Chapter 63

Clara’s body began to shake in his arms, the joy turning into ice water in her veins.

She felt the binding in her chest get tighter and more painful.

She looked up at Liam, as he looked down at her in confusion.

Tears filled her eyes.

More tears than she could control.

No. God, no.

She didn’t want to die.

Not now.

Not when Liam was here.

Not when he was hers again.

She could feel life through him, their mate bond getting stronger with every second.

She pulled back just enough to hold his face in her bloody hands, her thumbs brushing his cheeks gently.

As she made sure to memorize the shape of his jaw, the beards she had missed.

“I love you,” she whispered silently, her voice shaking.

“I would do anything for you.” She whispered.

“Anything.” She muttered.

“We can run, start over somewhere new.” She continued.

“Just us, forget the pack, forget everyone, ” she whispered.

Just then the wind changed and it got freezing again.

She felt it again.

That same presence.

She looked up at Liam.

His eyes had changed.

Something shifted behind his golden eyes.

The gentleness in them slowly vanished.

He looked angrier.

His hold on her arms became tighter suddenly.

His fingers dug in hard enough to leave a bruise on her.

The confusion in his eyes had changed into something else.

She looked at him in confusion, fear filled her body.

The wind picked up, blowing even stronger.

“Liam?” Her voice shook, fear slowly filling her as she looked at him.

“Baby, you’re hurting me, ” she whispered.

He didn’t answer.

His face had changed fully now, his lips pulling back in a snarl that revealed his teeth, they were too sharp, too long for humans.

With a sudden, violent shove that used his full resurrected strength, he pushed her, hard, mercilessly.

Clara flew backward through the air for a split second, hitting the snowy grave dirt with a bone breaking thud that knocked every ounce of air from her lungs in a whoosh.

Pain exploded across her back, elbows, the back of her skull, sharp unbearable pain, stars showing behind her eyes as her head snapped back against the ground.

She lay there stunned for a minute, gasping like a fish on land, the world still spinning in her eyes.

Before she could scramble up, or even draw a full breath, he was on her, his knees pinning her hips with crushing, immovable weight that pinned her body into the dirt, his hands wrapping around her throat like iron vices made in hell.

His face was a few inches above hers, he looked twisted beyond recognition, snarling, his veins bulging in his neck, saliva dripping from his teeth.

He raised his head, Incoherent screams coming from his throat, it was raw, animalistic and deafening.

“Mine, mine, MINE! GIVE IT, GIVE IT BACK! THE WARMTH, THE LIFE, IT’S MINE!” He screamed.

Clara choked instantly, her airway cut off in his hands.

Her nails tore desperately at his wrists, as she fought for air, none of that seemed to move him.

“Liam, stop, please!” Her voice was breaking and filled with fear as he squeezed harder, a sick inhuman smile on his face.

His eyes, his eyes, were pitch black now, his pupils were wide and no trace of his golden eyes remained, just endless emptiness that swallowed the moon’s light, and reflected nothing but hunger.

This wasn’t Liam.

This thing strangling her wasn’t her mate, it was a stranger, a parasite wearing Liam’s skin like a suit.

She fought under him with everything she had, her legs kicking uselessly, her hands dragging off dirt as she fought, using every part of her body to fight, using her hips to try to throw him off.

But he was stronger, impossibly, terrifyingly strong, as if the ritual had amplified something dark inside him.

The binding in her chest made her even weaker, it was like her soul was being ripped out of her body.

She was paying the price in real time.

“This isn’t you!” she managed to gasp during a brief loose moment of his hand on her neck, tears pouring sideways into her hair.

“Fight it, Liam, fight it!” She cried.

“I brought you back for us, please, remember me, ” She cried.

He didn’t hear her, and he didn’t care.

His screams grew louder, he didn’t sound human, he sounded like an animal, and he was enjoying it.

His face was inches from hers, his hot breath felt harsh on her skin, as spit fell on her cheeks in warm slimy drops.

His hand got tighter again, thumbs pressing brutally into her windpipe, crushing everything.

Black spots danced and multiplied in her eyes, her lungs were beginning to burn with a desperate need for air that wouldn’t come, pain spreading through her chest.

She began to get weaker, more drowsy, her fighting began to reduce.

This wasn’t how it was supposed to end.

Not like this.

Not after everything.

Just then the sound of a gunshot cracked the night, it was sharp, and deafening, like thunder.

Bats flew out of a few headstones as the sound of the gunshots disturbed them.

Liam’s body jerked violently as if struck by lightning.

A neat, smoking hole was in the center of his chest, right over the heart, dark blood spraying across Clara’s face in a hot, sticky way that splattered her eyes, mouth, neck.

He screamed, a sound that didn’t sound human, or wolf-like, it sounded like something primal and wrong from the deepest depths of hell, the sound of his scream shattered the silence and sent birds flying and screeching from the trees.

His hands flew from her throat to the wound, his fingers scrabbling frantically at the blood and torn flesh, trying to hold himself together.

The pressure vanished.

Clara sucked in air, painful, rasping, sweet, while coughing violently as her throat opened, each breath felt like she was swallowing glass.

She rolled to her side instinctively, her body shaking, her hands holding her bruised neck where fingerprints were already turning purple.

Liam rolled off her completely, scrambling to his feet with unnatural speed.

He was staggering but not falling, blood pouring down his chest like a tap.

He held the hole, his black eyes moving about wildly, then he ran, crashing through the underbrush into the dark forest, the branches snapping like bones under his passage, his screams turning into inhuman growls that would make any normal person know it wasn’t a human sound.

Clara sat up slowly, gasping and wheezing, her hands on her throat, her tears mixing with Liam’s blood on her face.

She coughed as she tried to inhale air.

Her vision was blurry as she tried to breathe again, tears in her eyes.

She heard footsteps from behind her, and dried snow breaking as the footsteps got closer and closer.

“Clara! Fuck, Clara!” Gabe’s voice roared through the night, furious and filled with terror, he was closer than she expected.

He came to a stop beside her on his knees, his rifle still smoking from the barrel, the strong scent of gunpowder filled the air, overpowering the smell of salt.

His face was pale under the moon, his eyes filled with shock and anger.

Eric was a few steps behind, rushing out from the trees, his face stained with dried blood from his own wounds and he had tear marks that ran down his cheeks, like he had been crying.

He had pistols in both hands, with one of the points on the spot where Liam had vanished.

Gabe dropped the rifle, grabbed Clara’s shoulders with both hands, and shook her hard enough to rattle her teeth and
send fresh pain through her neck.

“What the fuck have you done?!”

“Clara, talk to me right now! What the hell was that thing?” He shouted.

“That wasn’t Liam, what did you do?!”