66: He’s not dead.
**Aife pov**
Kala hesitated, even tried to stop me from running away, but I didn’t let go of her hand.
“Aife, let go, I can hold it back! Run back to the house, run to safety!” She screamed, but I didn’t listen to a word that escaped her lips.
My neck burned, my throat locked up and my heart hammered so fast, I feared it might break out from my body any second, but my legs didn’t stop moving. They couldn’t.
I tightened my hold around Kala’s hand and kept running, pushing my body to what seemed impossible limits and over them.
She screamed louder, even begged me to stop and let her distract him, but I couldn’t let her do it. Not for me. The same as me, she was expecting and there was no way I would ever risk her life and the life of her unborn child.
“Aife!” She screamed again and like lightning, the rogue that slept next to the house flashed past us, right towards where he was following us like a predator.
The poor thing was injured, couldn’t move properly, and now, the rogue was attacking like it was an Alpha, protecting the pack.
“No!” I screamed, but the rogue didn’t stop.
I stopped in my tracks, my mind racing, unable to understand in which direction to run first. Was I supposed to run back to the house or run to help the rogue?
Kala grabbed me, unlike just seconds ago, she didn’t scream at me to stop, she grabbed me and tried to drag me away from the scene as I helplessly watched the injured rogue reach him and bare its teeth at him.
“No,” I whispered. “No, no, no!” My voice kept rising.
“Aife, move, let’s go back, we need Zion and Jonathan!” Kala screamed, but her words sounded distant and hollow.
I couldn’t move my feet, couldn’t look away from the poor creature that was putting its life at stake just to protect us. I couldn’t let that happen.
Instead of letting Kala drag me away from the scene, I took a step forward. My whole body trembled with fear, my knees nearly gave out from under me, but I didn’t step down.
“Aife-” Kala’s hand slipped off mine as I stumbled toward the rogue, my heart hammering in my chest as if it was trying to escape my body.
The beast, now that I could see it closer, looked completely unhinged. Ribs visible, not from starvation but from the injuries. I was sure the hind leg was broken, but the beast still stood there - growling and bleeding.
As I looked into its eyes, my breath got caught in my throat. Those weren’t the eyes I knew and even grew to admire once - these were hollow, empty and I could see nothing but hatred flash in them. The scent was his, but the body and eyes, those I didn’t recognize at all.
The beast came out of the shadows like a storm. Tall, terrible and beautiful in the way only nightmares could be - bloody teeth, claws and eyes so wide, they looked crazed.
And then, in a split second, the rogue lunged. I realized the scream was mine only because of how rigid my body became and the sound that echoed around us.
In that moment, time didn’t just stop, it shattered around us.
The sound of bones cracking echoed through the woods as the rogue collided with him. A blur of fur and flesh, a flash of red. I couldn’t see past the tears that blurred my vision, couldn’t breathe, until I saw the rogue’s body slam against the ground like a ragdoll, skidding across dirt and leaves.
It wasn’t moving, damn it, it wasn’t breathing.
I didn’t remember running towards it, only that I fell beside the wolf, hands pressing to the injury on its side as warm blood spilled between my fingers and a barely-there whimper left its lips.
“No, no, no, please, no!” I begged desperately. My hands shook and the rogue’s chest lifted once, just once, and then, never again no matter how loud I screamed and begged.
The next moment, Kala was behind me, her voice sounded raw as she screamed, “we have to go now, Aife!”
“I can’t leave,” I cried out. I didn’t care if I was going mad - this rogue risked everything it still had, its own life, for us. I couldn’t leave it behind like some trash nobody needed.
But even in my despair, I could still feel it - him. That thing that wasn’t him at all, watching us, getting closer with every second we wasted.
And then, I felt it again, that sudden burn in my neck - the bond.
I gasped, choked on my own breath, and grabbed at my throat. Something was wrong, this wasn’t how the bond was supposed to work. I could feel something inside me tearing open - it felt too wrong, too forced.
“Aife!” Kala shouted next to me. Her arm wrapped around my arm as she tried to pull me back to my feet, but I couldn’t move a muscle to help her.
I felt my muscles convulse as I slowly burned from inside out. As I was trying to fight the pain and awful feeling, I heard his laugh.
He stepped into the view, emerging from the shadows completely naked as blood dripped from his hands and face. He didn’t look like himself - black strokes of something covered his face and body. There was little of his skin left - only toxic charcoal where flesh should be.
