CHAPTER 113: CHAPTER 113

Chapter 113

Astrid’s POV

My hand was frozen on the cold brass of the doorknob, a single point of contact with a world I was about to either embrace or reject. My entire being was a battlefield, torn between two warring imperatives.

’Go to him.’

The command was not a thought; it was a physical agony, a primal scream that echoed through the very marrow of my bones. The mating bond, which had always been a source of warmth and strength, was now a torsion bar, twisting my soul with a phantom pain that mirrored what my mate must be feeling. It showed me flashes of him, broken, bleeding, alone in the sterile white of a hospital room. It was a pain that bypassed reason, a biological imperative that demanded I run to his side and offer what little comfort I could.

Elara’s warning was the opposite, a cold, sharp anchor of logic in the swirling chaos. Her voice in my memory was clear and absolute, a bulwark against the emotional tide.

"He will have a direct line to you... I do not know what he will be able to do."

Staying meant choosing my own safety, yes, but it was more than that. It was choosing to be a warrior, not a victim. It was trusting in the strategy, protecting the pack’s Luna from being turned into a weapon against its Alpha. To leave was to gamble with not just my life, but with Kaeleen’s, with the entire pack’s. I couldn’t do this.

’What are you going to do? He’s weak without us, you know?’ Sheena whimpered in my mind, her own instincts frayed and confused by the conflicting signals.

’And what if it’s a trap. What if this is what Leon wants? Doesn’t this sound too convenient? All of a sudden Kaeleen is hurt?’ I argued.

’But the pain is real. What if this contemplation is what makes it too late to save him? He needs our help and you know that.’

Sheena was right. The pain felt terrifyingly real but I still couldn’t shake the fact that something wasn’t right. But what if my hesitation made me too late to save Kaeleen? What if...I shook my head willing the thoughts to go away.

My phone, still clutched in my other hand, rang again. The screen lit up with Alex’s name. My thumb trembled as I answered, pressing the phone to my ear.

"Astrid, where are you?" Alex’s voice was no longer just strained; it was ragged with urgency, frayed at the edges with what sounded like genuine panic. "The doctors...fuck! He’s getting agitated. He keeps calling for you. His heart rate is spiking."

"I... I don’t know if I should..." I started, my own voice a weak whisper.

"What do you mean by that?" He asked coldly. "Kaeleen would do anything for you. He almost fought with Leon for you and our pack is being haunted because of you."

I’ve never known Alex to be this harsh with his words but his best friend was in the hospital so it wasn’t all that surprising.

"I..."

"There’s no time to think!" he snapped, and the harshness of his tone was so unlike the calm, collected Beta I knew. "He needs you! He needs his mate. You know I’ll do anything for him but he needs you not me."

And then, I heard it.

Through the phone, faint but unmistakable, a low, guttural moan of pure agony. It was a sound that would haunt me for the rest of my life. And woven into that sound was a single, broken word.

"...Astrid..."

It was Kaeleen’s voice, raw and desperate. My name, spoken like a prayer from a man on the rack.

The sound shattered my resolve into a million pieces. The battle was over. Logic, strategy, Elara’s warnings all burned away in the face of that single, pain-filled plea. My mate was calling for me. Nothing else mattered.

"I’m on my way," I said, my voice now eerily calm, the decision made.

I didn’t hang up. I dropped the phone and ran.

I flew through the halls of the main house, a blur of motion fueled by adrenaline and terror. The opulent runners, the ancestral portraits, the quiet hum of the house it all disappeared. My entire world had narrowed to a single objective: get to Kaeleen.

I ignored the voices reaching out to me, bursting out the main doors and into the cold night air. The shock of the temperature was a slap to the face, but it didn’t slow me down. I sprinted across the manicured lawn, my shoes slipping on the damp grass, my lungs burning. The main gate was ahead, the symbolic line between safety and the unknown.

"Luna!" a voice called out, sharp and authoritative.

One of the guards on gate duty stepped into my path, his hand held up. He was a large, formidable wolf, his face etched with confusion and concern. "Where are you headed? Do you require an escort?"

I skidded to a halt just feet from the invisible boundary of the wards. My chest was heaving, my words coming in ragged gasps. "Kaeleen... hospital... there was an accident..."

Just as I spoke, the whispers in my head intensified, the volume knob cranking to an unbearable level. It was no longer just Leon’s voice, but a chorus of mocking laughter, of distorted words I couldn’t quite make out. The air around me seemed to shimmer, to warp.

Sheena began to howl in my mind, but her voice sounded distant, as if she were calling to me from the wrong end of a long tunnel. ’Astrid... something’s wrong...’

The guard took a step closer, his frown deepening. "Luna, are you alright? You’re pale as a ghost."

"Astrid!" Another voice. Lila. She had clearly seen me run from the house and had followed, her face flushed with exertion and worry. She grabbed my arm, her grip surprisingly strong. "What is it? What’s happened? You just ran out like someone was pursuing you."

"Kaeleen is in the hospital," I explained again, the words feeling clumsy in my mouth. My head was starting to swim. The world felt unstable, like I was standing on the deck of a ship in a violent storm. "Alex called. He’s hurt. He’s asking for me. I have to go."

Lila’s face went pale with shock. "Oh, goddess. But...um...I could go with you though. It’s extremely late so you shouldn’t be outside alone."

She didn’t need to say more. We both knew the risks. But the sound of Kaeleen’s voice...

It was that thought that propelled me forward. I took a step, my foot crossing the invisible line. Then another. I was outside. I was beyond the protection of the wards.

The effect was instantaneous and catastrophic.

The whispers stopped. The mocking laughter, the distorted words it all vanished. But it wasn’t replaced by silence. It was replaced by a roar, a deafening wave of pure, psychic static that crashed into me with the force of a physical blow. It was the sound of a thousand televisions screaming on dead channels, the shriek of metal on metal, the roar of a hurricane, all inside my own skull. It was the sound of a connection being violently forced open.

I cried out, stumbling back, my hands flying to my head as if I could physically block out the assault. The world dissolved into a nauseating, grayscale blur.

And through the roar, I heard the sound of a real engine.

Tires screeched on the asphalt of the private road leading to the gate. A car, a black sedan I recognized, swerved to a halt not twenty feet from us. It was utterly wrecked. The front end was crumpled like a tin can, the windshield was a spiderweb of cracks, and steam hissed from under the mangled hood.

The driver’s side door was wrenched open, and a figure stumbled out.

It was Kaeleen.

He was bruised, a cut bleeding freely from his temple, his clothes torn and dirty. But he was on his feet. He was alive. And he was here.

His furious, bewildered gaze landed on us, on the guards, on Lila, and then on me, standing two steps outside the safety of his land.

"Astrid?" he demanded, his voice a raw bark of confusion and dawning horror. "What are you doing out here?"

No. I shook my head. This wasn’t possible. He was in the hospital waiting for me. He wasn’t supposed to be here. The pain I felt from the bond was...I paused when it dawned on me. What bond did I feel pain from?

But no right? It couldn’t be possible right?

The man on the phone. The man in the hospital. The man standing before me. It was impossible. My brain tried to reconcile the two realities and failed, short-circuiting like a fried motherboard.

I opened my mouth to speak, to ask, to scream. But no sound came out. The static in my head consumed everything. My vision tunneled. The last thing I saw was the terror flooding Kaeleen’s face as he started to run towards me.

And the world went black.