There’s a quiet murmur of agreement. Everyone knows the drill. We’ve done this before, too many times to count. But this feels different. This isn’t about guarding the pack from what’s outside anymore.
As they move around the room, setting up makeshift sleeping spots, I sink to the floor beside the couch. The exhaustion hits me all at once, but I fight it. I can’t look away from Paige.
The room settles into uneasy quiet. The fire crackles low, the soft beeping of Jake’s monitor keeping rhythm with the occasional creak of floorboards. Outside, the wind whistles through the trees, carrying the faint, distant sound of a Midnight patrol howling into the night.
Poppy is the first to drift off, Jaxon curled tight against her chest. Jake sits slumped against the wall, still alert but fading. Parker and Ronnie take their posts by the window.
I stay where I am, elbow braced on my knee, fingers curled around Paige’s hand beneath the blanket.
“You did good,” I whisper again, my voice breaking this time. “You saved us.”
Her fingers twitch faintly in mine.
I freeze.
“Jake,” I hiss, and he’s awake in an instant, at her side before I can blink.
The glow under her skin flickers brighter, not dangerous now, just… alive. Her pulse jumps under his fingers.
“Her vitals are spiking,” he murmurs, eyes on the monitor. “Wait…”
Paige lets out a whimper, then a gasp. Her eyelids flutter. My heart slams once, hard enough to ache.
“Paige,” I whisper, leaning closer. “Come on, Tink. Come back to me.”
Her fingers tighten weakly around mine. Her lips part, her voice hoarse but steady.
“Rye…”
Every ounce of tension in my body breaks.
I press my forehead to hers, relief crashing through me like a wave. “Yeah, angel. I’m here, we’re all here.”
Her eyes blink open, unfocused but warm. “You’re alive,” she whispers, tears welling instantly.
The world comes back in pieces. First, it’s the sound… a slow, steady beeping somewhere close to my head, steady as a heartbeat. Then warmth, heavy and suffocating, wrapped around me like a blanket I can’t quite move beneath. My throat burns when I swallow, and the back of my neck aches like I’ve been hit over the head with something heavy.
I try to open my eyes, but the light stabs straight through me. It takes me a moment to realise it’s not sunlight at all. It’s dim, golden, and flickering, the kind of glow that comes from a fire.
Voices drift nearby, muffled and low. Someone shifts beside me, a hand tightening gently around mine.
“Rye,” I whisper before I can stop myself. My voice is rough and pathetically weak.
Instantly, the hand squeezes back. His scent hits me next, that familiar grounding warmth that has always meant safety.
“Yeah, angel. I’m here,” he murmurs, voice cracking on the words.
I blink hard, forcing the blur to clear until his face comes into focus. Ryder looks exhausted, but alive, really alive.
The relief hits so fast it makes me dizzy. “You’re alive,” I breathe.
“So are you,” he says, and the sound of disbelief in his tone undoes me completely.
I try to sit up, but my body refuses to cooperate. It’s like every muscle has turned to water. My limbs are heavy, my chest tight. I can feel something taped to my arm, a drip line.
“Easy,” Jake says gently from somewhere behind Ryder. “You’ve been out for hours. Your system’s still recalibrating. Just breathe.”
“Where…” My throat catches on the word. “Where are we?”
“Midnight Pack,” Ryder says. “They’re letting us use one of their safe houses.”
I blink again, confusion slicing through the fog. “We left the territory?”
He hesitates just long enough to tell me the answer.
“We had to,” he admits quietly. “The hunters… they hit hard this time. We couldn’t hold the border.”
The memories slam into me then… the alarms, the gunfire, Remy lying motionless in the grass. My stomach twists. “Remy,” I choke out, panic flaring and making the heart monitor speed up its beeping. “
Where is he? Is he…”
“Alive,” Parker cuts in.
“I’m fine. We all are. Thanks to you,” Remy says, his voice is rough, but steady. I turn my head toward him, and my heart lurches at the sight. He’s alive, upright, whole.
“I… I don’t understand,” I whisper, my head pounding. “The last thing I remember was…”
I trail off as flashes of memory surge up in broken images.
Ryder knelt over Remy.
Blood everywhere.
A gunshot.
The voice in my head… “It’s time, child of two lights.”
And the light. Goddess, the light.
I press a hand to my chest, trembling. “What did I do?”
No one answers right away. The silence says more than words ever could.
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