Claimed by My Bestie's Alpha Daddy novel Chapter 177

Richard

The air grew colder the deeper I went, not just in temperature but in essence. It wasn’t a natural cold; it felt ancient and aware, like I was trespassing into a memory the world had tried to bury.

Dust clung to every surface, undisturbed for centuries.

Bell fragments shimmered faintly from the stone, embedded like scars in the crypt’s flesh. Some pulsed softly, each one humming a broken note that shifted with the rhythm of my breath, as though the place was inhaling and exhaling with me.

When I touched one, the sound vibrated through my bones so deeply it almost hurt.

The tunnel twisted in ways that defied logic. The path folded back on itself and bent at impossible angles, and I stopped trying to make sense of it. The only thing I trusted was the bond. It tugged me forward, subtle at first, like a pressure behind my eyes, then sharper and more urgent. I started to feel her fear, small jolts breaking through the psychic static. Each step made the pain in my chest more specific. She was close, and she was terrified.

But the closer I got, the more the world distorted. I stepped into a corridor and saw the council chamber, exactly as it had looked ten years ago. I blinked, and it turned into my own bedroom, lit by the soft flicker of candlelight, Amelia asleep in my bed. None of it was real,and all of it burned. I clenched my jaw, kept my gaze forward, and walked through it.

The corridor opened into a wide chamber. It was dome-shaped and oppressively silent. Bell shards hovered in the air, suspended by threads too fine to see. The magic buzzed faintly against my skin, thick and cloying. The floor beneath my boots was slick with something I couldn’t identify, maybe water, maybe blood. I didn’t stop to check. I just kept going.

Then I saw her.

She was kneeling, arms bound. She looked up and her mouth moved. She was saying my name. Her body shook violently, like she was freezing from the inside out. I took a step toward her.

And she vanished.

The room emptied, the light died, and the bell tones stopped. I stood in complete silence. No scent, no breath, no presence. Just a void. I called her name, but the sound didn’t echo. I lunged forward, hands out, hoping to find some trace of her. I hit stone. Hard. I hit it again. And again. As if I could break through it. As if she had ever been there in the first place.

The bond recoiled. It didn’t sever, but it twisted, strained beyond anything I had ever felt. I dropped to my knees.

The stone floor felt cruel beneath me, like it wanted to grind me down into nothing. The cold wasn’t ambient anymore. It seeped into me like poison. It felt personal.The crypt itself seemed to be mocking me.

I had been close. Or I thought I had. Now I wasn’t even sure l’d been anywhere near her at all.

I stayed there, unmoving. My hands throbbed from hitting the wall. My throat burned. I started to forget what light felt like. I forced myself to recall her face, the curve of her mouth, the way her eyebrows arched when she doubted me, the rhythm of her breath when she slept. But every time I reached for her memory, it slipped away. Like my mind was betraying me. Piece by piece.

That was the worst part. Knowing I was losing her in every sense. Not just physically. Her voice in my head had already gone quiet. Her scent was gone. Even my guilt was starting to feel thin and distant. I had come all this way, and it hadn’t been enough.

Eventually, I made myself stand. My knees cracked, my limbs stiff from tension and cold. I dragged my fingers across one of the suspended bells, hoping it would chime again, hoping I’d hear her voice in the vibration. One did ring, faint and wrong, like it was being played underwater.

For half a second, it almost sounded like her laugh. But it faded too fast.

I took another step and stumbled. My temple slammed against the wall. I didn’t cry out. I barely registered the blood trickling down the side of my face. I collapsed again, curling into myself, my hands trembling uncontrollably. I whispered her name, again and again. The sound feltwrong in my mouth, like I was mispronouncing it, like l had forgotten how it was supposed to feel.

What if I had? What if I didn’t even know what I was trying to save anymore?

I pressed my forehead to the stone. I wanted to scream, but nothing came out. I had nothing left. I had used everything I had, and all I could do now was breathe and hurt.

Then came the thought I had been trying to keep away.

I bit down harder. But the longer they poured their doctrine into my mind, the more it started to stick. My doubt began to take root. My certainty began to crack. My resistance started to sound like belief.

The bond thinned, and somehow I knew he could feel it too. Panic bloomed in my chest. I reached for Richard inthe only way I could, through the space in my mind that still remembered him. Nothing came. Then, something. A flicker. A pulse. He was still alive. Still searching. Still reaching for me.

That made it worse. I coutdn’t warn him. I couldn’t stop what was happening. I couldn’t keep him from following me into this place.

A door appeared. Blinding white light spilled from its frame. I saw his outline. His eyes. His hand reaching. I called out, but the image shattered. It wasn’t real. It had never been real.

The magic roared and I fell to my knees. Pain lanced through every nerve. The bells screamed from every surface, then cut off all at once. My ears rang. My mouth filled with copper. I hunched forward and shook, unable to speak.

And I still thought of him.

I remembered the way he held me when I cried. The way he steadied me when I was scared shitless. The warmth of his breath against my neck when he thought I was asleep.

I tried to hold onto those memories. But they blurred at the edges, Not just the moments, the meaning that came with them.

He was out there. I knew that. But I didn’t know if I wanted him to see what I was turning into.

I didn’t know how much longer I could hold on to all my love for him.