CHAPTER 35: CHAPTER 35: BEHAVE

I caress my belly, trying to feel the small life growing inside me.

My heart rejoices, but my mind doesn’t. It isn’t just Torrin I have to protect now, but our baby too.

I turn to Damian, who’s staring out the window with his body tense and his fists clenched.

"I hope you won’t include my baby in all of this," I say, my voice trembling.

He turns toward me and responds, "I won’t force you into an abortion, if that’s what you’re thinking. But this gives me the reason to stop prolonging Torrin’s existence."

My heart thuds loudly in my ears.

He doesn’t need to keep Alpha Torrin alive, since I can no longer threaten him that I’ll kill myself if Alpha Torrin is killed.

I close my eyes, trying to calm down and focus. But even when my mind and heart finally settle, I still don’t feel the surge of my ShadowBind. Am I still too weak to activate it?

"Why isn’t it working?" I mumble.

"If it’s your ShadowBind you’re trying to use, it won’t work... for now, at least," the doctor says. "While you were unconscious, Dr. Reyes injected you with a drug she invented to impair it. I don’t know how long the effect will last, but it’s better this way. You’re extremely dangerous when you’re able to use it."

Damian narrows his eyes at me. "Are you gonna use it against me and kill me too the way you did to our Gammas and Betas at the lab?"

"N-No!" I stutter, my fingers tightening around the blanket. "I was only gonna try stopping you."

Before he can react again, I ask the doctor, "But what if the drug endangers my baby?"

The doctor only shrugs. "You’ll have to question Dr. Reyes about that."

"But you’re a doctor who’s supposed to take care of patients, and I’m one!" I yell.

"Correction. I’m meant to take care of Frostveil werewolves. You’re only here because of Beta Damian’s request. Now excuse me, I have important and worthy patients to attend to," she counters then leaves.

I turn to Damian again and plead, "Please don’t let them inject me with anything that may harm my baby."

"And what? Let you activate your power again so you can kill us and get your revenge?" he asks with thinly veiled sarcasm and warning. "Listen. The only way for you to stay alive with your unborn child is to behave. If you dare use your ShadowBind again to order, hurt, or kill any of us, make sure every single one of us will be affected by it at the same time. Because if it can’t, then you and your child will be finished. And I won’t stop it."

Tears spill from my eyes as fear grips me.

Damian is right. If I’m to use my ShadowBind again, I must kill all of them at once, coz if not, the others will come after me while I’m recovering from its side effects.

I severely drained my energy when I overused my ShadowBind on more than a dozen wolves at the laboratory. And it took a while before I regained my strength. I doubt I can handle more than that number at once. If I force it, it might kill me and my baby.

"By the way," Damian snaps me out of my thoughts, "Your freedom is only temporary. You’ll be sent back to the prison once I tell the Gammas to do so."

I jolt when he teasingly runs his fingers through my hair, his voice softening. "Aren’t you going to beg me not to?"

Even though I wanna be near Torrin again, that place isn’t safe for our baby. No food, no water, no fresh air, and the stench of blood and sweat is everywhere.

"For the sake of my baby... please, don’t send me back there," I whisper without glancing at him.

"My decision depends on how well-behaved you’ll be," he replies.

I don’t know if my stubbornness will be controlled the next time I’m provoked to fight back or do what’s needed. But I just nod, so I’ll be safe... for now.

Soon enough, a nurse enters the room, pushing a trolley of food.

As Damian sets the bed tray table for me, my stomach growls at the warm smell of chicken porridge.

But when I’m about to eat, I suddenly hesitate. "There’s nothing in here that will harm my baby, right?"

The nurse’s brows knit in confusion. "Ah... none. It’s just the usual porridge we serve our patients."

I quickly shove spoonful after spoonful into my mouth. When the bowl is empty, I lift it toward the nurse and say, "More, please!"

She glances at Damian for approval before taking the bowl.

"I’ll be back in a minute," she says, then leaves.

Suddenly,...

