ANDREW
All of my trackers and warriors are gathered in Kristof’s room as we go over the plan one last time. Katie marked three sites on the map so we will split into three groups and take down each site tonight. My men are instructed to leave no one alive. We know why they are after Lyra so there is no need to interrogate. Just as we are about to head out to check the sites marked on the map by Katie, my phone vibrates in my pocket. Pulling it out I see Chase’s name flashing on the screen.
“Yeah,” I answer hurriedly.
“It is a fucking mess over here,” Chase responds.
The pit that I felt in my stomach only grows with his words. Grace told me that Lyra was in danger. “How so?” I question trying to keep my voice level in front of my men.
“Lyra is missing. James was found inside his bedroom with several stab wounds from a silver coated blade. The doctors are trying to remove the silver from his syst
LYRA The smell of incense and a pair of warm hands against my cheeks pull me from my sleep. My eyes flutter open and the warm glow of a fireplace comes into view. My hands and legs are no longer bound, and my clothes are surprisingly clean for being held captive in a cave. I glance around the room and am met with deep burgundies and golds, and Victorian furniture. A tiny woman works tirelessly at the fire, before she turns to look at me. Her piercing blue eyes seem to see into my mind and my soul. “You are finally awake,” she says as she sets a cup of tea on a small table in the center of the room. “Come sit,” she pats the table as she speaks. I rise hesitantly, slowly taking in my surroundings once more. If this is a vision it is different from the rest. Everything is so crisp and clear as if I am actually with the woman in her study. I sit across from the woman and notice that she is studying me carefully. “If you have a question, you need only to ask,” she
LYRACool air hits my skin as the thick blanket is ripped from my body. Mr. Grayson is standing over me with a wicked grin on his face. “Your mate has done me a huge favor,” he says as his eyes rake over my body.I pull myself into a sitting position and attempt to wipe the dirt from the side of my face, ignoring the sting of the silver against my skin. “I am sure anything that he did was not for your benefit,” I say rolling my eyes. “Either way,” he continues to grin creepily in my direction. “Cain is dead.”A sense of relief washes over me knowing that Cain is gone forever. Surely by now he has returned to the pack and would be looking for me. I just need to focus on using my powers without the aid of River. The old woman had told me that my abilities were not tied to River, but I have yet to be able to use them without her present in my mind. Yes, sometimes she was subdued but she was always pres
JAMESDarkness surrounds me. A steady beeping noise fills the dark void that I cannot escape. Every now and then voices surround me, sometimes I can hear what is being said and other times it is nothing more than a jumbled mess. When I hear the voices I try to open my eyes to let them know I am still here but the more I try to reach out the farther I slip into the void. The void is dark and numb. Sitting in the dark recesses of my mind I try to reach out to my wolf, but silence in my mind is deafening. I worry if I am unable to wake soon the darkness will consume me and I will remain this way forever.“Lyra,” I call out the only name I can remember into the darkness. “Lyra.”LYRAMr. Grayson has not uncovered me since I last angered him. I do not know how long I have been under this blanket. I have long stopped asking for food or for bathroom breaks, knowing that I will be denied. My body is weak from the poison and lack of food. T
ANDREWSun peeks through the blinds of my office, alerting me that it is morning once again. I have not slept in days. When I am not hunting for Lyra and her captor I am scouring over maps of my territory and the surrounding packs, trying to pinpoint a location where she might be. We were able to track her and Augustus’s scent into the forest behind the packhouse but then it just disappeared. It has now been more than a week and her scent is fading from the ground, making it impossible to track her that way any longer. As soon as I arrived back at the pack I upped the amount of patrols that run along the border and the security around the hospital. Cain and Augustus were dead, but Grayson and Edward were still at large. I had to be sure that neither would try to take over my pack while I searched for Lyra. The three rogue woman we brought back with us had been more than willing to tell us everything that we needed to know about Cain’s operation. As
ANDREWWhen I burst through the hospital doors with Lyra the whole place seemed to erupt into chaos. She is taken from my arms and placed in a trauma room. There are so many doctors and nurses bustling around her that I have no choice but to sit to the side and watch helplessly as they try to revive my mate. Just like James, she is connected to every line and a tube that they can fit onto her body. I watch silently as a female nurse wipes the ash from her body. Even though they are speaking quietly to one another I can still hear the murmurs of concern in all of their voices. Once the doctors are sure that she is stable they cover her with a sheet and wheel her into her own room. I follow behind, staring at the ground. I do not dare meet anyone’s eyes. I do not want to see their pity, just as I do not want them to see my shame. Both of my mates are dying in rooms next to one another and I did nothing to protect them. Nothing I did was enough. I do not deserve th
LYRA My left hand feels restless. There is a constant warmth and tingle that sends sparks throughout my whole body. The feeling is not foreign, but I cannot seem to place where I have felt the sparks before. As soothing as the warmth and the tingles are, my fingers are begging to move. Twitching my fingers one at a time, I groan at the stiffness of my knuckles. Each movement is accompanied by a dull, throbbing ache. As I move each finger, the warmth tightens around my hand making it harder to move. “Lyra,” a voice calls through the fog that is clouding my mind. “Lyra, are you awake?”I struggle to open my eyes against the blinding light that surrounds me. My eye lashes feel as if they are glued shut. I try to raise my hands to help clear my eyes, but they are heavy at my side. Turning my head away from the light I force my eyes open. The world around me is foggy, like it is covered in a mist. Blinking my eyes repeatedly, I try to clear
LYRAFor two weeks I have been stuck in this hospital bed and I am starting to get restless. The nurses are kind enough to let me walk along the halls several times a day to keep me sane. But it is not enough. River’s constant howling for her mates inside of my mind is driving me insane. Andrew only comes to visit once a day, claiming that he needs to get back to attending to the pack’s business, but we both know that it is a lie. Since the day I woke up, he has become more and more distant. Trying to block his mind from my own. It is almost as if he is afraid of me and what I am capable of. I knew that I had caused massive destruction to the cave in my attempt to escape but I had passed out before I could see the extent of the mess I created. I tried to ask Andrew the first couple of times he visited what he found but he always changed the subject. Then there was James. His body was improving physically but he still has not woken. The breathing tu
ANDREW Silently I listen to Lyra as she explains that she wants to travel back into the darkness to find James. She believes that something is holding him there and that is why he is unable to wake. Confidence fills the room as she speaks about her plan. I do not know if she is doing it on purpose to get me to agree, or if she is just that sure of herself. Once she is done explaining she sits quietly with her small hands placed in her lap, waiting for me to respond. “Let me get this straight. You want me to allow you to travel into a place that you call ‘the void.’ A place that you describe as the darkness between this life and the afterlife, while you are pregnant, to retrieve our mate.” I repeat her plan to her. Nodding in agreement she places her hand on my own. “I will not physically be going. Just my mind,” she adds, like it makes the situation more comfortable for me. “What if you do not return? What if you end up like him for the rest of your