Hades
"Are you sure, Red?" I asked, while rubbing slow circles into her back. "That---"
"I am sure," she whispered, the tremor in her voice unmistakable. "I want to find my..." She gulped. "My mate." She spoke like it hurt physically.
I could feel her anxiety and uncertainty since Lia's visit. It seed that the news had scared her more than I had expected. It was perfect. I continued to rub her back, trying to chase the tension away from her body. But her shoulders remained bunched as if she was prepared for a battle.
"It's going to be okay," I told her. "I sent Alia to tell you because---"
"I understand," she cut off. She tilted her head up so that she could look at . "Thank you," she whispered.
My brows knitted. "What for?"
For a little while, she said nothing before she finally found the words. "For everything," she replied ominously.
My stomach knotted, but I flashed her a teasing, easy grin. "But I thought I was insufferable, and yet you just can't live without ."
Imdiately, she smacked my arm. "This is why we will never see eye to eye," she grumbled before turning away from .
My smile faltered as I glanced at the test results lying on the table. The paper was a clever lie, doctored to reassure her fears while keeping the truth hidden. There was nothing life-threatening—not yet. Just abnormal cell degeneration, the kind that wouldn't raise alarms under normal circumstances. But to , it scread louder than any prophecy ever could.
Her body was too stable. Stable in a way that no one without a wolf should be. Stable in a way that defied the natural laws of our kind. Without her wolf, she was slowly becoming... sothing else. The wolf wasn't just dormant—it was being forgotten, erased. And the worst part? Her body was adapting to life without it. The hollowing should have killed her, but now that it hadn't, the effect was like that of a survivor who had endured a terrible illness and erged not only immune to it but stronger for having faced it. Her body, instead of succumbing to the hollowing, had adapted. It was as if the process, which should have destroyed her, had acted as a brutal workout, sharpening her system into sothing more resilient, more efficient—but also far more unnatural.
Her cells had recalibrated themselves to function without the wolf, a feat no one else had survived before. It was a paradox: the very process ant to strip her of strength had left her more fortified, but at a terrible cost. Without her wolf, she wasn't just an anomaly—she was a ticking clock. The balance her body had achieved was fragile, artificial, and unsustainable.
If the wolf wasn't awakened soon, her body would no longer recognize it. The transformation would beco permanent, cutting her off from her true nature forever. She'd remain alive, but she wouldn't truly be herself—and with that, any hope tied to the prophecy would vanish. All my plans for her would go to hell. I had to make sure she awakened her wolf, even if it ant that I would have to let her mate with so other fucker.
I rubbed my temple, the thought itself making my skin crawl, a migraine pulsing behind my eyes. The thought of her bonding with another man—a stranger—grated on my nerves. Not only because of jealousy—what was mine was mine—but because adding another variable to the equation would complicate things. The bond between mates was sacred, and sothing like that could affect my plans in unprecedented ways. But for the power foretold, it would be worth it.
Yet, as unnerving as it was, with a single well-thought-out lie from Lia, she would be willing. Because the will to live surpassed all else. Fear was a powerful motivator, and right now, she was clinging to the hope that finding her mate would save her. Perfect. That hope was all I needed. She had no idea the role she was playing in sothing far greater than herself—a ga she didn't even know existed.
The prophecy wasn't just so ancient tale; it was a blueprint for power. Her wolf wasn't simply dormant—it was the key to unlocking a force that could tip the scales in ways no one could predict. Without it, she would be another useless artifact in the Obsidian Pack's arsenal. But with it? She could be a weapon, one that I could wield.
"Red?" My tone was soft to keep her pliable. "Why did you not tell you were hollowed?"
She stiffened, and for a little more than a mont, she did not say a word. "I was ashad," she whispered.
Sothing in my chest twisted painfully. I reached out and placed a hand on her tense shoulders. "And you led to believe that you were rely wolfless."
She said nothing.
"It must have hurt," I said, feeling her tense further, a tremor running through her body.
"It did," her voice was barely audible over the wild beating of her heart that I could hear.
I blinked, caught off guard. She was opening up. She was vulnerable. Hollowing a princess would have been a scandal, so it was likely that barely anyone knew. She had been carrying the weight of the trauma from the hollowing alone ever since she got here. She had kept her secrets close, but the looming possibility of death had left her craving the possibility of connection, of relief from the crushing isolation she'd endured. She was craving soone—anyone—to shoulder even a fraction of the burden. And right now, she thought that person was .
Perfect.
This ti, I didn't pull her to —I moved to her, wrapping my arms around her. "How long was it?"
"A couple of years," she whispered. "The first ti was the most agonizing."
I planted a kiss on her forehead and felt her tremors mount as she let go. She began to weep quietly as she held on tighter to .
"It's okay," I said, keeping my cadence soft. "I am here. You can tell anything." It had taken ti, but her walls were breaking down, and I would see all that lay within. By revealing the trauma I always suspected she carried, she was giving access to the deepest parts of her, the vulnerabilities she'd hidden from everyone else. Her tears weren't just a release; they were an invitation—a door opening for to step in and take control.
A false sense of security was another thing that would draw out her wolf.
It seed that Jules was no longer needed. After a final report to , I would cut her loose. The door had been opened.
"It must have been unbearable," I murmured, stroking her back as she clung to . "To go through that, to endure that pain alone… you're stronger than anyone I've ever t, Red."
Her sobs hitched, her fingers tightening against my shirt as if I was her anchor. She did not tell anything more before she finally fell asleep. All in due ti, I thought to myself.
Finding a mate, she would believe that she was taking control of her own fate. Little did she know that I was the one holding the reins. The feigned report was written with ink as dark as my intentions, and she had no idea.
It seed like I had won the ga that had begun on that night of the lunar gala.
The ringing shattered the quiet, piercing through the soft sounds of her breath as she finally drifted into sleep. I carefully eased myself away from her, ensuring I didn't wake her. I picked up my phone from the nightstand. I glanced at the screen: Tower Laboratory.
I answered imdiately, my tone sharp. "What is it?"
The voice on the other end was calm, but the tinge of urgency was palpable. "Sir, we've had a breakthrough concerning the anomaly in her blood. You need to co down here imdiately."
My jaw clenched, anticipation and unease tightening my chest. "I'm on my way."
I ended the call and spared a quick glance at her sleeping form. I adjusted the blanket over her shoulders and stepped out.
The laboratory was on the top floor of the Obsidian Tower, a fortress of secrets and science designed to unravel the mysteries of our kind. The sterile white lights flickered faintly as I entered the lab, the scent of chemicals and sterilization sharp in the air. The head researcher, Dr. Cohen, turned to greet , his expression tight with excitent. The other researchers bowed low, but I did not acknowledge them.
"You said you had a breakthrough," I stated, wasting no ti.
Dr. Cohen nodded, motioning for to follow him to a workstation where several monitors displayed detailed blood analysis and genetic mappings. "We isolated the anomaly in her blood, the one we've been tracking since you brought her to us. The anomaly that interfere with the specie test and the LSI test. Initially, we thought it was just a mutation caused by the hollowing process, but it's more than that. Much more."
He tapped on the screen, zooming in on a molecular structure. "Her blood has properties we've never seen before."
Reviews
All reviews (0)