Chapter 113 : I The Possession
The moment they crossed into the northern perimeter, Isla felt it.
It wasn’t magic, not in the way Raven described. It was something older,something colder.
Like being watched from inside your own bones.
Damian felt it too. His breath came shorter, his posture subtly shifting. He kept Isla tucked against his side, his wolf on edge. The snow underfoot had thinned into ash-gray slush, and the trees, those same towering pines, stood blackened, as though something had passed through and stolen the green from them.
Ahead, a single figure stood in the clearing.
Brienne.
Tied, bleeding… and alive.
Isla’s feet moved before her brain caught up. Damian reached out, but she slipped from his grip, crashing into the clearing, dropping to her knees beside her friend.
“Brienne!” Isla whispered. “We’re here. You’re okay…”
Brienne groaned, eyes fluttering. But she wasn’t looking at Isla.
Her gaze went through her. Something clearly wasn’t right.
Damian strode into the circle cautiously, his scent thick with warning. “Where are the others?”
Brienne tried to speak, but only blood bubbled from her lips. Her wrist twitched and Isla caught it.
There were runes burnt into her skin. They weren’t binding, but rather warding.
“Damian…”
A low growl exploded from behind them.
Too late.
From the trees, three hulking and deformed wolves burst forth, reeking of death and something… divine.
Isla spun, but not in time.
One of them slammed into Damian, throwing him across the clearing into a tree with such force it cracked the bark. Blood bloomed from his temple.
“No!” Isla screamed, baring her teeth.
She stepped forward, ready to tear through flesh, to protect…
Brienne grabbed her ankle hard.
Isla froze. Looked down. Her friend’s eyes were suddenly wrong. No longer soft hazel, but glassy black. The voice that left Brienne’s mouth wasn’t hers.
“You were never meant to carry it.”
The clearing rippled. The trees moved, not swaying, but turning inward, as if watching.
Isla staggered back, yanking her foot free, stumbling to Damian as he groaned, dazed but alive. His eyes were shifting silver, the wolf rising to the surface, but he couldn’t stand yet.
The wolves circled.
Brienne stood, no, whatever wore Brienne’s skin stood. Her movements were too fluid, like silk wrapped around bones.
“This vessel is breaking,” it said, smiling. “But she served her purpose. You came and now…”
It looked at Isla’s stomach.
“…it awakens.”
A searing pain tore through Isla’s core. She fell, clutching her belly, screaming. But this wasn’t labor.It was possession.
Flashes, blinding light. A blood-red moon. Fire raining from the sky. Wolves running from something they couldn’t fight.
From her and the child.
She saw herself through their eyes, standing at the center of the world as it crumbled, and in her arms, the baby smiled, golden-eyed and fanged.
“You called it here,” the voice hissed in her mind. “And now it chooses.”
Then, a second familiar, warm and fierce voice erupted amongst the mist. Raven. It wasn’t physical. It was inside her.
“Breathe, Isla. Remember who you are. Remember what you are.”
Isla gasped, grounding herself and just like that, the link snapped back.
The pain vanished and her vision cleared.
She looked up and found the possessed Brienne collapsing to the ground, body limp and steaming. The wolves froze. Then they turned and vanished into the
trees, as though retreating on command.
Damian crawled toward her, still unsteady, eyes locked on hers.
“What just happened?” he rasped.
Isla clutched her stomach.
The baby was silent and absolutely still. But she could still feel its presence.
“They were trying to force the child to awaken early,” she said, voice trembling. “To burn me out and if it wasn’t for Raven…”
She didn’t finish. Brienne stirred again, but this time her eyes were clear and wet with tears.
“I—Isla?” she whispered. “Where… where am I?”
Damian knelt beside her. “You were possessed.”
Brienne flinched. “No, no. I… I let them in.”
Silence fell like a hammer.
Isla blinked. “What?”
Brienne looked up, horror painting every line of her face. “Vincent, he didn’t take me. I went. I thought I could spy, you know, the odd sabotage here and there.
But when I saw what he had, what he knew… I…”
She broke.
“I let the thing in to protect you.”
Isla reeled. “You let it possess you?”
“I didn’t know what it really was!” Brienne cried. “I thought I could keep it contained, until the baby…” She stopped.
Damian’s jaw locked. “You brought an ancient force within reach of my mate. Of our child.”
“It was supposed to protect her,” Brienne whispered. “But it wants the baby. It wants to raise it.”
Something inside Isla shattered and then the forest shifted again. A dark hooded figure stepped out of the fog. She had been silent lately but now it was time to speak up once again.
Lucia.
Her face was grim.
“I warned you many times,” she said, eyes never leaving Isla. “The Elders are no longer your enemy. Something far worse is coming and it’s already trying to make the child its own.”