Page 167 of Eclipse Sector

Fuck, I swore his ghost existed here. I could feel his icy breath on my neck, hear his cruel taunts in my ear. It was sickening. Gut-wrenching. Nearly overwhelming.

And exactly why I never came here.

Exactly why Iloathedthis place.

It hurt to breathe here. To exist. Tothink.

Only… that cold breeze of familiarity soon dissipated. Much faster than it ever had before. And behind it all, I felt a foreign warmth. A heat radiating from my heart, burning through my very soul.

Ivana, I realized, palming my chest.

She wasn’t here, but she was with me. Tetheredtome. My new purpose. My lifeline.My present and my future.

I shook my head, clearing the haunting past from my thoughts, and focused on the now.

That was what Ashlyn’s note had said, right? Our pasts made us stronger. Realize I wasn’t my father. But think like him to find her.

Lorcan and Kyra shadowed in a few feet away, my old friend clearly knowing exactly where I’d intended to land. Then I heard Cael and Grey both trying to find me from somewhere near the cliffs.

“They’re by the water,” I told Lorcan quietly.

He nodded and left without a word, intending to bring them here—to the place where it all began.

Oh, the landscape had changed over the last millennium, and the scents were different. But I recognized the soul of this place. The history. The stories embedded into the very earth.

I started prowling, a gun at my side.

It was still night, making it a prime time for me to hunt. But the early morning hour was coming, and soon, the sun would creep up over the horizon.

Not that it mattered.

I wasn’t impacted by sunlight. Alas, neither were the Infected. Orzombies,as Lorcan had called them.

I didn’t hear any nearby, though. Just the sounds of gentle waves rolling against the shores, reminding me of another life. An old one.

All right, Ashlyn. Where are you?I wondered, searching for her mind.

When I didn’t find her, I shadowed deeper into the hills and paused once more to listen.

Still no sign of the Infected or Ashlyn’s thoughts.

I cast my power in a wider net but came up with nothing. Ashlyn was either unconscious or not here.

Grinding my teeth, I focused on her note again, trying to figure out how tothinklike my father.

Assuming that’s who she even means. But who else could it be?

Frowning, I tried a new tactic and shadowed to the place I literally came from—the spot my Omega mother would have given birth.

It wasn’t far from where I’d met Lorcan and Kyra, just higher up on a hill. While I couldn’t recall where I’d actually been born, I knew this was where Omegas from Eclipse Sector used to go to give birth. My mother would have done the same.

I swallowed, thinking about the female who once gifted me life. I didn’t remember anything about her. She’d died when I was young. Maybe a few months old.

I learned in my early childhood years that my father had killed her. Knowing that had made me want to kill him more.

But in the moment, I froze, I thought, my eyes narrowing.

It was a moment I’d long hated. A moment I regretted. A moment Ifearedmade me a lesser Alpha.