CHAPTER 31: CHAPTER 31

When His breathing finally steadied and the fever broke under my hands, I thought I might be able to rest, just for a little while. I’d patched him up, coaxed his raging body temperature down with cold compresses, monitored his pulse like the doctor I used to be in my old world. But the moment his golden eyes opened again, sharp and unblinking, I realized my ordeal had only just begun. He didn’t speak right away. Instead, he lay there, his head turned slightly toward me, pupils dilated in that strange way wolves had when they were studying prey. My skin crawled under his gaze. I sat at the farthest edge of the bed, fingers curled tightly in my lap, trying to appear small, harmless, forgettable. But of course, to him, I was never forgettable. I was his possession. His personal omega.

He didn’t say a word to me, but I could feel it the weight of his thoughts pressing against me. Who knows what the crazy psycho is planning to do to me now.

"inner voice: She touched you. She dared to put her hands on your body. Did you feel it? The way her fingers trembled, the heat of her palms? Don’t let her pull away. Don’t let her forget that she belongs here, with you, under you, because of you.

I stiffened. I hated when he looked at me like that, as though he could crawl into my head and unravel every secret I’d ever tried to bury.

I swallowed and forced myself to whisper, "A-A-Alpha You are better now. Try to rest."

He blinked slowly, then shifted closer to me, the bed dipping under his weight. My body froze. Every instinct screamed at me to get up, to run, to escape before he could trap me again. But escape in this pack house was a fantasy. The moment I tried, he’d find me. He always found me.

"inner voice: She’s trembling again. Do you see how easy it is to make her break? But she didn’t run when you were weak. She could have. She should have. Yet she stayed. Why? Why would a fragile little thing like her stay by your side?

His hand moved suddenly. Not violently no, that would have been easier to predict, easier to accept. Instead, his fingers brushed against mine where they lay clenched in my lap. Just a feather-light touch, deliberate and slow. I sucked in a breath. My heart thundered so hard I thought it might betray me.

"inner voice: These hands these soft, trembling hands that stitched you back together. A doctor’s hands, aren’t they? Where did she learn that? She’s just an omega, my personal omega, where did she learn to do that?

I froze completely. My chest tightened. For one horrifying moment, I thought he knew that somehow he could see through me, into the truth I had never dared to speak aloud. That I wasn’t from this world at all. That I had once been a doctor, with sterile gloves and beeping monitors, in a life that now felt like someone else’s dream. He tilted his head, watching me like I was a puzzle only he had the right to solve. His thumb grazed the ridge of my knuckles, slow and circling.

"inner voice: If I press here, she flinches. If I hold tighter, her pulse jumps. She’s so delicate... so easy to bruise. I could crush her hand and she wouldn’t even scream she’d just take it, wouldn’t she? Because she knows she can’t leave. She knows she belongs to me. A shudder ripped through me. I wanted to yank my hand back, but I didn’t dare. Every time I resisted him, he punished me. Every time I thought I could reclaim some piece of myself, he shattered it. So I sat there, silent, letting him trace circles on my skin like a predator toying with his prey. And then so suddenly I almost didn’t believe what I was hearing, his expression softened. The hard, dangerous gleam in his eyes dimmed, replaced with something quieter. Almost gentle.

"Ellie," he murmured. My name sounded strange in his mouth, like a word he’d stolen and was trying on for the first time.

I blinked. My lips parted but no sound came out.

"inner voice: Don’t be fooled. You’re not soft. You’re not weak. You can’t let her think she’s safe. But look at her eyes. Look at the way she’s holding her breath, waiting for the blow that doesn’t come. Doesn’t it feel good to hold back? To let her think, just for a second, that you could be human with her? His fingers laced suddenly with mine, gripping tighter now, and I couldn’t help it I gasped.

"You should sleep too," I whispered, my voice trembling. "You’re recovering. I-I-I will stay until you do."

His lips curved into a smile that wasn’t really a smile. Something darker. Something claiming.

"inner voice: She stays. Even when she could run, she stays. Maybe it’s fear. Maybe it’s something else. But she’s mine now. My omega. My personal cure. My sickness and my medicine all at once.

For a fleeting moment, his thumb smoothed over my hand in a way that almost felt tender. My chest tightened, confused and terrified all at once. Could it be possible just possible that somewhere inside this monster there was a man who wanted comfort, who wanted me not as a prisoner, but as a person? The thought was dangerous. Too dangerous. I crushed it before it could bloom. Because in the very next breath, his eyes darkened again.

"inner voice: Don’t get soft. Don’t let her believe this illusion. She’s not here to heal you. She’s here to be broken. To learn what it means to belong. And if she ever tries to leave!!

His grip on my hand tightened suddenly, painfully, until I winced.

"A-A-Alpha I whispered, unable to hide the panic in my voice you are hurting me. He leaned close, his lips brushing the shell of my ear as he whispered, "You’ll never leave me, Ellie. Not after what you’ve done. Not after you touched me. Do you understand?"

Tears burned my eyes, but I forced myself to nod. Because I knew what would happen if I said no.

"inner voice: Good girl. Keep nodding. Keep trembling. You’re mine. Mine to hold, mine to torment, mine to keep forever. No one will ever take you from me.

And just like that, whatever softness had flickered in him vanished like smoke. He was the psycho Alpha again, the predator who had caged me in his madness.

But still, somewhere deep inside, I couldn’t forget the way his hand had softened on mine just for a moment. The way his eyes had almost looked human. And that was the cruelest part of all.

