Page 29

MALIK

A fter all I endured in my life, I always imagined death would have the decency to greet me quickly. I deserved the mercy of a quick death. At least, that was what I thought.

Death, the sick bastard, clearly didn’t agree.

I hovered, suspended in the strange rift between life and death. Not quite existing, but not ceasing to exist, either. Mind separated from body. No feeling. No pain. No sights or sounds or smells.

At times, the temptation to surrender to the vast nothingness became too great to ignore. But every time I dared give up, a flash of a memory resurfaced, quick as a lightning bolt from the sky, reminding me of the happiest weeks of my life.

In those moments, I only saw Aria.

Her face. Her smile. The sound of her laughter, ringing in my ears long after the sight of her vanished from my dying mind. Those were the moments that gave me a reason to hold on, at least for a while longer.

I was growing sick of the darkness.

Sometimes, I thought I heard voices, but when I tried to open my eyes, my mind felt disconnected from my body. Other times, in the impenetrable shroud of shadows, a skittering of agony sliced through my being, reminding me of my unfortunate predicament.

Somewhere in the depths of my mind, I began to remember what happened to place me in this endless purgatory. Again, it only came in flashes.

I’d been asleep, my dreams transporting me to my bedroom in the cottage, where my little dove curled into my side.

But I never slept deeply, especially not while on the road.

A faint rustling by my head ripped me from my slumber.

That small warning might’ve been the only reason I still teetered between the world of the living and the dead.

I’d opened my eyes in time to find a familiar gaze staring back at me. Cruel. Cynical. Angry. Eyes that had tormented me for years, but I’d been foolish to believe it would never come to this… Roman.

I fought back against my brother, but even I could not defy the odds. Five fully-grown warriors against one rightful alpha.

My vision turned bloody. Every fiber of my being centered on survival. I wanted to survive, almost as much as I wanted to kill every wolf that turned against me. And yet, when the darkness took me, I sensed in my gut that Roman escaped.

Perhaps that explained why death had not yet collected my soul. The stubborn thing refused to die while my evil brother lived.

In the never-ending darkness, I imagined his death. Bloody. Slow .

Even so, it wasn’t the need for revenge that kept me hanging on. It was her.

Always her.

“Samah!” A young female voice pierced through the haze of nothingness. It grated, causing my head to pound like a drum between my temples. “Samah, come quickly! I think he’s waking up.”

I ground my teeth together, biting back the urge to throttle the owner of the ear-splitting voice. Moon Goddess, my head felt seconds away from shattering into a thousand pieces.

Rusty hinges creaked, followed by the sound of rushing footsteps.

“Come away from him now, Myra,” an older, softer female voice warned. “Call Alpha Amir. Tell him to bring guards, just in case.”

A lighter pair of footsteps scurried away, fading into silence.

Guards? Alpha Amir? Where the hells was I?

The question peaked my interest enough that I tried to open my eyes. I struggled to find the connection between my mind and my eyelids, willing the small muscles to act on my command. Sluggishly, they obeyed.

Pain erupted behind the eye socket of my good side. A single lamp illuminated the room, but it hurt like I stared directly into the sun.

Panic settled over my chest as I took in the unfamiliar surroundings.

I laid on a bed, my wrists bound to the mattress like a damned prisoner. Freshly changed bandages covered my bare arms, and needles inserted into the veins on the back of my hands. A clean bedsheet covered my abdomen. It eased the edge of my unease.

An old woman stood at the foot of the bed, a gentle smile gracing her wrinkled lips. “Praise the Moon Goddess,” she chuckled. “We weren’t sure you’d ever wake up.”

I stiffened, my lips cracking open to ask who she was, but no sound came out. Right. How could I have forgotten?

I narrowed my eyes at the graying woman and attempted to sit up in the bed, but any attempt at movement failed. My muscles were too weak.

“You are quite a fighter,” she cooed, stepping closer to my bed. “There were times when I thought you’d given up, but then something would change, and your heart would strengthen once more.”

In an instant, I knew the moments that she spoke of. The moments when Aria’s memory shattered the black night and rekindled my will to live and return to her. Aria.

My eyes flared wide. Aria. My little dove. My mate.

Where was she? I needed to find her. If Roman had indeed survived, she needed my protection more than ever.

Did she think I was dead? Had he tried to kill her as well?

Instinct had me diving into myself, searching for the bond we once shared.

I found the tattered threads of our connection, but when I speared down the cord that bridged between us… Nothing.

Pain, more potent than any physical ailment, ripped through me like a blade. Panic flared anew, and, this time, it gave me the power to thrash against the bands that kept me tethered to the bed.

“Easy, alpha!” The old woman—Samah, I believed— cried, stretching her hands out to calm me. “You have been asleep for too many months. You will only hurt yourself…”

I stopped listening to her, dread curdling deep in my stomach.

Months?