Chapter 5

Chapter 5

EVANGELINE POINT OF VIEW

Something is wrong with me.

I wake up Thursday morning feeling like someone drained all the life from my body. My arms shake when I try to lift them. My legs wobble when I stand. Even breathing feels hard, like the air has turned thick as mud.

My wolf is silent. Completely silent. She's always been quiet, but this is different. This is like she's... gone.

She used to hum in my chest when I was scared. Whisper courage when I wanted to run. In the darkest moments after Uncle Marcus died, she would curl around my heart and promise we'd survive together.

Now there's just emptiness where she should be.

I stumble to the bathroom and splash cold water on my face. The girl staring back at me in the mirror looks sick. Pale. Hollow. Like a ghost of who I used to be.

"Get it together," I whisper to my reflection. But my voice sounds weak. Fragile.

The walk to school takes twice as long as usual. Every step feels like I'm walking through sand. My backpack weighs a thousand pounds. By the time I reach the front doors, I'm sweating despite the cool morning air.

Students push past me without a second glance. Their energy feels overwhelming. Bright and sharp against my dullness. I have to grab the wall to keep from falling over.

What's happening to me?

In first period, I can barely hold my pencil. My handwriting looks like a child's scribbles. Professor Kane calls on me twice, but the words swim together on the page. I can't focus. Can't think.

"Miss Cross?" His voice sounds far away. "Are you feeling alright?"

I nod because speaking feels like too much work. He frowns but doesn't push.

During the break between classes, I lean against my locker and close my eyes. The hallway noise pounds against my skull like hammers. Everything is too loud. Too bright. Too much.

"Look at her," someone whispers. "She looks terrible."

"Good," another voice replies. "Maybe she'll finally get the message."

Their words barely register. I'm too tired to care about whispers anymore. Too drained to feel the sting of their cruelty.

A shadow falls across me. I open my eyes to see Derek Morgan standing there with that same cruel smile from yesterday. But today, something is different. There's satisfaction in his eyes. Like he knows something I don't.

"Not feeling well?" he asks with fake concern.

I don't answer. Can't answer. My tongue feels heavy in my mouth.

"That's too bad," he continues. "I heard being rejected by your mate can make you sick. Guess it's true."

He walks away laughing, but his words stick like thorns. Is that what this is? Some kind of sickness from the broken bond?

But the bond isn't broken. Wounded, yes. Torn and bleeding. But still there, pulsing weakly in my chest like a dying heartbeat.

The rejection should've ended the bond completely, but something clung to life between us. A thread. Frayed. Starving. Maybe because I never accepted it. Maybe because fate doesn't let go that easily.

Or maybe because even he can't fully destroy what the Moon Goddess created.

Second period is worse. The teacher's voice becomes white noise. My vision blurs until I can't see the board. I rest my head on my desk and try not to throw up.

"Evangeline?" The girl next to me touches my shoulder. "You look really pale."

I lift my head slowly. The room spins like a carnival ride.

"I'm fine," I mumble.

But I'm not fine. I'm fading. Like someone is slowly erasing me from existence.

At lunch, I can barely lift my tray. The cafeteria worker gives me a concerned look when my hands shake so badly I almost drop everything.

"You okay, honey?" she asks.

I nod and stumble toward the tables. But halfway there, my knees give out. I catch myself on an empty chair, but my tray crashes to the floor. Food scatters everywhere. The sound echoes through the suddenly quiet cafeteria.

Everyone stares. Points. Whispers.

"Did you see that?"

"She can barely stand."

"What's wrong with her?"

Heat floods my cheeks despite how cold I feel. I try to clean up the mess, but my hands won't stop shaking. A worker comes over and waves me away.

"It's alright, dear," she says kindly, her weathered hands gentle as she helps me steady myself. "Accidents happen. You just go rest now."

Her kindness almost breaks me. In a world full of people who want to see me fall, this stranger offers comfort without asking for anything in return. I want to thank her, to tell her how much her simple gesture means, but the words stick in my throat.

I make it to a table in the back corner and collapse into the chair. My body feels like it's made of paper. Like a strong wind could blow me away.

A small brown leaf falls from my hair onto the table. Dead. Brittle. It crumbles to dust when I touch it. Just like I'm crumbling from the inside out.

That's when I see him.

Ronan sits at his usual table, cutting his meat with precise movements. But there's something different about him today. Something that makes my sick stomach twist even more.

He's wearing a necklace.

It's simple. A thin silver chain with a small stone pendant. Dark blue, almost black. It catches the light in strange ways, like it's absorbing it instead of reflecting it.

I've never seen him wear jewelry before. Ever.

Our eyes meet across the cafeteria. For a moment, I see something flicker in his expression. Guilt, maybe. Or regret.

But then his jaw hardens. He looks away and says something to his friends. They all turn to stare at me with satisfied smirks.

The stone around his neck seems to pulse with dark light.

And suddenly, I know.

The timing. The sudden weakness. The way my wolf has gone silent. The satisfaction in his friends' eyes.

