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Chapter89 A Sense of Self
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2024-10-29 19:42:56Related chapters
Alpha's Caged Mate Chapter90 Strange Magic
It didn’t take long before the gabled rooftops of Shady Oak proper rose to cast a whimsical silhouette against the stary backdrop of the night sky. Ava expected Aiden to stop at some point so that they could put together a game plan on how to best find Marnie, but to her surprise, he kept going until finally coming to a stop in front of a large Victorian home.It was beautiful and stately, just like the many of the decades-old homes that made Shady Oak the quaint old-world retreat that it was. It was pleasantly secluded, taking up a large corner lot that was surrounded on all sides by trees.Ava had no idea how Aiden knew that this home belonged to Marnie, but he seemed awfully confident as he shut his bike down and removed his helmet.“How do you know that this is the place?” She asked.“I told you I ran perimeter as soon as we got here. This place reeks of witchcraft…no offense.”“None taken.”They both jumped and whipped around to find Marnie sitting on the retaining wall behind th
Alpha's Caged Mate Chapter91 Blinding Truth
“Layla, you have to be more careful.”Ava pulled her friend aside and leveled her with a stern look. Layla’s warm dark eyes shone back at her, far too unburdened by their current circumstances. But that was Layla – the girl could take anything in stride, and in turn, prison didn’t seem to weigh on her the same way it did Ava.Where life on the inside was a constant scuttle to make it one more day for Ava, Layla walked out of every situation with her head held high and a smile on her achingly pretty face. Even the effects of reduced sunlight and sustenance couldn’t tarnish Layla’s radiance. It was no wonder that Ava had been drawn to her despite her reticence to form attachments. Despite her best intentions, Layla reminded Ava of Sophia, and that admittedly tangential connection was just too tempting for Ava to ignore.“Ava,” Layla sighed, Ava’s name rolling off her lips like a melody. “You worry too much. Audra and the others are bullies.”“Prison bullies,” Ava emphasized.“They’re a
Alpha's Caged Mate Chapter92 Run
Ava didn’t make it more than a few feet into the cover of the tree line before the strength of the force pulling her sent her to her knees. Her breath made a sharp staccato as she panted out in short, pained breaths. It felt as if her entire body were made of one large, throbbing bruise.There was a metaphorical line that she was following, a string of energy that she’d found while sitting entranced in Marnie’s office, hidden, and suppressed within the depths of her mind. Marnie’s spell had unlocked it, given it the power to at last reveal itself, and now it would not be ignored.She had come to the forest at its insistence, but now that she was here, it wasn’t enough. Ava’s skin itched and crawled. When she looked down, every hair on her arms was standing on end and bristling with agitation. The call was unsatisfied. She was doing something wrong.“I’m trying….”The incessant calling wasn’t the only thing that had awoken after Marnie’s spell, and it wasn’t the only thing clawing for
Alpha's Caged Mate Chapter93 Star-Crossed
The black Wolf took a cautious step toward his mate, waiting for any sign of reticence on her part. She dropped her head and huffed in response, giving him her blessing to move closer to where she stood, somehow looking so powerful and yet, so vulnerable at the same time.When he took another step toward her, she moved to meet him halfway. The Wolves felt a sense of soul-deep completion as their bond resurfaced and their souls rose up and found one another, touching and intertwining, just as the goddess had intended. An endless ache that had plagued the Wolves for far too long was finally assuaged as they buried their faces in the warm scruff of one another’s necks, nuzzling away the ache of years of separation. The last time they’d been in one another’s presence so completely, their bond hadn’t matured, and they hadn’t yet realized that they were meant for the other. And then, all of a sudden, they were enemies locked on either side of a war that neither one of them could relate to
Alpha's Caged Mate Chapter94 The Grudge
“Sometimes I can’t breath at the thought of the shit you’ve gone through because of me,” Xavier said. “It keeps me up at night. Eats me up inside. I’m a coward, Ava, and I failed us both.”Ava shifted from one bare foot to the other, focusing on the pricking sensation of the sticks and pebbles that bore her weight, preferring the physical pain to the floodgate of stabbing emotions that filled her at his confession. She gritted her teeth against the wash of tears threatening to overtake her.“If you want me to deny that just to make you feel better, I won’t do that, Xavier,” She said, her voice harsh with suppressed by years’ worth of bitter sentiment she didn’t have the words to voice. “I don’t…I’ve had to learn to live with a lot. It’s only fair that you do the same.”“If that will get me on the path to atonement, I swear to the goddess that I’ll do whatever you need from me, Ava.”“I don’t need anything from you.” Even as she said it, her feet brought her closer to where Xavier sat
Alpha's Caged Mate Chapter95 Cooperation
Ava felt her jaw drop again, but this time she didn’t feel like throwing the forest at Xavier. She…almost wanted to give him a hug. Of course, she didn’t. Instead, she surreptitiously moved to sit on her hands, combating the inconvenient need she felt to reach out. “Oh.”“Yeah, oh,” he said, raising his head to look at her. “And that’s why I wanted to bring it up. I know that we’re not mates in the traditional sense, Ava. But if clearing the air between us will help you heal – help Mia heal – I want that. But that choice is yours to make.”It didn’t take Ava too terribly long to consider his offer. She’d already come to the conclusion that forgiving Xavier would be cathartic for her, and after surviving their first real conversation in years, she felt ready to not only forgive him but forgive herself for choosing to move on.The fact that their reconciliation was literally the answer she’d been looking for to Mia’s recovery felt downright kismet.Ava nodded, “Alright. I’m willing to…n
Alpha's Caged Mate Chapter96 Moving Forward
Ava didn’t want to think about how she’d had Aiden stop by Marnie’s for one final favor of a piping hot shower to wash the scent of her mate off of her skin before she made her way back to her boyfriend’s home. It felt too much like a secret.She also didn’t want to examine too closely how she’d come to find herself sneaking back into the bedroom she shared with Noah, not to mention the fact that even after she’d been gone for hours in the dead of night, the light in his office was still on, and the sounds of his typing were still the only sounds in the large, lonely house. It just felt sad.No, life in the lake house was certainly not the same candy-coated dream it had been the day before. As it always did, reality had wormed its way into the cracks in the foundation of her perceived happy home and settled in like a giant, ugly earworm.And while it was true that she didn’t have the full picture at her disposal, the information Xavier had shared with her just made too much damn sense
Alpha's Caged Mate Chapter97 What’s Done in the Dark…
Coming to an understanding about his treasonous extracurricular activities wasn’t enough to keep at bay the awkward tension permeating the lake house. The air between Ava and Noah had become so charged that when they weren’t touching and kissing and losing themselves to shadow that had settled over their home, they hardly spoke at all.By the time Noah announced a few days later that it was time for him to leave town once again on “business,” it was heartbreaking how eager he was to leave and how relieved she was to see him go. What she felt for him was real, and there wasn’t a part of her that didn’t wholeheartedly believe that he felt the same for her…but this wasn’t an odd hobby to embrace or a bad habit to overcome.Noah’s war was all-consuming. Ava had been caught in someone else’s crosshairs before, and making sure that didn’t happen again was her number one priority right now.Between sorting out the scope of her boyfriend’s crimes and waiting on pins-and-needles for any update
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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
