CHAPTER 102 Jake~ If I thought I had been losing control over Aamon before, I didn’t know what to call it now. Every breath I took felt like a fight to stay in my own body. Trying to reason with him did nothing. Dreams are our only reprieve. Every night, after fighting to get some sleep, we dream of Rachel. Being with her in a forest at night under a full moon. I move between forms and she isn’t afraid. She turns into a wolf as well. And we play chase with each other. It’s so real that every morning when I realize I am alone, I get crushed all over again. I wonder if the Goddess is helping me not to shift by giving me these peaceful moments. But I can’t know for sure. It’s peaceful, but it could also be used as torture each time I wake up to realize it wasn’t real. Instead of helping, Aamon floods my mind with images of how satisfying it was to behead that demon creature weeks ago, and how good it would feel to do the same to the traitors I currently had in our cells. I had t

CHAPTER 104: Evan~ The weight of breaking the bond still sat on my chest. The weight of a car or elephant wouldn’t hurt this badly. It couldn’t. But I still pushed myself out of bed. I still followed orders. I felt like I was stuck inside my own body. And speaking was just too painful. I could see the same in Jake. We have both been reduced to grunting cavemen who speak rarely and in very few words. Anything else hurts me so bad I can’t see. I imagine anything else for Jake risks what we have been fighting so long to stop. It feels like we’re on the verge of something. Everything feels too still, too quiet. Besides Nick and Ally saying that Kyle may know more than he’s saying, we haven’t gotten anything new to follow. No Maxine, no real information from Sophie - or T-. My knees buckle at the thought of her. Will this ever end? “Evan?!” I hear my dad call from the hall. I push myself up off my bed and rush to the door like it’s the end of my marathon and I just need one final

CHAPTER 106Jake~ I could break at any second. After a few minutes of fighting with myself, Evan rushes back out to talk to me. “She’s okay. She’s going to be okay,” he assured me as he opened the driver’s side door and sat. “Mitchell’s mom was able to find out she came into the emergency room with some sort of bad headache and I guess she fainted. But her vitals are all good. They are running some other tests. She’s going to call me back.” I unclenched my fists, and the last bits of fire were reabsorbed into my skin. Rachel’s pain and panic had dwindled down some time ago, making it slightly easier to rein everything in. I could feel her now, sleeping. Or unconscious I guess. I breathed out a big steady breath then looked at Evan. “You’re not going to take off?” I gritted out my teeth. Evan shook his head and said, “No, man. We’re staying here until we know she’s safe.” I’ve never appreciated Evan more. ‘Something is happening,’ Aamon says in my head. I can feel what he is

CHAPTER 108 Jake~ “Come on dude, it’s been hours. You need to take a break,” Evan says from my side. He must have shifted back to human form so he could complain. One thing that hasn’t come to me early was any kind of ability to link. Though if that started I wouldn’t be surprised. Everything else has been weird for me anyway. “No. We keep pushing,” I say and then turn into my half form. A super tall wall of fire who can apparently run very quickly. I hear Evan somewhere behind me. From his speed I’m guessing he’s back as a wolf. We need to find Sophie. I don’t care if she disappeared. I don’t care if there was no trace. I would find her. And then I will kill her. No more waiting. No games. We blaze south. Continuing on and on until we near a new suburb. Evan catches up and shifts. He’s nearly out of breath. Something else I’ve learned about this half form, it’s much faster than even Evan is at full speed. And it’s got more endurance. I don’t feel tired at all. Well, from th

CHAPTER 110 Jake~ I woke up from a dream just before midnight. I had been running through the forest again with Rachel’s wolf. It was coming - her birthday. I don’t know what time she was born so I don’t know the exact moment - but I’ll be ready. Ally let us know she’ll be with her later today, so I go train as normal as I prepare my mind for today. She should be able to fight through whatever was blocking her, and I will be there to help her fight it. Hours pass and I get to her house too early. So I head down to the corner store to get her some ice cream. I’m on my way back when I double over. Something’s wrong, Aamon says in a panic. I try to run back up over the hill but I’m not moving as fast as I’d like. By the time I’m on the top, I feel it. Fire. It takes over my body faster than it ever has before. My bones crack and I fall to the ground. Everything is breaking. It hurts more than before. I’m breaking more than before. Alpha?, I hear Evan somehow. A link. Ev - I thi