My Alphas' Dark Desires novel Chapter 108

Chapter 108: Friend or Cousin?

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Chapter 108

~Valerie’s POV~

My eyes snapped to the source. Just beyond the treeline, Dristan stood one arm extended, smoke rising from his fingers.

To the side, Kai stood watching, his Guild following behind him like silent reapers.

"You’re late," I snapped, even as I gasped for breath.

"You’re welcome," he said smoothly, stepping closer. "I didn’t come for the target."

My heart jumped. "Then what did you come for?"

Dristan tilted his head. "You."

I didn’t get to respond.

From the corner of the trees, another shape moved—familiar, too familiar.

Titania.

She was supposed to be with the other half of her Clan. But she stood just off the perimeter, her hair windblown, eyes wide—watching me.

And then she suddenly turned into someone. She met my gaze. And for a second, the forest faded.

I gasped when I recalled that face. I saw her father, my necklace—the smirk from that night.

A cold spike of memory ran down my spine. As I remembered that fateful night when the alphas had saved me. What was she doing here?

Isla grabbed my wrist. "Val, she’s not in our route. She’s not even on the mission. What the hell is she doing here?"

I couldn’t answer.

But before anything else could unfold, an alarm blared in the sky, then a red flare shot into the air.

"Time’s up," Dristan growled.

I swallowed and shut my eyes. When I reopened them, she was nowhere in sight. We turned. The student was secured. The extraction wards shimmered, and we returned to the starting field.

By the time we were done with the whole exercise, we all returned for a briefing.

At the debriefing, Principal Whitmore narrowed her eyes. "One Guild failed to extract any targets."

She turned slowly. "Guild Three."

Xade didn’t flinch. "It wasn’t a failure. It was a trap. Someone’s tampered with the simulation code."

Whitmore’s expression tightened. "I’ll be the judge of that."

My eyes flicked toward Dristan, who still hadn’t looked away from me.

And somewhere across the field, Titania slipped into the background.

I sighed when the meeting came to an end.

I’d barely gotten to my feet after the debrief when I felt the force of a human missile slam into my side.

"Val!" Isla’s voice sang in my ear, too bright for how sore my body felt. "Oh. My. Goddess. You didn’t tell me you had your own personal lightning god on speed dial!"

I groaned, half from exhaustion, half because she was squeezing the life out of me and I didn’t want people eavesdropping on our conversation.

A few of them already saw what Dristan did to save me. If more people spoke about it...

Gosh, I might faint from embarrassment.

"Isla, seriously. My ribs. Oxygen. Please."

She pulled back slightly, her face glowing with mischief and excitement. Her curls bounced as she grabbed my arm and spun me around like we were in a ballroom instead of a training field littered with the remains of magical chaos.

"Did you see him?" she continued breathlessly. "Did you see how Dristan stormed in like a storm-born avenger? That lightning shot? It was straight out of a battle romance."

"The air practically caught fire when Dristan said you. Not ’the target.’ Not ’the team.’ Not even ’the girl.’ Just you. That’s not battle protocol. That’s a declaration. And you looked like you forgot how to breathe for a full five seconds."

"Exactly," she said, her tone softer. "And yet, when it comes to you," she made quotation marks with her fingers, "he stops being all those things. He listens. He watches. He defends. You see it, right?"

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