Chapter 68 THE BETA'S RESURRECTION
MONTY'S POV
The first thing I feel is nothing.
No pain or breath. Just darkness stretching forever in every direction.
Am I dead? The thought forms slowly. This must be death. Morrison broke my neck. I felt it snap. I felt everything stop.
But if this is death, why can I still think?
Then I feel a pull. Small at first but growing stronger. Something is calling me back to a place I left behind.
Luna. The name surfaces from memory. My baby, I held for minutes before dying to protect her.
The pull becomes impossible to resist. I try to fight it because going back means pain, and I don't want pain anymore. But the force is relentless.
My chest moves. My heart beats once. Stutters. Then beats again.
I open my eyes.
The dug hole, except I am not in the hole. I am standing at the clearing's edge, watching it burn.
How am I standing? My neck was broken. Spinal cord severed. Brain death was instant.
I try to move my hand. It responds. Everything works even though it shouldn't.
The mate bond with Alicia pulses faintly in my chest. But it feels wrong, like something bad is using the connection between us.
What happened to me?
I take a step forward, then another. My body moves smoothly despite being dead hours ago.
Alicia turns. Her eyes go wide when she sees me. Horror and hope flash on her face.
"Monty?" Her voice is small and broken.
I open my mouth to respond. To tell her I don't know what is happening, and this is impossible.
But the deep voice that comes out isn't mine.
"Did you really think burying the body would stop me?"
The words aren't what I meant to say. I try again.
But the voice still belongs to someone else wearing my skin.
Panic floods through me. I am here, conscious. But I cannot control my own body. Cannot speak my own words. Can only watch as my mouth forms sentences I didn't choose.
Morrison. The understanding hits like lightning. Morrison didn't just kill me. He took me and used Luna's power somehow to anchor his consciousness in my corpse when his original body died.
I am a stranger in my own flesh.
"You possessed him." Ray's voice is low and dangerous. "You possessed a corpse."
"I animated a vessel." Morrison uses my mouth to speak as he tests my hands. "Fresh death makes it easier. This will do nicely until I secure Luna and complete the ritual properly."
No. No no no. I am not a vessel. I am Monty.
But I cannot make my body obey unless Morrison allows it.
"Get out of him!" Alicia's voice cracks. "Get out of Monty right now!"
I want to tell her I am still here, even though I cannot move or speak.
"No." Morrison's answer is casual. "This body is mine now. And soon Luna will be mine too."
He takes another step toward Alicia. My legs carry me forward against my will. Every instinct screams to stop but my body ignores me completely.
Then I feel it. Deep inside where Morrison hasn't looked yet.
My wolf. I reach for it, to access the animal strength that has always been part of me.
But the wolf is gone.
Horror floods through me. Wolves without their animal halves are not wolves anymore.
Morrison killed my wolf when he took my body.
No. That is not quite right. I probe deeper carefully. Morrison hasn't noticed I am still conscious yet.
Luna's power isn't just animating my corpse. It is keeping me aware. She revived me somehow, but the revival was interrupted. I came back wrong.
I am alive but not alive.
My body continues moving forward. Morrison wearing my face addresses Alicia with casual cruelty.
Rage builds inside me. Morrison thinks he won.
First I need to understand what Luna's power did. How I am conscious.
I focus inward, down to wherever my consciousness is anchored.
There. A silver thread connecting me to Luna.
The thread vibrates with Luna's distress. She knows something is wrong with me.
Baby. I send the thought down the silver thread. Not sure if she will hear it. Papa is still here.
Luna's crying stops abruptly. Her silver eyes lock onto my stolen body with unsettling focus.
She heard me. Somehow my five day old daughter heard my silent scream and knows I am trapped inside.
"Now give me Luna before I am forced to take her."
But Luna is looking at me with recognition.
Yes. I send the thought desperately. Fight him. Take back what he stole.
Silver light begins to glow around Luna.
Morrison hasn't noticed yet. He’s too focused on threatening Alicia.
That confidence is his weakness. He underestimated Luna once.
I feel her power reaching through the silver thread, looking for where Morrison's consciousness ends and mine begins.
The sensation is strange. Like someone rummaging through my thoughts. But I don't fight it.
"You think you can stop me?" Morrison laughs with my mouth. "I just jumped bodies after being killed. What can three exhausted wolves possibly do?"
He doesn't know that Luna is already inside my head dismantling his hold piece by piece. She is too young to understand strategy but her instincts are perfect.
The silver thread pulses hot and Luna's power surges. For a moment Morrison's control wavers.
My pinky finger twitches. The movement is tiny but it is mine.
Morrison notices immediately. His presence clamps down hard trying to take control. "What?"
But it is too late. Luna has found the seam between us and she is pulling with all the strength in her unprecedented five day old body.
Morrison's consciousness starts sliding. I feel him scrambling to hold on.
No. My thought is absolute. This is my body. My life. My chance to be Luna's father. You don't get to steal that.
Morrison fights harder. But Luna is relentless. And I am helping now, by pushing from the inside while she pulls from outside.
"Stop!" Morrison's voice comes out panicked. "This is impossible! You are dead! A corpse cannot fight back!"
But I am not just a corpse anymore. I am something Luna created.
Morrison's presence rips free suddenly.
I collapse, and for a moment, nothing works. Then slowly and painfully, I regain control.
My eyes focus on Alicia's terrified face. My mouth forms words I choose myself. "Alicia. It is me."
Relief floods her expression. Then confusion. "Monty? How? You were dead. The bond was severed."
"I was dead." I force myself to sit. "But Luna brought me back somehow. Used her power to anchor my consciousness when Morrison tried to possess me fully." I look down at my hands. "But I am not alive, my wolf is gone."