جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 60

I don't know how I got from the parlor to the current location I was being led through but truthfully everything since the club had just felt like some blurry, fucked up fever dream. The walk down the corridor was slow. Each step felt heavier than the last, my legs stiff and trembling, as if they were carrying 50lb weights on each side. Caleb's hand on the small of my back guided me forward, not roughly, but with the same precise, controlled pressure he always used. Tyla and Derek trailed not far behind with two more guards flanking them. Not a word was exchanged between us, but the air hummed with unspoken threat. I knew better than to try to escape right now.I knew where we were going. I had been trying to come to terms with the fact that my only chance of escaping would most likely come after spending the night with that sleezebag of an alpha. The door at the end of the hall was slightly ajar, dark behind the frame. The heavy scent of expensive colognes, incense, and something el

The room was too quiet after everything.Not the kind of quiet that brought peace—no, this one felt heavy. Pressing. Like the walls themselves were holding their breath, waiting for something to go wrong.I don't think I moved for a while.I was still on the bed, still tangled in sheets that smelled faintly like him now instead of them, my body was half-curled toward Aaron without even realizing when I'd shifted so close. The heat from earlier hadn't fully left me, but it had dulled—fading into something softer, more manageable, like an echo instead of a fire.My muscles ached.Not just from... everything.From the past few days.From the ropes.From fighting.From losing.From almost—I swallowed hard, squeezing my eyes shut for a second.No. Don't go there.Not right now.A hand brushed lightly along my arm. I flinched. It was instinctive, immediate, and I hated it that I did it, yet Aaron didn't pull away. His hand stilled where it was, warm and steady against my skin, not grabbing

The moment Aaron moved us outside, the world shattered into further chaos.One second, his hand was wrapped around mine—solid, grounding, and so real. The next, that warmth was gone, ripped away as something deeper, older, and infinitely more dangerous took its place.It started with a sound that didn't belong to anything human.A sharp, violent crack split through the courtyard, followed by another, and another—bone bending, reshaping, reforming beneath skin that couldn't contain it. I stumbled back instinctively, giving him space while also watching our surroundings as he shifted, breath catching in my throat as Aaron's body folded in on itself and then surged outward, expanding with terrifying force.Muscle tore and rebuilt in seconds. Shadows seemed to swallow him whole as black fur burst through skin, rippling outward like liquid night. His frame stretched, grew—larger, broader, until he towered over everything around him, massive in a way that didn't feel natural.Didn't feel po

The sound of the gunshot didn't fade.It didn't stop ringing my ears. It didn't disappear into the chaos like everything else.It just stayed in my mind. Lodged somewhere deep inside my skull, replaying over and over and over again until I couldn't tell if it was still happening or if it had already happened and I was just... stuck there."Aaron—!"I didn't recognize my own voice.It tore out of me raw, jagged, like something had reached into my chest and ripped my lungs apart. My entire body lurched forward on instinct, my wolf slamming so hard against my ribs it knocked the breath from me.He took it.He took it for me.I saw it—the exact moment the bullet hit him. The way his massive body jerked, just slightly. The way his momentum faltered for half a second.Half a second.That was all it took."No—no no no no—"My hands clawed at the air, at Ronan, at anything that would let me get back to him, back towards the battle and not away. I didn't even realize I was fighting until Rona

They brought him back.That was the first thing I learned a couple mornings later. Not from anyone who looked me in the eye and said it. From the way the air shifted. From the way people spoke in lowered voices, like if they said it too loudly, it would become something worse than it already was.He's alive.They got him out.Barely.He won't wake up.And then—They put him under.Medically induced.The words didn't feel real as the news whispered through the pack. Not when all I could see was the moment his body jerked from the impact of the second bullet, the way his wolf refused to fall even as blood soaked into his fur.He didn't fall.But he didn't come back to me either.I sat on the edge of the bed, unmoving, my hands limp in my lap as if they didn't belong to me anymore. I hadn't done much since we returned. Hadn't eaten. Hadn't slept. Every time I closed my eyes, I was back there. Watching him take something meant for me.A soft knock sounded at the door.I didn't respond.It