Reclaimed By My Alpha (Natalia and Andrei) novel Chapter 562

Chapter 562

Andrei’s POV

The pang in my chest came sudden and sharp. I’d been sitting at my desk in my study, which overlooked the grim landscape, going over reports when it happened.

It wasn’t painful. In fact, it was quite the opposite. It was warm and pleasant, like a gentle caress at the back of my ribs. That was the issue; nothing in this realm was pleasant. Everything, even breathing the hot, dry air, was painful.

The sensation lasted for several long moments. I jerked my head up from my desk and looked out the open window at the Ashfields, pressing my hand to my chest. Something familiar stirred in my bones. For a moment, a scent that I almost recognized washed over me, and for the first time since I could recall, it didn’t smell like rot and decay.

What was that?

Outside the window, the Ashfields were still. Same as always. And yet, strangely, I could feel that sensation tugging me toward them, like an invisible thread pulling me across the expanse. Something was calling to me. Something warm and familiar.

Something that I wanted to go to…

Before I could dwell on it, the door burst open.

Two of my soldiers came in fast, bone armor rattling, and stopped just short of the desk. They looked a bit out of sorts. The taller one spoke first.

“My Lord. There’s been a disturbance.”

“Where?” I asked. I didn’t bother asking what it was; I already had an idea, if that strange feeling in my chest was any indication.

“The Northern basin. One of the scouts reported an anomaly near the ridge line. Some kind of light.” He hesitated. “And a sound. Like a shockwave.”

I looked at him for a moment, then at the second soldier, who gave a short nod confirming the same.

“Take a small unit and go,” I said, rising from my desk and waving my hand. “Do a full sweep of the basin. Anything out of the ordinary, I want to know immediately.”

They left without another word.

I leaned back in my chair and turned toward the window again. The northern basin was remote, even by the standards of this place. Nothing ever came from that direction. Things came from above, occasionally, lost souls who ended up here confused and terrified. But they always came through the central rift, not the basin.

I pressed my hand to my chest again. The sensation was completely gone, not even a ghost of it remaining. I prodded at it, but nothing came of it.

My Lord’s voice didn’t come. The room was quiet. I was alone with it.

Whatever it was, it was gone now.

I went back to my work and ignored it.

Damon’s POV

I kicked the door open so hard it slammed into the wall

“He’s really gone?!”

Karl, standing in the entryway to the Alpha house, rushed forward. I froze; I didn’t know he was visiting Where was Natalia?

Chapter 562

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“Damon.” Karl crossed the room toward me. “You made good time.”

“I shifted and ran the whole way.” I looked past him at the house. It was chaotic, people running around like someone had beer murdered.

I’d received the news from Natalia’s Beta just a few hours ago. Something about Max going missing, this time for far longer than he ever had before. I didn’t hesitate to hear the rest; I left Grace in charge of Ashmoor and came here as quickly as I could.

It took a few minutes to get the full picture, and none of it was good. Max had been missing since shortly after dawn two days ago. His bed was empty, his backpack was gone, and nobody had seen him leave. The warrior on overnight watch had spotted nothing unusual, which meant Max had either slipped out before the watch rotation started or had found a way around it entirely. Knowing Max, that was not outside the realm of possibility.

“He left this,” Karl said, handing me a letter.

It was short, written in Max’s handwriting on a piece of notebook paper.

“I know you guys will be angry. I’m sorry. But I won’t let Mom go off on her own. If Dad is out there, then I want to help her finc him. Don’t come after me. I mean it. -M”

That was it.

I looked up at Karl. “Where did Natalia go?”

“He’s okay,” a voice suddenly said before Karl could answer. We both looked up to see Jane standing at the top of the stairs with her arms folded.

“What?” I dropped the letter to my side, now clenched in my fist. “What do you mean? How do you know?”

Jane descended the stairs slowly. Her gaze was calm and level. It unsettled me about her sometimes. Right now was one of those times.

“He made it through. Both of them did.”

“Jane,” I said, “what the hell are you talking about?”

She didn’t answer right away–just kept staring at me with that strange, knowing gaze of hers. It swallowed her up sometimes, Natalia said; occasionally, Jane would say things she shouldn’t, know things she shouldn’t. Like she had some kind of sixth sense. It had turned her serious and wise beyond her years.

“The portal,” she finally said. “They opened it an hour ago. They’re in the other realm now.”

Other realm? Portal? That sounded a little too familiar for comfort.

I whipped my head toward Karl, who was now wringing his hands nervously. Behind him, Natalia’s Beta came into view. He spotted the look on my face and instantly blanched.

“Karl.” I took a step forward, narrowing my eyes. “Where did Natalia and Max go?”

Nobody said anything to that.

“I have to find them-”

“You can’t, Uncle Damon.” Jane came down the rest of the stairs and grabbed my arm tightly. “The wheels of fate are already in motion. You’re not a part of this story. Not this time.”

I looked at Jane. My throat bobbed. I looked at Karl, and he took a deep breath.

He told me about Celeste’s box, about the letter and the map and the ruby. About the grimoire Natalia had found in the Winter King’s palace and the nine days he had spent translating it in the corner of the library. About the portal, the spell, the location deep in the far north past the edge of any territory any of us had ever set foot in.

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