The Alpha's Unwanted Bride novel Chapter 708

Chapter 708: THE INTERRUPTION

The pull was immediate.

Not sudden. Not violent.

Just there.

It slid beneath my skin the moment I stepped closer to the pedestal, a quiet insistence that wrapped around my ribs and tugged gently forward.

My breath slowed without my permission, my feet moving as if the floor itself were guiding me.

I didn’t even realize I was walking until Maelis spoke.

"Do you feel it," she asked softly.

"Yes," I whispered. "It feels like... like it knows me."

The chamber seemed to hum as I approached, the air growing warmer with each step.

The chest stood encased in thick glass and runes, reinforced and sealed with layers of protection meant to keep the stone dormant. And yet it didn’t feel dormant at all.

It felt awake.

Alive.

The ruby glowed from within, a deep crimson light that pulsed slowly, steadily, like a heartbeat. Not frantic. Not wild. Just waiting.

I stopped just inches away from the glass.

My chest tightened.

"It’s calling," I murmured. "I can hear it."

Maelis drew closer. "Your necklace," she said. "Look."

I glanced down.

The emerald at my throat was glowing.

Not brightly, not violently, but steadily. A soft green light spilled across my skin, illuminating my fingers and the curve of my collarbone. I lifted it gently, watching the light shimmer against my palm.

Then I looked back at the ruby.

And my breath caught.

They were pulsing together.

Not identically.

But in harmony.

High and low. Slow and fast. As if one breathed in while the other breathed out. The same rhythm I had felt when I had sat on the throne, when the emerald embedded there had responded to me and torn open the world.

My stomach flipped.

"It’s the same," I whispered. "The frequency. The way it had been when I came here."

Maelis nodded. "Stones of creation were never meant to exist alone. They call to one another. They stabilize each other."

I swallowed hard. "It feels like the ruby is calling to me. Not just the emerald. Me."

"That happens," she said carefully. "Especially with bloodlines tied to the emerald necklace."

Her words sent a chill down my spine.

The ruby pulsed brighter, its light flaring briefly as if in acknowledgment.

I reached out without thinking.

Maelis’s hand snapped around my wrist instantly.

"No," she said sharply. "Not yet."

The contact jolted me back into myself, the haze lifting just enough for me to realize how close I had been to touching the glass.

I exhaled slowly. "Sorry."

She released me but didn’t step away.

"This stone will speak," she warned. "It will promise. It will justify. It will tell you what you want to hear. Do not listen to it."

The ruby flickered, the glow sharpening.

Then Maelis nodded to the guards.

They moved immediately.

Four of them stepped forward, their armor glinting faintly in the moonlight, hands steady as they began unlocking the seals. Runes flared, one by one, the glass vibrating softly as each ward disengaged.

The ruby brightened with every release.

I felt it in my teeth. In my spine. In my womb.

My baby kicked sharply, a sudden jolt that stole my breath.

I pressed a hand to my belly instinctively.

"Easy," I whispered. "I’m here."

The final seal broke with a low hum.

The chest opened.

Light flooded the chamber.

The ruby was larger than I had expected, jagged but deliberate in its shape, facets uneven as if it had been broken from something once whole.

And there, unmistakable even from where I stood, was the missing piece.

The chipped edge.

The exact shape of the shard embedded in my father’s ring.

My throat went dry.

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