Fated To the Alpha by Jessica Hall
Chapter 230: Marabella POV
Kyan placed Rose in the spare bedroom on the main floor. The house was huge, and I understood the haunted vibes. Stepping into the dark, gloomy house made me shudder. The house itself felt like it rippled with energy, or maybe I spooked myself; I couldn’t be sure.
Yet, I somehow knew Kyan spoke the truth. There was something off about this place. It was tainted. Tainted in the same darkness that looms over me, it was a depressing, awfully lonely feeling. “I‘m not lonely,” Kyan mutters, and I glance at him.
“I never said you were,” I told him, rubbing my arms. I felt cold and chilled to the bone; unease rolled over me.
“I know you didn’t, but I could feel it through the bond,”
“We haven’t got a bond; you never marked me,”
“We have a bond. I just don’t let you feel it. It formed the day I brought you back, bonded us together, ” he says before stopping. He curses, and I observe him wondering what he means.
He falls quiet when suddenly I am smashed with an overwhelming feeling that felt foreign, a mixture of relief, fear before anger, but it felt more inward than was directed at someone, just like when you wake in a bad mood yet can’t explain what you’re mad about.
“See? Bonded, I couldn’t let you d*ie,” he states. And the feeling suddenly vanished as quickly as it appeared. Making me realize the feeling was his, not mine. I waited for him to explain, but he didn’t.
Instead, he hovers over Rose with a look of deep concentration on his face. Kyan runs the tips of his fingers down her face to her chin before back up to her temple.
He murmurs something when I see what looks like a mini-tornado with glimpses or flashes of pictures swirling through its mist. He pulls his fingers back, the small tunnel-like thread zapping into his hand before disappearing.
“What did you do?”
“Took her memory and replaced it,” he says, tucking her in. Rose mumbles but doesn’t wake; she rolls over and snuggles deeper into the blankets.
“Now you, “
“What?” I ask, taking a step back.
“You should shower, ” he points to my clothes and hands, and I let out a breath, looking down at my blood-stained clothes.
“I will find something for you to wear, ” he says, walking out of the room.
I watched him leave the room before he came back, looking into the room at me.
“Are you coming?” He asks.
“Oh right, I thought you wanted me to wait here, “
“This room has no bathroom; you can use mine,” he says, wandering off, and I quickly follow after him.
passing through the long halls, Kyan walks to a set of stairs, the clock chiming as I walk past it, and I jump startled, clutching my chest in fright, trying to get my rhythm back to normal.
” It’s a clock, “
“I know what it is, your house is creepy, and I didn’t expect it,”
“Wait until 1.11 am; that’s when things get creepy around here, ” he says, stalking up the steps.
“What?” I chase after him, and he chuckles.
“That’s when the poltergeist comes out to play, oh and my grandmother’s ghost, if you hear walking around, it’s just her,” he states, and I rush up the stairs faster, nearly running into the back of him. He laughed while I looked down at the darkness of the foyer below.
“I’m joking Marabella, it’s just the energy of the place; there are no ghosts, ” he says.
“Would it K*ll you to put a light on?” I ask. He sighs before moving away, and I stumble to keep up with him. He stops by a wall and flicks a switch. Light brightens the stairs, and I gasp.
“Better?” I nodded, looking around and then looking up, a huge dome sat on the roof, and I could see the moon through its glass. I thought the place was three floors, but I could see another two levels, making it four.
Making my way to the next landing, the walls are covered in photos and old paintings of men and women. Each division between doors had a man and woman, making me curious if they were family members.
“This place is huge, ” I breathe, and Kyan hums in agreement.
Stopping next to one of the paintings, I see a man with a startling resemblance to Kyan. In fact, all the men looked almost the same, just slight differences. The woman in the Ma*s*sive picture had a huge round belly and was definitely pregnant.
They both smiled, and the man was side-on, clasping the woman’s hands before I realized it was a wedding picture. He was placing a ring on her finger.
