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Blood gushes out. I wrap my arms around my waist and begin running down the corridor. More like stumbling. My legs are barely able to hold my weight. Without my wolf, I can’t feel the mating bond, and it is sending me spiraling. My wounds are fatal, and I know it.

“You bitch!” Vivian catches up to me and grabs me by my hair, pulling me back and throwing me to the ground.

I may not be able to shift, but I can still use my claws. I slash her on the arm, and she jumps away, crying out in pain.

Where is everybody in this palace?! Where are the guards?!

With no other way out, I hobble back to the lab and quickly press my hand on the fingerprint scanner. Vivian is already rushing toward me. I know the door won’t close in time. I stumble in as soon as it opens and grab the closest thing to me, smashing it against her head as she enters. She goes down like a ton of bricks, and I search for the lights.

My hand hits the switch, and when light floods the lab, I look around in a dazed manner.

It’s a wreck.

It looks like a tornado tore through this place, destroying every single thing inside. All the screens and equipment that Maya purchased are broken. All the vials and the cooler where they were stored have been shattered.

What is happening? How did Vivian escape? Who trashed this place?

I need to call for help. I can feel the life seeping out of me. Without my wolf, I can’t seem to heal at my usual pace. I’m not going to make it, I realize.

Tears burn my eyes. I wanted to see Finn grow up. I wanted him to be loved. Cedric and I were finally happy. We were going to be a family. I wanted my home to be overrun by children.

As I grab the edge of the marble counter and try to look for something to raise the alarm with, I see a still figure on the ground. A few more steps, and I recognize Jerry lying there, face-down in a pool of his own blood.

“No,” I moan, falling by his side. I try to shake him, but I’m too weak. His body is growing cold. “Jerry,” I whisper hoarsely.

I can’t get words out properly. My own body is starting to shut down.

The door is open. The smell of blood should alert somebody.

A hand wraps around my ankle, and I’m being dragged toward Vivian. My head lifts weakly, and I see her crawling toward me, a deranged look on her face.

“You think you can get away from me?” She spits at me. “I have to kill you. You have become a thorn in the organization’s path. And you have become far too arrogant for me to let you live. You forgot your place, Leanna! It was always beneath me! You are not—You can never be better than me!”

She’s clutching a shard of broken glass, and she sinks it into my calf, dragging it down. I let out a shriek of pain, and she laughs.

“Scream all you want! Nobody is coming to save you. Your mate is gone. That barbaric beast is long dead. Just like his parents. The Eastern Kingdom has finally managed to wipe out the entire Northern royal family. Those arrogant beasts!”

I kick her in the face, and she falls to the side, blood spurting from her nose.

“You’re lying!” I shout at her, blood spilling from my mouth. “Cedric is not dead!”

“He is!” Vivian laughs before her next attack. She leaps at me as I grab a scalpel from the floor next to me. I stab it in the air, getting her straight in her right eye.

Her scream of agony is satisfying. I scramble away with what little strength I have left.

I have to get to Finn! Surely, Cedric is okay! He has to be! He’s the strongest shifter I know! He’s not going to die easily. He’s alive.

I have to believe that.

“I’m going to kill you!” Vivian’s enraged scream makes me look back at her, and she’s holding the same knife I just stabbed her with. She lifts it over her head, her eye bleeding, the scalpel aimed at my heart.

I slump to the ground. That’s it. I don’t have any energy left.

She’s really going to kill me, I think dazedly, my vision blurring.

As she brings down the scalpel, a foot comes out of nowhere and kicks her in the chest, sending her flying into the air. She crashes against the cabinets at the other end of the room.

I try to look up, and I feel myself being gathered in somebody’s arms. The scent is familiar, but my eyes are too hazy to see.

Has help arrived?

“S–Save Cedric. Help him.”

With that, my body goes limp. Darkness consumes me, the last bit of my strength finally fading.

Someone’s calling my name, but it’s too late. My eyes close.

I draw my last breath, dimly hearing the death rattle in my lungs.

There is a strange warmth by my side. Almost like something warm and furry is curled up on my hand.

I want to pet it, but I have no energy. Then I feel an odd, wet sensation, as if a small tongue is licking my hand. My fingers twitch.

I hear a cry in the distance, and then the heat is gone.

I fade away once again, missing the warmth.

Someone is stroking my hair.

Soft words are being spoken to me. I want to open my eyes, but my body feels too heavy.

I can feel the love in the voice, a woman’s voice.

I stir once again.

The voice vanishes, and my heart quivers at the loss.

I’m floating in the dark, empty, alone.

It feels like an eternity. I have no sense of self. I just exist in this place, my thoughts and hopes and dreams empty.

There’s a pulse, one of warmth.

I must have imagined it.

But there it is again, a desperate call, a yearning.

In the darkness, I see a thread. It’s dull, but it looks like it’s trying to glow.

Like a switch.

On and off.

It exudes warmth.

It’s glowing, the light surrounding it growing stronger. I want to touch it.

Hesitantly, I wrap my hand around it.