Demitri’s POV
The pain was unbearable. It seared through my veins like molten fire, the fever consuming me, dragging me down into an endless abyss of agony. My body burned, my mind clouded with hallucinations and memories I’d rather forget. Nightmares played like a cruel theater in my head—visions of Aria’s disgusted expression, her hatred, her rejection.
How poetic, I thought bitterly, that the bond I once dismissed as a weakness was now my only salvation, and I had no means to claim it.
I hated Damon with every fiber of my being, but even I had to grudgingly acknowledge two things. First, his wolf had saved Aria when I could not. And second, Damon had managed to knock Juda unconscious long enough for Ezra to get me out of that cursed fight alive. The witches had vanished in the chaos,
