The Alpha King's Contracted Luna by Nelson Claudia

Chapter 248

Chapter 248

-Ava’s POV-

“Hey, wait up!” | shouted, trying not to slip as | hopped from stone to stone, attempting to catch up with her-or

rather, catch up with me.

This was beyond weird.

| had seen her before this other version of myself. And usually, whenever she appeared, it was for the sole

purpose of taunting me, throwing cryptic nonsense my way, or making my life significantly more frustrating. But

this time, she wasn’t here to mess with my head. At least, not yet,

She wasn’t showingsomething painful. She wasn’t sneering atwith that all-knowing smirk. No, she was

simply... walking. Leadingsomewhere.

And that was what made this entire situation feel wrong.

Okay-not as wrong as the fact that | was currently having a full-blown conversation with myself,

| finally caught up to her, panting slightly, and she let out a tic sigh, shaking her head like she was

personally offended by my lack of endurance.

“We're inside your unconsciousness, genius,” She said flatly, “Do | have to teach you everything? You could've

just thought of a car to get us there faster. It would've appeared. All you have to do is focus on what you want.”

| paused, staring at her,” “That works?”

She gavea slow blink, as if deeply disappointed in me.

| exhaled and shut my eyes, focusing. A car. | need a car.

Silence. | cracked one eye open. Nothing.

| frowned, confused, only to find her standing there, biting her lip-struggling not to burst into laughter.

Then she lost the battle.

She doubled over, laughing so hard she had to grip her stomach, “Oh my goddess, you are so gullible.”

My glare could have melted steel, “That's not funny. | actually believed you weren't going to be a pain in the ass

this time.”

She wiped an imaginary tear from her eye and rolled her shoulders, completely unfazed by my death stare,

“Yeah, well. You should know better by now.”

| exhaled through my nose, forcing myself to let it go before | actually punched myself in the face-literally.

Instead, | followed as she continued walking through this endless, fog-covered terrain.

After several minutes of silence, | sighed, “How much longer until we get there?”

She shrugged without slowing down, “No clue. But we will know when we are there.”

| gave her a look, “That is the least helpful answer you could've given me.”

A smirk played at her lips. “Try summoning a car again. Maybe that will get us there faster.”

| groaned, “You're the worst.”

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Chapter 248

“And yet, you're still following me.”

| scowled but said nothing.

We walked a little further before | hesitated. Then, softer this time, | asked, “Do you really think we can get him

back? Even though it’s been a week?”

She didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”

The confidence in her voice sent a strange flicker of hope through me, but | swallowed it down, “How? How could

he not be... gone?”

She sighed, like she had already explained this a hundred times before. “Because when people like us die-

werewolves, witches, vampires-"

“Vampires are real?” | blurted out.

She stopped walking and turned toslowly, her face blank. | immediately regretted interrupting.

“This,” She said dryly, “is why you don’t understand anything. You never letfinish.”

| clamped my mouth shut.

She shook her head, muttering under her breath before continuing, “When supernatural beings die, they don’t

immediately pass on. They go to the In-Between-a place between your world and the afterlife. There, they have

to accept that they are dead in order to move on. If they refuse, the universe forces them to go. But Grayson...

he is still there. Which means he is holding on. We just need to reach him before he gets shoved into the

afterlife.”

| nodded, absorbing that information, “If you knew he was still here this whole time, why didn’t you cfor me

sooner?”

“Because | can only reach you when you are in a deep state of unconsciousness. And in case you haven't

noticed, you haven't been sleeping.” She shota pointed look, “You've been running on fumes. Your body

finally gave out, and that was my opening.”

| didn’t argue. She wasn’t wrong.

Instead, | changed the subject. “The essence... is that what's been causingpain?”

She didn’t miss a beat, “Yes. You were born with it to end the curse of the Blackwood bloodline or it was

transferred or whatever. But you are not meant to carry it alone. You are supposed to bond with a Blackwood-

your anchor. Without an anchor, the power inside you has no balance. It has bectoo much for your body to

handle. The longer you go without binding to one, the worse it will get so not only is the fate of the realm riding

on us not failing, if you don’t get its anchor, it will continue eating at you from the inside and each tthe pain

will only get worse until it destroys you.”

| swallowed hard, “And you knew all of this? You knew everything and didn’t tell me?”

