Chapter 148
Elara's POV
The border checkpoint lights cut through the pre-dawn darkness like surgical blades. I forced my shoulders to relax, let my hands rest loose in my lap. Just a tired college student coming home. Nothing to see here.
Cole handed our documents through the window. Three passports, perfectly aged, with entry stamps that would check out if anyone bothered to look closely. I'd seen his work before. He didn't cut corners.
The border agent's flashlight swept across our faces. Lingered on Lynette.
She looked like hell. Seeing my own face so pale, dark circles under her eyes, healing cuts still visible on her hands. The kind of exhaustion that came from running for your life.
"Your sister okay?" The agent's tone was professional, but his eyes were sharp.
"Water didn't agree with her," Cole said, easy and casual. "Bad camping trip."
The agent studied Lynette for another long moment. She met his gaze without flinching, and I felt a flicker of pride. Even half-dead, she had spine.
The scanner beeped. Green light.
"Welcome home." He waved us through.
I didn't let myself breathe until the checkpoint disappeared in the rearview mirror.
We drove in silence for thirty minutes before Cole spoke.
"I'm not coming back to Mist Creek with you."
I turned to look at him. His profile was hard in the dashboard light, jaw set.
"Wild Hunt's not done," he continued. "Someone hired them. Someone with deep pockets and deeper connections. I need to find out who, and I need to make sure there's no one left tracking her."
"That's dangerous." My voice came out flat.
"It's necessary." He glanced at me. "And it's my job, Alpha."
The old title hit me in the chest. Not Elara. Not even Lynette. Alpha. The way he'd addressed me for years before everything went to hell.
"You could die out there alone."
"Could die back in town too, if they send another team." His hands tightened on the wheel. "This way, I draw them away from you. From her. From your family."
I wanted to argue. Wanted to order him to stay, to stop throwing himself into danger for my sake. But he was right, and we both knew it.
"Fine." I swallowed hard. "But you check in. Every three days. If I don't hear from you—"
"You'll come looking. I know." A ghost of a smile crossed his face. "You always do."
He pulled off at a rest stop just as the sky started to lighten. The engine ticked as it cooled, the only sound in the empty parking lot.
"What are you going to tell Warren?"
The question hung in the air between us. I'd been avoiding thinking about it, but Cole was right to ask. The Council didn't accept vague reports and half-truths.
"Partial mission completion," I said slowly. "Target neutralized in the field. Encountered a distant relative during extraction—" I gestured to Lynette in the back seat "—brought her back for family protection."
Cole's expression didn't change. "He'll see through that in about five minutes."
"I know."
"He'll push for details."
"I know."
"And when he finds out you're lying—"
"I'll deal with it." I met his eyes. "Right now, getting Lynette home safely matters more than Warren's suspicions. Everything else... we'll handle when it comes."
He studied me for a long moment, then nodded. "Your call, Alpha."
Lynette climbed out of the van, moving carefully. Her wounds were healing, but she was still recovering from weeks of running.
She faced Cole, and something passed between them. Recognition, maybe. Respect.
"Thank you," she started. "For everything—"
"Don't." His voice was gentle but firm. "Protecting you is my duty. Always has been."
Her throat worked. "I'm not her. Not really. I'm just—"
"You're wearing her face. Her body. That's enough." He paused. "And even if you weren't... you're Elara's sister. That makes you pack."
I watched from the side, throat tight. Cole had followed me through hell. Had stayed loyal when half my territory turned traitor. Had never once questioned my orders, even when they cost him everything.
And now he was doing it again. For a girl he barely knew, because she mattered to me.
"Stay alive out there," I said roughly.
"You too." He climbed back into the van. Paused with one hand on the door. "And Elara? Whatever you're planning... be careful."
Then he was gone, taillights disappearing into the grey dawn.
I stood on the shoulder of the empty highway, bag in hand, and pulled out my phone. Should've called Warren right then. Should've reported in, started the debrief process, begun the careful dance of truth and lies that would keep us all safe.
I didn't.
Lynette moved up beside me. "What now?"
"Now..." I stared at the empty highway, thinking. "Now we see someone about getting you back where you belong."
She went very still. "What do you mean?"
"There's a woman. Lives outside town in a stone cottage near the old mining road." I remembered the path through the forest, the way the air had felt different as I approached her door. "She's the one who cured my asthma. If anyone can reverse what happened to us, it's her."
"You mean..." Lynette's voice cracked. "You think we can switch back?"
"I think we have to try."
"But what if it doesn't work? What if we're stuck like this forever?"
I didn't have an answer for that. Didn't want to think about spending the rest of my life in someone else's skin, while my sister lived in mine.
"Then we deal with it," I said finally. "But we're not giving up without a fight."
A semi-truck pulled over when I flagged it down. The driver was a grizzled man in his fifties who took one look at us and didn't ask questions.
"Where you headed?"
"Old mining road, about forty miles north." I pulled out my phone, showed him the location pin I'd saved. "There's a turnoff near mile marker thirty-two."
He squinted at the screen. "That's pretty remote. You sure that's where you want to go?"
"We're sure."
He shrugged. "Your funeral. Sixty bucks."
I handed him three twenties.
We climbed into the cab. It smelled like coffee and cigarettes and long hauls across empty highways. Lynette pressed against my side, and I felt her trembling.
"Hey." I kept my voice low. "It's going to be okay."
"You don't know that."
"No," I admitted. "But I know I'm not leaving you trapped in the wrong body. Whatever it takes, we're fixing this."
She was quiet for a long moment. Then: "What if I can't go back? What if... what if I'm not strong enough to be her? To be you?"
My chest tightened. "You killed Fenrir. You survived weeks running from Wild Hunt. You're stronger than you think."
"I was terrified the whole time."
"Being brave doesn't mean not being scared. It means being scared and doing it anyway." I squeezed her hand. "You're my sister. That makes you one of the toughest people I know."
The truck rumbled on through the dawn. Outside the window, the world was waking up. Normal people, living normal lives, with no idea that monsters walked among them.
I envied them sometimes. The ignorance. The safety.
But not today.
Today, I had a sister to save and a witch to find.
The driver dropped us at the turnoff to the mining road just as the sun cleared the horizon.
"You sure about this?" He eyed the overgrown path leading into the forest. "Nothing out here but old mines and trees."
"We'll be fine," I said.
He shook his head and drove off.
Lynette stared at the path. "I'm scared."
"Me too."
"What if she can't help us?"
"Then we find another way."
"What if there is no other way?"
I turned to face her. Took both her hands in mine. "Then we figure out how to live like this. Together. As sisters. But we try first, okay? We try everything before we give up."
Her eyes—my eyes, strange and familiar all at once—filled with tears. "Okay."
"Okay."
We started walking.
The path wound through dense trees, darker and colder than the highway behind us. My instincts were screaming. Every shadow looked like a threat. Every sound like an ambush.
But I kept walking. One foot in front of the other.
Because at the end of this path was hope.
And right now, hope was all we had.