Lily POV
I woke up screaming.
The nightmare felt so real - Caleb’s empty eyes staring at nothing while I shook his lifeless body, asking him to rember . My heart pounded so hard I thought it might burst from my chest.
"Lily!" Soone crashed through my bedroom door. I expected Aiden or maybe Elder Iris, but it was Brock who rushed to my bedside. His usual tough look lted into worry when he saw my tear-streaked face.
"Another nightmare?" he asked quietly.
I nodded, unable to speak. These dreams had been haunting for three days straight since we returned from the rite site. Every ti I closed my eyes, I saw Caleb looking at like I was a stranger. The mate bond we’d fought so hard to protect felt like a thin thread ready to snap.
"Tell about it," Brock said, sitting on the edge of my bed. His voice was softer than I’d ever heard it.
"He doesn’t know ," I whispered. "In the dream, I’m trying to describe who I am, but he just stares at with those empty eyes. Like our love never existed at all."
Brock was quiet for a long mont. Then he shocked by reaching over and taking my shaking hand in his big, calloused one.
"When I was fifteen, I watched my best friend Marcus die in a rogue attack," he said slowly. "For months afterward, I kept expecting to see him around every turn. I’d set two plates for dinner out of practice. I’d start to tell him sothing funny, then rember he wasn’t there anymore."
I looked at him with new understanding. Brock never talked about his feelings, but here he was, sharing sothing painful to help .
"The dreams were the worst part," he added. "In them, Marcus would be alive and happy. Then I’d wake up and have to lose him all over again, every single morning."
"How did you make it stop?" I asked desperately.
"I didn’t," Brock said honestly. "But finally, I learned that grief isn’t sothing you fix. It’s sothing you carry. The dreams beca less common, but they never completely went away. And you know what? I’m glad they didn’t."
"Why?"
"Because forgetting the pain would an forgetting how much he ant to ." Brock squeezed my hand. "Your nightmares about Caleb show how deeply you love him. Don’t try to push that away."
I felt tears running down my face again, but these were different. Less frantic, more healing.
"Aiden keeps telling everything will be fine," I said. "He brings flowers and tries to busy with pack business. Caleb just stares at with those confused eyes when I try to talk to him about our past. But you... you’re the only one who knows that this might not have a happy ending."
"Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst," Brock said. "That’s how fighters think. It doesn’t an giving up - it ans being strong enough to face truth."
A soft knock stopped us. Elder Iris peeked her head through the door, looking worried.
"Lily, dear, I heard you cry out. Are you all right?"
"She had another nightmare," Brock stated.
Elder Iris entered the room, bringing a steaming cup that slled like chamomile and honey. "This will help you sleep peacefully," she said, giving it to .
As I sipped the warm tea, Elder Iris studied my face with her old, knowing eyes.
"The bond isn’t completely gone," she said finally. "I can still feel the thread connecting you and Caleb. It’s damaged, twisted, but not removed entirely."
"Then why can’t he rember loving ?" I asked.
"mory and feeling are different things," Elder Iris said. "His mind might not rember your relationship, but his heart still knows you belong together. We just need to find a way to reconnect them."
Brock stood up. "What can we do to help?"
"There’s an ancient ritual in the old texts," Elder Iris said slowly. "The mory Restoration ritual. It’s dangerous and requires great sacrifice, but it might be our only chance to fully repair the damaged bond."
My heart jumped with hope. "What kind of sacrifice?"
Elder Iris paused. "The person conducting the ritual must willingly give up their most precious mory to restore another’s. And there’s no promise it will work."
The room fell silent as the weight of her words sank in. Give up my most valuable mory? The thought scared . What if I forgot the first ti Caleb told he loved ? Or our mating ceremony? Or the mont I first felt our pup growing inside ?
"I’ll do it," I said without doubt.
"Lily, no," Brock said strongly. "You can’t make that choice right now. You’re upset and scared. Sleep on it first."
"But what if waiting makes things worse?" I argued.
Elder Iris nodded seriously. "Actually, Brock is right. The rite must be perford during the new moon, which is still five days away. That gives us ti to prepare and make sure this is truly what you want."
As if summoned by our talk, footsteps echoed down the hallway. Caleb erged in the doorway, looking confused and slightly annoyed.
"Why is everyone awake?" he asked. "I heard shouting."
My heart clenched seeing him like this - physically present but emotionally detached. The man who used to hold during dreams now stood in the doorway like a polite stranger.
"Lily had a bad dream," Brock stated. "We were just helping her feel better."
Caleb looked at with mild concern - the kind you’d show any pack mber in trouble, not the deep worry of a mate. "Are you all right now?"
"Yes," I lied.
He nodded and turned to leave, then paused. For a mont, sothing flickered across his face - confusion, maybe even recognition. He touched his chest absently, right over his heart.
"Strange," he mumbled. "I keep feeling like I’m supposed to be sowhere else. Like I’m forgetting sothing important."
Hope flared in my chest. Maybe Elder Iris was right. Maybe so part of him still knew.
But then his face cleared, and the mont was gone.
"Well, goodnight everyone," he said, going back down the hallway.
I watched him go, my heart breaking all over again. Brock squeezed my shoulder supportively.
"The ritual," I said quietly to Elder Iris. "Tell everything about it."
She looked deeply worried. "There’s sothing else you need to know, child. Sothing I haven’t told you yet."
"What?"
Elder Iris glanced at Brock nervously, then back at . "The mory Restoration ceremony doesn’t just require giving up a valuable mory. It needs the person performing it to temporarily sever their own mate bond during the ritual."
My blood turned to ice. "What does that an?"
"It ans for the duration of the ceremony, you would experience exactly what Caleb is feeling now. Complete separation from your mate. No tie, no recognition, no love."
The room spun around . Bad enough to give up a mory, but to lose the mate bond completely, even temporarily? "And if sothing goes wrong during the ritual?" Brock asked coldly.
Elder Iris t his eyes. "Then the temporary separation becos permanent. Lily would lose her mate bond forever, and Caleb would stay as he is now."
I stared at her in shock. The decision was impossible - risk losing everything to save the man I loved, or live with him as a stranger for the rest of our lives.
But before I could reply, a blood-curdling howl split the night air. Then another. And another.
Brock was on his feet quickly, his warrior instincts kicking in. "That’s the attack signal."
Through my window, I could see wolves running through the pack grounds in fear. In the distance, fire lit up the darkness.
"The rogues," Elder Iris breathed. "They’re attacking Silver Peak."
Another howl rang through the night - but this one was different. Closer. Right outside our house.
I ran to the window and looked down. In the starlight, I could see a massive black wolf standing in our front yard. When it looked up at , its eyes glowed red with strange light.
The wolf opened its mouth and spoke in a voice that chilled my soul: "Lily Carter. The ritual starts now, whether you’re ready or not."
Reviews
All reviews (0)