I was about to turn back—toward the carnage, toward the endless cries of the wounded—when I heard footsteps behind me.Heavy. Hesitant. Familiar.Dante.I didn’t face him. Not yet. My jaw was clenched so tight it hurt. My lungs dragged in a deep breath as the trees swayed above us in silent judgment.Then I heard it."I'm sorry," he whispered.I turned slowly.He looked like he’d seen a ghost. No—worse. Like he was one. His face was ashen, lips trembling. His eyes were wide, rimmed with red, like he’d been trying not to cry for hours and failing miserably.“I’m sorry,” he said again, voice cracking. “I didn’t know. I swear I didn’t know.”I took a step toward him, my eyes narrowing. “What the hell are you talking about?”He opened his mouth, then closed it again. Swallowed hard. Looked down at his hands as if they were stained with something he couldn’t wash off.“I was trying to tell you,” he said hoarsely. “Back in the hospital. Before… before all this.”My heartbeat slammed harder.
The world was on fire.Screams echoed outside the hospital, voices breaking under the weight of grief and panic. The scent of blood clung to the air like a second skin. I walked through it all like a shadow, untouched, unnoticed. No one paid me any mind. They were too busy tending to the dead, to the broken.Too busy mourning to see the devil walking among them.Perfect.The guards at the hospital wing barely registered me. A nurse rushed past sobbing, her hands covered in crimson. The chaos outside had infected everything, even the air, thick and suffocating. I smiled to myself as I slipped through the corridor like a whisper.The moment I had waited for was finally here.Every step I took was calculated, silent. My heart didn’t race. My breath was steady. I had never been more certain of anything in my life.Raven was unguarded.Unconscious.Weak.Vulnerable.And for once, the world wasn’t bending over backwards to protect her.Fate had handed me a knife.All I had to do was use it.
The hallway was chaos. Screams, panicked footsteps, and a blur of white coats as nurses rushed past me, barely registering my presence.“Matteo!” I shouted over the noise, turning toward the stairwell.Then I saw him—my Beta, storming down the corridor, his face grave, skin pale. Blood speckled his shirt. Not his.“Your Majesty,” he said, breathless. “You need to come with me.”“What’s going on?” I demanded, already knowing I wouldn’t like the answer.“It’s Loki,” he said darkly, glancing around. “There’s been… deaths. Multiple. Last night. We didn’t even hear it—he made sure of that.”I froze, cold crawling down my spine.“What?”“He hit several packs at once. Coordinated. Brutal. It’s spreading fear. People are calling it a massacre. Again.”My heart dropped. A weight like stone pressed against my chest.“How many?” I asked, voice low and sharp.“Too many,” he said. “Come.”I followed Matteo down the hall, my feet heavy but fast. Each step fueled by a rising tide of fury and helples
“Dante?” I said, stunned.He stood there, eyes darker than usual, the kind of dark that had nothing to do with the color of his irises and everything to do with the weight he carried. His jaw was clenched, his shoulders tense. He looked like he hadn't slept in days.“I thought you went back to your pack,” I said, brows furrowing.He didn’t answer.Instead, his eyes drifted past me—over my shoulder, toward the hospital bed behind me. Toward her.Raven.Something shifted in his expression. Like something sacred had just come into view. There was no curiosity. Just reverence. And then, sorrow.“What is it?” I asked, suddenly on edge.Dante looked back at me, jaw twitching. “There’s something I need to tell you.”I stared at him, the heaviness in his voice like a boulder sitting on my chest. I stepped aside without a word.He walked in.I shut the door, turned the lock, then turned to face him.“How is she?” he asked.“She’s getting better,” I replied curtly. No more. I wasn’t ready to sh
Morning came like a cruel trick.The sun bled through the windows in warm, golden streams, painting the floor in light—but none of it touched her. Raven still lay in the hospital bed unmoving. Unbreathing.No—she was breathing. I kept telling myself that. The machines said so. The soft rise and fall of her chest said so. But it didn’t feel like it. It didn’t feel like her.I stood by her side, hands fisted at my sides as the doctor checked her vitals again. His brow furrowed. His fingers were shaking slightly as he adjusted the IV.“She’s getting better,” he said, glancing up at me.My eyes snapped to his. “Then why the fuck isn’t she waking up?”The doctor swallowed hard. “I… I don’t know. Her vitals are improving—heart rate, oxygen levels, neural activity—they’re all stabilizing. But she’s still cold. Too cold. Like her body’s rejecting warmth. And I can’t explain it.”I stared down at her, jaw clenched so tight it hurt. She looked peaceful now, almost too peaceful. Like the calm be
I punched the cave wall so hard it split open in a jagged crack, dust and bits of stone crumbling beneath my knuckles.The bones in my hand groaned from the impact — but I welcomed the pain. Embraced it. It was nothing compared to the inferno ripping through my chest.That fucking mutt.That filthy, mangy, wolf.He took her from me.Again.Blood seeped down my fingers, staining the cold stone beneath me, but all I could think about was her. Raven. The way her eyes widened when she saw me. The way her scent tangled with mine in the air like a promise — like fate was still threading us together no matter how much time or space tried to rip us apart.She felt it.I know she did.Even with that damn wolf wrapped around her, even with his scent marking every inch of her skin — she still responded to me. Her pulse stuttered. Her pupils dilated. Her breath caught.Because deep down, beneath the lies and manipulation, her soul remembers.Mine.And still… I lost her.Again.The taste of that b