Page 157 of Glitched Fates & Stolen Mates

“Felix…” he rasped.

“I’m here, Kit.” I squeezed his hand as tightly as I possibly could. “I’m right here.”

Another seizure struck him, worse than before. His back slammed against the concrete, limbs thrashing as if something was trying to tear him apart from the inside. The wolves spiralled back into aggressive confusion; several began pacing in tight circles, while others snapped at empty air.

“They’re losing it!” Rory said. “What if they shift back? In this state?”

“I don’t think they will,” Isla said quickly. “They’re in pack mentality now. The transformation destabilised their human reasoning centres.”

“Well then, how do we fix Kit?”

Isla’s silence stretched too long. “Ma said that trying to connect to the prototype chip again might kill him. The neural pathways have changed too much.”

Kit’s entire body went rigid, his breathing becoming shallow and erratic. The wolves sensed his distress, several beginning to howl—a mournful sound that made my heart thump.

I couldn’t lose him. Not now. Not after everything we’d fought for.

Without caring about the wolves or Rory’s panicked shouting or anything else, I lay down on the cold concrete beside Kit, pulling his rigid form against my chest.

“Listen to me, Kit,” I whispered against his ear. “I know you can hear me. You need to fight this thing. I need you to fight it. For me. For Rory. For Seb and Priya and Flynn and Theo.”

His breathing hitched but remained ragged. Panic squeezed at my heart, my lungs, my everything. If he died, that would be the end of me. A part of me—half of me—would shatter beyond repair.

“Kit, listen to my voice. Come back to me.” My throat thickened, words becoming difficult. “You promised me a million more proper dates, remember? Ones where I didn’t get eaten by any vampires. You promised me Seoul. You can’t break those promises!”

A low growl rumbled through his chest as he twisted on the floor.

“I love you.” The words suddenly tumbled out, fierce and desperate and hopelessly true. “I love you, and I was going to tell you that, and tell you I want to be your mate. Properly. Forever.”

Something shifted in his breathing pattern, and hope flared inside me. I pressed my hand over his ribcage, my palm settling over the constellation of scars that decorated his chest.

“You told me that I needed to be sure about the mate bond. So I need you to know that I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.” I pressed my lips against his cheek. “I need you to come back because I’m terrified and I don’t know how to get us out of here without you. I… I don’t want to get out of here without you. "

Kit’s hand twitched against the floor.

Then went still again.

“Please,” I pleaded, pressing my forehead to his. “Kit, please don’t leave me.”

Nothing. His chest barely rose. The wolves’ howling grew more desperate, feeding off their alpha’s pain.

My throat closed. This wasn’t working. Love wasn’t enough. Words weren’t enough. I was going to lose him to some fucking chip in his brain, and there was nothing I could do—

Wait.

Something was happening. A sensation I’d never experienced before—wispy and fragile, like the first strand of a spider’s web brushing against my consciousness. It pulled towards Kit with insistence.

What the hell was that?

I pressed my palm harder against his scarred chest, feeling the stuttering rhythm of his heart beneath my fingers. The strange feeling intensified, that thread growing marginally stronger.

“Kit.” My voice came out rough. “Kit, I… can feel something! Between us. I don’t— I don’t know what it is, but it’s there.”

His heartbeat faltered. Skipped.

Terror lanced through me, but the thread pulsed again, insistent. Like it was trying to tell me something. Show me something.

“There’s this… connection.” I squeezed my eyes shut, focusing entirely on that fragile strand. “It’s pulling me towards you. Just like you described!” The thread trembled. “So you need to fight whatever’s in your head, because I can feel this thing trying to form and I want it. I want you. I want everything we could be together.” My words tumbled faster, desperate. “But you have to come back to me first. You have to come back.”