Forty Four

My whole body shivered as pain shifted and focused on my hand. It felt terrible and insane. My hands went cold, and I couldn't move them the way I wanted.

My hands!!! My hands—I can't move them! The pain—

"ARGHHHH!!!" I screamed out loud, and I got the attention of Aiden and Nathan immediately.

Nathan, who was much more cautious now than ever, only focused his eyes on me to check what exactly had caused the sudden pain. He still maintained his distance nevertheless.

But Aiden acted without thinking, moving closer and squatting beside me.

"That's it. What exactly is going on? I've given you enough time to discuss with your wolf. Now speak up," Aiden said, and as much as I hated his commanding tone, he was right.

It was either I tell him or I die. And right now, dying wasn't in my priorities—in fact, I was avoiding it at all cost.

I lay there for a full five seconds, processing the fact that my own wolf—the thing I had spent twenty-two years of my life desperate for—had just issued me an ultimatum involving a man I'd known for less than two days.

"From the look of it, Aiden, she's having a serious, life-threatening mental and physical fight with her wolf. And she's not winning." Nathan paused, studying me. "Yet I'm not surprised after seeing that other version of her”

He was talking about Zara and how he had almost killed Marcus."

I heard Nathan but ignored him first, managing to squeeze my paralyzed hand, bearing so much pain, hoping it would subside.

It didn't.

"Zara, you are really blackmailing me," I said internally. "With my own death."

"Don't put it like that. I prefer 'negotiating with urgency.'"

"That is not—"

"Ten more minutes, April, and you're dead." Zara's words and tone switched instantly, becoming harsh and cruel. "Actually, let's make it eight. I'm bored."

My breath caught. She was serious. She was actually going to let me die.

I turned my head and looked at Aiden.

He was my last option.

My only option.

He had been watching me this entire time—every word of a conversation he could only hear one side of. His expression was unreadable, but his eyes were not. His eyes were doing something complicated that he clearly didn't want them to do.

Something that looked almost like... conflict.

"She says you're our fated mate," I said, because I was dying and had nothing left to lose. "She's refusing to fully surface and fight the venom unless you mark me."

I held his gaze, even though it hurt to keep eye contact with someone looking at me like that—like I was a problem he didn't want to solve.

"And if she doesn't surface, I die." A beat. "She's genuinely terrible, and she made it very clear she'll let it happen."

"Thank you. You delivered the message excellently," Zara chipped in wickedly.

"That wasn't a compliment, and I hate you deeply. I wish I'd never had a wolf," I told her and I felt her go quiet instantly. It felt sad and weird at the same time like an old wound had been opened but I cared less and shifted my attention back to Aiden: "I'm not asking you, Aiden. I'm begging you with everything I have—"

"You have nothing," Aiden said coldly, cutting me off mid-sentence. "And you mean nothing to me."

The words hit hard like something had intentionally punched my heart.

My chest tightened. Something inside me cracked—not loudly, just a quiet fracture that I'd probably feel later if I survived long enough to feel anything.

But I wasn't going to give up. Not yet.

I swallowed my pride—what little remained—and continued as if his words meant nothing, even though they meant everything.

"Aiden... I just want to be clear about that. That's what Zara is demanding. And if the answer is no, I understand—"

"April." He said my name like a door slamming shut. "Say no more. The answer is no."

And it stopped everything else.

He stood up and moved away from me, facing the far wall with his hands at his sides. He didn't speak for a long time.

The silence stretched heavily in the air and felt suffocating.

My hand throbbed. The venom pulsed. The clock ticked down.

"Aiden." Nathan's voice was quiet but insistent. "She's dying."

"I know that."

"Then—"

"She is Howard Quinn's daughter."

Aiden turned, and his eyes locked onto mine. Hard. Direct. Filled with something I couldn't name—anger, maybe, or pain, or both twisted together until they were indistinguishable.

"If I mark her, I bond myself to his bloodline. To the pack that murdered my pack."

His voice was low yet controlled, but I could hear the rage simmering underneath.

"Everything I've built, every reason I have for being at war with the Black Shadow Pack—I'd be tying myself to the center of it."

He took a step closer, and I forced myself not to look away.

"You're asking me to bind my soul to my enemy's child."

I immediately looked at the ceiling, diverting my eyes away from him.

My heart skipped. My eyes widened in shock.

Oh my God... His pack was killed by my father.