Chapter 21 LITTLE HYBRID
/Edlyn/
I was expecting him to yell, honestly I braced myself for that, for the Alpha fury, for the sharp edge of his voice cutting through the air, but what I got instead was a hug. Not just a hug, but one of those bone-melting, can’t-breathe, too-tight kind of hugs that felt like he was trying to anchor me in place, like if he let go, I’d disappear.
The moment his arms locked around me, Vamp went wild in my head. It was like lightning ripping through my skull, that deep primal growl echoing from somewhere beneath my consciousness, clawing, fighting, desperate to take over. Her voice was thick and sharp, a dangerous hum beneath my pulse.
He’s here~~ our soul mate is here.
And I felt it. That burning ripple under my skin, the surge of power that came from the blood I had consumed earlier. It made her stronger. It made me stronger. But it also made control harder. My throat felt hot, my vision sharpened, every sound around me too crisp, too alive. I could hear the beat of his heart, the rush of his blood.
It took everything in me not to lose grip. I reached for Moon, forcing her forward, summoning that gentle steady energy that always helped me balance Vamp’s chaos.
Help me hold her back, I whispered inside my head.
Moon’s voice rose soft but firm. You need to breathe, Edlyn. Anchor yourself.
And then I did something I hadn’t done in a long while. I tapped into my witch side. That part of me that wasn’t all claws and fangs, but calm, silent power. I wrapped the surge of Vamp’s rage in a wall of stillness, a shimmering invisible barrier, locking her in the corner of my mind where she thrashed and screamed but couldn’t take over.
I stayed still in Nelson’s arms, pretending like nothing was wrong, pretending that my veins weren’t burning like liquid fire, pretending that my heart wasn’t split between the man holding me and the presence calling from the shadows.
Because I could smell him.
The vampire.
The other half of whatever mess my soul had been cursed with. His scent laced the air like temptation, sharp and cold and intoxicating. My senses were sharper now and gods, he smelled too good. A mix of blood and moonlight, something ancient and forbidden. And that was when it hit me why Vamp was losing her mind our vampire soulmate was near, close enough that his energy was pulling at her like a magnet.
My pulse skipped, my head spun.
Nelson’s voice broke through the haze. “Edlyn… Edlyn.” His tone was worried, gentle but tense, as if he’d been calling my name for a while.
I blinked up at him, trying to look normal, even though my insides felt like they were tearing in two.
“Oh,” I managed weakly, forcing a smile. “Were you saying something?”
The confusion in his eyes deepened, and I could feel his wolf still humming against my skin, protective and restless.
If only he knew the storm brewing beneath mine.
Nelson’s brows knitted together, the gold in his eyes burning with something between anger and panic. His hands stayed on my shoulders, his voice rough, low, trembling with all the things he wasn’t saying.
“Where the hell have you been, Edlyn?” he demanded, the words spilling out in a growl that made the air itself tighten around us. “Why the fuck did you run off like that? Were you kidnapped? Did someone touch you? Hurt you?”
The concern hit me square in the chest, almost making me flinch. I knew I should tell him something rational, something simple, something that made sense. But my brain, apparently, had filed for temporary leave.
So instead, my mouth did what it always does when panic meets chaos. It betrayed me.
“I... uh... saw a squirrel,” I blurted out.
He blinked. “A what?”
“A squirrel,” I said again, more confidently this time, even though my insides were screaming at me to stop. “A really suspicious squirrel. Like super shady. It was staring at me funny and, you know, I don’t trust animals that stare too long, so I followed it.”
The silence that followed could have swallowed me whole. Because he knows such animal can't enter the clothing shop.
Timi, who had somehow wandered close enough to hear, choked on air behind Nelson. Nelson’s expression didn’t change; he was frozen, looking at me like he wasn’t sure if he should laugh or call a healer.
“You… followed a squirrel?” he repeated slowly.
“Yes,” I said, nodding way too fast. “A squirrel. With attitude. I think it might’ve been working for the witches.” Now that sound more believable...
“Oh goddess,” Timi muttered under his breath, his shoulders shaking with suppressed laughter.
Felix, ever the stoic one, pinched the bridge of his nose like he’d just been hit with the biggest migraine of his life.
Nelson just stared at me for what felt like an eternity. His jaw clenched. His eyes softened just a fraction. Then he exhaled, a sound somewhere between a growl and a sigh.
“You… chased a witch-squirrel,” he said finally, voice flat, as though repeating it out loud would somehow make it make sense.
I nodded solemnly. “Yes. It was very dangerous.”
He rubbed a hand over his face and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like, “I’m going insane.”
Then, before I could defend my totally valid and not-at-all absurd explanation, he stepped closer, his tone lowering to that terrifyingly calm Alpha voice that made every cell in my body go still.
“Next time,” he said, eyes burning into mine, “you tell me before you go chasing psychotic rodents, got it?”
I swallowed, trying not to laugh because I knew he was dead serious. “Got it. No more rodent-related field missions.”
