Moon’s personal records had always been in tatters if they had ever been intact at all. But the fact that there was no definitive record about the specific events leading up to the Alliance’s founding? It was the second-largest social institution in the United States! And what had made it into her lessons read more like a manifesto than aRelated chapters
Alpha's Caged Mate Chapter133 Dire Straits
Xavier walked through the long winding stone corridors of the Red Moon and tried his fucking hardest not to get sick. To call the conditions the inmates had been living under would be an understatement so severe it would require an unhealthy dose of cognitive dissonance to even utter.The facility was big, far larger than the actual number of current inmates called for. And so it baffled him to no end why when the building could fit two prisoners per cell with relative comfort, there was so much fucking evidence suggesting that so many cells were crammed to bursting with two or three times that amount. And it was filthy. From the inmate’s sleeping quarters to the cafeteria to the shower rooms, every visible surface was covered in a thick layer of grime. Unsettling russet splotches were smeared periodically across walls, the floors, even the goddess damned ceiling. One of their men who had been in charge of scouting out the prison had reported back significant eviden
Alpha's Caged Mate Chapter134 Open Heart
Ava hit the mat with a thud, and her back screamed at the impact, but she didn’t take more than a beat to process and dismiss the pain before she swung her legs behind her, rolling over her left shoulder to pop right back up onto her feet. Without breaking eye contact with her opponent, she dropped seamlessly back into her ready position.“Not a bad recovery. You took that blow like a champ,” her sparring partner and instructor, Reyes, lauded. Despite his complimentary tone, he never once dropped his guard, staying seated low in his hips but light on the balls of his feet, ready to counter any sudden movement she might make.“Would have been better if you hadn’t managed to knock me on my ass in the first place,” she grumbled.Rey laughed, forever the easy-going type, “You’re good, A. But you ain’t that good.”She launched herself at him, twisting her body to deliver a powerful roundhouse kick. Quick as a
Alpha's Caged Mate Chapter135 Lights Out
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, Elodie!” Ava rushed to the hyperventilating woman’s side as Reyes guided her over to a nearby bench along the wall to have a seat. “Can you try to take a deep breath and tell us exactly what happened?”The fae woman’s chest heaved, gasping for air, but she nodded and fought past the panic trying to choke her in order to suck down one fortifying breath and then another.“Good job, that’s it,” Rey quietly encouraged her, all the while rubbing gentle circles along her spine until she could finally breathe without her chest rattling again. “Now, what happened, Elodie.”“That’s just it,” she whispered, “I don’t know. She never came home after school let out for the day. I called the school, and they said she’d left along with everyone else like she was supposed to…I’ve checked everywhere, the school, at home, all along her bus route. This wa
Alpha's Caged Mate Chapter136 F.I.G.H.T !
Ava awoke in a cold sweat, head throbbing, and every single muscle she had aching. Nausea rolled through her so furiously that it took her a lot longer than it probably should have to realize that she was actually moving and that the world hadn’t just gone all gooey around her.What the hell happened?She cautiously cracked her eyes open and was met with darkness. For a moment, she panicked, terrified that the blow to her head had been enough to render her sightless. Then, she saw a shift amongst the shadows directly facing her, and she calmed a bit, realizing that she wasn’t blind, just trapped in an enclosed space with who the hell knew who, being transported, who the hell knew where.Ava shifted and abruptly stilled as yet another wave of nausea threatened to make her sick. And if the strange pressure surrounding her mouth was any indication, she’d been gagged, meaning throwing up was absolutely not an option.Sudden pressure against her side
Alpha's Caged Mate Chapter137 The Underground
In spite of the pain wracking her body, Ava managed to remain alert enough to take note of where she and her fellow captives were being dragged off to. From what she could gather, they were being taken somewhere underground.The winding cement corridors reminded Ava of an unholy cross between the Red Moon’s prison and something like a repurposed subterranean parking garage. As both options were specifically known for being labyrinthine structures with very few ways in or out, neither thought particularly filled Ava with confidence as she and her poor charge, Eliza, were hauled deeper and deeper into the unknown. Eventually, they came to a branch in the corridor where their captors began funneling Ava, Dana, and Hank down one hall while Eliza’s dragged her down another.“Miss Ava! No, Miss Ava!” Still, under the influence of whatever they’d been drugged with whenever they’d been captured, Eliza’s tiny cries were frail bu
Alpha's Caged Mate Chapter138 Objetos Perdidos
