My wolf is at the forefront of my mind, his rage and thirst for blood merging with mine, when pain suddenly explodes inside me so violently that it robs the very air from my lungs, and the world lurches sideways.
My head, my chest, and my stomach are all screaming for reprieve. It’s so excruciating that for a heartbeat, I think I’ve been attacked from behind, but then reality slams in.
Raven!
This pain isn’t mine, it’s hers!
RAVEN!I choke out through the mind-link, but I’m unable to make the connection, pain tearing through me, throwing me off. I hit the ground.
Barely registering when the morghul rips through my back, all I can focus on is the frantic pull of something being taken from me.
Raven!
I turn, trying to mind-link someone to help her, but I can’t. Pain tears through my head and neck, dizzying me. And then a pain that I have never felt before rips from my chest in a tidal wave, tearing through every part of me.
And then I feel it, like a hand physically clawing into my chest and tearing my soul in two.
No… NO!
No, no, no!
Raven.
This feeling-
Fear tears through my mind as I scramble upright, barely registering the new set of claws that rake across my side, the burning pain meaningless compared to the unbearable emptiness that now settles within me, and I howl in rage, the sound more animalistic than human. My emotions surge, my aura tearing through the sky as I scream in agony.
The battlefield blurs around me, and all I can think about is her.
I falter; it feels like my chest is being crushed inwards.I stagger, my knees buckling as a morghul’s fangs sink into my shoulder, the wound barely registering.
I throw my head back, the scream finally breaking free, loud and cracked, fuelled with every ounce of grief, rage, and devastation I have ever known. It echoes across the battlefield as my body shakes violently, the chaos reduced to distorted noise, blood and shadows that I can no longer see.
THE LUNA IS DEAD!
I run towards her, only focused on her scent. The bunkers… She’s at the bunkers! I don’t want to believe this. I won’t believe this…
Liam, honey, where are you?I don’t respond to Mom’s words. I can’t.
My vision is blurry, my chest heaving as if my heart is trying to tear itself free to follow her, to reach her, to undo the impossible.
I can’t breathe.
I can’t think.
I can’t exist without her.
Half of my soul is gone, ripped away without mercy, and all that remains is agony so deep it consumes everything I am.
And beneath the grief, beneath the screaming void, all that’s there is something hollow yet filled with so much pain at the same time.
I crash through trees, splintering bark and bone alike, my aura flaring wild and uncontrolled as warriors shout my namethrough the pack bond, fear and panic rippling after me. But I don’t answer them, can’t answer them, because every second she remains out of reach feels like another knife twisting inside the hollowness where our bond used to be.
The silence where she should be is unbearable.
The bunker clearing comes into view, and something in my chest seizes so hard I nearly collapse, my steps faltering as I take in the chaos, the bodies, the scorched earth, the metallic tang of blood so thick it coats my tongue.
Then I see her.
