The Alpha's Gamble - Chapter 68: Chapter 68

MADELINE’S POV
The door opened, and streams of light blinded my eyes that had only now started to get used to the darkness. I covered my face and backed away. A cowardly move. I should’ve gotten up, should’ve prepared to fight, but instead I pushed back against the wooden barrels and ignored the twigs poking into my skin.
My heart was racing, and all I could see was a figure moving toward me slowly. A shadow cast by light, hidden by the sunlight covering his body—but it was someone big. It wasn’t Tilly.
Oh my god. Breathe, Maddie. Fuck, this was not Elite warrior behavior, but I couldn’t for the life of me get my limbs to move.
“Shh, it’s me, you’re okay,” Noah’s voice echoed like a soft lullaby and calmed my heart almost immediately. He squatted down in front of me, hiding from the shadow and uncovering his face.
He wore a shirt that was much too small for him and a pair of ripped jeans. I had never seen him in anything not pristine.
“I’m here,” he cupped my cheek and leaned in. Only then did I spot the blood that covered his cheek in patches, drying quickly onto his skin.
“What happened to you?” I asked and dragged my thumb over his cheek. He didn’t answer. Instead, he grabbed my hand and helped me up on my feet before guiding me out of the cellar.
Once outside, I looked around and did a double-take when I saw Landon standing in his briefs and nothing else. He had a cut on his shoulder, the blood oozed from his wound, and he stood hunched as if trying to shield himself.
When I turned back and saw the shirt on Noah’s back fighting for its life, not to rip, it made sense. And the jeans, Landon always wore ripped jeans.
“What’s with the cut on Landon?” I asked when we walked out of the woods.
“He wouldn’t take his pants off.”
I looked over my shoulder and caught a glimpse of Landon’s beet-red face as he picked the shovel up and tried to cover himself. A picture I’d make sure was burned into my memory forever.
“Why didn’t you wait for me?” he asked when we exited the forest.
“Thought I’d take a stroll through town and the garden, enjoy the day before you were off work. And then Tilly texted, and one thing led to another.”
He stopped and turned to me, his brows furrowing questionably and his lips parting as he drew a breath.
“One thing led to another, how? What did Tilly’s text say?”
I shrugged my shoulders.
“You tell me,” I crossed my arms over my chest. “Did you ever manage to delete the video?”
He raised his head, a flash of guilt sprang amok in his eyes, and he pressed his tongue against the roof of his mouth.
“Maddie—”
“Were you ever going to? Is it because Landon is your friend that you can’t do it?”
“That’s not… no, it’s not because of that.”
“But there’s a reason. I got beat up to pay off the debt of accepting your deal, remember?”
He gritted his teeth.
“Vividly.”
I waited to see if he’d answer my previously asked question, but it didn’t look like it. It was like that wall was slowly rising back up, covering his face, his heart, his emotions. Everything was hidden away, and the truth hidden with it.
“Thank you for helping me.”
Noah grabbed my arm as I was about to leave and pointed toward the forest.
“I thought we’d go for a run.”
Man, I could feel my heart breaking into a hundred pieces. A pain unlike anything I’d ever felt before as realization crept up and choked the air in my lungs.
“I don’t have my wolf, Noah,” I whispered like I was afraid that anyone else would hear.
The way he dropped my arm, you’d think my skin burned him.
“You will. She’ll wake up,” he said. Was he trying to convince me or himself?
I heard Olivia back at the cellar, and she wasn’t wrong. No Alpha would be with a wolf-less girl.
Not only that, but that might be the smallest of my worries. If I didn’t get my wolf, which up until today seemed impossible, of course I would get her, I had been preparing my whole life, making room for her and missing her. But if I’m wolf-less, then I have no shot of getting into the Auburn Academy. I would never become an Elite warrior.
Everything I have spent my life working towards, the one thing that has kept my head above water and given me hope for change, would be ripped away.
If I didn’t have a wolf, I had nothing.
It was done. Over.
“I’m gonna take a nap,” I said.
“A nap?”
“Yeah, this whole day has exhausted me. I think I need to rest.”
Noah nodded and didn’t oppose. He stepped back and let me leave, but I could hear the thoughts turning in his head, figuratively speaking, of course, but it was as obvious as if he’d said them out loud.
She’s wolf-less.
She’s no better than a human.
She’s weak.
She’ll never amount to anything.
She can never be a Luna.
Not that that was ever a goal of mine, but it was entailed.
Just like that, everything was over.
Just like that, I had signed my death warrant.
My execution would take place in less than two months in the Ember Ring.