With a taser pressed against the small of her back, Ava was led down and down, even further into the bowels of this seemingly never-ending maze of concrete hallways. All the while, she took stock of what she could, noting the dozens of steel doors that most likely led to rooms that were just like the one she had just been escorted from.Holding cells.A chill ran up Ava’s spine as she was momentarily transported back into the Red Moon dungeon, where she often found herself shuffling down similarly long, dank stone hallways. Just like when she’d been locked away, Ava had no way of telling what dangers lurked around each corner. She had nearly no sense of time, either, and felt just as helpless as she did now.Except that she wasn’t helpless. Ava had to keep reminding herself that she couldn’t afford to fall into the trap that was panic. She wasn’t the frail, underfed, physically and emotionally stunted prisoner she had been when she’
Alpha's Caged Mate Chapter139 It Starts With A Feeling
Over the next few days, Ava wasn’t afforded much downtime between matches. As far as the sick lot who frequented this little fight club were concerned, she was a hot commodity. Not only had she quite literally come from out of nowhere and put their top fighter in the infirmary, her method of swiftly switching between forms to keep her opponents confused was a rare – and from what she’d heard her guards claim, a quite entertaining – tactic.Ava couldn’t care less. She was biding time, waiting for Xavier to call her brother. From there, Aiden could contact the Californian Federation and have them storm the castle and take this operation out at the source. At least, she hoped so. She still didn’t know exactly where she was, but she’d begun to notice more people than not speaking Spanish. Ava thought about how long they’d been in the van on the way here, and it made her nervous. If they had been taken across the border down to M
Alpha's Caged Mate Chapter140 California Dreaming
“Xavier?” Ava asked, somewhat struggling to process the presumed unlikeliness of Xavier showing up right here, right now, in the midst of what appeared to be the beginning of some sort of uprising. “What are you doing here?”“What do you think I’m doing here?” He scoffed and moved further into the room, closing the door firmly behind him as sounds of shouting and even, she could swear, a few rounds of gunfire rang just outside. “You hit your panic button, didn’t you? Here I am.”Ava waved off his glib tone, “Yeah, no, I get that part, thank you. I mean, what are you doing here? In California? I thought you would call my brother to contact the Federation or something. I didn’t expect you to come all the way across the country yourself. You have so much going on already.”A loud crash at the door jolted them all into silence as they waited to see if the interruption was a legitimate threat or
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Alpha's Caged Mate Chapter150 Keep Calm And Carry On
The helicopters hovered above the arena as long dark ropes unfurled from the gaping voids of their cockpits, and soldiers in white began to descend into the Trial grounds. The largest chopper in the group tilted downward, and Xavier watched in horror as gun turrets descended from the vehicle’s hull.Just as he shouted a warning, it was drowned out by the spray of rapid machine-gun fire that bathed the stands where his people, his allies, his mate stood watching on in bewildered shock. It was a stroke of luck and good fortune that Emmaline and Marnie Adair had insisted on attending the Trial along with several other representatives from their coven.The witches were quick to respond, throwing up glimmering shields that did an excellent job of deflecting the rain of bullets, sending them careening off to join the hundreds of other projectiles currently reducing the two-hundred-year-old structure to little more than kindling.Xavier roared his fury and shifted, sna
Alpha's Caged Mate Chapter149 Trial By Fire
The weeks leading up to the next month’s Blue Moon and the Trial by Combat scheduled for that night went by surprisingly quickly and quietly. The calm before the storm.Ava, for her part, spent most of that time talking, getting to know as much as she could about her newfound allies. There was a host of information that the spellcasters and the shapeshifters had to bring to the table; doors that she had never known were there to open. Her analytical tactician's mind was thoroughly stimulated at the influx of new information.She had to be thankful that Marnie and Emmaline’s coven had deemed their cause worth investing their time and resources into. And the Selkies? Ava was under no naïve misconception that their involvement was due to anything less than desperation. It just so happened that desperation was as good a motivator as any.Slowly, ever so carefully, Ava worked with Emmaline, Marnie, and the Selkie diplomats to covertly spread the word of th
Alpha's Caged Mate Chapter148 Changing Tides
“The nerve of you is astounding, Adair. What, pray tell, did you think you would accomplish by bringing them here?”The hostile vibe Ava had picked up even from a dozen yards away and through several inches of bulletproof glass somehow didn’t manage to improve by coming into close proximity to the…finfolk? The Selkies, Marnie had called them. People who could turn into seals.It seemed ridiculous, given her own circumstances, that…well, anything really, could surprise her at this point. And, to be fair, it wasn’t the existence of seal people that was currently throwing her for a loop; it was being hit, once again, with the staggering realization of just how little she actually knew about the world around her, her own wider community.And it wasn’t just Ava, either. Through their bond, she could feel Xavier’s mind whirring, struggling to quickly process the new influx of information. Even now, after all this time,
Alpha's Caged Mate Chapter147 Give and Take
