Chapter 172 CHAPTER 172

Chapter 172 CHAPTER 172
Alexa’s POV

I arrived at the agreed location where Rodrick had told me to meet him.

He was standing beneath the shadow of a large tree, his broad frame partially concealed by the darkness. As soon as he noticed me, he pushed himself away from the trunk he had been leaning against and straightened.

For a moment, I froze.

I had to force myself to steady my thoughts and strengthen my resolve, refusing to let the appearance of his body intimidate me. There was something unsettling about him—something that made every instinct inside me urge caution.

“You’re late,” he said.

His voice was low and firm.

“I had a distraction on the way,” I replied, trying to keep my expression neutral.

I wasn't about to tell him that one of the guests at the inn had tried to attack me. And I certainly wasn't going to mention that the same guest was now lying almost dead, waiting for my return.

Rodrick studied me for a brief moment, his gaze lingering as though he could sense there was more to my story. I kept my face composed and gave him nothing.

Finally, he turned and led the way toward his car.

I followed closely behind.

A driver was waiting inside, seated behind the wheel. Rodrick opened the rear door and climbed in, and I followed him into the back seat. The moment the doors closed, the driver pulled away, and the car sped into the darkness. Neither of us spoke.

I stared ahead, occasionally glancing toward the passing scenery outside the window, while my mind raced uncontrollably. Rodrick sat beside me without saying a word, his presence filling the space between us.

Every possible outcome began running through my head. I could be making the worst mistake of my life by trusting Alpha Rodrick. And yet, somehow, I had already placed myself in his hands.

The shaman’s house was nothing like what I had expected. From the outside, I would never have guessed who lived there. In fact, if I had come across the house at twilight without knowing where I was, I might have assumed it belonged to an engineer or some wealthy professional rather than a shaman. The building was modern and carefully designed, with none of the strange symbols, decaying wood, or mysterious appearance I had imagined.

She was clearly expecting us.

The moment we stepped onto the porch, Rodrick reached for the door and pushed it open. It wasn't locked. I hesitated briefly before following him inside.

And it was only after crossing the threshold that I finally believed I was standing inside the home of a shaman.

The interior was completely different from the ordinary exterior. Paintings covered the walls in dark, Gothic-style pieces mixed with strange abstract images that were difficult to understand. Some seemed almost meaningless at first glance, yet the longer I looked at them, the more uncomfortable I became. There were collections of small figurines arranged neatly across a shelf, each one different from the next, and what appeared to be the mounted head of a deer hung prominently on one of the walls.

My eyes moved slowly around the room, taking everything in. Then I saw her. The woman herself was surprisingly unassuming.

She was dressed in simple clothing, without the elaborate robes or dramatic appearance I might have expected from someone with her reputation. Her most striking feature was the dark eyeliner around her eyes, drawn into an exaggerated curve that gave her gaze a sharp, almost theatrical quality.

She looked toward us calmly as we entered, her expression revealing nothing. She welcomed us into the house by turning and leading us toward another room without saying a single word.

I followed Rodrick, keeping what I considered the safest distance possible between us. Close enough not to appear suspicious, but far enough that I might have a chance to react if something went wrong.

The deeper we moved into the house, the quieter it became. When we finally reached the room, I immediately noticed that it was darker than the rest of the house. The lighting was dim, leaving shadows gathered in the corners and making it difficult to see everything clearly.

The woman stepped aside and looked at us.

“Sit on the floor,” she said.

Those were the first words she had spoken to us since we arrived.

Rodrick lowered himself to the floor without hesitation. After a brief pause, I followed, carefully folding myself down while keeping my eyes on both of them.

She turned her attention to Alpha Rodrick.

“Is she the one?”

“Yes,” he replied. “She is.”

A cold knot formed in my stomach. I tried not to let my fear show. My fingers curled slightly against my knees as I reminded myself to remain calm, but my thoughts were already racing. I had blindly trusted Rodrick.

If he wanted to harm me, he could easily do it here, together with his shaman, and no one would ever know what had happened to me. And who would even come looking for me?

I had lost my memory. I barely knew anything about my own past, and that made me an easy target. For all I knew, there might not even be anyone who would notice if I disappeared.

The realization made my chest tighten. What had I been thinking when I agreed to follow Rodrick?

The shaman slowly turned to face me. Her eyes settled on mine, and I forced myself not to look away.

“You are aware that you house the spirit of a vengeful whitehead?” she asked.

