My Alphas' Dark Desires-Chapter 113: The Scroll

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Chapter 113

~Valerie’s POV~

I gasped as the pulse rippled from the scroll again, stronger this time, like it had a heartbeat of its own, not loud but felt.

Ash’s arm braced around me instinctively, his free hand held the worn parchment. The glowing symbols didn’t pulse like light. They throbbed—a steady flicker, like something was alive beneath the ink.

My fingers itched to reach for it, but Ash’s grip around my wrist held firm.

"Wait," he murmured. His eyes never left the scroll. "It’s reacting to you."

My chest tightened. "To me?"

Ash nodded once, slowly. "It pulsed when you stepped closer. And when your necklace glowed, it did it again. Not for me. Only when you moved."

A cold whisper curled down my spine. My necklace. The one my Uncle said was just a suppressor, a limiter to my pheromones... but if it reacted to this—whatever this was—it meant the relic wasn’t just suppressing my heat.

It was connecting to something older.

"Do you think it’s warded?" I whispered.

Ash’s brow furrowed. "No. Not in the usual way. It’s not trying to repel. It’s trying to... test. Or maybe..." He paused, voice dropping further, "...awaken."

I swallowed hard. My eyes scanned the runes. They weren’t like the typical library seals or even the ones etched into the restricted wing’s floor. These were twisted, complex.

One looked almost familiar, like a blurred version of the sigil in my dream from the past. As soon as I recognised it, I gasped, but I shook off the thoughts immediately.

However, Ashy caught sight of it.

"You know something?"

I shook my head. "No. I just recalled I have a deadline to submit something tomorrow and completely forgot. I need to head back to the dorm," I informed him.

I leaned in, just slightly, and the necklace warmed again. Ash’s fingers tightened around my wrist.

"It’s your necklace or your bloodline," he said softly. "Has to be."

I looked at him. "You sound certain."

"I’m not. But I’ve seen this before. Not exactly this scroll, but similar reactions—only ever in artefacts meant to find descendants. Successors. Or chosen vessels."

The word "vessels" made my stomach knot.

I reached for the scroll slowly, ignoring the way my fingers trembled. My palm hovered just inches over the faded parchment. The warmth increased—not burning, but present, like sunlight filtered through glass.

Ash leaned forward, his voice a low warning. "If you touch it, it might imprint."

I hesitated. "Is that bad?"

"Could be."

"But also..." I whispered, "...could be answers."

A breath passed between us. And then I touched it.

The second my skin brushed the parchment, the pulse shifted deeper.

The scroll glowed faintly and a ripple immediately travelled up my arm to my chest, stopping right at the base of my throat where the necklace sat.

The pendant flickered lightly, with silver-gold light radiating quickly before dimming to its usual dull shimmer.

Ash stared, wide-eyed.

"You saw that too?" I breathed more like I asked.

My pendant was made by witches; as such, it reacting to things shouldn’t have surprised me. freewebnøvel.coɱ

What bothered me was, what did it react to?

"I saw everything," Ash affirmed.

The runes on the scroll shifted—moved, like ink rearranging itself. Not all of it, just a section near the corner. They twisted and reformed into a newer shape—a crest. One I had seen once in Solstice’s dusty grimoires.

The Emblem.

"Valerie," Ash whispered, leaning over the table, his eyes scanning the new symbol. "This—this wasn’t on the scroll before. It wasn’t here when I was reading it."

I blinked. "Then it was meant for me? Or how did...?"

Ash met my eyes. "No question about it."

My heart thundered. I wasn’t ready for this. I’d been chasing clues and forgotten scripts, but this? This was confirmation. The emblem wasn’t just lore—it was living, breathing magic, watching and wating.

"You okay?" Ash asked.

I nodded shakily. "Yeah. Just... overwhelmed."

He glanced at the hallway leading back to the front of the library. "We shouldn’t stay here."

"No." I rolled the scroll carefully. The runes remained visible, like they’d been rewritten permanently. "But we have to take it. This changes everything."

Ash hesitated. "Professor Anderlyn might notice."

My gaze flicked to the space where Anderlyn had been. Empty. No scratch of his pen. No shadow across the corner.

"He’s gone," I whispered.

Ash turned sharply. "When did he leave?"

"I... I don’t know."

Neither of us had heard him leave. And that wasn’t just eerie—it was deliberate.

Ash’s hand landed on the small of my back. "Let’s go. We’ll study it later, somewhere safe. Somewhere not under his gaze."

I tucked the scroll into my coat, wrapping it tight. It buzzed softly against my ribs, like a second heartbeat.

We moved quickly, slipping through the maze of shelves, past glowing runes and silent wards. No one stopped us and no voices followed.

But something told me we weren’t alone.

And as the library doors closed behind us, I had a single, unshakable thought:

The Emblem wasn’t lost. It had been waiting.

And now... it had seen me.

There was so much to tell Solstice.

By the time I made it back to the dorms, the hallways were quiet. The buzz from the day had finally died down—at least on the surface.

I spotted Emerald curled up on our living room couch, a book in her lap and her eyes half-lidded with sleep. She glanced up when I passed, gave a sleepy smile.

"You look like you’ve seen a ghost."

I managed a smile back. "Close enough."

She chuckled, already sinking back into her book, "Where are the others?"

"In their rooms, probably sleeping."

"Okies. I’m off to bed now," I said as I waved and turned toward my room.

The moment I stepped inside and locked the door behind me, the pressure hit. That same humming weight beneath my ribs, just barely there, like the scroll still wanted to be heard.

I crossed the room, tossed my shoes near the corner, and dropped into my reading chair—the one by the window.

With a breath, I unwrapped the scroll again, careful not to tear the old parchment.

But what I saw made my heart jolt.

The emblem—the symbol that had rearranged itself in front of me and Ash—was gone.

In its place were the same runes as before. No crest. No shimmer. Just twisted old language that meant nothing unless you could read it.

"What the—" I whispered.