The Alpha's Unwanted Bride

Chapter 708: THE INTERRUPTION

The pull was immediate.

Not sudden. Not violent.

Just there.

It slid beneath my skin the moment I stepped closer to the pedestal, a quiet insistence that wrapped around my ribs and tugged gently forward.

My breath slowed without my permission, my feet moving as if the floor itself were guiding me.

I didn’t even realize I was walking until Maelis spoke.

"Do you feel it," she asked softly.

"Yes," I whispered. "It feels like... like it knows me."

The chamber seemed to hum as I approached, the air growing warmer with each step.

The chest stood encased in thick glass and runes, reinforced and sealed with layers of protection meant to keep the stone dormant. And yet it didn’t feel dormant at all.

It felt awake.

Alive.

The ruby glowed from within, a deep crimson light that pulsed slowly, steadily, like a heartbeat. Not frantic. Not wild. Just waiting.

I stopped just inches away from the glass.

My chest tightened.

"It’s calling," I murmured. "I can hear it."

Maelis drew closer. "Your necklace," she said. "Look."

I glanced down.

The emerald at my throat was glowing.

Not brightly, not violently, but steadily. A soft green light spilled across my skin, illuminating my fingers and the curve of my collarbone. I lifted it gently, watching the light shimmer against my palm.

Then I looked back at the ruby.

And my breath caught.

They were pulsing together.

Not identically.

But in harmony.

High and low. Slow and fast. As if one breathed in while the other breathed out. The same rhythm I had felt when I had sat on the throne, when the emerald embedded there had responded to me and torn open the world.

My stomach flipped.

"It’s the same," I whispered. "The frequency. The way it had been when I came here."

Maelis nodded. "Stones of creation were never meant to exist alone. They call to one another. They stabilize each other."

I swallowed hard. "It feels like the ruby is calling to me. Not just the emerald. Me."

"That happens," she said carefully. "Especially with bloodlines tied to the emerald necklace."

Her words sent a chill down my spine.

The ruby pulsed brighter, its light flaring briefly as if in acknowledgment.

I reached out without thinking.

Maelis’s hand snapped around my wrist instantly.

"No," she said sharply. "Not yet."

The contact jolted me back into myself, the haze lifting just enough for me to realize how close I had been to touching the glass.

I exhaled slowly. "Sorry."

She released me but didn’t step away.

"This stone will speak," she warned. "It will promise. It will justify. It will tell you what you want to hear. Do not listen to it."

The ruby flickered, the glow sharpening.

Then Maelis nodded to the guards.

They moved immediately.

Four of them stepped forward, their armor glinting faintly in the moonlight, hands steady as they began unlocking the seals. Runes flared, one by one, the glass vibrating softly as each ward disengaged.

The ruby brightened with every release.

I felt it in my teeth. In my spine. In my womb.

My baby kicked sharply, a sudden jolt that stole my breath.

I pressed a hand to my belly instinctively.

"Easy," I whispered. "I’m here."

The final seal broke with a low hum.

The chest opened.

Light flooded the chamber.

The ruby was larger than I had expected, jagged but deliberate in its shape, facets uneven as if it had been broken from something once whole.

And there, unmistakable even from where I stood, was the missing piece.

The chipped edge.

The exact shape of the shard embedded in my father’s ring.

My throat went dry.

"I can sense the chipped ruby." J said

The ruby pulsed again, brighter now, reacting to my proximity, to the emerald at my throat, to the life growing inside me.

For a brief, terrifying moment, I understood why my father had wanted it.

Why anyone would.

It felt like possibility incarnate.

Maelis stepped closer, her voice firm. "Do not let it deceive you."

I blinked, the haze clearing.

"I was just thinking," I admitted. "I was wondering..."

"What," she asked.

"If you can do this," I said slowly, "if you can use the emerald and the red stone together... why didn’t my father use the piece he has and the emerald embedded in the throne to open a portal himself."

Maelis studied me for a long moment.

"Because what you told me earlier confirmed our fears," she said. "The shard he carries is too small. It can amplify corruption. It can influence. But it cannot channel a full passage."

I frowned. "But the red stone can."

"Yes," she said quietly. "That is why he came here. That is why he took this land. That is why he has hunted us for years."

The weight of it settled in my chest.

"He needs this stone," I whispered.

"And we cannot let him have it," Maelis replied.

She turned fully toward me.

"If we interconnect the emerald with the red stone," she continued, "I can stabilize the flow. The stones will neutralize each other’s extremes. Creation without corruption."

My pulse quickened.

"And my wolf," I asked softly.

Maelis hesitated.

"That as I have said, is up to you." She told me.

A chance.

I looked down at my belly, at the steady rise and fall beneath my palm.

"I’m ready," I said.

Maelis searched my face.

"Once we begin, there is no stopping," she warned.

"I understand." I nodded.

She nodded.

"Sit," she instructed.

I lowered myself carefully to the stone floor, the coolness seeping through my clothes. Maelis positioned me between the pedestal and a circle etched into the ground, ancient symbols carved deep into the rock.

She began to chant softly, her voice low and rhythmic, hands lifting as the emerald at my throat flared brighter. The ruby answered instantly, its light surging, filling the chamber with crimson and green.

The air thickened.

My ears rang.

I focused on breathing. On staying present. On not letting fear take root.

Minutes passed.

Five, maybe.

Then the scream tore through the chamber.

Not human.

Not entirely.

A roar followed, deep and thunderous, shaking the walls.

The ground trembled beneath me.

Maelis’s chant faltered.

"What’s happening," she demanded.

The guards rushed toward the entrance, weapons drawn.

Another roar echoed, closer now.

My heart slammed against my ribs.

I knew that sound.

A dragon.

Cold dread washed over me.

"He’s here," I whispered.

Maelis’s face hardened.

"Hold the circle," she said urgently. "Do not break it."

The shouts grew louder, metal clashing, voices raised in alarm.

And through it all, the ruby blazed brighter than ever, the emerald burning hot against my skin.

My father had found us.

And whatever happened next would decide everything.