h4Chapter 60: Chapter 60/h4

    The night was too quiet. Not peaceful quiet in the way a predator waits in the grass, every sound smothered by anticipation. My heart beat louder than my footsteps as I moved through the empty corridor of the pack house.

    Alpha had told me earlier that evening, in front of the others, that I could go down to the dungeon and release the girl. His lips had curved into that strange smile of his the kind that made the hairs on my arms rise.

    "You’ve been begging for her freedom, haven’t you?" he had said, as if indulging a child’s fantasy. "Go on then, Ellie. Tonight, you can let her out."

    He had turned away after, dismissing me like I was nothing, but the weight of his words crushed me long after.

    At first, hope had bloomed in me. The girl would finally be free. I had dreamed of it since the day I first saw her, shivering in her chains. But the more I reyed his words, the more my stomach twisted.

    Permission from this psycho Alpha was never a gift. It was a weapon. And I could feel it this wasn’t mercy. This was something else. Still, when midnight came, I rose from my bed, clutching thentern I had hidden under the nket. I had to try. Even if it was a trap, I couldn’t leave the girl down there. The house was eerily empty. No guards, no servants, no wandering footsteps. Only my breathing and the soft creak of the wooden floor as I descended toward the east wing. The staircase to the dungeon gaped open like a throat, swallowing me whole. Cold air swept upward, smelling of rust, mildew, and old blood. Myntern’s glow shivered against the stone walls, barely pushing back the shadows. I hated this ce. The dungeon was more than chains and stone it was a graveyard that breathed. The walls still whispered with the cries of everyone who had suffered here, and tonight, those whispers followed me down.

    By the time I reached the bottom, my legs were trembling. The corridor stretched long and narrow, lined with cells of iron bars. I lifted thentern, its dim light sliding across rusted locks and dangling chains.

    That was when I heard it her voice.

    "Ellie?"

    The sound was broken, hoarse, but alive. Relief surged through me. I rushed toward her cell. The girl was pressed against the bars, her face gaunt and pale, her eyes wide with desperate hope. "You came," she whispered, her cracked lips trembling into a smile.

    I dropped to my knees, setting thentern beside me. My fingers fumbled at the lock. "Yes. Shhh. I’m going to get you out."

    Her skeletal hands reached for mine, clutching them tight. "Please. Please hurry."

    I nodded, trying to steady my hands. But then It came. The psycho Alpha’s inner voice

    "Inner voice: So predictable."

    I froze, my breath catching. My hands slipped from the lock.

    "Inner voice: Always running toward cages, aren’t you, little mouse?"

    My heart stuttered. I knew that voice. I would know it anywhere. Crazy Alpha.

    But not his usual voice. This was different raw, unfiltered, like I was hearing the deepest, darkest corners of his mind.

    "Ellie?" she whispered, confusion twisting her face. "What’s wrong? Hurry!"

    I forced myself to the lock again, but my fingers trembled. I wasn’t imagining it. I could hear him.

    "Do it," his inner voice hissed. "Turn the key. I want to see your face when her body crumples at your feet."

    "No..." I mouthed, shaking my head violently.

    The girl’s eyes widened. "Ellie? What are you saying?"

    "Inner voice: The moment you open that door, I’ll break her neck. Slowly. In front of you. And then I’ll take my time with you."

    My stomach lurched, bile rising in my throat. Tears blurred my vision.

    This wasn’t just a threat. He meant it. Every word slithered with conviction.

    The girl banged on the bars, her voice desperate. "Please, Ellie! Please! He isn’t here. He’s not here!"

    But he was. Not in body, but in spirit. His madness coiled inside my head, heavy as chains.

    I squeezed my eyes shut, clutching my ears though it made no difference. His voice was in me, under my skin.

    "Inner voice: You really thought I’d let you win, didn’t you? Pathetic little thing. Always so eager to believe in freedom."

    Thentern flickered violently, shadows leaping like ws across the walls.

    "Inner voice: Go on. Free her. Do it. I’m begging you. Because I want the excuse to kill you both."

    "Stop!" I screamed, my voice shattering in the dungeon. The girl shrank back, startled by my outburst.

    I staggered away from the cell, my chest heaving. Every breath felt poisoned with his presence.

    The chains in the farthest cell rattled suddenly, echoing like bones breaking. I snapped my head toward it, and in the ckness, I saw them, two glowing pinpricks. Red. Watching.

    A hallucination? Or was he really here, hiding in the shadows? I couldn’t know. I didn’t want to know.

