Alpha Xander's Undoing Chasing my Unknown Mate Back novel Chapter 91

Chapter 91

Chapter 91

*Rory”

:

The chains bit harder when they dragged me out of the dungeon.

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Iron links rattled over stone, and the cuffs at my wrists pulled against raw skin. My legs wanted to give, but the Venatorum on either side hauled me forward until my feet found the rhythm of stumbling steps. The door slammed behind us, and the drip I had come to hate disappeared into silence.

Isaac walked a few paces ahead, carrying one of the packs. He did not look back at me, not even once. His silence stung almost as much as the iron. He had been the only person in that place who had offered me anything close to human, and now he moved like he wanted to erase me from his sight.

The red welt on his cheek was still visible from Durnham’s slap. He kept his head down, and I hated that I felt something like pity when all I wanted was fury.

Durnham came behind us, calm as ever, his steps unhurried, his voice absent. I almost wished he would taunt me, or gloat, or let cruelty sharpen the edges of his words. But he did none of those things. He carried himself like a man walking from one appointment to the next, and that composure was worse. It was like he had already measured me, weighed me, and decided how best to use me.

When the cave gave way to the forest, the night air hit me like a blow. I staggered, lungs pulling too much too fast. The smell of pine and damp moss filled my nose, sharp enough to sting. The world was wider than the dungeon walls, and it felt like both a gift and a punishment.

I blinked hard, my eyes straining against the darkness. Every sound came sharper now-the crunch of boots, the creak of leather, the sigh of the wind moving through branches. After days in silence broken only by chains and drips, the forest was deafening.

I swallowed air like I was starving for it, and dizziness swirled behind my eyes. My legs trembled. A guard shoved me forward, and I nearly fell before the chain snapped tight and yanked me back upright.

“Steady,” Durnham said, his voice smooth, measured. He walked alongside, not lifting a hand to help, but not letting me fall either. “We’ll make camp before dawn.”

He said it like I was part of the gear. Not a prisoner. Not even a person. A tool being moved to the next place. His calm unsettled me more than if he had cursed or struck me. He was not trying to frighten me. He didn’t need to.

We walked on. My shoulders ached from the pull of the chains, but I clenched my teeth and kept going. I would not stumble again in front of him.

Then it happened.

A flicker deep inside my chest, faint but undeniable. Not the bond, not the tether I had lost, but something else. It brushed me like a ghost trailing its fingers along my ribs. My knees nearly buckled, and my breath caught. For one heartbeat I was certain Xander was near, close enough that if I reached far enough I could

touch him.

The sensation faded almost as quickly as it came, leaving me emptier than before. I wanted to cry out, to

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Chapter 91

force it back, but I bit the inside of my cheek until I tasted blood instead.

The guards did not notice. Isaac might have, but he did not look back.

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We marched until the sky began to pale with the first hint of dawn. Durnham lifted a hand, and the group halted in a small clearing ringed with dark trees. He spoke quietly to the scouts, giving orders with the same calm cadence he used for everything. They moved without question, spreading bedrolls and gathering wood.

I was forced to the ground near the fire pit. The chain coiled between two stakes, and one of the Venatorum hammered them deep into the soil with casual precision. The cuffs dug into my ankles as I folded onto the earth.

My chest heaved, but I refused to let the sound become a sob. I would not give them that.

Durnham crouched across the fire from me, setting a hand against his knee as if we were two people resting after travel. His eyes slid over me once, steady, not cruel, not kind, just measuring. “Eat when they bring food,” he said. “You’ll need your strength.”

I turned my face away, jaw tight.

He didn’t press. He stood and moved to oversee the scouts, his presence enough to settle them without a

word.

The fire crackled low, casting orange light across the clearing. I closed my eyes against it, trying to hold onto the memory of that faint pull.

A shadow fell across me. I opened my eyes and found Isaac crouched near, his hand hidden by the angle of his body. A flask of water slipped into the dirt between us. He kept his head bent, his voice barely more than a whisper.

“Some people were close,” he murmured. “Do you think they were looking for you?”

My throat closed. Hope flared and cut at the same time. I wanted to seize him, demand answers, force him to tell me what he saw or heard. But his eyes never lifted, and his shoulders hunched like he feared even speaking would cost him.

I did not answer. Words would have broken something fragile between us.

He waited a second, then stood and stepped back into the shadows, leaving the water within my reach.

The fire grew stronger. The Venatorum ate in silence, their faces expressionless, their eyes restless. Durnham sat apart, calm as stone, watching the flames. Isaac sat with his back to me, shoulders stiff.

I lay down on the hard ground, the chains clinking as I shifted. My wrists ached. My ankles throbbed. But it was the hollow in my chest that gnawed worst of all.

I stared at the treeline, the black shapes of trees against the paling sky. The forest whispered with wind, and every creak and rustle felt alive. I was certain he was out there-Xander-searching, close enough to feel, even

if faint.

And I was just as certain Durnham knew it too.

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Chapter 91

…

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The fire cracked, and the chain at my wrists shivered with the sound. I shut my eyes, holding onto the ghost of the pull I had felt in my chest, and swore to myself that I would not miss it if it came again.

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