Page 25 of Echoes From the Void (Shadow Locke Shifters #3)

Chapter 24

Frankie

I wake to pancakes and coffee, but it’s the steady thrum of pack bonds that truly rouses me. Matteo’s hands slide around my waist, drawing me back against him, and his mating mark pulses on my neck with shadow energy. Every point of contact grounds me in this strange new reality where I’m allowed to feel safe. Where I’m allowed to be loved.

The domesticity of it all feels foreign—dangerous in its perfection. My shadows curl restlessly beneath my skin, unused to peace, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

As if summoned by my unease, the door crashes open with unnecessary flourish.

Leo stands in the doorway, radiating smug satisfaction as he balances a loaded breakfast tray. His shadows dance playfully around him, reaching for mine in greeting.

My traitor stomach growls at the scent of fresh pancakes, giving away my wakefulness.

“I hope you two are naked under there,” Leo announces with zero shame, kicking the door shut. He sets the tray down and yanks away our blanket with predatory grace.

“Do you want me to kill him?” Matteo rumbles against my neck, his voice sleep-rough but threaded with affection. His arms tighten possessively around me, shadows rising to tangle with Leo’s.

“You’d never,” I yawn, opening my eyes to find Leo’s heated gaze fixed on us. The want in his expression sends electricity down my spine.

“Fucking beautiful sight,” Leo purrs, dropping onto the bed with fluid grace. His essence reaches for us both, shadow-warm and inviting. “I want to join.”

I roll my eyes despite the warmth blooming in my chest. “You’re incorrigible,” I mutter, but I don’t stop him from settling beside me, his body radiating heat.

Behind me, Matteo groans, his arm tightening possessively. “I thought we agreed on boundaries.” But his shadows betray him, reaching to caress Leo’s in greeting.

“Boundaries are for humans, darling.” Leo traces a finger along my collarbone, leaving trails of shadow essence in its wake. “We’re pack now.”

The word “pack” sends a shiver through our shared bonds, a reminder of how much has changed. I’m no longer just Frankie, the girl fighting to survive college and life. I’m something more now—something ancient and powerful that hums beneath my skin.

“Speaking of pack,” I say, propping myself up, hyperaware of being caught between their heat. “We should probably talk about what happens next. Shadow Locke isn’t going to wait forever.”

Leo’s playful energy dims slightly, shadows curling closer to his skin. “True. But first, pancakes.” His grin returns, though not quite reaching his eyes. “You can’t face destiny on an empty stomach.”

My stomach growls again in agreement. Matteo chuckles, the sound vibrating through me as his shadows caress my bare skin. “Food first, then destiny.”

I sit up fully, the sheet pooling at my waist. Leo’s eyes darken, hunger of a different sort flickering in their depths. Behind me, Matteo stiffens, his possessive energy pulsing through our bond.

The air thickens with possibility, shadows dancing between us.

“Hey now,” Leo protests, though his voice has gone rough. He reaches for the breakfast tray, movements deliberately casual. “I didn’t slave over a hot stove just for these pancakes to get cold while you two get distracted.”

I snag a piece of bacon, trying to break the building tension. “Your sisters helped with breakfast, didn’t they?”

“Lucia did the bacon,” he admits without shame, arranging himself beside me with calculated grace. “But I did the pancakes all by myself like a big boy.”

Matteo snorts, his chest rumbling against my back. “Is that why some of them are burnt on one side?”

“They’re not burnt, they’re artistically caramelized.” Leo’s shadows flick playfully at Matteo’s.

The normalcy of it all hits like a physical blow—sharing breakfast in bed with my mates, trading lazy touches and teasing words, feeling genuinely safe. Everything I never dared want, laid out before me like an offering.

Leo’s expression softens as he reads my mood through our bond. “Hey,” he says quietly, reaching to brush my cheek with shadow-warmed fingers. “You’re allowed to have this, Firefly. The burnt pancakes, the lazy mornings, all of it.”

“They’re not burnt,” Matteo mimics, but his shadows wrap around us both protectively.

We settle into a comfortable rhythm, passing coffee and sharing bites of food. Everything feels perfect, peaceful, until?—

The window explodes inward.

Glass shards rain across the bed as Matteo moves with inhuman speed, rolling me beneath him. Leo launches to his feet, shadows rising in defensive waves. But what crashes through isn’t Valerie or her corrupted children.

It’s Leo’s father.

My shadow wolves howl a warning inside my mind as wrong essence floods the room. His shadows don’t flow naturally—they writhe and twist with sickly purple veins, moving like puppet strings pulled by unseen hands. The corruption pulses through him in nauseating waves.

“Dad?” Leo’s voice cracks, his shadows faltering for one crucial moment.

That hesitation is all it takes.

Corrupted shadows lash out, wrapping around Leo’s throat. Matteo’s rage floods our bond as he launches himself forward, but more twisted essence erupts from Leo’s father, slamming him against the wall.

“The Martinez line.” The voice that emerges isn’t human. It resonates with void energy that makes my teeth ache. “Such power. Such potential.”

“Pretty sure that’s what restraining orders are for,” Leo wheezes, still trying to joke even as the corrupted shadows constrict.

I reach for my power, but something’s wrong. The room’s shadows aren’t responding properly—they’re being pulled, twisted, corrupted by whatever entity wears Leo’s father’s skin.

Footsteps thunder up the stairs—Leo’s sisters, drawn by the chaos.

“Stay back!” Real fear enters Leo’s voice, not for himself, but for them.

