The Forbidden Heiress At The All Male Alpha Academy-Chapter 202: Completely and Utterly Broken

Theo wanted to scream because the sound died somewhere in her throat, overpowered by the weight of the truth.

She grabbed the wall for support before she fell when her knees buckled, her body unable to keep her upright. The room around her warped, and she felt like she might pass out but her mind refused to let her escape.

Because her memories were enough confirmation.

It all made sense.

She kept staring at her hands - one second they were smaller and bloody and the next they were normal again. It kept on repeating itself like a glitch, a stark reminder as her breath came in more shallow pulls like she was breathing in ash.

That’s why...

That’s why her memories always went blank whenever she tried to remember that day. Why thinking of her mother’s death was always a problem, one she had avoided without knowing why.

But deep down, she knew something was wrong. Something was amiss. Something terrible. Maybe that’s the reason why she was too scared to dig deeper, too afraid to approach her mother’s grave and talk to her.

Her stomach lurched violently.

She didn’t forget. Her body just buried it. For her own sake.

Her hand curled slowly into fists, nails digging into her palms.

She could hear her mother’s voice in her head, ’Rose? Rose, it’s me. It’s your mother. I’m going to approach you now. It’s alright. It’s just you changing. It’s a big day for you. I’m sorry I didn’t notice sooner-’

Theo squeezed her eyes shut, and when she opened them, tears blurred everything. A silent sob tore through her chest. She had knelt in the pool of her mother’s blood afterwards, shaking as her mind had fractured into two directions.

One part screaming.

The other running.

Theo had left her there. The guilt she had carried for the past eleven years suddenly had a reason and a shape.

After everything her mother had done for her. Always being the first person she saw when she woke up, and the last she saw before going to bed. Had a lovely so strong she had made a deal with a monster just to save her daughter.

And Theo had repaid her with death.

’You were just ten,’ A small, desperate part of her said, ’You couldn’t have done anything else but run. You were scared,’

’It doesn’t matter if I was just five. It doesn’t change the fact that I would forever carry her blood in my hands,’

A fresh wave of guilt struck again, tangled immediately with another.

Zeke

Sylas.

Her chest constricted painfully, and thoughts spiralled mercilessly in her heart.

If she hadn’t been anywhere else but Gravemont, Zeke and Sylas would still be alive.

’Everyone who gets close to me dies,’

The pattern was undeniable now.

Her mother.

Her mates.

Anyone who loved her paid for it in blood.

’I don’t bring salvation, she thought bitterly. I bring endings,’

Seraphina stirred faintly inside her, grief-stricken and aching, but even that comfort felt undeserved.

Theo’s chest felt hollow, scooped clean of everything that had once held hope.

"I don’t deserve forgiveness," She said softly.

Not from her mother.

Not from Zeke and Sylas.

Not from anyone.

And maybe, just maybe, she deserved all this. Maybe she deserved to be married to the worst person on earth. Maybe all her bad luck all her life was her paying vehemently for her sins.

And maybe she deserved to not exist anymore. Maybe it’s for the best if her soul vanished and the demon took over. No one would have to die anymore because of her.

Maybe this was how Lyra felt.

After she had nothing left to hold onto but regret.

The walls around her moved, but Theo was actually the one falling. She didn’t even know she was falling.

Arms wrapped around her back and legs before she could hit the ground, lifting her off the floor.

She’s always fought back whenever he touched her, but she didn’t this time. She lay there, limp, with tears just running down her face.

She heard a door open, and then she was being lowered onto a bed. She felt a finger brushing something away from her face, to the back of her ear.

The mattress dipped beside her, and Theo registered it distantly, like everything else.

Cain lay down next to her, and one arm slid beneath her shoulders, drawing her closer until her forehead brushed his chest. His other hand continued its slow path along her cheek, thumb tracing the tear tracks again and again, not to stop them, but to make sure they kept coming.

"You always fall apart so beautifully like this,"

Her fingers twitched once against the sheets.

Cain smiled faintly, feeling it.

"You’re thinking it now," he said, "That you’re cursed. That death follows you like a shadow. That loving you is a sentence,"

His hand slid into her hair, cradling the back of her head as though she were something precious, "You’re not wrong,"

The words sank into her like poison, and the mark in her neck pulsed.

"You were born carrying an ending inside you that only affects those around you," He whispered, "And your mother, she loved her daughter so much, but love doesn’t change nature. It just delays it,"

His thumb pressed lightly beneath her eye, lifting her face just enough that she couldn’t fully hide.

"She walked that path with you knowing she might not come back from it," he said, "And still, you were the one who ended her. Isn’t that poetic?"

Her chest shuddered.

Cain leaned closer, his lips brushing her temple in something that could almost pass for a kiss.

"And my son’s, your mates," he added quietly, "They thought they could protect you from everything. But the same fate caught up with them. That curse you carry reached them, and now...where are they?"

That did it.

A broken sound tore out of Theo’s throat, halfway between a sob and a plea, her hands curling weakly into his shirt as if she needed something solid to keep her from vanishing entirely. Cain’s arm tightened around her.

"There," he murmured approvingly, "Let it hurt,"

His fingers traced slow, deliberate patterns along her spine, grounding her even as his words dismantled her.

"You see now why nothing good ever lasts around you," he said, "Why fate keeps stripping everything away until there’s nothing left but you and the monster inside you,"

She could barely think through the ache.

"You’re not meant for happiness," Cain whispered, "You’re meant for inevitability,"

His hand slid down to her wrist, turning it palm-up against the sheets. He studied it for a moment...the same hand that had once been small and red and trembling.

"So fragile," he murmured, "And yet capable of so much ruin,"

He laced his fingers through hers, possessive and unyielding, "That’s why you’re mine," he said softly, "Because no one else could ever hold you once you truly understood what you are,"

She felt the demon stirr, somehow reacting to his words—his touch!

"That is why you should listen to me. If you want the pain to finally stop, grow stronger, Runaway. Keep training as you always do. Once you’re strong enough, which you will soon be, I’ll rid you of your existence. And along with it, the pain will vanish too," His voice sounded like a drug, like one that would finally erase everything.

’The pain would vanish’ - She couldn’t wait.