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CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

ZURI

Once we defeated the remaining wolves, who had either submitted to us or died, I hurried over to Stone, who still sat in tears on the ground beside hundreds of werewolf corpses. My chest tightened at the sight of how broken he looked right now.

I had always thought he was undefeatable, but I knew now that if I was gone, then he’d be too. At least his mind wouldn’t survive in this world any longer. He’d be completely and utterly broken and blank.

“Stone,” I whispered, gently separating him from the woman’s body. “Stone, it’s me.”

“Zuri!” he cried, attempting to reach for the woman again.

Pain shot through my body—both his pain and mine because he didn’t recognize me. We had spent so much time together, and Derrit’s magic had ruined it all! He was dead, yet his power continued to exist in the real world.

Had he cursed Stone to a life of … heartbreak?

And in turn, cursed me as well?

“I’ll bring him home,” James said. “Get him out of here, and maybe he’ll think clearly.”

While I wished that he’d recognize me, Derrit’s dark magic still had a hold on him, and he needed to rest. I had a pack to take care of, especially now that my mate couldn’t think straight. I would get them back to our property and have their wounds healed.

James picked up Stone in a fireman’s carry and headed back toward the property.

“Is there anything we can do?” Maxine said from behind me.

I twirled around to see the entire gang—Sina and her four wolves, Maxine and Xorgor, Olenna and a reluctant Carve beside her—all beaten and bruised.

My eyes widened slightly, and I sucked in a breath. “You all came?”

“Been here from the beginning, killing those bastards,” Carve said, twirling a knife.

“Actually,” Olenna interjected, “Carve didn’t get here until after the battle began.”

“I was here the whole fucking time, Olenna. Just because you can’t see?—”

“Go flirt somewhere else,” Sina said, gently pushing them toward the bodies on the ground. “Or make yourselves useful by piling up the bodies and burning them. Don’t want this place to become infested with rodents.”

Once the bickering died out between the two, I smiled softly and turned back to the others. “Thank you all for coming to help out. I lost it when Derrit captured Stone’s mind. And I …” Tears welled up in my eyes. “I hope he returns to normal.”

Maxine cleared her throat. “Why don’t you head back to be with him and your pack?”

“We’ll clean up here,” Sina said.

“Are you sure?” I asked.

I had destroyed everything, and they were asking me to leave the mess to someone else.

Sina nudged me in the direction of home. “Positive.”

After she convinced me, I walked around the pile of dead bodies that Olenna and Carve had begun piling and jogged to catch up with a few of my packmates that had been wounded during the fight.

We walked in a comfortable silence to the property, and then they bowed their heads and entered the pack hospital.

I had done a great job at holding back the tears—and the fear that I had lost my mate forever to the darkness—until I stepped into the pack house. As soon as the door shut, tears sprang from my eyes, and I dropped to my knees and sobbed.

And I sobbed and sobbed and sobbed until nothing was left.

When I couldn’t cry anymore, I lifted myself off the ground and stood on wobbly legs. I headed up the stairs to our bedroom and hoped that James had brought Stone right back home and not to the hospital. I wanted to spend some time with him first, see if I could heal him myself.

“We’ve been examining him since he returned,” Ifa said inside the room.

“It doesn’t look like just any dark magic that Derrit used, but dark magic from the Dark One.”

“The Dark One?” I repeated, shaking my head. “What does that mean?”

The sisters shared a look.

“The Dark One is a god who used to thrive a long, long time ago,” Ifa said. “When our previous sister was alive, they used to … have relations together. He was sorta her mate in some ways.”

“But we haven’t seen him since she died,” Shivani continued.

“We theorized that the Dark One had died too. That their souls passed together since they were so tied to each other.” Ifa stared down at my mate and shook her head. “But now, we know that isn’t true. He’s back.”

“So, what does this mean?” I whispered. “Is he an enemy?”

“It’s hard to tell, but his magic lives on while Derrit is gone.” Shivani frowned. “Usually, whenever a mortal contracts with a god or goddess, once the mortal dies, all the magic that he or she performed vanishes.”

I pushed some tears off my cheek and walked toward him. “Then, why isn’t it gone?”

Again, the sisters shared another pitiful look.

“We don’t know.”

“He’ll come back around,” Shivani said.

Ifa nodded. “At some point.”

After sitting beside his sobbing body, after feeling all his pain, I grabbed his hand and prayed that he’d return to me.

He couldn’t be like this forever, could he?

If he stayed like this, he wouldn’t get to see me go through this pregnancy or have our pup.

He wouldn’t get to be a father the way that I knew he wanted.

When he didn’t awaken from just my touch, I placed his hand on my belly to see if he could feel the second faint heartbeat inside my stomach. To see if he could feel our pup growing inside me. It was a last-ditch effort.

“Please awaken, Stone,” I whispered. “I can’t lose you.”