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It was no use.
I fell into the dark.
A pale figure reached their hand down to me. I couldn’t make out their face through the haze of the crumbling world, but my gut told me to grab onto them. They were a ghost, though. I wouldn’t be able to hold…
My hand connected with theirs. They pulled me into their body and held me tight as we plummeted together.
Maddox
Addie slumped,unconscious in my arms. My heart hammered wildly. There was no threat for my wolf to focus on. Nothing had happened. No one had burst into the room. My beast paced uselessly as I cradled Addie.
Ryder stepped towards us. My beast snarled in warning. The Pack Alpha put his hands up, palm out. It didn’t matter. My beast would not be calmed in this moment. Not when Addie was unconscious in my arms.
Already, I could hear her heartbeat fading. Each thump was softer and slower than the last. Her cheeks lost color. Her lips parted as she exhaled. I was afraid each one would be her last.
When she said fate was waiting to steal her away for her duty in the afterlife, I didn’t think it would happen like this. I wasn’t ready. My beast had so much it wanted me to say. The two of us were bound in ways that I couldn’t verbalize just yet. A piece of my heart unexpectedly belonged to her.
Bite her. Wake her.
The beast’s suggestions weren’t the best. As someone who’d been bitten by a shifter, I knew how horribly that could turn out. The beast wanted me to use pain to startle her awake, but I didn’t think that would work.
Whatever had taken her, it likely had her soul, too. It’d gone somewhere I couldn’t follow. I had no soul to send after her. I wanted to scream and cry out, but a lonely howl was all that left me.
Soon, the house filled with other shifters drawn by my howl. They gathered, looking on with pity and pain, as if they could feel the torment storming inside me.
Ness came running into the room. She dropped to her knees, sliding up to Addie’s side. When she reached for Addie, I snarled again. Ness glared at me with glowing eyes. She was not one to be cowed by my aggression.
Ryder touched her shoulder and pulled her attention away from me. Before this, Ryder and I had a conversation about what it meant to be Pack. We didn’t discuss duties, but what I could expect from them.
They were here for me. From here on forward, I would never be alone. No matter what I needed, the Pack would always be there to help. Even now, with my heart screaming as Addie faded in my arms, the Pack was here.
Too bad there was nothing any of them could do.
“Fuck off,” Ness said with her teeth clenched. “I’ve done this before. I’ll do it again.”
She rubbed her hands together. I barely fought back the urge to lunge at her when she reached for Addie. Someone grabbed me by my hair and held me in place. I snarled and snapped, my beast thrashing inside me as panic overcame my human senses.
“Ness is helping,” Morgan promised behind me.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Vi nod.
Lightning crackled between Ness’s hands as she spread them apart. A part of me knew what would happen next, but I never let go of Addie. I refused even though the shock jolted through me, too. I flinched the first time. When Ness rubbed her hands together for another round, I steadied myself in preparation.
She glanced at me, as if to tell me to let go.
“Do it,” I growled.
I was ready.
“It’s going to be stronger this time,” Ness warned barely a second before she laid her hands on Addie’s chest.
Addie arched in my arms. Her eyes snapped open. Mouth wide, she gasped for air. I clutched her tighter until someone pried my arms away from her.
“Let her breathe,” Morgan said, softly.
No. I must hold. I must protect. I will keep her safe.
Safe from what, though? Addie had been snatched right out from under my nose. I’d been useless, incapable of stopping the force that’d plucked her soul from her body. It was back now, though. At least, that’s what I hoped.
