Chapter 66: Chapter 66
The clang of the iron bolt locking shut echoed inside my skull long after it stopped. It was such a simple sound metal against metal, final and cold but in that moment, it was the loudest thing in the world. Louder than my heartbeat, louder than Joan’s muffled sobs, louder even than the ringing that filled my ears. The Psycho Alpha was gone. At least, that’s what my eyes told me. The space he had filled, the shadow of his presence, the sharpness of his voice it wasn’t here anymore. The corner of the room he had stood in so casually, tormenting us with his gaze and his thoughts, was now empty. But my body didn’t believe it. My body still trembled as though he were towering over me, as though his breath still brushed against my skin, as though his cruel smile was still just inches from my face. And I my knew better. Because even when he wasn’t here, he was still inside me. His inner voice lingered like smoke in my chest, poisoning the air I breathed.
"Inner voice: Look at you. Small. Fragile. Terrified. My little omega, broken before I’ve even begun.
I squeezed my eyes shut and pressed my palms hard over my ears, rocking slightly against the cold stone wall. It was a pathetic attempt at shielding myself, but I couldn’t stop. My body needed something, anything, to do besides shatter under the memory of him. Beside me, Joan had collapsed into a tighter ball against the opposite wall. Her knees were hugged so tightly to her chest that her shoulders shook. I could hear her breathing shallow, uneven, ragged and every so often a choked sob slipped past the hand she kept clamped over her mouth.
The smell of urine still clung to the air, sharp and humiliating, but I didn’t blame her. How could I? If I hadn’t already fainted or lost control, it was only because terror had rooted itself so deeply in my bones that my body refused to do anything at all.
And then there was Elara. She lay where she had fallen, motionless, crumpled like a broken doll. My stomach twisted when I remembered the sound of his boot connecting with her ribs. That single, merciless kick. The way her body had jerked helplessly, yet she hadn’t even woken. The silence was unbearable. I wanted to move, to crawl across the room and shake her awake, to make sure she was alive. But my limbs were stone. My muscles trembled too hard to obey. Every time I tried to shift, I heard him again.
"Inner voice: Pathetic. So weak. You can’t even crawl to her side. How will you survive when I return?
I signed. I knew it wasn’t. He was gone. He wasn’t in the room anymore. But my body didn’t care. My chest tightened until I thought I would suffocate.
"Joan," I whispered hoarsely, barely able to form her name. My throat burned.
Her head snapped up, her eyes huge, wild. For a second, she looked at me like I was him, like the mere sound of my voice might be a trick.
"Is... is she breathing?" I nodded toward Elara’s limp form, my voice trembling.
Joan shook her head violently. "I—I don’t know," she choked out. Her voice was tiny, broken. "I can’t—I can’t look, Ellie. I can’t."
Tears burned my eyes. I wanted to yell at her, to force her to move, but the words died in my throat. I wasn’t moving either. Fear had chained us both in place.
Minutes crawled by like hours. My legs tingled from the way I was curled up, but I was too scared to shift. Joan kept rocking back and forth, whispering something I couldn’t make out. Maybe a prayer. Maybe just nonsense.
Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore. I forced my arms to uncurl, my legs to stretch. Every motion felt like breaking through iron. My body shook violently, but I dragged myself across the floor.
Joan gasped softly, almost like a warning. "Ellie-don’t. He might-he might come back.
"I have to," I whispered, my voice raw.
I reached Elara’s side and froze. Up close, she looked even smaller, even more fragile. Her chest rose and fell so shallowly I had to stare for several seconds just to be sure it moved at all. My hand trembled as I touched her shoulder, shaking gently.
"Elara?" My voice cracked. "Elara, can you hear me?"
Nothing. Panic clawed at me, but I pressed trembling fingers against her neck, desperately searching for a pulse. For a horrifying moment, I thought I couldn’t find it. My own heartbeat thundered too loudly in my ears. Then, faint. So faint. But there. A sob of relief tore from my throat. "She’s alive," I whispered, my whole body sagging. Joan’s eyes squeezed shut, and she let out a muffled sob of her own, her hands still over her mouth. Alive. But for how long? He had hurt her once. He could come back. He could finish what he started.
I sat back against the wall, pulling Elara’s limp form partly into my lap, and my tears fell freely now. I stroked her hair, rocking slightly. It was the only thing I could do. The only thing that felt remotely human in this nightmare. The door loomed across the room, the iron bolt glinting faintly in the dim light. It was a barrier, yes, but not for us. For him. It kept him out. It also kept us in. And it worked. The longer it stretched, the more unbearable it became. Every creak of the walls, every uneven breath, every little sound made me flinch. My heart refused to calm, still beating as though he stood in front of me. Joan curled tighter into herself, whispering, "He’ll come back. He’ll come back. He’ll come back," over and over, a mantra of despair. I wanted to deny it. I wanted to tell her she was wrong. But I couldn’t. Because I knew she was right. He always came back.
