CHAPTER 24

~~~ AIDEN ~~~

The explosion knocked me off the tree, and I landed on my back. Hot pain burned through my back at the impact, but I stood up immediately, glancing around.

Black dots clouded my vision, and the explosion shook all my senses. It took me a few seconds to fully configure myself and become aware of my surroundings.

The back side of the house was on fire, and so were some of the trees surrounding that part. A thick cloud of smoke covered everything, making me cough. My eyes stung from the smoke as I searched the place for Damian.

When the smoke slightly lifted off, I could finally spot my brother crouched at a distance from the house.

His clothes were tattered, and his skin was burned. I rushed to his side, grabbing his arm and trying to get him up, but he grunted in pain.

"Are you alright?" I asked, checking the burns on his skin. They are mostly minor burns, but he had a deep cut on his forehead that was bleeding profusely.

"Yeah," He groaned. "What the fuck happened?" He asked. I tore my shirt to tie the wound on his head and stop the bleeding.

"The back side of the house blew up,” I answered, tying his wound. I was still in shock from the blast, and my ears rang. I could tell that Damian was deeply shocked by the explosion, and it'd take him longer to be keen again.

"Where's Rory?" He asked. I supported him by draping his arm over my shoulder and putting my free arm around his mid. I needed to take him to the car as soon as possible.

"I haven't seen him," I replied, dragging him to the road. Behind us, the house continued to burn.

There was a lot of black smoke coming out of the house for some reason, and it didn't sit right with me. It made me want to get out of there as soon as possible.

This all could have been a trap set up by Alex, and we fell for it this time. Again, I couldn't help but wonder if Isabelle had something to do with this whole thing. Was Isabelle the bait for this trap?

If so, then it'd be a huge mess to deal with. But I would deal with that later. I needed to get Damian out of there and get him properly looked at. The way he was bleeding made me anxious.

He was lucky that only the back part of the house exploded. He'd have been burnt to a crisp had it been it was the front portion. From his injuries, I guessed that the explosion threw him back with a crushing force, and he must've hit his head hard against a tree. Otherwise, I didn't see any severe burns on his body.

After helping Damian get inside the car, I turned back to the woods to find Rory and bring him back. I wished Rory were alive when he appeared out of a smoke wall, coughing violently.

"Rory!" I gasped, almost hugging him out of relief before checking his wounds. He was not hurt at all.

"We need to get out of here as soon as possible.

This was a trap set up by Alex," I told him while he coughed.

"You... you need to come with me,” Rory managed to say between the coughs, tugging me toward the burning house. It puzzled me. A pitch-black cloud of smoke rose from the house, darkening the sky instantly. It made me wonder what exactly was in the house that was producing so much smoke.

"What is it?" I asked Rory, blinking tears. Whatever was in the air was stinging our eyes.

"You need to come and see it. I'm not sure if she's alive," Rory managed to respond before heading back toward the house. I followed him, deeply puzzled but fully alert this time.

He rounded the house and kept walking deeper into the woods. Here, the smoke was denser and it made my eyes burn like lava. I couldn't see much beyond a few meters ahead of me. I wanted to drag Rory out of there, but I wondered who he had found.

Oddly, my wolf chose this time to start pacing inside me, anticipating something big. I frowned to myself, feeling more disconnected. Now was not the time that I wanted to get distracted in any way. Damian was hurt, and I needed to treat him immediately.

But as Rory tried to show me something important, my wolf shouldn't have had any reason to act so strangely, yet he did, and it almost got on my nerves.

However, the reason for his strange behaviour was soon revealed when the smoke started to thin slightly, and I noticed a body up ahead. My wolf stirred again, but this time, he was anxious. My feet moved fast until I left Rory behind and almost ran towards the body.

The closer I got to it, the more my wolf was pacing inside me, fighting me to take control. He wanted to be on the surface, dealing with the situation. I tried to ignore him, but as soon as I reached the body, my world came crashing down on me.

I was on my knees instantly, pulling her into my arms. My wolf howled inside me as I looked at a familiar face smeared with black dust from the explosion

"Isabelle,” I growled, my wolf taking over me forcefully. Only one word was running through my mind as I stared at her face in disbelief and wonder.

Mate! Mate! Mate!

Isabelle was my mate?

For a split second, I felt like I had everything in the world, but the grand feeling was gone as soon as her head fell back lifelessly.