AIDEN POV
The coffee mug broke against the wall, hot liquid spraying everywhere. I ducked as another one flew past my head.
"This is insane!" Beta Morrison yelled from across the pack eting room. "She’s not even human anymore!"
I stood up slowly, trying to keep my voice calm. "Lily saved all of us. She deserves our respect."
"Respect?" Morrison laughed bitterly. "She talks to people who aren’t there. She knows things she shouldn’t know. Yesterday she told Mrs. Chen that her dead mother said hello. How is that normal?"
Around the table, other pack leaders shifted uncomfortably. I could see the fear in their eyes. Three days had passed since Lily beca a dinsional anchor, and nobody knew how to handle it.
"She’s still Lily," I said, though even I wasn’t sure anymore.
"Is she?" Morrison leaned forward. "Have you tried talking to her? Really talking to her? It’s like she’s only half here."
I had tried. Just this morning, I’d found Lily sitting by the Moon Pool, looking at nothing. When I called her na, it took her forever to look at . When she did, her eyes were sad and faraway.
"The pack is scared," Elder Iris said softly. "They don’t understand what she’s beco."
"Then we help them understand," I answered.
"How?" Morrison stood up, walking. "She glows sotis. She phases in and out like a ghost. She knows things about people’s private lives that she shouldn’t know. The children are afraid of her."
That hurt. Lily loved children. She’d always been amazing with the little ones. The idea that they were scared of her now made my chest tight.
"We need to make a decision," Morrison continued. "Either we accept that she’s no longer fit to live among us, or we pretend everything is normal and watch our pack fall apart."
"You’re talking about exile," I said coldly.
"I’m talking about survival."
The room fell silent. I looked around at faces I’d known my whole life. So looked guilty, others determined. All of them looked scared.
"She’s my brother’s mate," I said finally. "She’s family."
"Your brother’s mate is gone," Morrison responded. "What’s left is sothing else."
Before I could reply, the door burst open. Caleb stumbled in, his face white with fear.
"She’s collapsing," he gasped. "Lily’s falling. She’s going away."
Everyone jumped up, but I was already running. We ran through the pack grounds to the Alpha house. I could hear Caleb’s heavy breathing behind .
"What happened?" I called over my shoulder.
"She was talking to soone," Caleb said. "Soone I couldn’t see. She kept saying ’I can’t hold them all’ over and over. Then she just started getting transparent."
We burst into the main room. Lily was on the couch, but she was barely solid. I could see right through her to the seats beneath. Her eyes were closed, and her breathing was weak.
Brock was kneeling beside her, his hand going through her arm when he tried to touch her. "She’s been like this for ten minutes," he said. "I don’t know what to do."
"Lily," I said loudly. "Lily, can you hear ?"
Her eyes opened slowly. When she looked at , I saw sothing that made my blood run cold. Her eyes were completely black, like the empty space between stars.
"Aiden?" she whispered. "Is that you?"
"It’s ," I said, kneeling down. "You’re okay. You’re safe."
She tried to sit up, but her body flickered like a bad TV signal. "I’m losing myself," she said. "There are so many views. So many other forms of . I can’t tell which thoughts are mine anymore."
"Focus on my voice," I said. "Just my voice."
"I’m trying," she whispered. "But they’re all calling to . In one world, I’m dying. In another, I’m being abused. How can I ignore them?"
"Because this is your world," I said strongly. "This is where you belong."
She laughed, but it was a broken sound. "Do I? Look at , Aiden. I’m not even real anymore. I’m becoming sothing else."
"You’re still you," I insisted.
"Am I?" she asked. "This morning I tried to rember my first day of school. Do you know what I rembered? Fifty different first days from fifty different versions of myself. I don’t know which one really happened to ."
My heart broke for her. Lily had always been the most stable person I knew. Seeing her like this, lost and confused, was pain.
"We’ll figure this out," I said. "We’ll find a way to help you."
"There is no way," she said. "This is what I am now. This is what I chose when I beca the host."
"Then we’ll learn to live with it," I said.
She looked at with those frightening black eyes. "Will you? Will the pack? Or will they decide I’m too dangerous to keep around?"
I thought about the eting I’d just left. About Morrison’s words. About the fear in everyone’s eyes.
"They’ll understand," I said, hoping I was right.
"No," she said softly. "They won’t. And honestly? I don’t bla them. I’m not sure I understand it myself."
She was becoming more solid, but I could see the work it took. Her face was tight, like she was fighting against sothing.
"Lily," Caleb said carefully, "what’s happening to you?"
"I’m being pulled," she said. "Sothing is using my connections to the other worlds. Sothing powerful."
"What kind of sothing?" Brock asked.
"I don’t know," she said. "But it’s getting stronger. And it’s coming here."
"How long do we have?" I asked.
"Not long," she said. "Maybe hours. Maybe less."
"Then we fight," I said. "Whatever it is, we fight it."
She looked at with sothing like sadness. "Aiden, you can’t fight this. None of you can. The only way to stop it is for to cut my links to the other dinsions."
"What would that do to you?" Caleb asked, though I could see he already knew.
"It would kill ," she said plainly. "Or maybe worse. I might just cease to exist entirely."
"No," I said strongly. "We’ll find another way."
"There is no other way," she said. "And even if there was, look around you. The pack is coming apart. People are afraid of . Maybe it’s better if I just—"
She stopped talking mid-sentence. Her eyes went wide with fear.
"It’s here," she whispered. "It’s already here."
The lights in the room started to flicker. Outside, I could hear yelling.
"What’s here?" I asked.
But Lily was already standing, her body sparking with strange energy. When she spoke, her voice was different. Deeper. Older.
"The Devourer," she said. "And it’s hungry."
The windows exploded inward, and sothing dark and terrible began spilling into the room.
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