    The girl sobbed, reaching through the bars. "Don’t leave me here! Ellie, please!"

    I wanted to. God, I wanted to free her. But my hand refused to move. My body refused to betray that voice still coiled in my skull. Because if I did, he would keep his promise.

    "Inner voice: One turn of the key, and you both die screaming."

    Thentern guttered and went out and darkness swallowed me whole. I heard hisughter filled my mind low, endless, victorious.

    I copsed against the cold floor, the key slipping from my trembling fingers. I had almost done it almost freed her. But the Alpha’s inner voice had chained me tighter than any lock. The key slipped from my fingers and ttered against the dungeon floor, the sound slicing through the heavy silence. My knees gave out beneath me, and I crumpled against the damp stone, clutching my chest as though I could hold my heartbeat in ce before it broke free.

    The girl’s sobs echoed in my ears, wing at my heart. She was still calling my name, her voice shaking, but I couldn’t make myself look back. Myntern had long gone out, leaving me in a suffocating darkness lit only by the faint glow of those phantom red eyes I had sworn I’d seen in the farthest cell.

    His voice lingered, even though it had fallen silent. It coiled in my skull like a venomous snake, waiting for me to move wrong, to strike when I least expected it.

    "Turn the key, and you both die screaming."

    The threat yed over and over, a curse that wouldn’t loosen its grip.

    I staggered up to my feet, trembling so hard I thought I might shatter. My palms scraped against the rough wall as I pulled myself toward the staircase. Each step away from the dungeon felt like dragging chains behind me.

    I should have freed her.

    But crazy inner his voice had held me frozen in ce.

    And the worst ?" The corridors of the pack house were colder now, emptier, as though the dungeon’s darkness had followed me upstairs. Myntern had gone dead, so I moved in the pitch ck, guided only by memory and the faint outlines of moonlight bleeding through the tall windows.

    My bare feet whispered against the wooden floor, too loud in the silence. Every corner, every shadow, I expected to see him. The Alpha. Waiting. Smiling.

    By the time I reached my quarters, my hands were mmy with sweat, and my nightgown clung to my back. I fumbled at the door, pushing it open with a sigh of relief.

    And then I froze the crazy psycho was there.he Standing in the center of my room. Thenterns weren’t lit, but the pale light of the moon streamed through the window, painting him in silver and shadow. His tall figure was rigid, hands sped loosely behind his back. His eyes those piercing, merciless eyes were fixed on me. My heart nearly leapt out of my chest. A strangled cry escaped my lips before I pped a hand over my mouth. For one breathless second, neither of us moved.

    I had the wild thought that maybe he could hear the echo of his own voice still trapped in my mind. Maybe he knew I’d been in the dungeon. Maybe he had seen everything. I wanted to run, but my legs were cement. I wanted to scream, but my throat was locked. The crazy Alpha tilted his head slightly, like a wolf studying prey. He didn’t speak. Not a single word. And then he smiled.

    It was worse. It was empty, stretching across his face with a madness so sharp it sliced the air between us. A smile that said he didn’t need words to break me.

    That he was already winning.

    I gasped, stumbling back against the doorframe, my hand flying to my chest. My pulse thundered so loud I was sure he could hear it.

    He just kept smiling. Watching me. Then, without a sound, he turned. His boots made the faintest thud against the wooden floor as he walked toward the door. As he passed me, the air grew colder, and the scent of him iron, smoke, and something darker brushed against me like a death sentence. He didn’t look at me again or speak to me. He just left. And I was alone. I slid down the wall the second the door closed, my body copsing under the weight of terror. My breath came in shallow gasps, tears spilling over my cheeks before I realized I was crying. I clutched my knees to my chest, rocking slightly, trying to calm the storm tearing through me. But it was useless. Why had he been in my room? Watching me like that? Had he followed me from the dungeon? Had he known all along where I’d gone? Or was this just anotheryer of the trap?

    The questions chased each other around my mind until they blurred into one truth: there was no safety. I dragged myself to the bed, curling into the corner like a child. My nket felt paper-thin against the cold that had seeped into my bones. Every creak of the house made me flinch, every shadow felt like him, standing silently, smiling. When I closed my eyes, I saw it again the moonlight carving his face, that smile stretching, endless, hollow. And when I opened them, I swore I could still feel his presence lingering in the corners, watching. I bit my lip until I tasted blood, trying to ground myself. My secret pulsed in my chest, heavier than ever.

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