Those lifeless eyes locked on me like I was prey.
“I knew you’d come running,” he said and took another step closer. The closer he got, the worse the pain became.
Kala stepped in front of me and snarled. “Don’t take another step.”
“Oh?” He tilted his head, eyes still focused on me. “You think you can stop me, little girl? You think you matter?”
Kala’s body was shaking, but she didn’t move. “She’s mine. You don’t get to touch her.”
He smirked. “It seems you’ve forgotten who I am.”
I had no idea what came first - my scream or the glow around me. Suddenly, everything around us shifted and the fire burning in my veins turned ice cold.
“Aife,” Kala whispered as she glanced over her shoulder, her eyes wide.
I stood on shaky legs, barely, but I could swear it felt like someone else was standing with me.
“What did you do?” Kala asked, stumbling back.
I looked down at my own hands, which were glowing - just barely, but there.
“I-I don’t know,” I said.
The monster’s smile slipped from his face. For a split second, the monster was gone and I could see him - my Bane, slipping through, his eyes full of desperate hope, but the next moment, he was gone.
“What is this?” he growled, voice back to that unfamiliar growl that sent cold shivers down my spine. “You weren’t supposed to change.”
My heart hammered in my chest as I looked into his eyes and snarled, “and you’re not supposed to be here!”
I expected a roar of outrage or scream, but instead, he snarled and lunged at me. I didn’t think, just moved as I shoved Kala aside gently to get her out of danger and lunged at him.
Before his outstretched hand could reach for my throat, something exploded from me. A shockwave of pale silver light burst from my chest and hit him mid-air, sending his body flying into a tree with a sickening crunch.
The silence that followed was unnatural. He wasn’t dead, I could see his chest move as he breathed, but at least he didn’t move.
My legs nearly gave out and Kala caught me. “What the hell was that?” She whispered.
“I don’t know.” I managed to choke out, my whole body shaking as I looked at his body wide-eyed.
Neither of us wanted to stay around to find out what had happened, we needed to get away.
Kala helped me limp back through the forest, never letting go of me. The rogue’s body stayed behind, already growing cold and I hated myself for that. I hated that we left the rogue behind after the selfless sacrifice the rogue wasn’t supposed to make.
By the time we saw the edge of the safe house through the trees, I could barely keep my eyes open. Kala was dragging me more than I was walking. My body was burning again, but it was different.
The moment we hit the steps, the front door burst open. Jonathan ran out first followed by Zion.
Both of them looked wild, eyes wide, panic written all over their faces.
“Aife-” Jonathan ran to me, scooping me up like I weighed nothing. “What happened? What happened to you?”
“I don’t know,” I choked out, and clutched his shirt, “Bane. He was following us. I know it was Bane, I could smell him, Jonathan I felt him. But it wasn’t him. Not my Bane. The rogue, Jonathan, the rogue is dead. It attacked the monster, the rogue saved our lives.”
As Jonathan carried me inside, Kala was talking to Zion, voice cracking as she explained what she saw and what I did.
From the corner of my eye, I noticed how they were looking at me, as if I wasn’t myself anymore and it scared them.
Jonathan slowly lowered me onto the couch, but he didn’t step away. I felt his hands trembling as he checked my pulse, my temperature, my breathing.
As Jonathan fussed over me, I cleared my throat and whispered. “I felt it. The mark. I’m not supposed to feel it, right? He never marked me, but I felt nevertheless, it burned me when he got closer.”
Jonathan stilled. “Wait, come again? A mark that isn’t there burned when he got closer?”
I nodded as Jonathan turned from the window, eyes narrowed. “Aife, that’s not possible. The mark can burn isn’t when your mate gets closer, it only happens if mate is dead-”
“Well, he’s not dead,” Kala interrupted Jonathan, “but I don’t think he’s coming back anytime soon.”
The room fell silent. I noticed how Jonathan’s eyebrows furrowed in deep thought while Zion’s hold around Kala became tighter. Nobody spoke, and quite frankly, I didn’t have anything to say either.
I looked at the people who stood by me - at the three people who had their own battles to fight, but they still stood at my side and did everything in their power to protect me. And then, I looked down at my hands again, and for the first time since Bane took me, I didn’t feel like prey.
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