Falling for Her Ruthless Captor のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 31 - チャプター 40

Xavier povThe forest didn’t welcome us—it swallowed us whole.Branches slapped against my face, thorns clawed at my clothes, but I didn’t stop. Couldn’t. My lungs burned and my legs screamed, but I pushed forward, Asher on my heels, matching my pace even though we both looked like death’s leftovers.Every crunch of dead leaves underfoot was a warning. We were deep in enemy territory, and if Alpha Tristan had even a sliver of brain in that smug skull of his, he’d already have guards sweeping the perimeter.“Straight ahead,” I rasped, heart pounding like war drums in my chest. “The hollow tree. You remember?”Asher grunted. “Do I look like I forgot?”We tore through the forest, shadows racing with us, the cold night air biting at our wounds. My mind was a whirlpool—Aria’s face burned behind my eyes, her voice a whisper I couldn’t reach. I’d come to see her. Instead, I’d nearly lost everything.But not anymore.A flash of movement to the left.I whirled around, blade raised, fangs itchi

Tristan povSmoke curled through the hall like a warning—acrid, thick, and bold enough to crawl down my throat and choke me on my own rage. The walls trembled from another distant explosion, and somewhere above, glass shattered, raining down like sharp, glittering snow.I shoved open the steel-reinforced door to the control room, the keypad still flickering from power interference. “Status!” I barked.No one answered.The command center was chaos. Screens blinked in and out—glitching between security feeds, static, and blackouts. The room smelled of panic-sweat and ozone. One guard hunched over a monitor, his hands trembling. Another stood by the intercom, mouth half-open but no words spilling out.“Where the hell is my tactical team?” I growled, slamming a fist into the console. A crack snaked through the surface, but it didn’t satisfy me. Nothing could.“They… Alpha, the west wall’s breached. Rogues. At least two dozen. They had explosives.”“Explosives?” I said the word like it off

Aria pov“Come on, Aria. Keep those pretty legs moving!” Asher hissed from ahead, the silver moonlight catching the edge of his jaw as he sprinted through the undergrowth like he had wild in his veins.Easy for him to say. He was a trained rogue, all grit and agility. I was a pack wolf—pampered, polished, and used to staircases, not tree roots trying to murder me.“I’m—trying!” I gasped, my lungs screaming, heart pounding like a war drum. The cold wind slapped my face as I stumbled forward, legs burning. My ankle twisted and I crashed hard to the forest floor with a grunt, dead leaves slicing at my palms.“Shit,” I muttered, rolling over. The world spun, and not in a fun, champagne-after-midnight kind of way.I barely had time to blink before strong arms scooped me up. Asher didn’t even break stride.“Seriously?” I breathed, arms curling instinctively around his neck. “You’re going to carry me like some damsel in distress?”“You are a damsel. And you’re currently in a whole lot of dis

Xavier povShe was in my arms, and I swear the whole damn world narrowed to the feel of her heartbeat slamming against mine.I could still taste her on my lips—salt, sweat, something desperate and wild. She smelled like smoke and blood and Aria, and it took everything in me not to fall to my knees like a fucking lunatic.“I thought—” I started, but her hands slammed against my chest.“What the hell were you thinking?” she hissed.Oh, here we go.“You sent Asher into a death trap! You could’ve died, he could’ve died—I could’ve died!”“I know,” I said quietly, grabbing her wrists before she started throwing actual punches. “But I didn’t know where they had you. I didn’t know what Tristan was doing to you. Every second you were gone, I was losing my goddamn mind.”“You still have a mind?” she shot back, lip trembling. “Because I was stuck in that hellhole wondering if you were even alive. You didn’t answer through the bond. You didn’t come.”“I couldn’t feel you,” I said. “I thought mayb

Aria pov“How do I make Tristan treat me as his… after all that’s happened?”The words tasted bitter on my tongue, like I was betraying myself by even saying them out loud. My voice was barely a whisper, drowned by the wind rustling through the trees. My head was cradled against Xavier’s chest, rising and falling with every breath he took. His arms were wrapped around me—strong, warm, grounding. Like they were the only thing keeping me from splintering apart.He didn’t answer right away. I could feel the storm in him, brewing. His jaw clenched against the top of my head, his pulse hammering just under his skin.“Don’t say that,” he finally muttered, his voice thick with something feral. “Don’t you dare say that.”I blinked, heart skipping. “I just—he’s still Alpha. He’s still out there. And you know what he does to things he thinks belong to him…”He pulled back just enough to look at me, one hand cupping the side of my face. His thumb swept along my cheek, catching the salt from tear