Reclaimed By My Alpha (Natalia and Andrei) novel Chapter 467

Chapter 467

Natalia’s POV

With a gasp, I pulled my boot out of the water and stumbled backward. My legs wouldn’t hold me anymore. I fell to my butt, hardly even feeling the stone cutting against me, and panted as I stared at the rippling water.

Andrei was still kneeling at the edge of the pool with my baby clutched against his chest. He was staring at me with wide eyes, his face pale and covered in sweat. For a moment, neither of us moved or spoke. We just looked at each other.

“Andrei,” I finally managed, crawling toward him. My voice came out hoarse and broken. “Andrei, it’s me.”

He shook his head slowly. “No. You’re not real. None of this is real.”

“I am real.” I dropped to my knees in front of him, reaching out to touch his face. He flinched when my fingers brushed his cheek, but he didn’t pull away. “I’m here. I survived the fall. The King… It doesn’t matter. I’m here.”

Andrei’s eyes searched my face. He still looked uncertain, like he was waiting for me to disappear or transform into something else. “I’m in Hell,” he whispered. “I died. This is Hell, and you’re just another-”

I kissed him before he could finish. I pressed my lips to his and tasted blood and ash and the bitter residue of the fumes. He went rigid for a moment, and then his free hand came up to the back of my head, pulling me closer. The kiss was desperate and messy and so perfect I could have stayed like that forever.

When we pulled back, some of the clarity had returned to his eyes. “Natalia,” he breathed. “You’re really here.”

“I’m here.” I touched his forehead with mine, my hand coming up to cover his where he held our baby between us. She had finally stopped crying and was just making small hiccupping sounds now. “We’re here. All three of us.”

“Three of us,” Andrei whispered. He looked down at the baby as if seeing her for the first time. His expression crumpled, and he let out a sound that might have been a chuckle. “She’s so small.”

“She’s perfect.” I stroked her tiny head, smoothing down the dark hair that was still damp from being so close to the water. “And she’s ours.”

We stayed like that for a long moment, foreheads pressed together, our daughter cradled between us. I could feel Andrei’s breath on my face and the warmth of his body, and for the first time since I’d fallen over that cliff, felt like maybe everything would be okay. Maybe we would make it out of this.

Until the ground beneath us trembled.

I jerked my head up. “What was that?”

Andrei’s eyes

widened. “The scream. Your scream–it must have-

“”

Another tremor came before he could finish speaking. Dust and small pebbles rained down from the ceiling. I looked up and saw cracks spreading across the stone like spiderwebs, branching out in every direction.

“We need to move. Now.” Andrei struggled to his feet, still holding our baby. I tried to stand too, but my legs gave out. He caught me with his free hand and hauled me up. “Can you walk?”

Chapter 467

“I can try.”

+25 Bonus

We stumbled toward the nearest door–the one that led back to the hallway I’d come through earlier. Behind us, I heard a loud crack as part of the ceiling collapsed into the pool. Steam billowed up in a massive cloud, filling

the chamber.

Andrei pushed the door open and we staggered into the hallway. The walls were shaking now, the tremors coming faster. More cracks appeared in the stones, and I could hear rumbling coming from deeper in the mountain.

“Which way?” Andrei asked. His voice was strained. I could see him swaying on his feet. The fumes and the torture had taken their toll. He was barely holding on, just like me.

“I don’t know.” I pressed my hand against the wall to steady myself. “The King brought me down so many different passages. I can’t remember—”

A section of the ceiling collapsed ahead of us, blocking the path. We turned and ran in the other direction, but another collapse cut us off.

“There!” Andrei pointed to a narrow side passage. We ducked into it just as the main hallway behind us gave way completely. The sound was deafening–tons upon tons of rock crashing down. It was like the mountain was eating itself from the inside out.

P

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