Page 25 of Framed and Forgotten (Ashen Wolves #3)
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K O E N
The scenery twisted around me, making it hard to keep my footing as the ground swirled beneath me.
Just as nausea began to set in, a dark fog closed in.
For an instant, I drifted in a void, with no floor, no ceiling, no walls to anchor me.
But the vast quiet didn’t last long. Instead of floating, I started falling, faster and faster.
My stomach lurched, and I braced for an impact I couldn’t predict. Strangely, it never came.
I landed without impact, the smoke clearing around me, replaced by an intense, blinding light.
Instinctively, I squeezed my eyes shut, blinking slowly to adjust to the abrupt shift in ambience.
When my vision steadied, I quickly recognized my surroundings.
I was still at Crystal Pond - just a little farther from the heart of their territory, where I’d been playing with Elias only moments ago.
However, some things weren’t quite the same.
Hues of brown and orange painted the greenery, as if we were at the beginning of fall rather than the end of winter.
Instead of the crisp, pale morning light of the morning, soft golden rays stretched across the landscape, casting everything in a warm, dreamlike glow.
The sky, once a cool shade of blue, was now brushed with lilac and gold.
I was in the same place, but at a different time, stranded in a moment I couldn’t place.
Before I could grasp any more details, the sound of crying filled the air. My vision suddenly blurred, as if my eyes were misty. I could feel a gentle, rhythmic motion, as if I were bouncing, the scenery around me wavering with each shift.
“Shh, it’s okay, Elias,” a woman said - Nerine. Her voice was unmistakable, especially since it’d begun sounding like nails on a chalkboard to me.
My vision drifted to her, startling me as I saw her head above me, much larger than I remembered.
Although it seemed eerie at first, I soon realized I was seeing through my pup’s eyes while she held him in her arms. It must have been one of his memories - one he probably wouldn’t even recall, too young to retain it.
Yet, since it was something he’d experienced, I seemed able to access it, even if he had no conscious knowledge of it.
Then, another voice caught my ears. “Can’t you keep that thing quiet?”
I had to do a double take. The male's voice sounded bizarrely familiar, almost as if I were listening to myself, except something about it felt off. It was my tone, my cadence, but with a sharper, more sinister edge, as if twisted through a distorted mirror. I couldn’t place why it felt like I was hearing a version of myself that was both too familiar and entirely wrong.
A gasp escaped Nerine’s lips, her tone tinged with annoyance. “ This thing is your pup.” I barely had time to process her words when my focus shifted. After a couple of blinks, the blurry figure of a man came into view.
Not just any man.
Me.
Fuck, what the hell was going on? The longer I stared, the more distorted it became.
An unsettling chill crawled through me, my stomach twisting, and my mind spiraling in confusion.
I couldn’t tear my eyes away, yet the image made less and less sense with each passing second.
Panic set in, my heart pounding as I lost my grip on reality.
The memory I’d been visiting began to smudge, the edges blurring, the sounds fading into the background as shadows enveloped me again.
I was disconnecting.
Shit! No, no, no! I couldn’t leave yet - not before I had the full story. It was impossible to tell when I would have another opportunity like this. I couldn’t waste it.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t do anything - when the shadows dispersed, I was back to the now.
“Daddy? Daddy!” Elias called, his little head hovering above my wolf’s.
Col struggled to get back up to his feet, disoriented. Our head pounded, and adrenaline coursed through our veins. I still couldn’t believe what I had seen, and it was just my luck that I’d exited the past with more questions than answers.
Then, I remembered my mission. Elias had already noticed that something was wrong from my disconcerted state.
I had to get a grip before he decided to warn someone, or his desperate attempts to reach out to me drew attention.
As hard as it was to put the questions aside even for a second after what I’d seen, I had other priorities.
Taking control of our shared body, I transformed back into my human form. I was panting at first, trembling, but I quickly managed to recover. Forcing a smile, I chuckled at my pup.
“Sorry, bud. Dad’s a little tired,” I blurted out the first thing I could think of to soothe him.
Elias arched an eyebrow at me. “But it’s morning!” he argued.
“I know. Daddy didn’t sleep well,” I explained. Before he could ask more questions, I continued, “Sorry, Elias. Can we go for a ride another day?”
It was obvious the idea of delaying our playdate didn’t appease him, but he still nodded understandingly. “As long as you’re here with me, I can wait.”
My heart shattered for him. He was a good kid, just a victim of his mother’s schemes. I wondered if I could fix the situation without letting him get hurt, but something else bothered me more.
Was he really my son? The man Nerine was talking to - the one she claimed was his father - looked just like me, but…it wasn’t me . It couldn’t have been.
Whatever was going on, the longer I stayed at Crystal Pond, the stronger the feeling grew that this was much darker than I could have imagined.
A V R I L
Why were my friends acting so strangely today?
Ever since Theo left to check for a response from the Council, I hadn't had a moment alone. It was strange enough that Elijah chose to stay behind, letting his mate travel alone, but then I noticed Rhea wasn’t quite herself either.
No matter where I went, one of them was always there.
At first, I thought they were just keeping me company, but their constant presence soon felt too deliberate to ignore.
At some point, their behavior started to frustrate me.
Having them trail after me, carrying a mix of caution and concern on their faces, felt almost insulting.
I couldn’t shake the feeling that they saw me as a fragile diamond in need of protection rather than the powerful alpha who protected them .
But what irked me most was their attempt to play it off as if nothing was wrong.
By sundown, I’d had enough of them. I managed to lose them, putting up a block so they couldn’t try and reach me like I knew they would.
If they wouldn’t tell me why their behavior toward me, their leader, had suddenly changed, I would figure it out myself.
But not now. A potential letter from the Elders would give me enough to worry about soon.
I didn’t need to add any more problems to my list. Tonight, I just wanted to unwind.
Just then, as if my prayers had been answered, I bumped into the one person who might just offer me the perfect escape from reality.
“Hey, Waylon!” I called, drawing his attention as I caught up with him. Lowering my voice, I asked, “Got any plans for tonight?”
Instead of greeting me with his usual sass, he merely arched an eyebrow at me. Ouch. That was kinda cold - but then again, I had always insisted there should be no attachment between us. It had been a while since we last spoke. Maybe he was seeing someone.
Before I could read him, his expression shifted, confusion deepening in every line of his face. “Wait, Avril. What happened to your mark?”
Ugh. Not again.
Unable to contain my frustration, I huffed. “Okay, what the hell is going on? Why are you the second person to ask me this today?” Stretching my arm out toward him, I pointed out, “There’s nothing wrong with my mark!”
Waylon shook his head. “No, Avril. Your mate mark.” Only then did I realize that his eyes were glued on my neck.
I must’ve heard him wrong. “My what?” I asked, incredulous.
“Did you reject Koen?” he blurted out, eyeing me in shock.
What the hell was he on?
“You know that it was him who rejected me. Five years ago,” I reminded him, furrowing my brows. “Why are you even bringing that up now?”
His face immediately fell, his eyes widening with a mix of understanding and bewilderment, as if he'd just started connecting the pieces of a puzzle only to realize the mystery was far more complicated than he expected.
And instead of the much-desired moment to unwind, all I ended up with were more questions.