The crazy Alpha’s hand remained heavy on my wrist, his fingers curled possessively even as his breathing slowed into something uneven, almost tortured. His body was hot against mine, still recovering from the fever that had raged through him last night. I had stayed. I had treated him. I had done what I was trained to do, what my instincts demanded of me save a life, even when that life terrified me. His lashes fluttered once, his voice rasping low before the weight of sleep finally claimed him.

"Don’t leave my side, Elie. Ever."

It wasn’t a request. It was a command. His voice, though hoarse, carried that authority that pressed into my chest like a brand. The kind of tone no one dared to disobey. And then he was gone again, sinking back into the darkness of his dreams, his brow still furrowed as if even in sleep something inside him refused to rest. I sat there, stiff, afraid to move. His arm around me was both a prison and a tether. My mind screamed at me to slip out from under him, run, breathe, find space that wasn’t saturated by his scent. But another part of me, the part that had treated his fever, wiped his sweat, and whispered reassurances he would never remember couldn’t bring herself to move. So I stayed. And slowly, my own mind began to drift.

The oppressive walls of the Alpha’s quarters blurred. His heat, his scent, the low growl rumbling in his chest as he dreamed it all began to fade into the background. And in its place... White walls. Sterile air. The faint sting of disinfectant. I blinked, and for a moment I swore I was back in the hospital. The memory came like a wave crashing against me. I was standing in my old world again, in the emergency department that had become my second home. The hum of voices, the quick shuffle of nurses, the sharp bark of doctors calling orders it was chaos, but it was my chaos.

"Elie! We need you in Trauma Two!"

I could hear Dr. Carter’s voice in my ears, crisp, urgent. He was always so calm under pressure, his dark eyes sharp and steady. My best friend, the one who stayed behind with me during the longest shifts, who brought me bitter coffee at three in the morning when exhaustion threatened to drag me under. I could almost feel the weight of the stethoscope around my neck, the familiar tug of latex gloves snapping into place. My fingers itched for the precision of sutures, the steadiness of stitching torn flesh back together, of setting bones, of watching life return to someone’s eyes because of what I had done. Back then, I thought my life was hard. I thought the long nights, the stress, the grief of losing patients was unbearable. But compared to now? Compared to being trapped here, in a world where I was nothing more than a powerless omega belonging to a psycho Alpha?

I would give anything to go back. Anything. I missed Carter’s teasing smirk when I made another terrible vending machine dinner choice. I missed Dr. Nguyen’s lectures, long and boring, but always ending with him sneaking us snacks when he thought no one was looking. I missed the way my team had become my family. The family I had chosen. Now, they were gone. All of them. And worse what if they thought I was gone too? Did they mourn me? Did they stand over an empty bed, wondering how a girl like me could just vanish?

Or maybe none of it had been real. Maybe this life, this werewolf world, wasn’t a nightmare but the truth... and my old life had only been a dream. The thought made bile rise in my throat. I pressed a hand to my chest, realizing it was trembling. The Alpha’s arm tightened instinctively around me, even in sleep, dragging me closer. My breath hitched as his face buried against my neck.

"inner voice: So fragile. So restless. Do you miss it, little omega? Do you long for something beyond me? Beyond this bond?

I froze. That voice. That awful, echoing voice that lived inside him, or maybe inside me it was hard to tell where it came from anymore. It was him, but not him. His darkness given form.

"inner voice: I see your dreams. I smell your longing. Do you think of other men when you sleep beside me? Doctors. Friends. Weak humans who could never own you like I do. They would have let you run, let you slip through their fingers. But me?

Alpha Zach shifted, his lips brushing my collarbone as if his inner voice had manifested into movement.

"inner voice: I will never let you go. A shiver crawled up my spine. I wanted to fight, to scream, to shove him away. But my body wouldn’t obey. It was as if the voice had slithered into my nerves, puppeteering me with nothing more than dread. And yet his hand on mine wasn’t harsh this time. His fingers traced the back of my knuckles, featherlight.

"inner voice: Where did you learn, Elie? To heal. To save. You touched me with such certainty, such skill. Who taught you? His thumb circled lazily, almost teasing, and my heart pounded at the contradiction of it all. This monster, this Alpha who terrified me to my core, was curious.

"inner voice: You are not just an omega. Not to me. Not anymore.

My throat burned. Tears pricked at my eyes. I wanted to scream at him that I had been a doctor, that I had saved countless lives before this cruel fate threw me into his world. But if I told him, would he even believe me? Or would he laugh? Lock me away?

"inner voice: Soft hands. Warm hands. My hands.

The teasing caress of his thoughts made me yank slightly at my wrist, but his grip only tightened. Not painfully. Not this time. Just enough to remind me there was no escaping him. For a terrifying heartbeat, he seemed almost... gentle. And then, as if a switch had flipped, his body stiffened. His lips curled against my skin in something between a kiss and a threat.

"inner voice: Don’t think I’m softened, Elie. Don’t mistake my interest for mercy. I am yours to fear. Yours to serve. Yours to never leave. My chest heaved, trapped between the phantom comfort of my memories and the suffocating reality of his arms. The hospital, my friends, my old life they felt like smoke slipping through my fingers. This world, this Alpha, his voice this was what remained. And I couldn’t wake up.

The rest of the night dragged on with the weight of chains I couldn’t see. His breathing deepened, steady at last, but his arm never loosened. My body ached from lying still, but I didn’t dare move. I stared at the ceiling, silently begging whatever power had thrown me here to take me back. But morning came.

And I was still here.