Rejected by the Alpha, Claimed by his Brother
Chapter 270: _ The Dark Journal

Chapter 270: _ The Dark Journal

The shadows in my room stretched longer than usual, painting slow-moving monsters across the walls as the sun bled out behind the hills. This was the evening and another hour without Axel.

I sat cross-legged on my bed, still wearing the oversized hoodie he’d lent me the last time he was here. It smelled like him: earthy and sweet, a bit like pine needles and danger, and I hated how much comfort that gave me, as though it was a substitute for his absence.

I had waited. Waited all day for him. Made excuses for him in my head like a pitiful, love-struck teenager: Maybe he got caught up with pack duties. Maybe something urgent happened. Maybe he didn’t forget. He wouldn’t forget. He cares... right?

The agreement was that he’d come over today. He even promised to get me gifts. Yet, his absence was all I got. It was already a day before the wedding. We needed to plan, to strategize.

His absence would jeopardize this for us. It would ruin all that we had invested in trying to ensure we end up together. What was it now?

Does he suddenly realize how wrong he was to choose an omega over a powerful Luna wolf?

Argh, no.

"Have some faith in your love, María José." I chastised myself.

Axel was nothing like that. He was probably the most straightforward person I had ever met. So what was the problem?

I sighed, and my eyes flicked to the journal sitting beside me like a coiled snake. Rosa’s journal.

The very same one Ignacio had pressed into my hands like it was made of glass and brimstone. His warning still echoed in my skull: You will need strength for what’s in there, María José. More than you think you have.

Dramatic demon man. I couldn’t believe I slept on the same bed with a demon. What was it? Did he leave the pits of hell to come chill with me?

Enough about that maniacal demon for now. I needed to take the lead, set everything straight, and be ready for when Axel returned.

The journal was here. I was more than ready to open it back then at Rosa’s secret cottage when Ignacio was with me.

However, now that I was alone, I just couldn’t bring myself to. Was Ignacio correct? Somehow, I needed a man. But I still didn’t open it.

I had wanted Axel here. Needed him here. Because deep down, I was afraid. Not of what I’d find—though, God, that was part of it... but of what it would do to me. Ignacio’s tone hadn’t been light.

No, it was the sort of tone men used when delivering bad news at funerals. The kind of voice that wraps around your throat and squeezes.

Still, Axel hadn’t come. And I was tired of waiting.

So I took the journal in my trembling hands, traced the worn leather cover with the tips of my fingers, and flipped it open.

At first, it was just ink and loops and neat little lines. Rosa’s handwriting was the same as always—meticulous, perfect. Just like her. Even her dark secrets were going to be color-coded and alphabetized, weren’t they?

But then... then the entries changed.

"I’ve made contact. The witches are difficult to trust, but the offer was too tempting to refuse. He said it would work. That it had to."

That was the first punch to the gut. My lips moved without sound as I reread the lines. Contact? Offer?

"They told me the ritual needed something rare. Something ancient. A wolf strong enough to replace the one I was denied. I was ready to give anything. And I did."

W-what?

What the hell was that supposed to mean? The wolf she was denied? As in, she didn’t have a wolf?

How so?

Was I reading it wrongly? What ritual? What wolf?

The air grew cold around me. I swallowed, feeling my throat drying up like sandpaper. My fingers itched to slam the book shut, throw it across the room, burn it to ash—but I didn’t. I couldn’t. Not when the pages still whispered.

"Mama was already weak. The spell hastened it. Father suspected something, of course. But he was too busy playing husband to notice I was becoming whole. When her Luna wolf started fading, I knew I had done it right."

I stopped breathing.

My hands turned to ice.

No.

The room tilted. Or maybe it was me. Maybe my heart stopped and restarted in a different chest. My mouth hung open, trembling, as I reread the paragraph four, five, six times.

"Her Luna wolf..."

"...the spell hastened it..."

"...I knew I had done it right."

A sound tore from me. I don’t even know what it was. A sob? A growl? Some monstrous, broken sound not meant to be made by a person still pretending to be whole?

"Mamá..."

I whispered it like a prayer, like the name alone could rewind time and save her. I pressed my hand to my chest like that would somehow keep my heart from breaking. But it cracked anyway.

It didn’t make sense.

Rosa loved Mamá. She-we-we—we—we all did. She was the best of us. She laughed with her whole face, hugged with her whole soul. She made the best arroz con leche and told bedtime stories that made us believe we were royalty. She—She-she wouldn’t...

I flipped to the next page. I should have stopped.

"It was the greatest sacrifice I could make. Proof of love. That I would do anything to fix the mistake of being born broken. Mamá should have understood. She should have taken responsibility for what she gave me—or didn’t."

I dropped the book.

Literally dropped it like it had burned me. My legs folded under me. My breath hitched, sharp and painful, like I’d swallowed glass. My heart slammed against my ribs so hard I thought it would break right through.

"She killed her," I said, aloud this time, the words foreign and sour in my mouth. "She killed Mamá. She stole Mamá’s wolf and took it for herself. It k-killed her."

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.