Chapter 166 What it all means
Chapter 166: what it all means
Damon pov
Panic clawed at my throat like burning fire, watching Milo struggle in pain.
The purple light erupting from Milo's skin should have burned me, but instead it felt like sunshine, warm and familiar yet completely foreign. His body convulsed in my arms, and I held him tighter, refusing to let go even as his energy crackled between us, going out of control as time went by.
“What is happening” I had asked in panick, scooping him up, like it was the answer to what was happening to him.
His back arched painfully, and the scream that tore from his throat was nothing human. Through our bond, I felt his terror and confusion as his energy cracked uncontrollably.
"Make it stop!" He clutched at me desperately. "There are voices in my head. So many voices."
"Whose voices?"
"Everyone, the pack. The ferals. Every wolf for miles." His eyes were wild, unfocused. "I can hear their thoughts, feel their emotions. It is too much!"
I pulled him against my chest, trying to shield him with my body even though I knew it was useless against whatever internal storm he was facing. This was my fault, I had marked him. Maybe it's the reason for his chaotic energy.
"Focus on me," I had commanded, trying to use my alpha voice. "Block out everything else. Just me."
He tried, I could feel him trying through our bond, but the power was too strong, too new. Purple light pulsed from his skin in waves, each one stronger than the last. The crystals in the cave began resonating, humming at a frequency that made my bones ache, but that was the least of my problems.
"I am here," I whispered against his ear, though I had no idea if he could hear me through whatever was happening to him. "I am not leaving you."
Then just like it had come, the chaotic energy stabilized on it own, Milo falling asleep in my hands.
I was very close…
Very close to saying that one word, but just like every other time, I didn't get the chance to say it.
“Milo…” I whispered his name, looking at the naked unconscious boy in my arms. His eyes were rolled up behind him, the residues of the purple glow still shone occasionally like flickering bulb light.
“Let's get you cleaned up” I said, carrying him as soft as I can towards the shallow part of the pool.
I used the water to wash off his body thoroughly, while scrubbing my own body at the same time, after which I carried him back to the makeshift bed we had constructed with leaves and available materials around the cavern.
“You will be alright” I whispered, caressing his face, my hands reaching towards his neck region, where the newly mate mark stood proudly on his skin. Immediately the purple glow on his skin reacted to my touch,
My heart leaped,
“Mine” my wolf howled in my head,
The glow softened into a low hum, the rising power I had felt when I touched his mark slowly cooled off.
“Awool”
A distant howl sounded in the distance, my wolf stirred, recognising the call immediately. It was my people, I could sense their closeness, even till now, they were still trying to locate the entrance of the cavern.
Guilt blossomed in my chest at the thought that I left the people I had sworn to protect, the oath I had taken felt like yesterday.
“Have I done the right thing”
“What if they were in trouble?”
What if they needed my help, as their alpha? And what did I do when they called up to me for attention?
I acted selfishly, and ignored their cries.
That wasn't the attitude of a good alpha…
“you are you Damon, you can't save everybody, that's doesn't make you any less than an alpha…,it makes you human”
Milo's words flashed across my mind those where his words a few hours ago and just like cold water poured on fire, the guilt that was trying to swallow me whole vanished.
I was not surprised that they were not able to find the entrance of the cavern. I remembered my mother telling me that it was so, because the goddess willed it to be so. To protect the mating pool from the eyes of evil.
“It can only be found by the combined energy of a true mates”
My mother's words whispered in my mind, just like she used to years ago, before the peace shattered. I had never believed then in true mates and the goddess.
But now my brain went back to process everything that happened… Maybe my mother was right. Milo and I were talking about the slip up and our bond, when we stumbled into the long gone ancient caves I once thought were fairy tales.
My eyes widened the more as more realization dawned on me.
Was this the goddess doing?
Or was it just a coincidence?
Coincidence or not, what mattered was that the sacred pool was real. And one way or the other, my curse that has plagued me since i could think has finally been brokened.
I closed my eyes, allowing the silence of the cavern to project through my thoughts, the pack bond, pulsed, until I could hear their scattered thoughts, but i didn't stop, i deepened my concentration, until i found who i was looking for,
James…
I opened my eyes, I was still back in the carven, and Milo was still unconscious. I didn’t know how long we were stuck in this cavern, but after trying to connect with my pack, it felt like hours have passed in a blink of an eye just from trying to reach them.
One of the hidden effects of the pool.
I didn't even want to think what it meant for me and Milo who had been stuck here for days now, fighting off the ferals.
How many days had it been?
Looking at the boy that lay down beside me, the way he looked so peacefully despite what he was probably going through another awakening, I couldn't help the sense of pride that swelled in my chest.
All my worries seemed to vanish like white smoke.
I finally realised how special my mate is, maybe a little to special, and,
Whatever Milo truly was, it had awakened something inside me as well.
Just like it did to him.
I finally lied down quietly, making sure not to disturb the sleeping boy, allowing myself to fall into a restless but much needed sleep.
But before I succumbed to my tiredness, Milo's words before he went unconscious came to my mind.
“The prophecy?” He had tried to say,
But what?... What did he mean by that?
After another round of tossing and turning, I didn't know when exhaustion claimed me.