Beneath the Alpha's Moon
Chapter 201: Erased

Chapter 201: Erased

Mai’s P.O.V.

The whispers wouldn’t stop.

Kill him. Kill him. Kill him.

I lunged.

Eldur barely had time to react before my hands wrapped around his throat. The room exploded into chaos.

"MAI! LET HIM GO!" My mother’s voice was distant, lost beneath the roaring in my ears.

Eldur’s silver eyes widened as my grip tightened. He clawed at my wrists, his breath coming in ragged gasps, but I was stronger. I pressed harder, feeling his pulse hammer beneath my fingertips.

People screamed. Hands grabbed at me, trying to pry me off him, but I was beyond reason.

Eldur’s lips curled into a choked grin. "Finally showing your true colors, Mai?" he rasped, voice strained. "I love it."

The laughter in my head screeched in delight.

Something hot and electric surged from Eldur’s body, a burst of magic meant to knock me off him. My muscles seized, but I gritted my teeth and pushed back, sending my own magic crashing into his like a tidal wave. His body jerked as blue veins of power wrapped around his throat, keeping him locked in my grip.

"You took him," I whispered, my voice trembling with fury. "You took Liam from me."

His smirk faltered.

Then, in a blink, the room changed.

The air twisted, a sickening lurch in my stomach, and suddenly we weren’t in the house anymore.

We were outside.

And I was still choking him.

The moonlight bathed us in an eerie glow. The trees swayed like silent witnesses. The wind howled.

Eldur coughed, barely able to breathe. Desperation flickered across his face before his body contorted violently. His skin rippled, his bones snapped.

And then, a massive wolf burst from his human form.

White fur, streaked with crimson red. One eye silver. One eye blood-red. The creature loomed before me, impossibly large, its power radiating like heat from a wildfire.

I was no longer holding a boy. I was clinging to the back of a monster.

The whispers shrieked in anger. Kill him. Kill him NOW.

My heart slammed against my ribs as something inside me snapped.

The voices in my head howled, and suddenly—

I was no longer myself.

My body stretched, bones shifting, expanding—power surged through my veins like liquid. My skin simmered like molton gold, transforming. My feet no longer touched the ground, but floated inches above it.

Gasps filled the air.

I turned my head and saw them.

My parents. My pack.

And my mother, her face pale, her hands trembling.

"Mai..." she whispered.

I could barely hear her over the roar in my mind.

She took a shaky step forward. "Mai, please, honey, calm down."

No.

The voices spoke through me, my own voice distorted, layered, inhuman.

"No."

The earth trembled beneath my feet as the transformation completed. My wings—massive and translucent—unfurled, making iridescent shadows over the land. My hair, once light brown, was now pure silver, crackling with raw energy.

I felt everything. I had became something else. I had become just like mom’s real form.

The roots beneath the soil. The sky above. The heartbeat of the forest.

And most of all...the vines.

The ground shuddered, and thick, thorn-covered vines erupted from beneath us, twisting through the air like living serpents.

Eldur took a step back. For the first time, there was no amusement in his eyes.

He was afraid. The whispers laughed. I lifted a hand and the vines obeyed.

They lunged forward, wrapping around his massive wolf form, pulling him into the air.

He thrashed, snapping his jaws, but the more he struggled, the tighter the vines squeezed.

"End it." The voices said.

The words burned through me like fire.

I clenched my fist. The vines constricted and Eldur howled in agony.

And then, a blinding golden light shattered through the night and the vines suddenly snapped.

I recoiled, my breath hitching as I turned toward the source.

A second Fae Titan stood below me. At first, I thought it was my mother. But no.

It was Ollie.

My shock barely had time to register before another voice cut through the chaos.

"Mai, please stop." It was my mother again. She had transformed too.

She flew up to me, her golden eyes filled with something I didn’t understand. Her hands, warm and familiar, cupped my face.

"Mai, sweetheart, come back to me."

I shook my head, trembling. "He took Liam," I whispered brokenly. "He—"

But she only pulled me into her arms, and just like that, I collapsed.

Tears streamed down my face as I clung to her, my body shaking uncontrollably.

Everything hurt. Everything felt wrong.

But my mother’s embrace was steady. Warm. Safe.

I sobbed into her shoulder.

And for the first time since Liam disappeared, the whispers were silent; and when I opened my eyes again, we were inside our house, the living room to be precise.

The room was quiet. Tense.

Eldur sat on the floor, back in his human form, his silver eyes looking defiant.

Ollie still glowed faintly from his transformation, his expression sad.

My father stood in the center of the room, his arms crossed, his face grim. "Did you take Liam?" he asked Eldur, his voice was low and sharp.

Eldur didn’t hesitate.

"Yes."

The room erupted into gasps.

His mother, Juliette, took a sharp step forward. "Eldur!" she snapped, her voice shaking. "Why would you—why—"

Eldur didn’t look at her. He didn’t look at anyone.

His gaze was locked on me. "Because Mai was supposed to be mine."

Everywhere suddenly became silent. It was cold, suffocating silence.

I stared at him, barely able to breathe.

"You—what?" I choked.

Eldur’s expression didn’t change. "You promised, Mai. When we were kids. You said we’d be mates when we grew up."

I flinched.

That was over a decade ago. We were like six. I barely even remembered saying it.

"Eldur," I whispered, shaking my head. "That was—" I swallowed hard. "We were children. We didn’t know anything about mates."

"But I knew," he said quietly. "I never forgot." His words sent ice down my spine.

Papa Adrian took a step toward him, his voice dangerously low. "Where is Liam?"

Eldur winced. "I don’t know." A deadly silence fell over the room again.

"What do you mean you don’t know?" Papa asked.

