Alpha Damien's Trouble Maker (by Ruby Anne) novel Chapter 189

Chapter 189

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Selene

I moved without thinking, my body acting faster than my thoughts as I leapt over a fallen log and kept running, my steps light and precise as I wove through the dense forest, careful not to waste even a second of time or a drop of energy. I did not know if I could outrun that thing behind me, but I knew one thing with absolute certainty, I was not the kind of person who would stand still and wait for death to catch up to her. That had never been my style, and it never would be.

In my mind, Mira’s voice echoed, calm but laced with curiosity. Are you really going to run? Don’t you think you should try to understand what it wants?’

A breathless laugh almost escaped me at her words.

Understand it? That sounded like something a naive protagonist in a story would do, someone who believed everything in the world had a reason that would somehow work in their favor. was not that kind of person, and I had lived far too many lives to entertain such foolishness.

What if I stopped to understand it, and it decided to kill me on the spot, or worse, take over my body? No, I was not taking that risk. I preferred the simplest solution, the most efficient one If running increased my chances of survival, then I would run without hesitation. It really was that simple.

When a massive tree blocked my path, I did not slow down. I planted my foot against the trunk, pushed myself upward, grabbed onto a thick branch, and swung over before landing smoothly on the other side, continuing forward without breaking my rhythm. Ever since that black mist appeared, I had not encountered any other creatures, and that alone was unsettling. It was as if everything else in the forest had sensed it and fled, or worse, were too afraid to even exist in its

presence.

I was just about to turn into another clearing when my instincts screamed at me, forcing my body to halt as I jumped back without hesitation. Something massive landed right where I would have stepped next.

I lifted my gaze and found myself staring at a monster that looked like it had been stitched together, its head resembling that of a lion while its body carried the hulking mass of a bear. It let out a deafening roar the moment it spotted me, its eyes locking onto mine with murderous intent as it charged forward without a second of hesitation.

I sighed, irritation flickering through me as I prepared to deal with yet another inconvenience, my body already shifting into motion to take it down quickly and move on. But before I could even act, something else appeared.

A dark, shifting presence slid between me and the monster, forcing me to stop abruptl widening despite myself.

It caught up.

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The black mist stood there, if it could even be called standing, its form twisting and writhing in a way that made it impossible to fully comprehend. The monster in front of it froze instantly, its massive body trembling as if every instinct it had was screaming at it to run,

The mist spoke, its voice low, raspy, and inhuman, as if it was dragging each word from the depths of something ancient. “You dare touch what I have set my eyes on? You must be courting death.”

The creature tried to retreat, its survival instincts finally taking over, but it was too late. The mist moved faster than anything I had seen before, wrapping around the monster before it could even take a full step away. In a matter of seconds, its form twisted and reshaped, mimicking the creature it had just captured, except this version was larger, darker, and far more terrifying.

The mist shifted in front of me, its form rippling as though it was alive, breathing, watching, and thinking all at once, before its voice echoed again, smooth and coaxing, as if it had all the time in the world to convince me.

“Shall we continue now?” it asked, almost patiently, almost amused. “Like I said, I am not here to harm you, I just want to merge. You are the only one strong enough to take me in.”

I stared at it for a long moment without responding, my eyes narrowing slightly as I took in the way it moved, the way it lingered too close without truly touching me. Then I let out a slow breath and sighed, already knowing how this would go.

There was no world where I would willingly merge with something like that, and there was also no obvious way out of this place, which meant that, whether I liked it or not, this was going o turn into a fight.

I shrugged lightly, before muttering under my breath with a faint smirk tugging at my lips.

“Well, I might as well put that lazy phoenix to work.”

Before the black mist could respond or question me further, I raised my hand and brought my finger to my mouth, biting down without hesitation until I tasted iron on my tongue, and a bead of blood welled up before dripping down slowly. The moment the blood fell and touched the ground beneath me, I spoke clearly, my voice steady and commanding as it cut through the eerie silence of the forest.

“I call the fire phoenix god to my aid.”