He did this to me.

Somehow, that necklace is connected to what's happening. To why I feel like I'm dying from the inside out.

The realization hits like lightning. Rage floods through me, hot and fierce. For a moment, the weakness fades. My wolf stirs, trying to surface.

But then the stone pulses again, and everything crashes down. The anger disappears. The strength evaporates. My wolf whimpers once and goes silent again.

I'm trapped. Caged by whatever magic that thing holds.

The rest of lunch passes in a haze. I can't eat. Can't focus. Can't do anything but sit there and feel myself getting weaker by the minute.

When the bell rings, I struggle to stand. Other students flow around me like water around a rock. Fast. Energetic. Everything I'm not.

In third period, I put my head down on my desk and don't lift it. The teacher doesn't bother calling on me. I'm invisible now. A ghost haunting the back of the classroom.

By fourth period, walking becomes almost impossible. I lean against walls between classes. Rest on benches. Stop every few steps to catch my breath.

Students who used to ignore me now stare openly. Some with confusion. Others with cruel amusement.

"She's getting worse."

"Think she's sick?"

"Hope it's contagious."

Their voices blur together into meaningless noise. I'm too tired to care what they think anymore.

The final bell rings like salvation. I gather my things with movements that feel underwater. Slow. Clumsy. Wrong.

The walk to my locker takes forever. When I finally get there, I lean against it and close my eyes. Just for a moment. Just to rest.

"Rough day?"

I open my eyes to find Luna standing there. She looks worried. Guilty. Like she knows more than she's saying.

"What did you mean yesterday?" I ask. My voice comes out as barely a whisper. "About it getting worse?"

She glances around nervously. Makes sure no one is listening.

"There are rumors," she says quietly, glancing around nervously. "I don't know if they're true, but... there are stories. About the Nightbane bloodline."

"What kind of stories?"

"That they guard old relics. Use forgotten magic to get what they want."

My blood turns to ice. "What kind of magic?"

"The kind that can weaken wolves. Make them lose connection to their animal side. Make them stop feeling..." She trails off, looking scared to even say it.

"Make them stop feeling what?"

"Bonds. Especially mate bonds."

The words hit like a hammer to my chest. The bond. He's trying to destroy the bond between us.

"Why are you telling me this?" I whisper.

"Because I feel bad for you," she admits. "Because what's happening isn't fair. And because..."

"Because what?"

She looks at me with eyes full of pity. "Because if he succeeds, you'll lose everything that makes you a wolf. The bond will fade until you can't feel it anymore. You'll be completely human."

Her words hit like physical blows. Each one driving home the horrible truth I've been trying to ignore.

He's not just making my life miserable. He's trying to strip away my wolf. My connection to him. Everything that proves we're meant to be together.

"Can it be stopped?" I ask desperately.

Luna's expression says everything. "I don't know. Maybe. But you'd need to destroy the source. And even then, if the bond is completely severed..."

She doesn't finish. Doesn't need to.

I'm losing my wolf. And Ronan Nightbane is the one taking her away.

"I have to go," Luna says suddenly. Fear flashes across her face. "I can't be seen talking to you too much. I'm sorry."

She hurries away, leaving me alone with the terrible truth.

I lean against my locker and try to process what I've learned. Try to make sense of the impossible.

Magic. Ancient magic that can weaken wolves and sever bonds. That can strip away everything that connects me to my other half.

And Ronan is using it on me to destroy what the Moon Goddess created.

The necklace. It has to be the necklace. That dark stone that seemed to pulse with its own light. That's what's stealing my wolf. My connection to him.

But knowing what's happening doesn't help me stop it. I'm just one weak Omega against the future Alpha and all his power.

I try to push away from the locker and almost fall. My vision goes black at the edges. For a terrifying moment, I think I might pass out right here in the hallway.

Somehow, I make it outside. The fresh air helps a little, but not much. I sit on the front steps and put my head between my knees.

Students walk past me without stopping. Without helping. I'm invisible to them now. Just another piece of trash cluttering up their perfect world.

My phone buzzes with a text message. I pull it out with shaking hands.

The number is unknown, but the message makes my stomach drop:

*"Pain ends when you accept it."*

Is it really from him? Or am I so paranoid that every shadow looks like a threat? But somehow, I know. I can feel his presence behind the words.

He's watching me. Monitoring how well his magic is working. Making sure the bond between us grows weaker every day.

I delete the message and shove my phone away. But the damage is done. The fear has settled deep in my bones.

He's not just destroying my body. He's destroying the sacred connection between us. Trying to make me forget what we could have been.

And the worst part? It's working.

I can barely feel the bond anymore. What used to burn bright between us now flickers like a candle in the wind.

But as I sit there on the cold concrete steps, something inside me rebels. Something small but fierce. The same spark that whispered revenge yesterday.

He wants me to lose my wolf? Fine.

He wants the bond to disappear? So be it.

But I won't let him erase what we are without a fight.

And somehow, someway, I'll find a way to make him remember what he's destroying.

Even if it costs me everything.