Fated to the Alpha–And His Triplet Brothers-Chapter 295: Speak

*~~~~*

She freed us, and then she let us outside.

But it turns out... the place was not it.

The longer we stayed there, the more wrong it felt—not in the way danger announces itself, but in the way emptiness does. No pull. No echo. No trace of Aurora’s presence. Just silence pretending to mean something.

Alice was the first to say it.

"This isn’t it."

The words fell heavy.

"But it feels hidden," Caspian argued.

"Yes," she replied, slowly folding the map, "but it feels empty. Aurora leaves marks. Even when she hides."

My chest tightened. I knew she was right.

We were about to turn back when the fog shifted.

And then we saw her.

An old, crooked woman stood at the edge of the trees, bent over a wooden staff. Her back was hunched unnaturally, her hair long and gray, dragging almost to the ground. Her eyes—cloudy, pale—locked onto us the moment we noticed her.

"Well," she croaked, lips splitting into a toothless smile, "travelers."

None of us moved.

"You look lost," she continued, shuffling closer. "This forest eats the unprepared."

Caspian stepped forward cautiously. "We’re just passing through."

She laughed. A dry, wheezing sound. "No one just passes through Varian’s outskirts."

Outskirts.

That word made my blood run cold.

"I have shelter," she said, tapping her staff against the ground. "Warm fire. Food. You look like you’ve been walking for days."

Alice glanced at me. I shook my head slightly.

"We’re fine," I said. "We don’t need—"

"You do," she interrupted sharply, her smile vanishing for just a second. Then it returned, wider. Hungrier. "And night is coming."

The sky, as if on cue, darkened.

Against our better judgment, exhaustion won.

We followed her.

Her hut sat crooked between two massive trees, stitched together with bones, vines, and rotting wood. The moment we stepped inside, the air changed. Thick. Sweet. Wrong.

She offered us stew.

None of us touched it.

"You don’t eat?" she asked, eyes narrowing.

"We ate earlier," Alice lied smoothly.

The woman hummed, circling us slowly. "Such pretty souls," she murmured. "So much power packed into fragile bodies."

That was when the door slammed shut on its own.

Caspian reached for his weapon.

Too late.

The floor pulsed.

Magic snapped tight around our ankles like chains. The woman straightened suddenly—no longer hunched, no longer weak. Her body elongated unnaturally, bones cracking, skin tightening.

Her eyes cleared.

Sharp. Predatory.

"Did you really think," she said, voice no longer frail, "that I take in travelers out of kindness?"

She raised her staff—and the fire flared green.

"I feed on alphas," she hissed. "On witches. On Crescent blood."

The walls began to close in.

Alice cursed.

Leon struggled against the bindings, rage pouring off him in waves. "We’re not dying here."

The woman laughed. "Oh, you won’t die immediately."

Before the words could finish settling in the air, her laughter cut off.

She froze.

Then she collapsed.

Her body hit the floor with a sickening thud, the green fire snuffing out instantly as if it had never existed. The chains around our ankles shattered and dissolved into ash.

Silence.

We all stared.

"What the—" Leon started.

Then the shadows at the far end of the hut shifted.

Someone stepped out of them.

Slow. Calm. Unbothered.

Gabrielle.

She looked exactly the same and yet not at all. Her presence alone pressed against the room, heavy and sharp, like standing too close to a blade. Her eyes flicked briefly to the old woman on the ground, then back to us.

"You guys really need my help," she said flatly.

Caspian blinked. "You think?"

Leon scoffed. "We literally told you to help us."

Alice crossed her arms. "Multiple times."

Gabrielle raised a brow, unimpressed. "And yet here you are. Almost dead. Again."

A beat passed.

Then Leon laughed. "Wow. You disappear for gods know how long and this is the energy you return with?"

"I saved your lives," she replied.

"Bare minimum," Alice muttered.

For a moment, it almost felt normal. Familiar. The tension cracked just enough for that strange, ridiculous warmth to slip through. But Gabrielle didn’t join in. She remained still, distant, her gaze unfocused, like she was only half there.

Caspian noticed first.

"You’re not okay," he said quietly.

Her jaw tightened.

"I don’t know where exactly she is," Gabrielle admitted. "Not anymore."

The room stilled again.

