Reclaimed By My Alpha (Natalia and Andrei) novel Chapter 491

Chapter 491

Natalia’s POV

The festival preparations were in full swing. I spent most of the morning cleaning. It was tedious work, but it kept my hands busy and my mind occupied.

Hope was napping. The twins were outside helping Andrei’s Beta hang decorations in the town square. For once, I had a little time to myself.

I was putting away some extra linens in the upstairs closet when I decided to tackle the mess in Andrei’s study. It was cluttered with papers and books. He’d been spending more time in here lately, working late into the night.

I gathered up the scattered papers and started organizing them into neat piles. Most of it was pack business. Supply reports, building schedules, correspondence with other territories. Nothing unusual.

But then I found the journal.

It was tucked under a stack of folders on his desk, half–hidden like he didn’t want anyone to see it. The cover was plain leather, worn at the edges. I’d never seen it before.

I shouldn’t have opened it. I knew that. But something made me pick it up and flip to the first page.

The handwriting was barely legible. Messy scrawls that slanted across the page in red ink. Some words were pressed so hard into the paper that they’d torn through to the next page. Others were so light I could barely make them out.

“Can’t stop seeing it. Over and over. Blood everywhere. Her eyes. Dead eyes. My hands. Always my hands.”

“What the hell…?” I whispered. That was probably where I should have stopped, but I couldn’t help it. I flipped to the next page.

“The voice won’t stop. Keeps telling me what I am. What I’ll do. Monster. Killer. Can’t escape it. Can’t make it stop.”

The next page was worse. It didn’t even make sense, not that the first two pages did, either.

“Blood. Blood. Blood. Blood. Gore. A knife. Need the knife if I’m going to complete his ritual.”

The rest of the page dissolved into illegible scribbles.

I kept reading. It was page after page of the same thing. Fragmented thoughts about death and blood and murder. Some of the words were truly vile. Some in all capital letters, others written so tiny they were like the text form of whispers.

Some pages were just words repeated over and over until they filled the entire sheet.

Monster monster monster monster monster

Blood blood blood blood blood need blood for his ritual

Whose ritual? What the hell was this? My hands were shaking. I set the journal down on the desk and stepped back from it.

Chapter 40!

This was bad. This was so much worse than I’d thought.

+25 BONUS

Andrei’s POV

I walked out of Dr. Kline’s office and into the cool spring air. My hands were clenched into fists at my sides. The scabs on my knuckles pulled tight and I welcomed the sting.

Afraid. She’d said I was afraid.

I wasn’t afraid of anything. I’d never been afraid. Fear was for people who didn’t know how to fight back. People who let the world push them around.

I started walking with no real destination in mind. Just needed to move. Needed to get away from that office and that doctor and her probing questions.

“Andrei!”

I turned and saw Damon limping toward me from across the street, leaning on the cane he hadn’t stopped using yet since his injury. He was grinning like he always did, and the moment I saw my brother, some of the tension left my shoulders.

“Hey,” he said when he caught up to me. “Didn’t expect to see you in Ashmoor today. What brings you out here?”

“Just had some business to take care of.”

“Business.” He raised an eyebrow. “What kind of business?”

“The boring kind.” I started walking again and Damon fell into step beside me. “What are you doing here?” I asked. “I thought Grace had you holed up in the sick bed at home.”