LOGINDane’s PovThree days.Three whole days since Freya just… dropped.Three days of staring at her lying in our bed, barely breathing, looking so small under all those blankets. Her hand in mine feels way too cold, no matter how many times I rub my thumb over her knuckles like that’s gonna fix anything.I haven’t moved from this chair except to use the bathroom. George is parked on the other side, same deal. Neither of us has slept more than a couple snatched minutes here and there. We’re both running on coffee, fear, and stubbornness.Miriam’s been in twice a day, every day. Checks her vitals, frowns, shakes her head. “Still no change, Alpha. I’m sorry.”Sorry doesn’t cut it anymore.I keep reaching down the mate bond, searching for her. Nothing. Just this hollow, echoing space where she’s supposed to be. It’s like someone carved her out of me and left the edges raw.Catherine poked her head in earlier with a tray
Freya’s Pov“Hello? Hey, is anybody here? Somebody please get me out!”My voice just… bounced around in this huge nothing. Came right back at me like I was yelling in an empty room with really weird acoustics.Everything was white.Not normal white. Not walls, not snow, not even clouds. This was the kind of white that felt like somebody deleted color from existence. No floor under my feet, but somehow I was still standing. No sky, but I could tilt my head back and look up into more nothing. No edges, no end, just white forever.I spun in a circle, desperate for anything. A door. A crack. A freaking shadow. Nothing.Just white. Suffocating, endless white.“HELLO?!” I screamed until my throat hurt. “Somebody! Please!”Only my own panicked echo answered.My heart was slamming against my ribs. Where the hell was I? How did I even get here?I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to remember.Viktor. The waterfall. The ritual.The power.It slammed into me in jagged little pieces. Viktor chantin
Dane's Pov"Somebody get Miriam over here!" I yelled as soon as I hit the pack house.The wolves hanging around, ready to party after our win, stared at me like I'd lost it. Their faces went from happy relief to pure shock the second they spotted Freya dangling lifeless in my arms.I didn't pause. Didn't even slow my roll. Just barreled through the bunch and straight into the house.I set her down on the living room couch as careful as I could. Her head flopped to one side, arms just dropping like dead weight.She looked gone. Like, really gone.No way. I jammed my fingers against her neck, hunting for a pulse. There it was weak, all over the place, but yeah, still beating.Freya... baby... open your eyes, I shot through our bond, praying she'd pick it up.Zip. Nada.Just this awful, empty quiet."Out of the way." Elder Miriam shoved past the growing crowd, her wrinkled face all business. Catherine trailed right behind, hand clamped over her mouth, eyes bugging out in terror."What th
Dane's Pov The white light hit like a damn freight train.One second I’m tearing into three wolves, bleeding from everywhere, barely keeping my feet under me. The next, boom. Pure silver energy explodes out of the waterfall and flattens everything in the clearing.I get thrown back, slam into the dirt, roll. The wolves on me yelp and scatter like they’ve been electrocuted.For a heartbeat, the whole world goes quiet.Then I hear her scream.Freya.I drag myself up. Ribs screaming, leg barely working, everything hurts like hell. Through the bond I can feel her still alive, but fading fast. The ritual’s hitting its peak.Hold on, baby. I’m coming...Something massive crashes into me from the side.Down I go again, another wolf on top, jaws going for my throat. I get my arm up just in time, teeth sink into my forearm instead. Hot pain. Blood everywhere.I twist, kick him off with my hind legs. He flies, but two more are already piling on.Too many. Still way too fucking many.Through
Freya's Pov God, it hurts.Not like a cut or a broken bone that eventually dulls. This… this is soul deep. The kind of pain that makes you forget there was ever a time when breathing didn’t feel like swallowing razor blades.Every inhale is glass. Every heartbeat is someone sitting on my chest. And underneath it all, the power inside me is screaming... not at me, not trying to claw its way out. It’s screaming because it’s being torn apart. Piece by bloody piece.Viktor’s ritual isn’t waking anything up. It’s ripping the power straight out of me. Like someone reaching into a still-living body and yanking out organs one by one.Please. Please just stop.But it doesn’t. It keeps pulling. Keeps shredding. Keeps destroying me from the inside.I can hear him chanting... his voice rising and falling in that old, ugly language. Every word feels like a fishhook lodged in my ribs, dragging the power closer to him. Closer to the surface.He’s going to take it. He’s going to rip it out and I’m g
Dane's Pov I counted to ten in my head. Then twenty. Then thirty. Every muscle locked up tight, screaming to move, to rip into them. But I held it. Barely. Not while those assholes still had their hands on Freya. One twitch from me and she’d be the one paying for it. Viktor kept chanting, those creepy old words making the air feel heavy and wrong, like breathing soup. The pool around her kept getting brighter silver light crawling across the water like something alive and hungry. And through the bond… God. I could feel every bit of her pain. Her fear. And something else something massive waking up inside her, stretching, pushing. *Hold on,* I kept sending. *Just hold on, baby.* Her answers came back faint. Broken. Like she was getting pulled under. “Dane.” Henry’s whisper was so quiet I almost missed it. “We can’t wait much longer. Whatever he’s doing...” “I know.” My jaw hurt from clenching. “But if we rush in now, we’re all dead.” “And if we don’t, she is.” He wasn’t w







