Chapter 78 78
What’s happened? Where am I?
I bit Lois, I heard her say my name, and then… what is this?
I try to move my eyes, but they won’t open. Am I dreaming?
What the fuck is wrong with me?! I reach for the collar at my neck, but it’s not there. I look at my hands—everything is dark, yet I can see them. I can’t move my body; it doesn’t respond. Only my eyes, not even my hands anymore.
“Aidan,” a voice echoes in my head. It sounds like Lois, but it blends with two others.
“Aidan!” It comes louder, forcing a groan out of me.
“Aidan!”
“Stop it!” I snap. My head is killing me; it feels like everything’s about to explode.
“Stop!” I shout again, and suddenly I can move.
I start running through nothingness, running without getting anywhere, like I’m going in circles. Then I stop. Am I inside my own head? Is this my subconscious? Am I asleep?
I don’t know.
I close my eyes and clutch my head. This doesn’t feel like a dream. When I open them, three figures stand in front of me, a few meters away.
“Lois?” I say her name, and one figure steps forward.
Behind me, a blinding light appears. What is it? It pulls me toward it, dragging me across the ground, away from the three of them.
“Lois! Lois!” I call out. She runs toward me, and a wolf-like figure races after her.
“Lois!” I reach out my hand, but she can’t get to me. The wolf leaps onto her, and I grab its head, holding on with both hands. The wolf roars, the sound ripping me out of that place. I tumble over it, and Lois reaches us.
“Lois,” I say as I pull her close, cupping her face. She wraps her arms around me.
“Where are we, Lois?” I ask. I have no idea what this place is.
“It’s our bond,” she says. “It’s weaving together—with all three of us, Aidan.”
“With all three?” I ask, looking at the motionless figures behind her. “Are those Ezequiel and Emmanuel?”
“Yes… Emmanuel wants to drive you out, Aidan,” she says. That sounds dangerous. Deadly.
“Drive me out? What is this, Lois? I want to wake up!” I demand.
“You can’t. Not until it’s complete,” she tells me.
“And if it doesn’t complete? If he keeps pushing me out?” I ask, panic rising.
“I don’t know, Aidan. It’s… complicated. You’re not a wolf. Emmanuel is the strongest here, and I can’t… I can’t do anything.”
Those words leave me terrified.
The light returns. The wolf plants itself in front of me. Lois leaps onto its back and reaches for me.
“Get on!” she yells.
I do the same, and we’re both on the wolf. That’s when I realize—this wolf is Lois. Her wolf. She starts running, racing past the brothers, but they don’t move. It’s like they aren’t even there.
“What the hell is that thing?!” I shout to Lois.
She doesn’t answer. She just keeps running. But the path ends abruptly, her wolf vanishes, and we both crash to the ground.
She takes my hand, kisses it, looks into my eyes. Just before she can hug me, she slams her fist into my chest, hard, knocking the breath out of me.
My body folds, but she holds me up. Now that I notice, I have no strength here. Nothing. It’s like I’m naked, stripped bare.
“I want to see you on the other side, Aidan,” she whispers.
“We’ll see each other, Lois,” I tell her, not sure if it’s true.
Suddenly Lois is gone, and the light swallows me whole, wrapping me in blinding mist.
It pierces through me, like it’s drilling holes until I come apart, shattering into thousands, millions of pieces that tear away from me.
I feel my skin peeling off, ripped away in strips, killing me slowly. Is this Emmanuel doing this? Is this part of the bond? Does a wolf go through this every time they bond with their mate?
It’s torture.
I can’t take it.
I scream with everything I have until my voice disappears too.
Is there nothing left of me? Have they taken it all?
I hear howls, then a tongue licks across my face.
I smell Lois, but I know she isn’t here.
I smell the other two wolves.
I blink a few times as everything calms. My eyes open to the blinding light, and slowly things feel normal again. But then voices flood my head—for a few seconds—until they fade and silence returns.
Emmanuel, Ezequiel… they’re right in front of me. My feet move toward them like it’s the most natural thing, like I’m not even choosing it. I look at their faces. Honestly, I don’t know how I can tell them apart—they’re identical.
“Aidan,” they say in unison.
“We are one,” I say at the exact same time.
Everything goes dark.
The bond… has it been completed?