Nelson shook his head, exasperated but thank the goddess—half smiling now. “You’re unbelievable, Edlyn.”
I gave him a little grin, shrugging like the chaos I caused was perfectly normal. “Yeah, I get that a lot.”
Before I could even think of a comeback to Nelson’s “you’re unbelievable,” a high-pitched squeal cut through the air.
“EDLYN!”
Before I could brace myself, Jasmine came flying at me like a human missile, her arms wrapping around me so tight I nearly lost balance. She buried her face in my shoulder, half laughing, half crying, her voice muffled against my neck.
“Do you have any idea how scared and worried I was?!” she said, her words tumbling out so fast they nearly merged together. “One second you were right there trying on that red dress, and the next—poof!—you vanished like a bad magic trick! I thought you were kidnapped or eaten or, I don’t know, abducted by sparkly aliens or something!”
I blinked, still half trapped in her crushing hug. “Sparkly aliens?”
“Yes!” she said dramatically, pulling back just enough to gesture with her hands. “Don’t judge me, Edlyn! You ran so fast I didn’t even see where you turned to! Nelson almost ripped the entire shopping district apart looking for you!”
Behind her, Nelson cleared his throat. “I didn’t almost—”
Jasmine spun on him, eyes flashing. “Don’t even start, Alpha. You were seconds away from declaring a state of emergency. You had Felix organizing search squads like you were leading a rescue mission to the moon!”
Felix, ever composed, tried not to smile but failed miserably.
I just stood there, caught between laughing and sinking into the ground. My mind was still spinning from Vamp growling somewhere deep in my head about the vampire soulmate nearby, while Moon was whispering about how “our cover is barely holding.”
Meanwhile, Jasmine tightened her grip again, shaking me slightly as if to make sure I was real.
“Don’t you ever do that again,” she scolded, tears glimmering in her eyes now. “I swear my heart dropped into my stomach when you disappeared. You can’t just run off like that, Edlyn! I nearly fainted!”
I tried to smile, guilt bubbling somewhere under my chest. “I’m sorry, Jazz. I promise I won’t vanish again… at least not without warning next time.”
She narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “You better not. Because if you pull another disappearing act, I will personally tie you to me with a silver chain and drag you everywhere I go.”
Nelson snorted under his breath. “I’d actually pay to see that.”
Jasmine shot him a glare sharp enough to cut steel. “Don’t tempt me, Alpha. I mean it.”
For a moment, the tension in the air cracked, replaced with laughter and soft exasperation.
And yet, even as I smiled, pretending everything was fine, my pulse raced for a completely different reason.
Because beneath the warmth of their voices, beneath the laughter and the relief, I could still feel him.
That pull in the air. That dark, intoxicating hum that didn’t belong to Nelson.
Just as Jasmine was wiping the last of her tears with the back of her hand and threatening to never let me out of her sight again, a sudden sharp pressure pulsed at the back of my head. It started faint like a whisper trying to crawl into my thoughts but then it grew louder, heavier, until it felt like someone was standing right inside my mind.
I heard a voice that wasn’t my other halves in my head.
A Deep. Cold. And intoxicatingly smooth, the kind that wraps around your spine and makes your heart skip before your brain even catches up.
“Is he your mate too?”
My breath caught mid-laugh.
For a second, I froze completely. The world around me blurred the chatter, Jasmine’s warmth, even Nelson’s voice fading somewhere in the background all replaced by that echo that slithered through my thoughts like smoke.
Vamp went completely still.
Moon hissed inside my head. Who the hell was that?!
But I already knew.
The moment the voice spoke, something inside me recognized it an ancient familiarity that vibrated in my bones, something dark and primal that called to me in ways I didn’t understand.
I blinked hard, my pulse hammering as I looked around, pretending everything was normal. Nelson was watching me now, his golden eyes sharp with concern. Jasmine was still rambling about never going shopping again without tranquilizers, completely unaware of the storm erupting inside me.
“Who’s in my head?” I whispered silently, pushing back with my own power, trying to trace the voice
A low chuckle filled my mind smooth, dangerous, amused.
“You heard me, little hybrid. Answer the question. Is he your mate too?”
My heart skipped.
“Hybrid…” he said it like he knew. Like he could smell the secret I’ve been hiding from everyone, the blood that made me both moon-born and cursed.
Vamp snarled, her voice sharp in my mind. It’s him. The vampire. The one I smelled. Our other soulmate.
Moon’s tone trembled, somewhere between disbelief and fury. This is insane. No can invaade your mind without permission, how the hell did he do that.
Vamp laughed darkly. Oh, im liking him already... i cant wait to see what he looks like.
And just like that, the voice came again closer this time, like he was whispering right against my ear, velvet and danger entwined.
“You can run back to your wolf all you want, little one. But you belong to me too.”
I sucked in a sharp breath, my entire body trembling as goosebumps raced across my skin.
“Edlyn?” Nelson’s voice cut through, grounding me for a heartbeat. “Are you okay?”
I forced a smile that barely reached my eyes. “Yeah… I just… felt dizzy for a second.”