“That’s my parents, ” “They look happy,”
“They were but like everything else that ended too,” “What happened to her,”
“I was born; that’s what happened to her,” Kyan says, walking off down the corridor, so many doors making me wonder how many people lived here. I should have been paying attention, the place was huge, and I wandered aimlessly looking for which door he went into before he disappeared.
Stopping next to the stairs leading to the floor above, I stopped. Trying to fight off the shudder that ran through me, a strange urge to go to the floor above tempted me, and my feet halted, my hand gripping the banister.
“Ella?” Kyan’s voice pulls me away from the steps, and I glance down the hall. He was watching me curiously, his head tilted to the side, and his eyes darkened for a second, shadows falling over his face.
My heart did flip-flops at the name. I couldn’t explain it. Yet when he called me Marabella, I felt like I was being scolded. Ella sounded more familiar for some reason.
“What’s up there? ” I ask, and he walks over to me, “The past,” He says.
“Your family’s past or Kaif’s?”
“Both,” Kyan states, his eyes looking up the steps at the door at the top. It had some strange inscription marked into black wood.
“Come, get cleaned up, and then you should rest and I have to take care of a few things after, “
“Like what?” I ask, wondering what he could possibly need to do at this ungodly hour.
“Clean up the mess left in the city, damage control, before the human media gets a hold of anything, there are camera’s everywhere in the City, the last thing we need is one of them getting footage of what happened tonight, “
” I thought most of the City was aware of what you are,”
“They are it’s unspoken of, yet the City sometimes gets newbie reporters in trying to break the case on the mysteries surrounding this City,”
“Does that worry you?”
“No, those that live here, no not speak of what happens in this City, nothing leaves here, “
“How can you be so sure?”
“The city is surrounded by wards, those that p@ssthrough forget any supernatural events if witnessed, humans that reside here can’t speak of it outside the City, ” He sighs.
“But we have had a few occurrences where people sent things out of the City, the footage is harder to explain, yet we always find a way, and those that investigate leave not remembering why they came here. They only remember having a good time, which keeps them coming back, “
“You did that?”
“No, Celeste did. My family just makes sure the wards stay strong,”
“Moon Goddess Celeste lived here?”
“At one stage, yes, ” Kyan answers, pushing me toward his room with his hand on my lower back. Instantly, I am hit with Kyan’s scent, Jonah’s too, which I thought odd.
“Jonah spends a lot of time in your room?” I ask him.
“Not in that way, but yes. He hates the house, creeps him out. He usually sleeps on the couch, ” Kyan says, pointing to the couch next to the bookcases. Shelves ran along each wall, covered in old books that looked more like journals. A bathroom sits off one side, and Kyan steers me toward it.
“You journal?” I ask, and he laughs.
“Do I look like someone that writes their feelings down in a book?” I glance at him.
“No, not really, ” I tell him.
“Then there’s your answer,” He said as I stood in the bathroom.
“I will get you some clothes and a towel, ” he says, walking out and closing the door. I turn the shower on, checking the water before waiting for him to return. He knocks on the door.
“I’m still dressed, ” I tell him, and he opens the door and places the clothes next to the sink basin before walking out only to stop and pause.
“I have to head out, but I won’t be long. You can sleep in here. I will sleep on the couch. Also, Lucas is down the hall if you need anything, ” he says, and I quickly nod, and he leaves the room.
I undress and step into the shower, and I feel for Kora; she had remained alert but barely spoke to me.
“Are you alright?” I ask her.
“No, just leave it be,” Kora says. I looked down at my hands, knowing she was referring to what I did, the blood was flaking off my hands, and I reached for the soap. Scrubbing them, Kora’s thoughts
becoming mine, and guilt set in.
Kyan POV
Kaif irritated me the entire time I was gone, wanting to go back to Marabella to check on her. I a*s*sured him Lucas would have rung if something was wrong; however, he didn’t calm down until we pulled in through the iron gates. The manor came into view, and he relaxed and stopped pushing beneath my skin. My arms had been itching since I left the place.
