Chapter 33 - She comes back
1454 Words
*Raiden’s – pov*
Something was very wrong.
One second Elara lay motionless beneath the hospital blankets like she had for the past three days.
The next, her entire body arched violently off the bed.
“ELARA!”
Machines erupted instantly.
The heart monitor screamed while her body convulsed uncontrollably beneath the sheets. The windows rattled hard enough to shake the glass.
Magic.
The air itself felt charged. Wild and dangerous.
The doctor cursed under his breath while rushing forward with a syringe.
“Hold her down!”
As if any of us could.
Rafe grabbed one arm while Jake moved for the other, but the second they touched her—
Power exploded outward.
Both of them were thrown backward like rag dolls.
Jake slammed into the wall hard enough to crack plaster.
“What the hell—”
“Elara!” I shouted again.
Her eyes remained closed but silver light flickered faintly beneath her skin now.
The monitors glitched violently.
Lights overhead burst one after another.
The doctor tried forcing the needle into her arm.
It snapped instantly.
Silence hit the room for half a second.
Everyone stared.
The doctor looked horrified.
“It’s like marble,” he whispered.
My wolf surged violently beneath my skin.
Mate changing.
Elara convulsed again violently enough that fear clawed through my chest.
I moved before anyone could stop me.
I climbed directly onto the hospital bed and pulled her against me carefully despite the chaos around us.
“It’s okay,” I murmured desperately against her hair. “I’ve got you.”
The second I wrapped my arms around her, the room stilled.
Not completely, but enough. The violent shaking eased slightly.
The power stopped lashing outward.
Elara’s breathing remained uneven and strained, but slowly…lowly…she settled.
My wolf rumbled low in relief.
Mate feels us.
I pressed my forehead against hers.
“You need to come back now.”
Her skin burned unnaturally hot beneath my hands.
Jake approached cautiously rubbing his shoulder.
“Well,” he muttered painfully, “that answers whether she likes me more than you.”
“No offense,” Rafe said dryly from the floor, “but I’m relieved.”
I ignored both of them completely.
Because something was happening.
The bond pulsed suddenly.
Strong.
Alive.
Then, Elara gasped sharply.
Her entire body jerked once more before her eyes flew open.
Silver.
Not blue.
Pure glowing silver-white.
Every light in the room exploded instantly.
Darkness swallowed us except for moonlight pouring through the hospital windows.
Elara stared upward breathing hard like she’d been drowning.
“Elara?”
Her gaze snapped to mine immediately.
Recognition flooded through the bond so powerfully my chest physically hurt.
Relief.
Exhaustion.
Home.
Her lips parted but no sound came out at first.
Then finally—
“Raid…”
Her voice came out shredded and hoarse.
Raw.
Like she hadn’t spoken in years.
I cupped her face instantly.
“I’m here.”
Her breathing trembled.
The silver slowly faded from her eyes revealing that impossible icy blue again.
Tears gathered there immediately.
“You’re alive.”
The words broke something inside me.
I laughed once softly despite the lump in my throat.
“You healed me, remember?”
Confusion flickered across her face briefly.
Then memory hit.
The challenge.
Lucien.
The storm.
Fear spiked sharply through the bond.
“Lucien—”
“Gone,” I answered immediately. “We’ll deal with him later.”
Her body tensed instantly.
“No.” Her voice cracked painfully again. “You don’t understand.”
Cold slid down my spine.
“Elara?”
Her fingers curled weakly into my shirt.
“The prophecy…”
The room went completely silent.
Even Jake stopped making smart comments.
Elara swallowed hard before whispering the words that changed everything.
“He’s not going to stop until one of us dies.”
*Lucien – pov*
Humans truly were pathetic creatures.
Weak.
Greedy.
Predictable.
Ethan proved all three within five minutes of arriving.
He paced anxiously across the abandoned office space Victor had arranged for the meeting while repeatedly checking his phone like a nervous rodent.
“You said you could handle this,” Ethan snapped. “You said she’d come back to me.”
I leaned back slowly in the chair watching him unravel.