She smirked. “Technically, you knew it. I'm just the part of you that understands it better.”

| gave her an unimpressed look.

“Fine,” she huffed. “I like to bask in being a know-it-all, but | don’t actually know it all. | find things out the same

way you do, but | live in your unconscious, and deep down, you already know all these things. You just have a

hard tgrasping them in reality, but for me, they're as clear as day.”

| blinked at her. “So you didn’t know Grayson was stuck for a week?”

She hesitated for half a second before casually saying, “No, that | did know. A vampire told me.”

My eyes widened so fast | thought they might pop out of my head, “A vampire?!”

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Chapter 248

She burst out laughing, shaking her head atlike | was the most amusing idior she'd ever met, “Your gullitality

never gets

old.”

1 let out a groan and smacked my forehead. “One of these days, | swear, I'm going to ignore you”

She grinned. “No, you won't.”

| hated that she was right.

We kept walking, the eerie landscape stretching endlessly before us. | wasn’t sure where we were headed, and

she wasn’t offering any explanations. My mind drifted, thoughts swirling in the strange stillness of this place,

After a while, my thoughts started spiraling. What if we were already too late? What if Grayson had moved on,

and | was walking into nothing? | had spent the last week drowning in guilt and pain, convinced | had lost him

forever. And now, suddenly, there was a chance to bring him back? It felt too good to be true.

I glanced at my other self, the one walking beside me, as if she had all the answers. She didn’t look concerned. If

anything she seemed a little bored.

“Do you even know where we're going?” | asked.

She smirked, “Nope.”

| stopped walking, “Wait, what?”

She took a few more steps before realizing | wasn’t following. With an exaggerated sigh, she turned to face me,

“Look, | told you already. We'll know when we get there.”

“That is not reassuring.”

“You're the one who wanted to come,” she pointed out.

| threw my hands in the air, “You draggedhere!”

She shrugged, “Sthing.”

| groaned again but kept walking. There was no use arguing with myself-literally. For a while, we walked in

silence again. The more we walked, the more my mind filled with thoughts | wasn’t sure | wanted to face.

I was so lost in them th

| almost didn’t hear her speak.

“You're overthinking again,” she muttered, side-eyeing me.

| didn’t bother denying

it. “How do | stop?”

“You don’t.” She grinned. “It's part of your charm.”

| sighed. We walked in silence for a long while before | spoke again. “What if | fail?”

She stopped this time. Really stopped.

Then, slowly, she turned to face me, her gaze steady. “Then we both fail.”

I blinked.

“We're in this together, Ava. You and me. So if you fall, | fall.”

Something tightened in my chest.

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Chapter 248

She gavea rare, serious look, “But we're not going to fail. We can’t. We're going to get Crayons bark had

daway H going to break this damn curse.”

I swallowed hard.

Then | nodded.

She smirked, and just like that, her usual humor returned. “Now con Move your scrawny ass

| groaned. “We have the sass.”

“Eh.” She shrugged. “Mine’s better.”

1 rolled my eyes but followed her anyway. We kept moving, the air around us growing beater. Then wastage

toting the distance, a tugging sensation in my chest. It was like something-or-Saring for me

“Do you feel that?” | asked.

She nodded, “We're close.”

A shiver ran down my spine. | wasn’t sure if it was excitement or fear. Probably both.

Then, out of nowhere, the ground beneath us shifted. The sky above darkened. A strong wind swege through the

mag my hair whip wildly around my face.

“Okay, that’s new,” | muttered.

She looked around, her expression unreadable, “We have to move faster”

We broke into a run, though | had no idea where we were going. I just followed the pull in my chest wing fax |

would

leadto him.

The landscape around us blurred, the world shifting in strange ways. One moment we were ning on solid ground

The next, it felt like we were running on water. My feet didn’t sink, but each step sent ripples outward, distorting

everything around us.

Suddenly, a blinding light surrounded us and just like that, we were falling-together.

The last thing | heard was my own voice, whispering in my ear, “Told you we would know when we got there.”

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