Reclaimed By My Alpha (Natalia and Andrei) novel Chapter 517

Natalia’s POV

My eyes cracked open. For a moment, my head spun, but soon my vision came back into focus.

The ceiling above me was wooden beams and shadows. I was still in the cabin, still Isaac’s captive. He must have used the ruby to knock me out.

I tried to move my arms, but they wouldn’t budge. Something was wrapped around them, which I quickly realized to be rough ropes when I moved and felt the fibers rub painfully against my wrists.

I began to panic and tug frantically at the bindings. My wolf felt far away—the last time I’d felt this way had been when I’d been in the Winter King’s clutches. My head was fuzzy, but I knew I needed to get the fuck away from that ruby and the fuck away from that feeling.

No. No, no, no, not again!

My heart pounded wildly.

Have to get out have to get out have to get out!

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

Isaac’s voice came from somewhere to my left. I whipped my head around so hard it made my neck twinge. He was sitting in a chair with the ruby resting on a table beside him. It was still glowing faintly, pulsing in the darkness and turning the underside of his chin red.

“Let me go,” I demanded.

“I’m afraid I can’t do that.” He stood and walked over to me. I was lying on the floor of the small room with my hands tied above my head to something I couldn’t see. My ankles were bound too.

I felt truly vulnerable for the first time in months. The last time I had felt like this… I didn’t even want to remember what it was like. The agony. The helplessness. The horror.

“No. She was brilliant.” His voice hardened. “And now she’s dead because of you and Andrei.”

The way he spat out my mate’s name made my blood run cold. It was full of hate, and nothing at all like the kind, innocent man I’d briefly known.

“What do you want from me?” I asked. “I can’t bring her back. I can’t take back what happened. I’m sorry you cared for her, but Helena and the Winter King are gone. The war is over. You have to accept that.”

“The war is never over. It’s been here since the dawn of time and will continue into eternity; and I intend to finish what my forebears started.”

With that, he stood and walked back to the table. He picked up the ruby, holding it up to the light. “The Winter King’s power didn’t die with him. It’s still out there, waiting for someone worthy to claim it. Someone who can wield the rubies better than anyone else. Someone chosen by the Lord of Hell. And I will be that person.”

“Lord of Hell?” I whispered. I recalled the Winter King saying something about demons speaking to him in the caves, and the stories about the rubies being forged from the fires of hell. But those were just legends and the spewings of a man turned mad from inhaling chemical fumes. It wasn’t real.