The vibration of him so close to the surface had been driving me insane.
“Hurry up, hurry up. You humans with your short legs take forever to get places, move, ” Kaif urges.
I growl at him but climb out of my car, shutting the door gently before walking into the house. I noticed the cold chill instantly, colder than usual. Usually, it doesn’t bother me, yet something feels alive in the air.
The whispers were louder , murmuring quietly, and they grew louder as I climbed the stairs. So loud I was having trouble drowning them out. The place is abuzz with excitement.
Dad once explained the murmurings always grew louder with female presence. It was something he never understood either. I had never brought and woman here except Rose when she came here with Jonah, yet the voices never reacted to her presence like that.
Walking down the corridor to my room, I felt a cold rush move through me, through my very essence, having walked directly through a large m@ssof energy like the ghosts of the past were huddled out the front of my door.
Kaif becoming annoyed with it, growls in warning, and electricity zaps from my fingertips. The chatter quiets instantly. The temperature rose significantly, and I gripped the door handle pushing the door open, the handle was like grabbing ice, and I stepped into the room.
“She is freezing, ” Kaif growls, annoyed, her breath leaving little clouds in the air. Kaif presses forward before I even have a chance, turning my palm upright. His voice a murmur as the words left my lips spoken in a tongue not my own, using power centuries old.
I felt it ripple through me like a pulse pushing outward, warm air moving around the room as the flame in my hand heated the air rapidly. With a flex of my fingers, it vanished the room toasty and warm, yet her shaking never stopped.
Tormented by whatever plagued her, Kaif wanted to see, wanted to see what she dreamed, curious if she dreamed of us or of someone else. Moving beside her, I look down at her huddled beneath my blankets. My fingers twitched before I stopped pulling my hand away. I knew I had to remove her memories, make her believe the same as Rose did. Kaif disagreed. He wanted her to remember.
Wanted her to remember me, not an a*s*shole, he had said, yet that was the only way to protect her.
Curiosity got the better of me when pain radiated through my chest, making my eyes snap to her, her eyelids moving rapidly. Before I could stop myself, my palm lay on her cheek, her dreams filtering into my head as if they were my own.
She dreamt of tonight, the men she K*lled, the look of horror on Rose’s face, how she blamed herself, feeling like she failed to protect Jonah’s sister,
Kora’s voice screaming for her to stop. Then the images changed, her fears morphing to something new, her dreams so vivid it was like watching a movie.
And suddenly I am looking at myself, I became the thing that haunted her, and Kaif whimpered, the noise so strangled it made me jump. A noise I had never heard from him before, one of anguish like he couldn’t bear for her to see us as a monster.
The men’s faces morph to ours, to Jonah’s as she K*lls us over and over again. Her fear was so potent I could taste the bitterness of it on my tongue.
I shouldn’t meddle. I should let her dream whatever darkness her mind conjures up, anything to drive Marabella away when suddenly I gave some back, not nightmares, no fear, just our memories ones I took from her, ones I kept close for fear she may remember.
The nightmare twisting to Marabella at Andrei’s place. We were still young, and I watched Jonah, Marabella, and Rose roll down the hill, racing each other to the bottom.
She had no fear then; she was free of everything that had suppressed her, her laughter contagious as all three of them became covered in gra*s*s. Marabella was eight, Jonah thirteen, and I was sixteen. Both girls laugh before climbing back up the top of the hill. Marabella bounced on her heels as she skipped over to me.
“Roll with me, Kye, please, please, ” She begged.
“No, I will get gr@sson me. Look at your dress; you are covered in it,” I tell her, wiping the gr@ssoff.
Jonah flops down beside me; Rose clings to his back after she makes him carry her back up the hill.
“You’re up, I need a break, ” Jonah says as Rose slides down his back on the gra*s*s.