“Alright, alright, shock aside, this is good for us, right?”“That we’re so out of touch that we didn’t even know that there’s an ancient order of witches ruling the world?” “I’m having a hard time tracking your logic, sweets.”“First, to be clear, the institution is ancient, not the witches,” “Well, save for a few that I can think of, but none that we know personally.”“All that aside,” Ava reiterated through gritted teeth. “We all want the same thing! We came here looking for allies to start a new society, and here you all already have irrefutable proof that our plan has legs.”“In theory,” Emmaline emphasized. “Once again, I feel the need to impress upon you the fact that we have no real insight on the inner workings of these pan-supernatural communities outside of the fact that they exist. Much less whether something of the like would
Alpha's Caged Mate Chapter146 Into the Woods
Ava and the Alphas gaped as the two embraced. One female, one woman. One Wolf, the other a human witch. And yet, somehow, they claimed to be sisters. It wasn’t just a turn of phrase or empty words, either. Now that the idea had been spoken, Ava saw the glimmers of recognition solidify into irrefutable shared features between the two.The piercing emerald green of their eyes, the deeply rich, almost black of their hair, even the shapes of their noses and their general bearings were the same.“You’re sisters?” Ava asked.“You’re Alpha?” Liam asked even louder.Emmaline cocked her head to the side in the same bold challenge that Marnie was good for adopting pretty much anytime she found herself speaking with any Wolven male. Ava was beginning to realize that the habit was probably born of more than simply dealing with male bravado.“Why wouldn’t I be?” Emmaline asked, her supple voice thick with saccha
Alpha's Caged Mate Chapter145 Grave Crown Rising
“No.”The line went silent as Ava blinked rapidly, her neurons firing at all cylinders struggling to process the fact that her brother had just blatantly shut down such a simple request for information and why on earth that would be.“Excuse me?” She finally asked. “What do you mean no?”“I mean that I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to go meddling in Grave Crown affairs,” he said, his voice stern and giving no quarter. That was all well and good that he felt so strongly, but as long as he was also giving her no answers, ‘no’ wasn’t going to cut it for her.“Grave Crown affairs are Alliance affairs, Aiden. You know that,” she replied.Her brother huffed on the other end of the phone – a frustrated sound. “Even if the Alliance still existed, you, I, and everyone else knows that hasn’t been the case in a long time.”“Bullshit,&rdquo
Alpha's Caged Mate Chapter144 Witch, Please!
Ava blinked in and out of consciousness as searing pain ripped through her abdomen. Whenever she surfaced, the renewed shock of pain would cause her to take a quick breath inward that would send yet another, even more, intense wave rocketing through her, sending her back into oblivion.It took a couple of tries and several hours for Ava to wake and stay awake; the pain finally dulled to a thrumming ache. When she could finally open her eyes without her eyelids feeling as if they were made of lead, the first thing she saw was Jack’s pensive face hovering over hers.And the second thing she registered, along with an intense sense of déjà vu, was Xavier’s equally pensive face a little ways off, slumped in a nearby chair.“This feels awfully familiar,” she quipped, her dry throat making her joke sound more like a croak.“Really? And to think that I was just beginning to forget what it was like trying to glue you back togeth
Alpha's Caged Mate Chapter143 Watch Them Scatter
First came the rat-a-tat-tat of machine guns. Then came the screams.All around her, bodies flew into motion as she stood with her phone gripped numbly in her fist.“Ava,” she heard Noah’s desperate voice faintly through the other end of the line as if through a fog. “Ava, what’s happening? Talk to me! Has it already started, damn it?!”Without a word in response, Ava ended the call with a flick of her thumb, far too thrown by just how quickly the tide had shifted today. Neia hadn’t just crossed a line – she’d obliterated it and re-drawn a new one in her image.Ava sprung into action, doing the first thing that came to mind as she ran to the nearest emergency call button and smashed it. The system was relatively shiny and new, having only been installed after her run-in with those sadistic bastards in room 701.Now, flashing warning lights lit up every hallway in the building. The blaring alarm made it im
Alpha's Caged Mate Chapter142 Homecoming
Eight months ago, if someone had told Ava that just the sight of the Green Light Club’s garish neon sign would be enough to make her smile, she would have laughed in their face. Alright, well, she probably wouldn’t have, but she certainly wouldn’t have believed them either.And yet, here she was, grinning from ear to ear, at the prospect of feeling something familiar, even if the majority of her memories of the place were of the variety that was best left forgotten. She was fairly sure that there was probably some sort of clinical diagnosis with a long name used to describe the contextually perverse sense of relief she felt at her first glance of shiny black lacquer and crushed green velvet. Goddess, this place was awful, and she was so glad to be back.Then again, the journey getting back to the club had been fraught enough to make her eager to climb under the first black silk duvet she saw, regardless of the fact that it could never, under any cir
