Chapter 100: 101
A wolf is howling in misery.
Love, pain, yearning.
I pull my hand away.
They’re not my emotions. I have no emotions. I barely exist.
Unable to help myself, I touch the thread again, wanting to feel those emotions that are not mine. This time, I find it difficult to let it go. The thread doesn’t burn my hand; it permeates my palm with a golden warmth that begins to spread all over my body. It feels like my entire existence is being filled with light.
It’s too much.
I have to let the thread go.
But something isn’t letting me.
I want this to stop.
It’s too much.
“Leanna.”
I know that name. It’s my name.
The sound of a child crying.
“Mom.”
The crying makes me feel uneasy. I don’t like it.
I’ve become distracted by the sounds. When I lower my gaze to the thread, it has begun to wrap around me.
“Leanna.”
The name keeps echoing in my ear, as if somebody is calling me. It’s getting harder to resist.
“Leanna, wake up. It’s time.”
The pulse that passes through me this time is incredibly strong, and I feel myself jerk forward, dragged toward something, out of the darkness.
When my eyes open, I find myself in a familiar room.
This ceiling…I’ve seen it before.
I try to move, but I feel so weak.
Where am I?
There’s something cuddled by my side, and my eyes move to my left. I see a small wolf cub sleeping.
“Finn?” I struggle to speak, and my voice is scratchy.
My son starts, and then he sits up on his hind legs, staring at me. Before I can try to say anything else, he throws his head back and starts howling at the top of his lungs.
I hear loud footsteps. Panic fills me. But when the door is thrown open, two familiar faces burst in at the same time.
Cedric.
Harriet.
Cedric makes a beeline toward me, but Harriet pulls him back. “No!” Her voice is a shout. “She’s too weak. Stay back.”
Weak?
I can’t talk. My throat feels like paper.
She approaches me and brings a small bottle to my lips, ordering, “Drink.”
I take a few sips and then sigh in relief.
“Don’t speak,” she says sharply. Her eyes are glistening with tears.
She opens the bedside drawer next to me and takes out several potions, forcing me to drink every one of them. Her touch is gentle, and I gulp them down thirstily. They taste like nothing, but my throat is so parched that they feel good.
When she’s finally done, Harriet murmurs, “Give it a few minutes. You’ll be better soon.”
She has one arm wrapped around my shoulders to support me, and soon enough, I feel my strength return.
“What happened?” I ask roughly. “Why am I here?”
Harriet looks at Cedric and nods her head. My mate is by my side in a heartbeat. “How are you feeling?”
His voice is hoarse, and he looks like he hasn’t slept in days.
“I’m tired. Where am I?”
“In the palace,” Cedric tells me. Finn’s wolf crawls into my lap and curls up. His body is trembling. I touch his fur and stroke him. He whimpers but does not shift into his human form.
“What’s wrong with him?”
“He’s been like this ever since he saw you,” Harriet tells me sadly. “He refuses to shift back.”
“Finn.” I touch his nose, his forehead, forcing him to look at me. “Finn, I want to see your face.”
He whimpers again, and Cedric says, “Give him some time. He hasn’t left your side in days.”
“What happened to me?”
Everything is very hazy right now. My memories are in chunks and bits, all over the place. I need somebody to help me piece them together.
“You don’t remember?” Cedric asks cautiously. “Vivian attacked you.”
Vivian.
Her very name sends a shock to my system. And then the memories start flooding back. The attack. Jerry.
“Where’s Jerry?”
“He’s fine,” Harriet assures me. “He woke up two days after the attack. You took two weeks, my dear. The royal healers have been working on you around the clock. You nearly died.” She wipes her eyes. “We didn’t know if you would ever wake up. Your injuries were life-threatening, and whatever Vivian gave you, it temporarily disconnected you from your wolf.”
“Is Vivian—”
“She’s dead,” Cedric says bluntly. “She died far too easily. But not before she answered a few questions.”
“I see.” I don’t know what else to say. I feel so tired. “Can I go to sleep for a while?”
Cedric and Harriet exchange a look, and the latter nods. “I’ll bring up some food first. You can sleep after you eat.”
Cedric sits by me after she leaves the room. “I thought I was going to lose you. I never want to go through that again.”
“I’m sorry,” I whisper, my head still too foggy for me to actually feel anything.
When the food arrives, Cedric feeds me every bite with his own hands. He tries to give some to Finn, but my son is only willing to eat if I feed him myself. He still doesn’t shift back, however.
When I’m done eating, my mate lies down with me and brings Finn to sleep between us. Harriet enters the room, removes the dishes, and turns down the lights. “Sleep. You all need some rest now.”
I don’t know what that means, but surrounded by my family, I feel safe, and I let myself slip away.
It takes me another whole week to recover. Information is fed to me in bits. But by the time I’m walking around, nobody has told me what happened in the lab. And every time I ask questions, my attention is diverted elsewhere. I do get some answers, though, especially about why the palace guards were nowhere to be seen. They had been drawn away by the enemy.