Chapter 20: Twenty
Chapter 20
Sam’s POV
The first thing I felt was cold.
Not the kind that seeps into your skin, but the kind that digs straight into your soul.
I opened my eyes to darkness. The fire was gone, the smoke cleared. The air was too still, too quiet. I could hear the faint beating of Ella’s heart beside me steady, soft. She was alive.
Thank the Moon.
I pushed myself up, my body aching, my hands shaking. Cole was sprawled across the floor a few feet away, breathing shallowly. He’d live. Barely.
But what made my blood turn to ice wasn’t them, it was the mirror on the far wall.
In its shattered surface, Ella was standing… smiling. But she wasn’t smiling here, not beside me. The real Ella was still unconscious, her head resting against my arm. The reflection wasn’t hers.
“Get away from her,” I growled, my wolf rising, claws pressing through my skin.
The reflection tilted its head, mockingly. “Still trying to protect her, Alpha?” The voice was a low, velvety hiss. “You can’t protect someone from what they already are.”
I stood, planting myself between the mirror and Ella. “You’re not her.”
“Not yet,” it replied, grinning wider. “But I will be soon.”
The mirror shimmered, the reflection moving even though we weren’t. It stepped forward out of the glass. My wolf snapped, every instinct screaming at the enemy. I lunged, claws slashing through smoke.
The thing didn’t bleed. It made my father laugh. The same deep, hollow echo that haunted the woods the night I found Ella half-dead years ago.
I froze.
No. That was impossible.
“You remember me,” the shadow mocked. “Good. Because I remember you, too, Alpha of Wood Valley. The night you found my daughter. The night you marked her. The night you cursed her.”
My breath caught. “You, you were dead.”
The shadow’s grin twisted. “You saved her life that night, didn’t you? But you didn’t know what you were saving.”
I didn’t move. My wolf paced beneath my skin, ready to tear him apart, but something about the way he said it the calm certainty made me hesitate.
“What are you talking about?” I snapped.
He turned his burning eyes to Ella’s unconscious form. “You think she lost her wolf that night. But the truth, Alpha, is far worse. You killed her wolf yourself when you marked her.”
The words hit like a blade to the chest.
“No,” I whispered.
“Yes,” he hissed, stepping closer. “My daughter’s wolf was never meant to be tamed. Your mark bound it. Trapped it. And now it’s festering, clawing its way back out.”
I took a step back, shaking my head. “You’re lying.”
The shadow smiled. “Then look.”
It raised its hand, and suddenly, Ella screamed.
Her body arched violently, her back bowing off the floor as black veins spread across her neck. Her eyes flew open glowing faintly red.
“Ella!” I dropped beside her, grabbing her shoulders. “Breathe, damn it!”
Her hand shot out and clamped around my wrist, her grip unnaturally strong. Her voice came out in a whisper that wasn’t hers. “He’s not lying.”
I froze.
“I feel her,” she gasped, tears streaming down her cheeks. “My wolf, she's angry. She wants out.”
I turned to the shadow, fury boiling inside me. “What do you want from her?”
The demon smirked. “Simple. Release her. Or she’ll destroy you both.”
A violent gust of wind tore through the lab, shattering what was left of the windows. Cole stirred in the corner, groaning. “Sam… what the hell ”
Before he could finish, Ella’s eyes rolled back, and she went limp again. The black veins slowly faded, but the damage was done. I could feel the shift in the air. The change inside her.
She wasn’t the same anymore.
I gathered her into my arms, ignoring the pain shooting through my ribs. “I’ll find a way to fix this,” I muttered, more to myself than anyone else. “I don’t care what it takes.”
The shadow’s laughter echoed all around us. “You can’t fix what’s already broken.”
Then it vanished and sucked back into the mirror with a scream that rattled my bones. The glass splintered, falling to the floor in glittering shards.
Silence followed.
Cole pulled himself up, blood running down his temple. “What the hell just happened?”
I didn’t answer. My gaze was fixed on Ella’s still face, on the faint red mark glowing just above her heart right where I had marked her years ago.
It wasn’t supposed to glow.
I brushed my thumb over it, and it pulsed beneath my touch, like something alive.
Her breathing hitched. Her lips parted.
And in a voice that wasn’t entirely her own, she whispered, “He’s coming back.”
The temperature dropped again, t
he lights flickered out, and a chill swept through the room.
This wasn’t over. Not even close.