The human looked worse than the last time I saw him.
Dark circles beneath bloodshot eyes.
Wrinkled clothes.
Hands shaking slightly.
Desperation had finally caught him.
“You lost your investors because you panicked,” I said calmly.
“No,” he hissed immediately. “I lost them because of her. Elara was the respectable face people trusted.”
Bitterness rolled off him in waves now.
Interesting.
Not love then.
Possession.
He didn’t miss her.
He missed what she provided him.
“She made me look stable,” Ethan muttered angrily. “Smart. People trusted me because she trusted me.”
There it was.
The truth.
My lip curled slightly in disgust.
“How romantic.”
Ethan ignored the insult completely.
“She owes me.”
The sheer entitlement in his voice almost amused me.
“She walked out after one mistake—”
“One?” I interrupted mildly.
His face reddened instantly.
“She abandoned me,” he snarled. “Now she’s running around town with some rich asshole playing house while my entire life falls apart.”
Raiden.
The thought darkened my mood immediately.
My son had become a complication far faster than expected.
The mate bond made him reckless, which meant hurting Elara directly would no longer be simple.
Raiden would burn entire towns to protect her now. Foolish boy believing in love and mate bonds.
If I wanted Elara broken, I needed precision. I studied Ethan quietly for another moment.
Then asked softly, “Who matters to her?”
The question caught him off guard.
“What?”
“Who would hurt her if they disappeared?”
His expression shifted slowly as he thought.
“She doesn’t really have anyone.”
I stayed silent.
Ethan scoffed bitterly.
“Elara’s always been weirdly independent.”
“She has her parents, I guess,” he continued dismissively. “And one friend. Claire.”
I leaned forward slightly.
“Claire?”
“Lawyer.” He rolled his eyes. “Been attached at the hip since high school.”
Interesting.
“She’d burn the world down for Elara,” Ethan muttered. “Honestly, I think Claire hates me more than Elara does.”
A faint smile touched my mouth.
Smart woman.
Ethan kept rambling unaware he was feeding a predator exactly what he needed.
“Elara’s parents are the bigger issue though.”
My attention sharpened instantly.
“How so?”
“They’re obsessed with her.”
He laughed bitterly.
“Always treating her like she hung the moon.”
My fingers tapped slowly against the armrest.
Ethan shook his head.
“If something happened to them she’d lose it.”
The room fell quiet.
Victor shifted slightly near the doorway sensing the change in atmosphere immediately.
I saw the solution clearly.
Not Elara but the foundation first. Destroy the people anchoring her emotionally.
Grief weakened even the strongest of us.
Ethan frowned slightly.
“What?”
I realized I’d smiled.
“Nothing.”
Plans were already forming inside my mind. The older wolves raising her at Rosewood posed more danger than Ethan realized.
If Seraphine had trusted them with Elara once, made them a valuable liability and liabilities needed removing.
Ethan sat forward desperately now.
“So what happens next?”
I looked at him calmly.
“You continue exactly as before.”
His brows furrowed.
“What does that mean?”
“You watch.”
“You report.”
“And when instructed, you follow directions.”
Fear flickered briefly across Ethan’s face. Finally realizing perhaps too late that he stood far out of his depth.
“What if I don’t?”
Victor laughed quietly from the doorway.
The sound made Ethan visibly pale.
I stood slowly.
Power rolled deliberately through the room.
“You wanted your wife back,” I said softly. “I’m giving you an opportunity.”
Hope sparked instantly across his face again.
Pathetic human.
“But understand something clearly, Ethan.”
I stepped closer until the human physically shrank backward.
“If you betray me…”
I let the silence finish the threat.
His throat bobbed visibly.
“I understand.”
I turned toward the rain-covered window overlooking the dark forest outside.
Rosewood waited somewhere beyond those trees.
So did my son.
And the last royal heir.
My jaw tightened slowly.
Raiden believed love made him strong.
But love, love created weaknesses.
And soon, Elara would learn exactly how cruel destiny could be.
- Writer
