Semua Bab THE LAST SHIFT: A Werewolf without a Wolf : Bab 171 - Bab 180

I screamed his name back, “Kaaia!”, my own voice breaking. “Kieran!”The silver thread burned hot in my chest. It was no longer just a memory or a ghost of a feeling. It was a grip. It was real, tight, and pulling me with everything it had. The cold lines wrapped around my body began to shudder, cracking like ice under sudden heat.Containment failing, the system warned, its voice losing its calm edge. Anchor displacement—“Let go of her!”The command didn't come from the system. It came from him.The pull from the other side surged. It wasn't violent, but it was desperate, like someone dragging himself through deep water toward the surface.“Kieran, I feel you!” I cried out. “I feel your hand on the bond. Don’t stop. Don’t you dare stop!”“I’m not,” he gasped, his voice strained. “Something is fighting me. It feels like thick walls, like the world itself is trying to hold you down.”“It is!” I shouted. “It’s trying to lock me back into the seal. It says I belong to it.”A low, angry

“One of us?” Kieran whispered. “You mean one of us has to die?”The mist surrounding the tall figure grew thick, rolling like a slow breath. Silver lines on the ground pulsed beneath our feet. They felt warm and alive, like a heartbeat beneath skin.Not die, the voice echoed inside our heads. Change.My fingers tightened around Kieran’s. “Change into what?”Into the door that opens and the door that closes.Kieran shook his head. “That isn’t an answer. That’s a riddle.”The presence tilted its head as if it were studying us. The light inside its hollow eyes flared. It is the only kind of answer this place allows.I swallowed hard, trying to find my voice. “You said the system buried you because it feared bonds that couldn't be cut. What are you?”There was a long, heavy pause.I was the first anchor, it said. The first law that learned to love what it was meant to control.Kieran’s breath hitched. “You loved a human?”A soul, the voice corrected. Like hers. Like yours. The system lear

The first thing I felt was pain. It was sharp and sudden, as if the world had reached out and bitten into us.The silver hinge around our bodies screamed. It wasn't a sound, but a crushing pressure that went straight through bone and into our very thoughts. The light that had been holding us began to split, with jagged lines racing through it like cracks in a sheet of glass.“Kieran!” I cried out, gripping his hand as the force slammed into us again.“I’ve got you,” he said. His voice shook, and I felt the tremor in the way his fingers tightened. He held me as if he were afraid that even the sense of touch could be stolen from us.The gate behind us groaned. The dark arch was bending and its edges warped as the cold wave from the system crashed against it.Containment in progress, the voice thundered. It was closer now, no longer a distant echo but a suffocating weight pressing right against us. Hinge must be isolated. Bond must be separated.“No!” I shouted, my voice raw. “You don’t

The crack widened with a sound like breaking glass echoing inside my bones.“Kieran!” I cried out as the silver hinge split once more.Light tore open between us. The pull from both sides was so immense it felt as if our hearts were being dragged in two separate directions.“I’ve got you,” he said, though his voice was strained and rough with pain. “Don’t look at the split. Just look at me.”“I can feel it,” I whispered. “It’s inside us. It isn’t just the space anymore. It’s trying to decide who gets to exist.”The cold from the system surged, wrapping around the silver light like heavy iron chains. At the same time, the warm wind from the gate pulled harder. It carried the scent of rain, wild earth, and a sense of freedom that felt like it was finally breathing.Division is necessary, the system intoned, sounding closer than ever. A single form cannot contain dual anchors. Choose one. Release the other.“No,” Kieran growled. “We are not choosing between ourselves.”The crack flashed

​“Kaia—can you hear me?” ​The voice emerged from the darkness like a memory struggling to stay alive. ​I sucked in a sharp breath. “Kieran?” ​Silence crashed back in, absolute and heavy. ​The floor beneath me was cold, hard, and undeniably real. I gasped and rolled onto my side, my hands flying to my chest in a panic. The silver warmth was gone. The hinge, the glow, the pulse that had always answered to his name—it was all gone. ​“No,” I whispered, my voice cracking. “No, no, no…” ​I closed my eyes and reached inward, just as he had taught me. I didn't look for space or light; I looked for him. ​“Kieran,” I whispered into the silence of my own mind. “I’m here. I’m still choosing you. Answer me.” ​For a heartbeat, I thought I felt it—a faint warmth, a thread pulling tight somewhere deep inside. Then, a voice spoke from behind me. ​“You won’t hear him here.” ​I spun around, my heart leaping into my throat. A man stood a few steps away. He was tall, dressed in dark, ta