Eldur hesitated. "I... made him disappear." My stomach dropped.

"You what?"

Eldur smirked. "I erased his mind first. Then I—sent him away. I don’t know where he is."

I screamed.

Pain—raw, blinding pain—ripped through my chest.

Gasps filled the room.

Auntie Juliette staggered backward in horror.

Papa Adrian’s expression darkened into something terrifying. "Eldur," he growled, "you better start remembering. Or you’re going to be locked in the dungeon until you do."

Eldur looked away. His jaw clenched.

But I couldn’t focus on any of that. The pain was too much.

Liam was gone.

Erased.

I barely registered Ollie’s hand on my shoulder before my vision blurred—

And then everything went black.

*********

Liam’s P.O.V.

The first thing I felt was cold.

A sharp, biting cold that sank into my bones and made my skin prickle.

The second thing I felt was pain.

My head throbbed like someone had taken a hammer to it, and my body ached as if I’d been thrown down a flight of stairs. My fingers twitched against rough concrete, and I realized I was lying on the ground.

I opened my eyes and all I saw was darkness.

I sucked in a shaky breath, trying to push myself up. My arms trembled, weak, useless. My throat was dry—so dry it felt like I’d swallowed sand.

Where...?

Where was I?

My mind grasped for an answer, for something—anything—to anchor myself to. A name. A memory. A feeling.

But there was nothing.

I swallowed hard, panic rising like a flood.

I didn’t know where I was.

I didn’t know how I got here.

I didn’t even know who I was.

A choked sound escaped me as my hands fumbled over my body, searching for something—any clue. My fingers brushed against my face, over the ridges of thick, uneven skin.

Scars.

I recoiled like I’d been burned all over again.

Why did I have scars? What happened to me?

I forced myself to my feet, stumbling against the wall. The alley was damp and smelled like rotten food, piss, and something worse. The kind of place people avoided.

I needed to get out of here.

I pressed a hand against my head, squeezing my eyes shut. Think. Try to remember.

Nothing.

My breath hitched. I was nothing. No past. No name. No home.

I was alone.

**********

The streets were loud. Too loud. People moved too fast, too many voices overlapping. Horns blared, laughter rang out, someone cursed at a taxi driver. I clung to the edge of the sidewalk, my heart hammering. No one looked at me. And when they did, they looked away quickly, their faces scrunching up like they’d smelled something bad.

I caught a glimpse of myself in a shop window. A boy with messy blond hair, tangled and matted with dirt. A face too pale, lips cracked. And the left side of my forehead—red, twisted skin stretching up into my hairline. I reached up, touching the scars. No wonder they looked away. I turned from the window and kept walking, my stomach twisting painfully. I was hungry. But I had nothing.

I had no idea how long I walked before my legs finally gave out.

The hunger was worse the next day. It gnawed at me, a deep, empty ache that wouldn’t stop. I watched a man throw away half a sandwich. It landed on top of the trash pile, perfectly fine. I hesitated. I couldn’t do it. But the hunger said otherwise. I moved toward it, reaching and the I heard snarling.

I jerked back as a scrawny black dog lunged from the shadows, baring its teeth. We stared at each other. I sighed. "It’s yours," I muttered. The dog eyed me warily, then snatched the sandwich and ran. "Figures," I grumbled, shoving my hands into my pockets—only to remember I had nothing. No pockets. Because I had no coat. Because I had no home. Because I had no anything. I bit the inside of my cheek hard enough to draw blood. It didn’t help.

I must have looked pathetic. Or maybe just desperate enough. Because a man in a suit finally stopped in front of me. "Hey, kid," he said. "You lost?" Yes. Very. But I didn’t answer. The man’s smile didn’t reach his eyes. "I can help you out," he said. "You need a place to stay?"

Something about him made my skin crawl. I shook my head. His fingers twitched at his side, and he took a step closer. I stepped back. "Suit yourself," he muttered, turning on his heel and walking away. I let out a breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding. He wasn’t the first man to stop me that day. And I was starting to think—I wouldn’t be so lucky next time.

Day four on the streets and I had fully accepted my situation. The café smelled like coffee and fresh bread. I sat outside, curled up against the brick wall, my arms wrapped around my knees. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could do this. My head was light, my stomach cramped painfully. The world tilted every time I moved too fast.

Someone walked past me. Then stopped.

I tensed.

A woman stood there, staring at me. She was older—maybe in her fifties—with dark brown skin and gray streaks in her black hair. She had a warm, kind face, but her eyes were sharp, taking in every detail of me. She frowned. "How long have you been out here?"

I swallowed.

She crouched down, her voice gentle. "What’s your name, sweetheart?"

I opened my mouth.

Nothing came out.

Her expression softened. "You don’t know, do you?"

I shook my head, my throat burning.

She sighed. "Oh, honey."

I stiffened as she reached into her bag. My body was so used to people ignoring me that kindness felt wrong. But then she pulled out a sandwich. I stared at it. "Go on," she said. "Eat."

I hesitated—only for a second—before snatching it from her hands, shoving half of it into my mouth. She let out a soft chuckle. "Slow down before you choke."

I didn’t care.

It was the best thing I had ever tasted.

When I finished, she wiped my face with a napkin, like I was a little kid. I didn’t pull away.

"Come on," she said, standing up. "You’re coming home with me."

I stared at her. "Why?" My voice was hoarse, barely a whisper.

She smiled. "Because no one else has. And I don’t like seeing kids left out in the cold."

Tears burned at the back of my eyes. I blinked them away. I didn’t know her. I didn’t know if I could trust her. But I had nowhere else to go.

And for the first time in four days—I didn’t feel so alone.

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