The silence deepened, and the room seemed to shrink. The air was too heavy, the walls too close. My head dropped against the stone, my tears soaking Elara’s hair. My body begged for sleep, for escape, but my mind wouldn’t let me. Every time I blinked, I saw his eyes, his smirk, the way his thoughts clawed inside me. Even gone, he was here, it’s still looked like he was still here. So I sat there in the dark, with Joan rocking herself to pieces and Elara breathing faintly against me, and I drowned in silence and dread. The silence dragged on until it no longer felt like silence at all it was a sound of its own, a suffocating weight that pressed on my chest and refused to let go. Hours, or what felt like hours, had passed since the Psycho Alpha’s footsteps faded down the corridor. Yet I still felt him. In the air, in the walls, inside my own head. His absence was as heavy as his presence had been. Joan had stopped rocking herself, though her arms were still wrapped so tightly around her legs that her knuckles gleamed white in the dim light. Elara rested against me, her shallow breathing steady but fragile, like the thin thread of a candle flame that could be snuffed out with the faintest gust. I stared at the iron-bolted door until my eyes burned. My body ached from holding still for so long, my mind spinning between despair and exhaustion. And somewhere, underneath all the terror, a single thought kept pushing its way to the surface. I couldn’t let this go on. The longer Joan and Elara stayed here with me, the more danger they were in. I couldn’t carry the weight of their fear on top of my own. I couldn’t keep watching them fall apart because of me. The Psycho Alpha wanted me. His voice, his eyes, the way he spoke he had made that painfully clear. I was the one he called "my little omega."
Not them. Me. If they stayed, they’d suffer because of me. And I couldn’t stand it. I took a shaky breath and whispered, "Joan." My voice sounded raw, scraped thin, but it cut through the silence like a blade. Her head snapped up instantly, eyes wide, haunted. She looked at me as though I’d just pulled her from the edge of a cliff.
I forced a trembling smile, though I knew it looked nothing like a smile at all. "You should... you should go back to the omegas’ quarters. Both of you."
Joan’s brows furrowed, confusion flickering through the fear etched into her face. "Go back?" Her voice cracked on the words.
I nodded, stroking Elara’s hair absently as I spoke. "Yes. You don’t need to stay here with me anymore. I’m fine now. Really. I can take care of myself." The lie burned in my throat, but I forced it out anyway. "He’s gone. You don’t need to to waste your time on me."
Joan stared at me like I’d gone mad. "Ellie, you. Her voice broke, and she pressed her fist against her mouth to stop it. Tears glistened in her eyes again. I turned my gaze down to Elara, who stirred faintly against me. "Elara," I whispered, brushing her shoulder. "You should go with Joan. You’re hurt. You need rest, and you’ll be safer in the quarters."
Her eyelids fluttered open, and for a moment she only blinked at me, dazed. Then her expression shifted, and fear seized her entire body.
"No!" Her voice cracked so loudly it startled both me and Joan. She clutched at my arm with surprising strength, her nails digging into my skin. "No, no, Ellie you can’t—don’t make us leave you!"
"Elara—"
Her voice rose into a desperate wail. "He’ll kill us! He’ll kill us if we leave you alone!" Her words tumbled out in a rush, broken by sobs. "Please, Ellie, please don’t send us away! Please don’t let him find you alone—he’ll punish us, he’ll punish you, he’ll—he’ll—Her breath hitched, and she broke down entirely, burying her face against my chest and sobbing so hard her whole body shook. My arms tightened around her instinctively, my heart wrenching. Joan had covered her mouth again, but tears streamed down her cheeks, her shoulders trembling as she shook her head violently.
"No, Ellie," Joan whispered hoarsely once she found her voice. "Don’t ask us to go. Don’t... don’t make us leave you like that. If we leave you here alone and he-She stopped, choking on the thought. "I couldn’t live with that. I won’t."
The weight of their words pressed down on me harder than the silence had. I had thought I was protecting them, that letting them go back would save them. But to them, leaving me behind was the same as delivering me to the Alpha’s hands. And maybe they were right. Because the truth was, I was terrified of being alone. The silence wasn’t just silence it was him, lingering, waiting. Every flicker of shadow made me think he was already back. Every creak in the walls sounded like his footsteps. Alone, I’d go mad. Alone, I’d break. But I couldn’t let them see that. I had to be the strong one, even if it was a lie.
"Elara," I murmured, holding her tighter as she sobbed into me. "It’s okay. I’ll be fine. You don’t have to—"
Her head shot up suddenly, her tear-streaked face wild with terror. "No! Don’t say that! Don’t say you’ll be fine! You won’t, you can’t—he’ll destroy you, Ellie, he’ll destroy us all! Please, please don’t send us away, please don’t make us go!"
Her voice cracked on every word, each one sharper than a blade. Her hands fisted into my dress as though letting go of me would mean falling into an abyss. I froze, tears blurring my vision. Because she wasn’t wrong. I wasn’t fine and I wasn’t safe. The silence pressed closer, wrapping around the three of us like chains. Joan’s quiet sobs, Elara’s desperate pleas, my own pounding heartbeat they filled the emptiness he’d left behind. But nothing filled it enough. He was still there, even when he wasn’t. And maybe Elara was right. Maybe the moment they left, the Alpha would return. Maybe this was all a game to him, watching us unravel piece by piece. I buried my face against Elara’s hair and let my tears fall silently, my voice breaking in a whisper only I could hear.
"I can’t protect you. I can’t protect anyone. Not even myself."
But I held them tighter anyway. Because if the Alpha was going to break me, I wouldn’t let him break me alone.