My thoughts shift immediately to Alpha Torrin. If I’m this hungry, he must be starving to death.

I have to find a way to contact Eric as soon as possible since I don’t have my phone with me. I need him to help Torrin escape even without me before Damian acts on his threats.

By the time the nurse returns with another serving, my appetite has already vanished.

Damian places a hand on my belly, making me recoil a little. His touch feels intrusive and wrong.

"I’m willing to ignore the fact that this is Torrin’s child and treat this child as my own. But that still depends on how you’ll behave," he says. The small smirk tugging at the corner of his lips makes my blood run cold. "Come with me. There’s something I wanna show you."

Every instinct in me says to refuse, but the assumption that this might be one of his ’tests’ to see how well-behaved I’ll be from now on, I’m forced to agree.

We drive through a white forest filled with pine trees, then stop at a snowy cliff where Atticus and several others are gathered.

I hesitate to get out of the car, half-convinced they brought me here just to push me off the edge. But again... this may only be Damian’s test, and I must behave the way he wants me to. So I swallow my fear and walk a few steps behind him.

As we approach, my heart sinks when I realize that Alpha Torrin, battered and bruised, is also here, forced to his knees.

Atticus pats Damian’s shoulder with pride. "I’m glad you’ve finally made up your mind to do what we should’ve done a while ago." Then he turns to me with a smug smile. "To kill Torrin."

I gasp and clutch Damian’s coat. "You said it yourself, the Frostveil wolves who’ve seen his condition lost hope in him. They prefer your father to lead them now. So why don’t you just..."

"Behave," Damian cuts in, his tone disturbingly calm. "This is your chance to convince me whether I should send you back to the prison or give you another chance to stay by my side and live a comfortable life."

Tears sting my eyes. "How can you be sure I’ll be able to live comfortably after doing this?"

"You might not," he admits. "But your child will. And I’ll make sure of that. So again... behave."

Atticus snaps his fingers, and instantly his Gammas and Betas wolf out and lunge at Alpha Torrin. Alpha Torrin tries to wolf out too, but he’s far too weak and beaten to fully shift. He’s outnumbered and overpowered.

When he’s hurled to the ground for the third time, he looks at me through his half-closed, swollen eyes, and begs, "Please... help me."

I try to run to him, but a nearby Gamma raises a gun to my head. "I know using a gun in a werewolves’ fight is an act of cowardice. But it’s also a smart thing to do if we’re up against those who have supernatural powers."

Damian leans close, whispering coldly, "Now choose: try to save Torrin and eventually die with him and your child, or behave and save yourself and your child?"

This cruelty is unimaginable! My hatred for him only burns deeper than ever!

I close my eyes, unable to bear the sight anymore.

But then,...

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Three gunshots reverberate through the air, which force me to open my eyes again only to see Alpha Torrin’s body jerk violently with the hits. He loses his balance.

Until,...

He falls off the cliff.

"No!" I scream as I run to the edge.

The others rush forward too, eager to see.

The cliff is horrifically steep and agonizingly high, as if an endless drop into white nothingness.

"Is he dead?" Atticus asks.

"There’s no way to know. No one in our pack has ever reached the bottom," one Gamma replies. "But no one would survive that fall. He’ll be in pieces once his body hits the ground."

Another Gamma adds, "He was probably already dead from the gun shots. I saw one of the bullets hitting his chest."

"Search for him now! Make sure he’s dead! We can’t take chances!" Damian demands.

As I silently pray for a miracle that Torrin survives, pain suddenly clamps around my heart, making me clutch my chest. My wolf also howls in pain. Then a scream tears out of me as I fall to my knees.

"What’s happening to you, Harleigh?!" Damian asks, worry slipping through despite all the evil things he’s done so far.

Suddenly,...

Atticus sniggers. "That’s the effect of having a mate killed! It means Torrin is dead!"

Dread swallows me whole. My eyes widen, then falter with more tears.

No! That can’t happen! He can’t die!