Hades
I couldn’t move, every limb was held down by forces I didn’t know. My lips felt like there were anvils on them. I tried to find sothing in that would break through the void of darkness that I seed unable to escape.
I concentrated, forcing my body to respond to the command of my mind. Yet, it was like I was pushing futilely against a transparent barrier.
When I gave up, I could hear my heart throbbing in the throbbing of my head. I was still exerting myself despite not being able to break the surface.
When my body failed , I turned to my mind, only to find it devoid of anything, painfully empty in a way that was suffocating.
I didn’t even know my na.
The forces on my limbs slid eerily over to the column of my throat as alarm took over, seeping into my veins, contaminating everything.
I tried to force myself to rember sothing I was forgetting, soone I was forgetting—the knowledge alone made the forces winding themselves around my throat tighten.
Yet nothing broke through the void that I was starting to horrifically realize was a cage with bars I could neither bend nor break.
Then...
It wafted into my senses—a scent, no, a mixture of two distinct scents so achingly familiar that my hamring heart stopped for a second too long.
The earthy, fresh essence with a sharpness that made it linger long after, combined with the redolence of syrupy sweet richness that made my skin tingle with anticipation. Lavender and honey, lting together to create ambrosia that tugged at my chest to the point of agony.
My finger twitched.
Heady victory filled , as I slowly found my fingers, one after the other, lifting one slightly after the other until I was sure they were complete.
The scent grew stronger, more intoxicating, pulling toward consciousness like a lifeline thrown into an abyss. I fought against the remaining tendrils of darkness, each breath bringing closer to the surface of whatever nightmare had held captive.
My eyes cracked open, heavy and unfocused at first. Light filtered in, soft and warm, nothing like the harsh fluorescents I’d grown accustod to. But it wasn’t the light that made my heart skip—it was the cascade of red hair that fell like liquid fire across my vision, framing a face that belonged in my deepest dreams.
Turquoise eyes. Eyes like the ocean on a perfect day, wide with concern and sothing else—relief so profound it made my chest ache.
Eve.
Everything ca rushing back at once. The mission. Silverpine. The transformation. The pain, the fear, the desperate flight ho. But most importantly—her. My wife. My Luna. My everything.
With strength I didn’t know I still possessed, I pulled her to in a crushing embrace that made her gasp and sent alard murmurs rippling through what I now realized was an infirmary filled with dical staff.
"Please," I whispered against her hair, my voice hoarse and broken, "tell you are real."
I felt her shock in the way her body stiffened for just a mont before lting into , her arms wrapping around with equal desperation.
"You’re back ho with ," she whispered, her voice thick with emotion. "You’re ho, Hades. You’re safe."
Relief crashed over like a tidal wave, so overwhelming that for a mont I couldn’t breathe. The nightmare was over. Silverpine was behind . I was ho, with her, alive and—
Pain exploded through every nerve ending at once. My body, which had been running on adrenaline and recognition, suddenly rembered every injury, every transformation, every mont of agony I’d endured. I tried to hold onto her, tried to maintain that precious contact, but my strength abandoned and I slumped back against the pillows.
Everything hurt. Everything. But I was ho. I was alive. And she was real.
Then the rest of the horror hit and I stiffened just as the dics began to work on stabilizing . I straightened even as my back was one movent away from snapping. "Where are they?" I blurted. "Kael..."
"Thea and Micah," she took their nas out of my mouth.
My chest tightened at the ntion of the other passengers and their fate after our catastrophic plumt.
She smiled, running her hand through my hair. "They are all fine. Even the child."
I looked at her like she hung the sun, quickly pulling her in for a kiss.
It started soft, tentative, as if I was afraid she might disappear if I pressed too hard. But the mont our lips t, sothing wild and desperate took over. Days that felt like months of separation, of not knowing if I’d ever see her again, of fighting just to survive—it all poured into that kiss with a ferocity that surprised even .
She kissed back with the sa intensity, her fingers tangling in my hair as if she too couldn’t quite believe I was real. Every flinch of pain that shot through my battered body was worth it for this mont, for the taste of her, for the proof that we had both made it through the nightmare.
I couldn’t get enough. Even as my ribs protested and my muscles scread, I pulled her closer, deeper into the kiss that felt like coming back to life—
"DADDY!"
The shriek of pure joy that erupted from the infirmary entrance made us spring apart like we’d been electrocuted. Elliot stood in the doorway, his eyes wide with disbelief and elation before he launched himself toward the bed.
The dics scattered as our son barreled past them, all pretense of dical protocol abandoned in the face of a child.
I opened my arms for him, smiling even as my entire jaw protested, a heady rush of love making my head spin as he launched toward .
Eve chuckled, the sound soothing my ears, and my smile widened...
Then it fell...
Because Elliot’s bright green eyes morphed into red, from his warm beige skin sprang grey fur, his fingers enlarging and transforming into clawed paws.
Before my eyes, my son shifted into a wolf before he landed on my lap.
Ti froze, the blood in my veins slowing to an excruciating crawl.
Finding my wolf had ant losing my innocence at an early age, sharing your consciousness with a creature that saw through filtered things that children innately absorbed.
It was a rite of passage that ca with puberty, with hormones and understanding, with the ntal capacity to handle the duality of what he was and beast. But Elliot—my little son—was shifting before my eyes with the fluid grace of soone who had been doing this for far longer than should have been possible.
The small gray wolf in my lap looked up at with those sa bright eyes, now red instead of green, his tail wagging with pure joy as if this was the most natural thing in the world. Which, apparently, it was for him.
"When?" The word ca out strangled, my voice barely recognizable even to myself.
Eve’s hand found mine, her fingers intertwining with my trembling ones. "A few days after you left," she said softly. "I was in danger, and that night he just... shifted to save . Dr. Alia says the emotional trauma might have triggered it early."
I stared at my son—this impossible, beautiful, terrifying miracle of a child who was nuzzling against my chest with wolf-like contentnt. Every instinct I had as a father was screaming that this was wrong, that he was too young, too small, too innocent to carry this burden.
History was repeating itself.
I had found Cerberus too young too.
Was this a cycle that would never end?
I had failed him too many tis to count.
But another part of , the part that had been Vassir, that carried centuries of supernatural knowledge, whispered that this wasn’t just early shifting. This was sothing else entirely. Sothing that made my blood run cold even as I held my transford son close.
"Does he rember being human when he’s like this?" I asked, though I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the answer.
After I had shifted so young because of my father’s training, the mont Cerberus gained consciousness in my subconscious, I changed. Even before I was injected with Vassir’s veins, before I had the flux’s tendrils rupturing my heart. I beca cold, unfeeling.
If Elliot was like that...
Elliot answered on his own, whining to get my attention.
I let the cowardice lt away and t his gaze, crimson eyes eting mine, soft and puppy-like. Not like the caged, wounded wolf that I had been.
"Elliot?" My eyes road his form. The rich gray fur with a moderately large red marking that traced his spine.
My hands shook as I stroked the soft fur, Elliot’s whining piercing my nonexistent heart.
"He’s still himself. Even more playful," Eve tried to divert my emotions from the pain raking itself through , but I could hear that even she was as heartbroken as I was.
I touched his snout and snapped back as he tried to bite before howling at my horror. But there was nothing ferocious about his expression. He had been teasing .
The realization gave so reprieve.
Then soone ca running in.
"Luna," he panted, his eyes darting montarily to , widening. "You are awake, Alpha," he bowed.
"What is happening? What is the ergency?"
He swallowed, before his words tumbled out in a rush, all at once. "It’s Lucinda Montague. She is awake and worse than before."
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