Chapter 2
1244 Words
Chapter 2: Return to Hell
*Seraphina's POV*
The Blackwood Pack territory looked exactly the same. Big stone buildings. Perfect gardens. Happy families walking around like the world wasn't ending. Like they hadn't thrown out one of their own to die.
But wait, no. Look closer. The flowers were dying. The wolves walking around looked tired and scared. Some had black veins showing on their necks. The sickness was everywhere.
Good.
"This way," Marcus said softly. He kept looking at me like I might disappear. Sweet Marcus. He had given me food and money the night they kicked me out. He was the only reason I survived the first week.
Zander walked behind me. I could feel his eyes burning into my back. His wolf Kai hadn't stopped howling since we left my cottage. Every few minutes, Zander would shake his head hard, like he was trying to throw Kai out of his skull.
The mate bond between us pulled tight with each step. It hurt. Like someone was sewing my heart back together with a hot needle. I pushed the feeling down. I was here for revenge, not feelings.
"Sera!" A small voice called out.
I turned. A little girl, maybe six years old, stood there. She had big brown eyes and messy black hair. I knew her. Lucy. I used to heal her scraped knees when she fell.
"Sera, you came back!" She ran toward me.
Her mother grabbed her arm hard. "That's not Sera. Stay away from her."
The mother looked at me with fear. Good. Fear was better than pity.
"Mommy, it is Sera! She fixed my arm when I broke it. She sang me the moon song!"
"Quiet!" The mother pulled Lucy away. But I saw the black veins on the mother's neck. She was dying too.
We kept walking. More wolves came out to stare. Some I knew. Some were new. All of them stepped back when they felt my power. I wasn't hiding it anymore. Let them feel what their rejected omega had become.
The pack house came into view. It was huge, five floors of stone and wood. The Alpha's home. Zander's home. Where he lived with his chosen Luna, Celeste.
My hands made fists without me thinking about it.
"Your room is ready," Marcus said. "The tower room, like you asked."
The tower room. Where I used to hide and cry after training. Where no one could hear me sob. Perfect.
"I need to see the sick wolves first," I said.
"Celeste is the worst," Marcus said quietly. "She... she wants to see you."
"Luna wants to see the rejected omega?" I laughed. It was not a happy sound. "How fun."
Zander growled behind me. "Don't."
I spun around so fast he stepped back. "Don't what? Don't remind everyone what you did? Don't talk about your chosen Luna?"
"Just... don't hurt her," he said. His gray eyes looked tired. "She's innocent in this."
"No one is innocent."
But I followed Marcus anyway. The medical building smelled like death and medicine. Wolves lay on beds, some screaming, some too weak to make sound. The black veins covered most of them.
This wasn't a normal sickness. This was magic. Dark magic.
Celeste's room was at the end. She lay on white sheets that made her pale skin look gray. Her pretty red hair was dull. Black veins covered her whole neck and were spreading to her face.
But her green eyes were still bright when she saw me.
"You came," she whispered.
I stood at the door. I had imagined meeting her so many times. I would be strong. She would be weak. I would laugh at her pain.
But she just looked... sad.
"Zander doesn't know," she said quietly. "About the baby. Please don't tell him."
"Why?" I stepped closer. "Afraid he'll pick the baby over you?"
"No." A tear ran down her cheek. "Afraid he'll blame himself more than he already does. He screams your name at night, you know. Every night for three years."
I froze. "You're lying."
"I'm dying. Why would I lie?" She tried to sit up but couldn't. "He has drawings of you hidden in his office. Hundreds of them. He tries to remember your face but gets it wrong every time."
"Stop."
"His wolf is killing him from the inside. That's what happens when you reject your true mate. It breaks something that can't be fixed."
"STOP!"
The windows shook. The lights flickered. My power exploded before I could stop it.
Celeste smiled. It was a sad smile. "You still love him. Even after everything."
"I hate him."
"No. Hate is just love that's been hurt too much." She closed her eyes. "Can you save my baby? Not me. I know I'm too far gone. But the baby didn't do anything wrong."
I looked at her stomach. There was a tiny bump. Maybe three months. The baby's heartbeat was so weak I could barely feel it.
Inside me, something cracked. This wasn't Celeste's fault. She didn't know Zander had a mate when she accepted him. She was just a girl who fell in love with the wrong man.
Like me.
I put my left hand on her stomach. Silver light poured out. The baby's heartbeat got stronger. The black veins around her belly faded.
"The baby will live," I said. "But you need help too."
"Why would you save me?" she asked. "I took everything from you."
"No. He gave you everything that was mine." I started to leave, then stopped. "Does it help? Knowing he calls my name at night?"
"No," she said. "It makes it worse. Because I know I'll never be you. And he'll never love me the way he would have loved you."
I left before she could see me cry.
In the hallway, Zander waited. His face was stone. "Thank you. For saving the baby."
"I didn't do it for you."
"I know." He looked at the floor. "Room 3 has the worst cases. Children."
Children. Of course. Because the universe wanted to test how much heart I had left.
Room 3 had six beds. Six small bodies. The youngest looked about four.
I knew her too. Mary. She used to pick flowers for me because she said I looked sad.
"Sera?" she whispered when she saw me. "You came back?"
"Yeah, little flower. I came back."
"Everyone said you died. But I knew you didn't. The moon told me you were okay."
I sat on her bed. The black veins covered her entire left arm. "The moon talked to you?"
"Sometimes. She says you're special. That you're her daughter."
My breath stopped. "What?"
But Mary's eyes rolled back. Her body started shaking. Foam came from her mouth.
"No!" I grabbed her with both hands. Power exploded from me. Not just from my left hand. From everywhere. Silver light filled the room.
The veins on Mary's arm turned from black to silver to nothing. Her shaking stopped. Her eyes opened.
But something was wrong. Very wrong.
Because when I used that much power, the mate bond between Zander and me lit up like fire. And this time, he felt it too.
His eyes went huge. "The bond. It's still there. We're still…"
The door exploded open. Elder Morgana stood there, her white hair wild, her blind eyes seeing everything.
"The Moon Goddess is coming," she said. "Tonight. She knows you're here, child. And she's angry.”
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