71: You’re slipping.

**Bane pov**

I knew I wasn’t alone the moment the silence turned sweet. Was there a way to explain how a sweet silence felt? I doubted that, but I also knew it was so different from anything I had ever felt - it was almost overwhelming. 

It wasn’t the feeling of peace or calmness that came with it. 

The only thing I could compare it to was a rotten fruit - something that smelled so sharply sweet just one whiff would let you know the thing in front of you was poison disguising itself for sugar. 

For a while, I stayed still, hanging from the chains. Clearly, not by choice - my limbs were dead weight, my throat burned and my wrists throbbed where the chains dug in deeper every time I did as much as barely twitched. 

But the pain wasn’t what kept me awake and still. It was a voice. Not the asshole who I knew for so long already, the fucking murderer who used my body to turn my pack into his carnage playground. 

There was another presence, its voice just a whisper, but fuck, did it make my blood freeze up. Unlike the monster who knew how to control my body, this presence was different, barely watching me from just behind my eyes, but so overpowering now that the monster slept, I couldn’t understand why I hadn’t noticed it before. 

Perhaps it never wanted to be seen? That made sense. 

*“They’re going to kill you, you know.”*

It started like that, a soft whispered voice coming from the back of my head, making the words sound like a suggestion rather than a threat.

My jaw clenched. “Don’t be dramatic,” I told myself.  “You’re hallucinating.”

*“No, you’re not.”*

My head fell forward slightly as sweat dripped off my face. I could smell the hay around me, feel the dampness in the air around me. 

For a moment there, I focused on the surroundings rather than attempted to hear more. There was nothing more, so I allowed myself to believe the voice truly was a fruit of my imagination until I heard it again, but this time, those weren’t words, just a sound of faint laughter.

I had no idea how that was possible, but the sound felt like it was crawling down my spine like fingertips - a barely there touch, yet unmistakable for anything else.

*“They tied you up like a dog, didn’t they?”* I heard him again. The bastard was awake, making fun of me like he wasn’t hung inside the barn along with me. And the other voice? It was gone, but I could still feel it.

“They’re scared,” I rasped to no one but myself, surprised I had found my voice at all. “They’re trying to protect Aife.”

*“Oh, Bane. Sweet, broken Bane. You still think they care about her?”* My hands twitched with need to catch the invisible bastard and choke the living hell out of him. *“They care about control, power, and pack order. That girl? She’s a symbol, you fool, not a mate. At least, not to them. Those men you let yourself believe are your friends see your silly little mate as a pawn in their perfect fairytale of survival.”*

“Shut up,” I whispered.

*“You think you scare them because of me?”* He asked, the tone completely changed from that condescending tone he always used to a forceful growl. I hissed as I felt the black substance slowly crawl over my skin while the bastard only laughed. *“No, no, they were scared long before I bothered to speak up. Before I opened your eyes to what true power meant, Bane. Long before you stopped pretending to be one of them - they have always feared you, moron.”*

“I never stopped,” I whispered. “I fought you, every second, every move you made. I fought-”

*“You begged.”* He snarled and my body jerked in response. 

A fresh wave of nausea rolled through me, and I doubled forward as far as the chains would allow. The pressure in my chest was unbearable, like something pressing up against my ribcage, waiting to split me from the inside.

*“You begged me to make you strong enough, you wanted this. You were just too much of a coward to admit it.”*

“I never wanted to hurt her.” I tried to shake my head, but the nausea got worse.

*“But you did.”* The bastard insisted and I didn’t have a word to use against his argument because he was right. Fuck, he was so right I hated myself for it. *“Do you want to know what she looked like? When she saw you? Her eyes wide, that glow all over her like silver fire. Do you want to know what her mouth said?”*

I shook my head slowly, not wanting to hear a word more because I knew what was supposed to come next and that in itself was the true torture - not the voice, the pain or helplessness. 

*“She said your name. Not mine - yours. And you still lunged.”*

I screamed, or maybe the sound was a broken sob, I couldn’t tell anymore. The bastard kept chanting “your name” over and over again because he knew he was hurting me more with those two words than with anything he had ever done. 

Footsteps outside the barn made me stiffen, I couldn’t look up properly but I still listened in. I could hear muffled voices and I instantly recognized Samantha’s sharp tone that was followed with Thane’s classical, indifferent huff. Soon, I heard Kieran’s growl as they walked back to the barn. 

I was pretty sure they thought I was unconscious. Good, at least if they were planning something else I’d get to learn what it would be.

*“They’re planning to dissect you like an animal. Piece by piece. You know that, don’t you?”*

“They’re trying to stop you.” I whisper-hissed.

*“No,”* the monster purred. *“They’re trying to erase you. I could help you stop them, Bane. You know me better than you know those traitors, don’t you? I’m all you got. I’m the last one who has remained by your side. You were born with me and you will die with me. Think Bane, I’ve always been here for you and I’m still willing to remain on your side. Say the word and you got it.”*

I twisted my wrists as if I could escape them, the sharp edge of the chains sliced my skin and soon, warm liquid spread down my forearms.

*“Pain keeps you awake,”* it whispered, voice honey sweet. *“Do you remember the first time? The first time I took over?”*

I grit my teeth, refusing to answer the question or acknowledge his existence at that.

*“You do - you remember the heat. The rage, the freedom, the sweet lack of guilt. No weakness, just hunger and clarity. Don’t you miss me, Bane?”*

“That wasn’t me.” I insisted.