His father’s head jerks at an unnatural angle, purple essence pulsing stronger. “The youngest ones,” that wrong voice purrs. “Their power is still pure. Untainted. Perfect for?—”

The door bursts open.

“Lyra, Liliana—RUN!” Leo’s command carries shadow-power, but his father’s laughter—that terrible, void-touched sound—cuts through it.

I roll off the bed, yanking Matteo’s shirt over my head as my shadow wolves materialize. Through our bond, I feel Matteo break free from the corrupted essence holding him, his fangs lengthening with rage.

Leo’s sisters’ screams echo from the hallway until Luna’s voice rises above the chaos—sharp and precise even now. “Barrier formation! Just like Mom taught us!”

The sickly shadows around Leo’s father pulse brighter. “Your mother,” that twisted voice says, each word dripping corruption, “always thought she could protect you. Always thought her little tricks would be enough.”

Leo breaks free with a snarl, his shadows striking fast and hard—but they pass right through his father’s form like smoke. The realization hits me as my wolves’ teeth find nothing solid to grip.

“He’s not really here,” I say, watching the corruption ripple through the air. “It’s a projection?—”

“Through corrupted shadow essence,” Matteo finishes, moving to guard the door where Leo’s sisters have created a barrier of interlocked shadows. “Like the children at Shadow Locke.”

Leo’s father—or the thing wearing his form—tilts his head at an impossible angle. Those purple-veined shadows reach for Leo again, but this time they don’t attack. They try to seep into his skin.

“No!” I lunge forward, wrapping my own shadows around Leo protectively. Through our pack bond, I feel his horror as understanding dawns.

“He’s trying to corrupt me,” Leo gasps, fighting against the invasion. “Like he was corrupted. Like?—”

“Like Mom knew he would,” Luna calls from behind her shadow barrier. “Leo, remember what she taught you!”

Leo’s father moves with unnatural speed, corrupted essence pouring from his form like toxic smoke. The room fills with sickly purple light, and Lyra’s scream pierces the air?—

Until it doesn’t.

Her violin strings vibrate without being touched, shadow-song cutting through corruption. The purple light wavers, corruption recoiling from the pure notes.

“The frequency,” Leo gasps, realization dawning. “Lyra, keep playing!”

His father’s form shudders, those wrong shadows twisting away from the music. But then that twisted smile returns, stretching his face too wide.

“Sweet child,” it says in that voice that isn’t his father’s, that makes my shadow wolves howl in rage. “Do you think you’re the first to try? Your mother played such pretty songs too. Right until the end.”

Leo goes rigid against my shadows. “What did you?—”

The attack comes from everywhere. Corrupted essence explodes outward, drowning Lyra’s music in waves of sickly purple. Through our bond, I feel Matteo’s pain as he slams into the wall again. My wolves dissolve into nothing where that twisted essence touches them.

“Your mother’s death wasn’t an accident,” the thing wearing Leo’s father says with terrible gentleness. “She knew too much. Saw too much. Just like you’re beginning to see.”

“You’re lying.” Leo’s voice breaks, his shadows flickering with grief and rage.

“Am I? Ask yourself why she trained you so hard. Why she was so afraid at the end.”

Luna’s legal documents burst into shadow flames as she steps through her barrier. “Shut up,” she snarls, her power rising like a storm. “You don’t get to talk about her.”

All five Martinez sisters move as one, their shadows merging into something ancient and terrible. Something their mother taught them to become.

But their father’s corrupted form just laughs—a sound that makes my shadows recoil. “Perfect,” it says through that twisted grin. “Show me that power. Let me taste what she died protecting.”

The purple corruption surges like a tide, but this time it goes straight for Liliana—the youngest, the most vulnerable. Through our pack bond, I feel Leo’s desperate fear an instant before he moves.

He throws himself between the corruption and his baby sister.

The moment it touches him, Leo’s scream tears through every bond we share. The sound rips through me like physical pain as corruption wraps around him. Matteo roars, his shadows surging forward, but we’re too late.

The thing wearing Leo’s father laughs one final time. “A taste,” it says, “of what’s to come.”

Then it vanishes, leaving behind shattered glass and the acrid stench of corrupted essence.

Leo collapses.

“No, no, no—” Liliana tries to rush forward, but Lucia holds her back as purple veins spider across Leo’s skin. Each pulse of corrupt energy sends waves of agony through our pack bonds.

“Leo!” Matteo cradles him, his shadows trying desperately to counter the corruption. But we all see it spreading, inch by terrible inch, turning everything it touches that sickly purple.

Through our bond, I feel everything—his pain, his fear, but mostly his bone-deep relief that it was him instead of his sisters. Even now, even dying, Leo tries to smile.

“Well,” he manages through gritted teeth, “guess family breakfast is cancelled.”

Luna kneels beside him, her lawyer’s composure finally cracking. “Don’t you dare joke right now.”

“Someone has to,” Leo whispers as corruption creeps higher. His eyes meet mine, and I see the truth he’s trying to hide. The same truth that got his mother killed.

Some corruption can’t be fought.

Some shadows can’t be saved.

Some smiles hide the darkest truths.

And sometimes, protecting your family means making the hardest choice of all.

The purple veins reach his chest, and Leo starts to scream again—the sound of pure shadow essence being twisted into something wrong. Something that will destroy everything he is.

Unless we stop it.

Unless we make that choice.

Unless we become the monsters we’ve been fighting.

Through our pack bond, I feel his silent plea. Don’t let me become like him.

Don’t let me become my father.