I swallowed before nodding.

“I only found out about it today,” I said. “What can I do to get rid of it?”

“There is no getting rid of it, not in the way you’re saying,” she said.

She shifted slightly, her gaze remaining fixed on me.

“You and Lucy are one. You are both part of each other. The only way you could get rid of it”—she raised both hands and made exaggerated quotation marks in the air—“is by appeasing Lucy’s spirit, so she can abandon her vengeful mission.”

I glanced at Rodrick.

“Marrying Alpha Rodrick doesn't seem like a way to appease her, does it?”

She turned her attention to him.

“No,” she said calmly. “That is not a way to appease her. It is a way to put her under control.”

Rodrick remained silent.

“With your marriage to Alpha Rodrick, he would gain the powers you possess and be able to break free from the curse she placed on him.”

My stomach tightened.

That was exactly what he had told me earlier that day. Hearing the same explanation from someone else should have reassured me, but instead, it only made me more suspicious.

“That was exactly what he told me already,” I said.

I shifted my gaze between the two of them.

“But that isn't why we're here. I want to know what's in it for me.”

She studied me for a moment.

“I want to know what happens to me after all this,” I continued. “Would I have to live with her for the rest of my life?”

I sat a little straighter, suddenly aware that whatever she was about to say could determine whether I walked away from this arrangement willingly or ran from it altogether.

She went quiet for a while.

The silence stretched long enough for me to wonder whether she was searching for an answer or simply deciding how much she was willing to tell me. Eventually, she looked directly at me.

“We could try it,” she said.

I waited.

“After Alpha Rodrick breaks free from the spell, then, without having a purpose, we can assume that she would leave. And then you would be free.”

I stared at her.

Assume? That was not what I wanted to hear. I didn't want to build my future around an assumption. I wanted something certain—something I could hold on to before agreeing to bind myself to Rodrick.

But I wasn't getting that. Then she gave me another warning.

“I can see that you are pregnant with a pup,” she said.

My hand instinctively moved to my stomach.

“Yes.”

“Upsetting Lucy might lead to her gaining access to your child,” she continued. “And allowing her to grow in strength could put your pup in danger.”

My fingers curled protectively over my stomach.

“The best thing to do would be to reduce the power she has,” she said. “And you can only do that by joining forces with Alpha Rodrick.”

I didn't respond. My mind was already spinning. It was one thing to risk my own life. It was another to make a decision that could put my unborn child in danger.

When we stepped outside, the cool night air hit my face. I walked a short distance from the house before turning toward Rodrick.

I let out a long, frustrated sigh.

“I can't go with the plan,” I said.

His expression hardened slightly, but he remained silent.

“First, I need to know exactly what happened,” I continued. “And I need assurance that you'll help me if this plan goes south.”

I held his gaze.

“I need to know that you won't leave me to deal with Lucy alone if something goes wrong.”

I wasn't willing to take anyone's word for it. And certainly not when my child's life could be caught in the middle. So even though he gave me his word, but I didn't trust him.

Something about Rodrick made it difficult to believe anything he said. His promise should have reassured me, yet my instincts refused to settle. There was a feeling deep inside me that I couldn't explain, as though some part of me was warning me not to take his word for granted.

I returned to the guest inn and found Matthias exactly where I had left him. He was still on the floor, tied up and unconscious from the fight between us.

I stood over him for a moment, watching his chest rise and fall. He seemed to know something about me. The problem was that I knew nothing about him.

I was willing to wait until morning before questioning him. There was no point trying to get answers from someone who was barely conscious, and after everything that had happened, I needed time to think.

I turned toward the entrance. Then I stopped. Something about the night had changed. The darkness seemed deeper than it had been only moments earlier. I slowly lifted my head and looked toward the sky. The moon was disappearing beneath a shadow. An eclipse.

I stared at it, unable to tear my eyes away. Then a sharp pain tore through my abdomen. I gasped and immediately pressed a hand against my stomach. Another wave followed, stronger than the first. A contraction.

I stumbled toward the wall and braced myself against it, my fingers gripping the rough surface as I bent forward. The pain tightened through my abdomen and spread across my body, leaving my legs trembling beneath me.

“No,” I whispered.

Another contraction hit.

I clenched my jaw, struggling to breathe through it. My eyes lifted toward the window, toward the eclipsed moon hanging ominously in the sky.

This wasn't supposed to happen yet. But there was no mistaking what my body was telling me. I was about to give birth under an eclipse moon.