*“Of course it was, I’m not separate from you, Bane. I am you. I’m the part you locked up. The part that wouldn’t sit still and bow to a system that devoured its own.”*

“You’re a curse.” I spat.

*“I’m a gift.”* I swear I could feel the grin on his lips as he purred the words like the sweetest threat.

I didn’t say a word, just gave myself a moment in silence to think. My thoughts returned to Aife as I closed my eyes. That one second I got to see her changed something inside me - completely shattered whatever I used to believe was real. 

I couldn’t stop thinking about the look in her eyes when she saw me, not the monster. Aife looked at me like she knew I wouldn’t stop fighting no matter what - not only against him, but also for her.

*“She doesn’t forgive you.”* The bastard snarled at me.

I chuckled lowly and shook my head, just barely. “I don’t expect her to.”

*“She doesn’t love you anymore. She never really did.”* He insisted. 

“I don’t deserve her.” I countered. I knew he was trying to get under my skin, he needed to provoke me enough to get a reaction out of me to ensure easy grip on control.

*“She’s going to help them kill you.”*

“No.”

*“She’s going to choose them, not you. Never you, Bane.”*

My jaw locked as I sucked in breaths as deep as I could until they became painful. I didn’t want to listen anymore, but it wasn’t a choice. The voice wasn’t a sound, it was a part of me that I couldn’t escape no matter how far I tried to run. 

Before he could add more nonsense, I feared footsteps again, now much closer. The barn door creaked open again and a shadow moved across the floor, but I didn’t bother trying to lift my head.

*“Play dead,”* it whispered. *“Let them come closer, let them talk and listen carefully.”*

The door shut again and they came closer immediately. Samantha spoke first, “I’m telling you, I saw him twitch earlier. Just watch.” 

“Still looks out cold to me,” Kieran muttered, stepping closer to me.

Torin added, “Doesn’t matter. He heard us before and might be hearing us now.”

I kept my eyes closed and my head bowed down. 

*“They’re afraid of you,”* the bastard repeated in a low hiss. *“They should be.”*

“Hey!” Torin called out. “Look at his skin. The black streaks are back, that means something, doesn’t it? Every time the monster killed, Alpha’s skin was charcoal black. Fuck, can we do something? Can we stop the thing from spreading?” He asked, words rushed and frantic.

“Darn it!” Samantha hissed under her breath. “I doubt we could without the other half of the book. The green one was damaged and the other half is gone.”

After a beat of silence, Thane cleared his throat and suggested the most dangerous thing I’ve heard in my entire life. “We could bring her here. She can stun that thing, right? She did it once already, so she can do it again.” 

“No,” Samantha snapped. “Absolutely not. If she comes near him, he’ll kill her.”

“No, I won’t,” I whispered and the barn instantly fell quiet. Fuck, I didn’t even realize I said it out loud.

*“Oops,”* the bastard in my head laughed. *“Now they know.”*

The chains clinked as I forced my head up - my vision spun, but I saw how fast Samantha took a step back and Thane’s hand twitched toward the dagger at his belt.

“You shouldn’t fear me,” I said hoarsely. “I’m trying to stay in control.”

Kieran’s lip curled as he took a step forward and snarled, “trying isn’t enough anymore, Alpha.”

*“Told you,”* the monster inside me purred. *“You’re not their Alpha, not anymore.”*

“You need me. If you kill me, you release it.” I forced the words, my eyes focused on Thane.

“Then maybe we will kill you slowly. Just enough to keep it trapped while your body bleeds out and eventually, so does the creature inside you.” Thane growled.

Samantha looked at me, her eyes wide as she whispered, “Alpha, you heard everything, didn’t you?”

I nodded. “Enough to know you’re all afraid.”

“Shouldn’t we be?” She asked, taking another step back. 

I didn’t have an answer, because quite frankly, fuck, I was afraid too.

*“You should let me speak to them,”* the bastard offered, his voice laced with a sugary sweet promise of pain and suffering - everything I didn’t want to bring to my pack members, no matter how much they betrayed me. *“I could make them listen, I could make them kneel.”*

I turned my head and looked directly at Samantha, ignoring the nagging voice. “You said the bloodline is older than the packs, right? Was there any mention of the curse there?”

Samantha shook her head slowly. “That’s what the book said, but there was nothing about the curse itself. I saw the visions, but they’re not connected to the bloodline. You hear everything, Alpha.”

I swallowed and nodded slowly. “Find the rest of the book before he wakes up again. Weakened, like this, I won’t be able to hold him back for long once he regains his strength.”

*“Too late,”* the bastard whispered, amused. *“I’m already stretching.”*

A sharp jolt of pain spread through me, and I bit down on a scream.

“You’re slipping, Bane!” Thane growled.

“GET OUT OF ME,” I screamed, thrashing against the chains so violently, they only dug deeper into my skin. “GET OUT!”

Everything happened within a second - Samantha flinched, Kieran lunged forward, but Thane didn’t even blink as he drew his blade and held it at my throat and Torin just stood aside, looking around like a wild, cornered animal.

I froze, my breathing hard as sweat poured down my skin. As silence stretched out, I realized that the only reaction to me that truly bothered me was Torin’s. Not because he said or did something, but because he just stood aside and stared at me like I wasn’t a person anymore.

“You think I want this?” I rasped. “You think I haven’t spent every second fighting him? You really believe I welcomed a monster into my pack and my own body? I’ve always been a cold-hearted bastard, but I never hurt my own. Never.”