I can smell my blood in the vial, mixed with the others, and I know she'd found a way to take it.
My heart lodges in my throat as I shift into human form on the ground, realization dawning on me, and I try reaching out for Willow's ankle to stop her when she floats forward.
“No!” I rasp, trying to stand, but Willow presses on toward the raging battle, repeating the words of the ritual. I can’tget to her with the demons closing in around me, not with the witches drawing all focus to the eastern front.
I watch Willow lift the potion and drop the blood inside, quickly fusing with the white liquid, making it crackle like a small fire between her fingers. She tips the vial to her lips, her head thrown back as she drinks the potion.
“No! Willow!”
But it's too late.
The potion covers Willow in fiery, crimson light, and the ground ripples beneath her feet and cracks open.
The demons stop attacking, and every head turns toward the sound of the ground grunting when it swallows Willow.
“Willow! No!” I wail, dropping to my knees and shifting into wolf form, fighting through the pain of my dislocated and broken shoulder. I stumble forward pathetically, then use my front paw to pull myself forward through the snow.
The gaping hole in the ground sparks with the awakening of a different kind of power, the ground rumbling as an energy crackles in the air.
The magic is familiar, but stronger and mightier than anything I've felt before.
It's Willow in a cloak of golden flames, floating upward, suspended in the air as if she's not her body anymore, but an energy source that covers the meadow in brilliant yet menacing gold light.
And as the wind howls through the burning trees, I realize this battle is only the beginning for me.
Once, I thought I shared the same fate as my fellow alphas, but there is something different.
Something different about Willow's powers and the role she plays in combating the demons.
Something different about my ending.
It's not supposed to be a happy one. I'm meant to watch my mate sacrifice herself so that everyone else can be happy.
Chapter 24 - Willow
“You can stop chanting now, child…”
The sweetest voice that fills my eardrums like honey prompts me to open my eyes, a blinding white light catching me off guard.
“Huh?” I cover my eyes with both hands when a melodious, graceful laughter echoes all around me, the sound wrapping me like a warm blanket.
“It will take some time for your vision to adjust,” the fragrant, sweet voice assures me, the warmth of femininity surrounding me like a mother's embrace.
I part my fingers to peek through with a squinted eye, checking if I'm safe enough to let my eyes adjust to the white light. It's not blinding anymore, and I'm able to remove my hands when I find myself seated at a table.
The surface of the marble table is equally as white as the light surrounding me, and I look up to meet a pair of golden eyes.
“Welcome, Willow,” a woman's voice coos sweetly, but her eyes are so captivating that it takes me a moment to tear my gaze away and see the rest of her face.
My brows furrow when I notice how familiar she is—her face, shaped like mine with sharp features, and her hair blonde and shining as it cascades over her shoulders.
It's almost like looking in a mirror, except her face is smooth, creamy, and void of the scar I received when I was pushed around and face-planted with the chainsaw in Seward.
“Who are you…?” I whisper as my frown deepens when the woman stands up from the seat across from me and sauntersforward as if she's floating. Through the white silk dress that whispers over her body, it's evident that even her body matches mine, her curves in the same places, her breasts the same size.
She giggles then, the sound like whispered, tooth-aching sweetness.
“I must admit…” she begins in her heavenly voice. “You do have a lovely bosom, Willow.”
