Alpha’s Hybrid Cinderella – Chapter 23

Evan wouldn’t be returning to the Scarlet pack house for a while. His absence should have made it easier for me to stay there, but the idea of walking in alone, knowing how everything had changed in just these last few precious hours… I couldn’t. I stayed at Raf’s apartment, and we had late brunch together while we went over our assignments. No classes today since it was a Reading Day with mid-terms drawing closer, but that didn’t mean we could slack.

We decided to go to one of the libraries on campus so we could study without the distraction of thumping neighbors. But when we got there, I only lasted an hour before my thoughts began to wander.

Curse.

ng else. What was it? What had he been talking about?

fall in love with me?

ut absorbing a single word. Ugh.

I’m dozing, I need to walk around and wake myself back up.”

ached cafe outside the library entrance. But instead of strolling out, I doubled back to enter the aisles on the other side of the library, the reference area.

t me sublimating my feelings for him onto something else. And yet, even armed with that knowledge, I couldn’t stop myself.

re.

to the subject, and I had no choice but to skim through all of them at lightning speed to find what I needed.

be wearing when she found me hunkered down in the ‘Mates’ section of the reference area.

e thin film of dust that laced the hard edges. No one had taken this book out in ages, and no surprise. Who besides me would ever be interested in this kind of thing? Even I was only invested because of a personal matter.

onary tales. Fairy tales based on real life tragedies. Nope, nope, nope. None of these sounded right. But then again, I’d only heard that one sliver of a thought in Evan’s head. That wasn’t

I scanned each subheading, following the lines with a forefinger pressed

sections. How convoluted.

attention.

Wait.

s this it?

Alpha underlings, Bowman went down as one of the greatest Alpha Kings of all time, a conqueror born who never faced defeat in battle from the beginning of his campaign to the very end.

all of the werewolf people. The remaining quarter of the continent that he did not annex were dependent on him for essential trade and economic prosperity, so they were as good as his protectorates in principle if not in name. Under his rule, the Light pack bec

grown. It existed for only a dozen more years after he came to the head of it, and when he died at the age of thirty-five, the pack was thrown into tumult. Within a few years of his death, the

ipe out an entire people rather than listen to their concerns and allow his subjects to temper his actions. He was prideful, arrogant, and merciless to both friend and enemy, and even his closest companions praised him for his intelligence and strength rather than his humanity.

ally wasted potential, life cut tragically short before he could even bring a tenth of it to fruition.

***

eagle.

waters be his path, he becomes as t

rth, a sight to behold.

e is wolf, he is ma

e sea of blood,

can break upon him and not be shattered.

eek his iron strength, and he is their stron

ng as they c

ngth, and he is their terror.

against him, they will fall.

h in another

ooked upon him with favor

ed him wit

the glory he sought

***

ecame psychotic, a slave to a killing wrath — and killed even his fated mate in one of his violent fits.

king about when Raf and I parted ways, and I r

***

t to report my absence to Peelle and Evan, and although she had known I was with Rafael, it was still her duty to

e him that. Couldn’t.

, dreaming strange things.

is face turned into Evan’s, covered in crimson blood. He

nster.

collapsed into pieces, dust and debris.

nd I could do nothing but watch.

e, I was drenched in sweat,