The Feral Alpha's Captive-Chapter 76: WAKE UP!!!

🦋ALTHEA

"I sent them to destroy those who stood in your way. To free the ones who suffered like we did. It was all I could do."

The moths swirled around her, glowing faintly.

"But that time is gone."

She stopped pacing. Stood perfectly still. And when she spoke again, her voice was cold. Certain. Final.

"I’m gaining my strength. The wolfsbane no longer taints me—not like before. And another mate has been found." Her eyes found mine. "A true mate. One who didn’t reject us. One who wants us. Even if he doesn’t want to."

The air began to shimmer with power.

"So I will come, Althea. I will rise. I will return and take back every pint of blood we’ve lost. Every drop of dignity they stole. Every scream they silenced."

Fear spiked through me. "You can’t—"

"I can. I will." She stepped toward me, and the moths followed like a trailing shadow. "And you will help me."

"I don’t want revenge—"

"LIAR." The word cracked like a whip because it was tender, too knowing to deny. "You want it so badly it burns. I feel it. Every time Morgana’s face flashes through your mind. Every time you remember Yana’s smile as she died. Every time you think of Draven’s hands on you, his rejection, his cruelty."

She was right in front of me now, her massive head level with mine.

"You want them to suffer."

"I—" My voice broke. "I don’t want to become—"

"A monster?" She tilted her head. "We already are. They made us one. The only question is whether we’ll be a monster who dies—"

Her eyes blazed.

"—or one who makes them pay."

I wanted to argue and to say I was better than this. That violence would only breed more violence. That Yana wouldn’t want—

But the wolf’s eyes held mine, trapping my gaze, as she read my soul without speaking a word out loud. She knew I was not yet ready to face what we both knew: that we both shared the same dreams, the same nightmares.

"Burn it," she said softly. "Every bit of goodness in your soul. Every mercy. Every hesitation. Burn it all."

My stomach dropped fast. "What?"

"You must." She pressed her forehead against mine, and I felt it—the connection. The bond between us. Between wolf and human. Between rage and grief. Between what we were and what we’d become.

"Rip out your own heart if you have to," she whispered. "Because when I rise—when we merge—no one will be spared."

Her voice hardened.

"Not Morgana. Not the High Alpha. Not Draven."

She pulled back, her eyes boring into mine. "Not even the innocents who stood by and watched."

"That’s—" Horror choked me. "That’s genocide."

"No." Her smile was terrible. Wolves don’t smile. She was not a wolf. "That’s justice."

The wolf turned back to the pup. For a long moment, she just stared at it. Then, with infinite gentleness, she lowered her head and carefully—so carefully—lifted the tiny body in her jaws. She carried it to me and placed it in my arms.

The weight felt so wrong, so light; it barely weighed anything. Yet, I cradled it anyway, my hands trembling as I looked down at the small gray form.

Our child.

The one we’d never meet. Never hold while it breathed. Never watch grow. It had inherited the hate and the brutality.

"This is all we get," the wolf said softly, her voice raw. "This moment. This grief. This knowing."

Tears fell onto the pup’s fur.

"In the waking world, they’ll take even this from us. You’ll never hold it and never see it. There will not be any goodbyes."

My chest cracked open.

"So say it now," she whispered. "While you still can."

I looked down at the pup—at the child that would have had my eyes, at the future that had been stolen—and something inside me broke.

"I’m sorry," I whispered to the still form. "I’m so sorry I couldn’t protect you. I’m sorry you’ll never—" My voice shattered.

The wolf pressed her head against my shoulder.

"We tried," she said quietly. "We tried so hard. But they wouldn’t let us have even this."

I held the pup closer, memorizing the weight, the softness, the reality of what we’d lost. Then, gently, the wolf took it back. She laid it down in the grass. And when she looked at me again, the grief was still there, yet beneath it, rage simmered, hot and boiling over.

"Not Morgana. Not the High Alpha. Not Draven," she said, her voice hardening. "Not even the innocents who stood by and watched."

Then she tilted her head back and howled, loud and high enough to pierce my eardrums. It wasn’t like any wolf I’d ever heard. It was higher—painful, sharp, a sound that split the air like a blade through silk. A scream and a howl wrapped into one, tearing through reality itself.

The sound shattered everything.

The trees splintered, bark exploding outward. The ground cracked open, jagged lines racing through the earth. The sky fractured like glass, pieces falling away into the void.

I clapped my hands over my ears, squeezing my eyes shut, but the sound was inside me, ripping through my very soul.

Wake up, wake up, wake up—

When I opened my eyes, it wasn’t the forest anymore. My heart stuttered in my chest as the world I knew rearranged itself into something horrible. I had seen it before, in another nightmare. I looked down, shaking, my legs barely holding me up, to see that I was standing in a fresh pool of crimson. I was standing in someone’s blood.

I jumped and stepped on something soft yet hard; it was not solid ground. I screamed as I stared down at the amputated tail, still oozing blood.

I stepped away, and back. Bile rose fast in my throat—too fast to stop it. I doubled over and vomited, but there was nothing in my stomach; I could do nothing but hack, my throat burning and my eyes watering.

This had to be a nightmare. It had to be. I screamed at myself. I just needed to wake up. This would all be over—I just had to snap out of this place.

WAKE UP! WAKE UP! WAKE UP!

But nothing happened. Yet again, I found myself in a cage that I could not escape.