Chapter 81. Keeping Him Alive

Elizabeth’s POV

The worn wooden staircase leading up to the packhouse creaked beneath my weight as dread hollowed my chest. Each step felt heavier than the last, as though I were trudging toward my own doom. At the top, a wide corridor spread before me— silent but for the echo of my heartbeat thrumming in my ears.

I paused at Alpha’s office door, pressing my hand to the cool surface. Biting back bile, I inhaled, then knocked. My knuckles rattled against the wood. A curt voice from within cracked the silence: “Come in.”

My throat constricted. I rubbed at the goosebumps that had risen on my arms, remnants of the fear coursing through me, and pushed the door open.

Alpha sat behind a massive mahogany desk, leaning back in his leather chair as though waiting for some orchestra to begin on his command. From where I stood in the doorway, all I saw was the disdain etched on his features. I remained rooted by the doorframe, eyes fixed on the floor until he spoke again