AllFreeNovel
Share Us
CHAPTER 53
RAIDEN
We had the spirit trapped, but we had trapped ourselves in there with it. Sure, the witch said it was only a matter of time before the entity ran out of energy, but what did that actually mean? How much time were we looking at? Hours? Days? A week?
We stood there, each of us caught up in our own troubled thoughts. I realised I didn’t care how long it took, as long as we walked out of here without it.
“We need a plan,” Alpha Mathew finally said, taking a seat on the floor, leaning with his back against the wall.
How could one possibly prepare? What was it capable of? Air and sound, she’d said. It could only manipulate air and sound. Still, I had no idea what we were up against.
“I agree. This Host Crawler thing is cunning. We can’t afford to let it escape,” Gunnar said, crossing his arms over his chest and glancing my way.
A sharp gasp came from my left and I turned to see Carter, rigid and pale, breathing heavily. “You guys hear that?” he asked, worry contorting his face.
I took a careful step closer, placing my hand on his shoulder. “No, Carter. What do you hear?”
Perking my ears up, I focused on the sounds around us. Nothing, I couldn't hear a thing. Carter shifted his eyes from me to Gunnar and took a deep, unsteady breath.
“I-uh,” he backed away from me, shaking his head, “th-the Crawler is trying to play tricks on me.”
I opened my mouth to speak, but before I could even begin, Gunnar’s loud voice boomed across the space.
“What the hell, man?” he yelled out angrily.
I spun around, searching for the cause of his sudden outburst, but he was already taking large, angry strides towards us. Uncontrolled rage flashed in his eyes, golden streaks taking over his irises. Fuck. I pushed Carter behind me, backed us up while Gunnar stalked closer. His body was tense, his eyes shifting to black. Shit, shit, shit. We didn't need this right now. His wolf was close, near the surface, ready to take control. He was breathing harshly with tiny beads of sweat forming on his forehead, eyes burning into Carter.
Whatever the hell he thought he’d heard, it didn't come from us. I’d studied Carter carefully; he didn't utter a single word and wasn't mind-linking either. It was the Crawler. It had to be. I put both of my hands up and took another careful step back, pressing Carter behind me into the wall. My eyes remained fixed on Gunnar. I wasn't sure whether I could stop him if he went all Tank on us right now, it was the absolute last thing we needed. I knew what he was capable of and what he became in a fit of rage.
“Dude, it’s not us,” I yelled, keeping my hands between us, ready to shove him away if he came any closer. He stopped a few inches short of my face, panting, nostrils flaring. My hands were now pressing into his chest. “Trust me, brother,” I said, "it's not us."
Gunnar looked past me at Carter one more time, blinked and huffed out a heavy exhale. Taking a small step back, he blinked like he was trying to remember where he was, what he was about to do. Slowly, his eyes returned to their normal deep blue and the black fur peeking out of his collar retracted. Shit. I hadn't realised how close he’d come to a forced shift.
As his canines pulled back into his gums, I placed my hand firmly but reassuringly on his shoulder. "Whatever that filth said to you, it wasn't us.”
I kept my gaze focused on his as he nodded and took an exaggerated, shaky breath. Gunnar, my steel-hearted brother, looked like he’d met with the devil and lost a piece of his sanity. A bead of sweat ran down his temple and he finally stepped back completely, wiping himself off with the back of his arm.
“We need to stay calm and stick together. We can't afford to turn against each other. Not now,” I stated firmly, addressing the group as a whole. "We're in this together. We’re five against one, we can do this. Just keep your wits about you and don't trust anything you hear. Keep communication lines open and only speak when you have line-of-sight. In other words, the person you are speaking to should be able to see your mouth and eyes when you talk. No mind-linking."
Carter nodded and Gunnar took a seat on the floor, looking much paler than before. Alpha Mathew stared at him, trying to read what was going on in that mind of his. The witch's eyes were closed as though she was listening to something. Concentrating. Gunnar wasn’t okay, that much was clear. I stepped closer, crouched before him and just when I was about to speak, a female voice moaned out somewhere behind me, loud and extremely erotic.
“Ohhh, yeah Baby, you like that?” the woman moaned. Gunnar slapped his hands over his face, shaking his head violently as though he could shake the sounds away somehow. At first, I wasn't sure if it had only been in my head, but when I saw his reaction and turned to face the others, I saw them all staring at us, eyes wide and expressions slightly horrified.
They heard. Everyone heard.
A strangled whimper came from beneath Gunnar's hands as he struggled to pull himself together. He had turned a sickly shade of white.
“My big bad Tank,” the female voice moaned again, "oh yeah, just like that, keep going."
Realisation slammed into me, hitting me straight in the gut. It was Mia. The entity was mimicking her voice. Gunnar's mate. My stomach churned, bile once again rising.
“I will kill it,” I heard Gunnar seethe behind his hands. He was still shaking his head, but slower than before. “You hear me?" He suddenly yelled, dropping his hands away and screaming past my face. "I will fucking kill you; you are dead!”
I was going to be sick. Gunnar's eyes had turned pitch-black, his fangs elongated, dripping with malice. He looked lethal, ready to either fight or lose it altogether. I couldn't imagine what he was going through, but I knew he had to calm the hell down.
“Gunnar. Get a grip, man,” I ordered, grabbing him by the shoulders, “it’s not real.” He looked at me then, a strange expression on his face, one I’d never seen on him before, even in battle. "It's. Not. Real." I repeated slowly. “I order you to stand down. Breathe.”
His gaze flicked past me, scanning over Mathew, Carter and the witch. Shame flooded his cheeks, and he averted his gaze immediately, looking to the floor, staring at nothing, those eyes still a savage black.