” Roll down by yourself, ” I tell her, and she pouts, yanking on my hand.
“Please, Kye,”
“Yeah, please, Kye,” Jonah mimics her, and I shove him.
Marabella starts bouncing, refusing to let go as she tries to haul me to my feet, “Please, please, ” She repeats, and I roll my eyes with a sigh before climbing to my feet.
“Just once, ” I tell her looking at the gr@ss-covered hill. It had made me itchy just looking at it.
“You coming too, Rose?”
“I’m tired, ” She says, sprawling across her brother’s lap like a sloth and poking him in the face. Jonah kept swatting her hand away as she annoyed him before rolling her off, only for her to jump on his back. Rose loved annoying him; she was wild.
“Stop Rose, or I will get Casen, ” He scolded her. Shaking my head at them, I lay on the gra*s*s.
” Ready… set… go, ” Marabella called out before she took off down the hill. Her laughter was contagious as I rolled beside her. I reckon we rolled down that hill twenty times before she made me piggyback her home. I was itchy and filthy as we got back home to Andrei’s and covered in gra*s*s.
I had no idea why I did it, and it was probably foolish of me, selfish, yet every time Jonah said she was staying at his place, I always found myself there as well. Andrei and Sage always welcomed me with open arms. They never feared me, and I had become a permanent fixture in their house for a time. It was my second home.
Lucas and Andrei were close, Andrei being the closest person I saw him to in all the years Lucas had watched me. Half the time, I never even had to ask, Uncle Lucas would tell me Marabella was visiting Jonah and Rose, and he would have my bag packed knowing I would want to go.
As she grew older, the pull toward her got stronger, every chance I could, I visited her there, she loved camping, she loved my magic, and it loved her, hours spent for it to end the same , I always took it away like I was never there and it was only Jonah.
Memories were shared with Jonah, but as she grew, so did her resistance to forget. She fought harder to keep the memories, and some would linger but eventually fade.
“Please, ” I blink, coining out of my daze, out my memories to find Marabella awake and staring at me. Her face moved beneath my palm, and I hesitated as her eyes met mine. I needed to knock her out, so I could take the memory I gave her back, remove this night from her too.
“Please don’t,” She whispers, her hand grabbing mine that lay on her cheek. Sparks rushed up my arm, warming. I suppressed my reaction, giving her none, trying to remain indifferent, yet it was becoming harder. I wanted her, told her I loved her, then climbed out of the car before she could react to the words, yet I wondered what her reply would have been if I had remained.
“Don’t take it,” She whispers. Kaif, restless, waited to see what I would do. He knew I needed to; his drive to protect her was the same, but he was also selfish, he didn’t want me to take it from her either, and I knew his feelings for her were what gets her K*lled.
“I have to,” I tell her.
“Don’t you see, nothing you do will make it stop. The bond won’t allow it, so why try, “
“Because you d*ie, I have seen it,” “Maybe you saw wrong,”
“Or maybe we are wrong, ” I tell her, and she shakes her head and closes her eyes, her lips quiver, and I brush my thumb over it. What I would give just to kiss her once, then I could let her believe I was her worst nightmare, let her think I didn’t want her. Yet the thought pulled at something deep within me, churning violently.
“Then do it, but if you do reject me, you want me to hate you, reject me, Kyan, reject the bond, and set me free of you, “Kaif growls, the noise escaping before I could stop it, and she flinches.
“Sleep, ” I whisper, my magic seeping out as my hand warmed against her skin, her eyes open and I feel her fear before they flutter shut. My fingers trail down the side of her face when Kaif growls angrily.
“No! ” he snaps, shoving forward while shoving me back as I go to pull the memory from her. I fought against him as he shifted, tearing my skin off in sheets to shift faster, agony flooded me, and I screamed in my head, my voice becoming fainter to my own ears swallowed by Kaif’s soft growls. My worst fears came true. Kaif, unleashing on Marabella, K*lling her, and I had no way to stop him, no control as everything went black.