The Rejected daughter chosen by the Alpha (Maya and Atila) novel Chapter 46

Chapter 46

– MAYA

We ran without looking back.

55 vouchers

My lungs burned, my legs screamed, and the world reduced itself to branches tearing at my skin, roots trying to trip me, and the distant sound of something hunting us. Beatrice stayed ahead, moving with a certainty I didn’t have, weaving through the trees as if the forest were an extension of her own body.

Then, all of a sudden, she stopped.

She dropped to her knees and started shoving aside dry leaves and dirt with her bare hands. Her movements were fast- desperate, frantic, yet oddly precise. I couldn’t understand what she was doing. My heart was pounding so hard it felt like it might give us away.

“What are you doing?” I asked, my voice shaking.

“Trust me,” she said, without looking at me.

That’s when I heard it-the scrape of metal.

Beatrice dragged something heavy out of the ground, revealing an iron door hidden beneath the leaves. When she pulled it open, a rush of cold air surged up from deep inside the earth. A tunnel. Dark. Deep.

“Go,” she ordered. “Now.”

I was too flooded with adrenaline to question anything. I just did what she said. I grabbed the iron ladder and climbed down fast, my hands trembling as the freezing metal pressed against my overheated skin.

Beatrice followed right behind me. The moment she stepped onto the last rung, the door slammed shut above us. The metallic echo rolled through the tunnel-deep, hollow, terrifying.

Then silence.

The darkness was almost complete. I could barely see my own fingers. A soft click broke the black, and a small flame flickered to life. Slowly, the lantern illuminated our surroundings-reinforced dirt walls, a low ceiling, uneven ground beneath our feet.

My chest tightened.

“Do you think they’ll find us here?” I asked, my voice coming out quieter than I meant it to.

Beatrice took a moment to answer. When she finally spoke, her voice sounded hollow, fractured, like each word had to pass through something sharp inside her.

“No.”

I swallowed hard. “Are you sure?”

She nodded slowly. “They don’t know the entrances. Only my father and I did.”

The word father barely made it past her lips.

Then her legs gave out.

1/3

5:17 pm PMM.

Chapter 46

Beatrice collapsed to the ground.

215 vouchers

The sobs hit her all at once-raw, violent, uncontrollable. She folded in on herself, hands pressed to her face, her whole body shaking. I crouched beside her without thinking, pulled her close, and held her the best I could. I didn’t say anything. There were no words that would help.

So I stayed.

I stroked her hair and let her cry against me.

I couldn’t even begin to imagine the pain she was carrying. From the moment I met Beatrice, she struck me as strong- almost unbreakable. And more than that, someone who loved her father deeply, the kind of love that doesn’t need to be spoken out loud. What had happened must have shattered her-not just the loss, but the way it happened. My chest ached with empathy, and all I could do was stay there, offering what little comfort I could.

Eventually, her sobs faded. She took a shaky breath, wiped her face with the back of her hand, and slowly stood. She picked up the lantern and started walking down the tunnel.

‘What do we do now?” I asked, following her.

‘We find help.”

‘Where?”

She paused, the lantern casting harsh shadows across her face. When she spoke, her eyes were distant-resolved and empty at the same time.

‘Moonville. I need to talk to a family friend. He’ll know what I should do next.”

We walked in silence. The tunnel felt endless, winding beneath the forest. The air grew cooler with every step. At one point. Beatrice stopped beneath another door overhead and pushed it open carefully.

The creak of wheels rolling over dirt filled the tunnel. A cart passed directly above us, so close it made my stomach twist. We waited a few seconds. Then she opened the door a little more.

We emerged onto a dirt road near the edge of the forest. The night felt warmer there. Beatrice climbed out first and held out her hand. I took it. As soon as my feet touched the ground, I saw the cart disappearing into the distance.

“This way,” she said.

We followed a side path until a massive estate came into view-imposing, unmistakable-surrounded by fields stretching as far as the eye could see beneath the endless night. The house was far too large to belong to an ordinary resident of

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify