The Forbidden Heiress At The All Male Alpha Academy-Chapter 207: Down is the Only way
The darkness swallowed her whole as she stepped inside, and she remained pressed against the wall for a while... waiting.
Waiting for any sign that would indicate Cain’s presence.
Nothing happened.
No amused voice.
No presence pressing down on her lungs.
No sudden grip around her wrist.
Only silence.
Her shoulders loosened a fraction with short relief, though her instincts remained razor-sharp.
Cain’s room was vast. The biggest in the entire castle. Cold stone walls. It has high ceilings, a massive bed that sat untouched at the far end, and sheets perfectly smooth, even though it looked like no one ever truly slept there.
That alone unsettled her.
Cain’s scent lingered faintly, but not strongly enough to suggest he was here now. If anything, it felt old, like a shadow that never quite left, even when its owner did.
Theo exhaled slowly and moved forward.
Her bare feet made no sound against the floor. She scanned every corner of the room and every inch of the walls for anything that would help her. Shelves lined one side of the room, filled with ancient books and scrolls. Weapons hung on another wall with some etched with runes that made her skin prickle when she got too close. They looked far more dangerous than the ones she’d seen at Gravemont.
Then, she felt it.
A kind of disturbance in the room. She froze at first, then listened. There was some kind of different aura in the room that was different from the rest.
Her gaze snapped toward the far corner of the room, and she walked down to it.
The floor was different, and when she crouched down and touched it with her palm, she figured the stone was darker, and less worn out than the rest. Like it was newer. Like it had been disturbed more often.
Her heart began to pound.
There were no visible handles, or levers, and no obvious doors. Just a smooth slab of stone set seamlessly into the ground.
"This is it..." she whispered.
The stone was cold.
Too cold.
And then, it shifted.
A faint hum vibrated beneath her hand, so low she felt it more than heard it. Lines suddenly lit up along the edges of the slab, glowing with a dull blue light.
Theo recoiled quickly, stunned.
The slab sank inward, then split down the middle.
Her eyes widened. It was an elevator!
Of course, Cain wouldn’t parade his secrets where anyone could stumble upon them. Of course, the real horrors would be buried deep beneath the earth.
The platform waited, and her eyes remained glued to it. There was only one direction this elevator would take her.
Down.
Theo stared into the open shaft, darkness yawning beneath her. Every instinct screamed at her to turn back, that whatever she would find down there would scar her.
Oh well, she only has one more week left to live.
Plus, Ava is down there.
Without giving herself time to think anymore, Theo stepped onto the platform. The stone sealed above her with a soft and final click.
And then, the platform moved and descended.
The elevator moved silently with Theo pressed to a corner as it dropped far longer than she expected. The air grew colder with each passing second, and the smell of chemicals and antiseptic was getting heavier and heavier in the air with every passing second.
Chemicals...Ava must definitely be somewhere around here.
Finally, the platform slowed and came to a stop. Theo felt her heart pounding fast as the doors slid open, revealing a very large area, or rather, what seemed like an underground facility.
It stretched out before her, carved deep into the earth. Dim lights flickered overhead, illuminating long corridors lined with thick glass walls. It didn’t take her long to figure out that it was rows upon rows of cells and laboratories.
Some cells were empty.
Others... were not.
Theo’s stomach twisted as she took it all in. Wolves were locked inside with some being unconscious, and some barely stirring. All of them were restrained behind reinforced glass, and tubes ran into their arms with strange devices clamped around their necks, suppressing their wolves entirely.
This wasn’t just experimentation.
This was a system.
She forced herself to move, sticking close to the walls, careful with every step she made. Her heart thundered in her ears, but she welcomed the noise as it reminded her she was still alive.
Then she saw it.
A familiar figure slumped in one of the cells ahead.
"Ava," Theo breathed
She hurried closer, stopping just short of the glass.
Ava was restrained upright, her wrists bound above her head with silver cuffs embedded into the wall. Her head drooped forward, hair falling into her face. Bruises bloomed along her arms, and faint scorch marks traced her skin. Theo pressed her palm to the glass.
"Ava... I’m here," She whispered.
Ava stirred, lifting her head slowly. Her eyes battled with a lack of focus first, before they slowly widened with disbelief.
"Theo...?" she croaked.
Relief crashed through Theo so hard it nearly knocked her to her knees, "Yes. Yes, it’s me,"
"Oh my God, you’re actually here," She cried, "You’re really here,"
"I’m getting you out," Theo whispered fiercely, "I swear,"
Before Ava could respond, a soft snore drifted from behind her, and Theo froze.
Her blood ran cold.
Slowly, she turned her head in the direction of the noise.
A laboratory sat just a few steps away, separated by a glass partition. Inside, a bald man lay slumped over a desk, his head resting on a pile of documents. His lab coat was stained faintly at the cuffs, and a pen slipped loosely from his fingers.
He was asleep.
Monitors blinked steadily around him, displaying vitals and data. Diagrams of wolves, demons, and their full anatomy were plastered across the walls.
This was him.
The man she had seen standing above Zeke in his nightmare.
The scientist helping Cain.
Theo’s pulse roared in her ears. A big part of her wanted to walk up to him, pick up something sharp and end his life now that he was asleep, but she forced the rage down.
She came for Ava.
She lifted a finger to her lips, silently signalling Ava to stay quiet. Then, heart hammering, Theo began to tiptoe forward.