Leon’s smile faded. "What do you mean you don’t know?"

"I mean," she said slowly, "whatever is hiding her is stronger than before. The paths keep shifting. Every time I get close, it changes."

Alice frowned. "Then why are you here?"

Gabrielle finally looked at us fully. "Because I can’t do this alone."

That landed harder than anything else she’d said.

"I’ll help you fight," she continued. "I’ll break traps. I’ll sense distortions. But I’m depending on you to lead me."

Leon exhaled sharply. "So you show up, knock out a murderous hag, and now you’re following us?"

"Yes."

Caspian nodded once. "Then we move together."

Gabrielle glanced down at the unconscious old woman. "She was never the threat."

"Yeah," Alice said. "We figured."

Gabrielle turned toward the door. "If Aurora is still alive, we don’t have much time."

The moment the barrier dissolved, cold air rushed over us like freedom itself. We all stood there, tense, waiting—half expecting her to change her mind, half expecting something terrible to happen.

Then she stepped out after us.

Smiling.

"What are you guys waiting for?" she asked calmly.

We turned to her at once.

"I mean... you," Alice said, crossing her arms. "You just released us. You must have something to say. Some warning. Some condition."

"No," she said simply. "I don’t."

That made my chest tighten.

"Go," she continued, her voice firm now. "Aurora needs you. She is pregnant. And she cannot stay in that territory for too long. Go save her. Bring her back home—safe."

The words hit me like a blade.

Pregnant.

Aurora... pregnant?

I almost lost it.

She stepped closer and, before I could react, she kissed me lightly on the cheek and pushed me back as if sealing the moment.

"Aurora is pregnant," my mind screamed. "How can she be pregnant? She cannot be pregnant!"

I snapped, my voice breaking. "She cannot be pregnant!"

Caspian grabbed me immediately, pulling me into his chest before I could spiral. "It’s fine," he murmured in my ear. "Breathe. Losing it won’t help her."

My fists trembled, but I forced myself to inhale. Exhale. Again.

"How about a little location to help us?" Alice asked sharply.

The woman only turned away.

"If you are truly looking for Aurora," she said over her shoulder, "then you will find your way yourselves."

And she left.

Just like that.

I cursed loudly, anger boiling over. "That’s it? That’s all we get?"

Leon was furious—vexed beyond reason—pacing back and forth like a caged wolf. Caspian and Alice had to pull him away before he punched a tree or worse.

"We don’t have time for this," Alice said firmly. "She gave us enough."

"And what exactly is that?" Leon snapped.

"A direction," Caspian replied. "Not a map."

So we moved.

This journey was harder than the last. The air grew thick, the forest darker, the ground uneven. Every step felt wrong, like the land itself was trying to turn us back. Branches clawed at our clothes. The silence was oppressive.

But we didn’t stop.

We couldn’t.

Hours passed. Maybe more. Time lost meaning.

Then we reached it.

A place that felt... off.

The trees grew unnaturally close, their roots twisted together like veins. The air buzzed faintly, charged with something ancient. Alice pulled out the map, spreading it across a fallen stone.

Her brows knitted.

"This place isn’t here," she said slowly.

Caspian frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I mean," she swallowed, "it’s not on the map. At all."

We exchanged looks.

Hidden.

Concealed.

I felt it in my bones.

"This is it," I said quietly. "This has to be it."

The place where Aurora was being kept.

And whatever waited ahead... we were already too far in to turn back now.

They left the hut without looking back.

The forest swallowed them almost immediately, trees closing in as if the place had never existed at all. The air grew colder the farther they walked, and the ground beneath their boots felt uneven, restless.

Not even ten minutes in, Caspian groaned.

"I’m starving."

Leon stopped walking. "You cannot be serious."

"I am very serious," Caspian replied. "We’ve been walking for hours. I haven’t eaten since—"

"Since yesterday," Leon cut in. "You ate yesterday."

"That does not count."

Leon turned, walking backward now, clearly annoyed. "You are an alpha. You’ve survived wars. You’ve gone days without food."

"Yes," Caspian snapped, "and I hated every second of it."

Alice sighed softly but said nothing, walking ahead with Gabrielle.

Caspian pressed on. "I’m just saying, if I collapse, that’s on all of you."

Leon scoffed. "If you collapse, I’ll drag you."