CHAPTER 199: CHAPTER 199: PURE AGONY

Lorraine’s POV

"Fine, suit yourself, little wolf," Kieran said, his voice still that low, gravel deep rumble that always seemed to vibrate down my spine.

But it wasn’t just the nickname that did something to me.

It was the way his gaze lingered on my lips, just a fraction of a second too long.

A look that felt like a touch.

Little wolf.

Goddess, how I’d missed hearing that from him.

His commanding presence.

His cold eyes that always somehow warmed when they met mine.

His voice, sharp, steady, powerful, yet unraveling me with just a word.

The way he looked at me like he wanted to devour me.

I wanted to run into him, bury my face in his chest, breathe him in, hold him and never let go.

I wanted to show him that this, us, wasn’t something that could be severed or forgotten just because the world was falling apart.

But this wasn’t the time.

Enemies lurked in every shadow, and mourning still clung to him like a fresh wound. He literally lost both his parents. He needed time.

So I held myself together.

Barely.

Felix, however, wasn’t having any of it.

"Are you guys being serious right now?" he snapped, eyes wide with panic. "Kieran literally just said it’s dangerous out here. We didn’t even make it too far from the academy and we were already attacked by an entire army of Crimson Hunt soldiers who were very much eager to to burn us alive! We should go back to the academy, Lorraine. We’re safe there. It’s the wise thing to do!"

I turned to him slowly. "You can go back if you want to, Felix. But I can’t. My path lies here."

Felix scoffed, gesturing wildly at the forest around us. "Are you that desperate to die? Because that’s what this is!"

"Are you actually scared of those Crimson Hunt puppies?" Alistair asked with a mocking tilt of his brow.

"Yeah," Varya added, crossing her arms. "Why are you being such a scaredy cat? It’s so not attractive."

Felix whirled on her, eyes blazing. "I don’t care about being attractive to you, Varya! What I do care about is staying alive!"

He pointed at Varya and Alistair.

"You’re all acting like I’m the villain here," Felix continued, voice cracking with anger and pain. "For not wanting to risk my life to find Kieran’s father, the Alpha King, the same King who enforced a power system nearly got all of my kind killed! Or have you already forgotten Callum? Elise? Every single one of our friends from the feral dorm, have you already forgotten about them Lorraine?"

His voice broke and my heart trembled.

"They’re all dead," he whispered, "and their only crime was being ferals."

His eyes flicked to Varya and Alistair, rage swelling. "Everyone in school, even you two, helped push them to their deaths!"

Varya froze. Alistair bowed his head.

"We’re the last two ferals in the academy, Lorraine," Felix said, turning back to me. "All because of a system Kieran’s father enforced. And you want to risk your life so Kieran can go find him and continue the same system?!"

"Screw the stupid system!"

The words nearly tore out of me because I knew he was hurting, but before I could speak more...

Kieran stepped forward.

"He’s right."

His voice was low. Careful. Dangerous.

"You all shouldn’t be here," he said, gaze hardening. "This isn’t your fight, it is mine, and I am not about to drag you all into it. He is my father, and I will find him myself. You should return to the academy, where it is safe."

Safe.

There was no safety for people like us, not anymore. If we want a safe world for us we will have to fight to create it. That is the bitter truth.

Kieran turned to leave, just like that, and something inside me snapped.

"No," I breathed.... and grabbed his hand.

The moment my skin touched his, the world ripped apart beneath me.

My vision swirled.

The trees, the river bend, the smoky air.... everything was gone.

Suddenly, I was standing in a wide, open expanse.

Silent.

Isolated.

The sky above me was an endless void of darkness.

Then.... there was a scream.

A scream so raw, so tortured, that it pierced into my bones.

My entire body jerked as I spun around.

A man knelt on the ground, body shaking, voice shredded by agony as he clutched a burnt, blackened corpse in his arms.

"No..."

Horror clawed up my throat as a feeling of dread flushed all over me.

I stepped closer, each breath jagged and suffocating. His clothes, shredded, scorched by fire. His hands, blistered. His shoulders, trembling.

And then I saw his face.

Kieran.

"K... Kieran?" My voice cracked.

He didn’t hear me.

His grief was too loud, echoing through the emptiness like a death knell.

His fingers dug into the charred remains, a body burned beyond recognition.

My throat tightened.

Because somehow I instantly knew.

I didn’t need to see the face of the corpse to know who it was.

Me.

It was me!

I stared at the burnt corpse, at the ruined remains of what was once my body, and my knees buckled.

"No," I whispered, stumbling backward. "No. No, no, no...."

Kieran’s scream tore the sky apart not even noticing my presence.

"Please...."

His voice was agony incarnate. "Don’t leave me. Not you. Not you too!"

His pain, it wasn’t just grief.

It was destruction.

He was breaking, one breath at a time.

The strongest man I knew, shattered by the sight of me dead in his arms.

His head slowly lifted, and through the hollow of death and despair, his crimson eyes found mine.

But he wasn’t looking at me. He seemed to be looking through me and staring into the empty space cause he couldn’t actually see me.

He was begging. Bleeding. Breaking.

"Kieran...." I choked out, reaching for him...

But my hand passed through his, like I was a ghost.

Like I was not supposed to be here.

The vision tightened around me like a noose.

My lungs burned.

My skin crawled with heat, that same scorching agony I’d felt before.

The fire.

My death.