Filed To Story: Destined Bond with My Forbidden Alpha Novel (Alpha Alexander & Selene)
Selene swallowed, feeling a weight in her stomach.
“What about the mate bond?” she asked.
Lily smiled.
“It will remain,” she said. “My mother weaved that bit into her magic because she wanted all of the wolves, these new creatures without a home or a family, to know that someone out there felt what they did.
Someone that recognized both their joy and their pain. To make sure they never felt alone.”
Selene smiled, thinking of Alexander.
“Now, your bond with Alexander is unique,” Lily said. “I don’t know exactly what will change between you, but I suspect that even if you lose the ability to dream walk with each other, you will still retain that strong bond you share.”
She felt a surge of relief at these words. Selene knew that a lot would be different when the war was over and when the fae had truly left this world. But one thing she knew would remain unchanged was her relationship with Alexander.
“There is something you need to understand, though, Selene,” Lily said, her voice taking on a much more serious tone. “With Talis gone and Lian already weakened. It won’t be long before their magic is spent. You need to close the connection between this world and the lines before that happens.”
“Why?” Selene asked.
“Because pulling apart the home they created will be explosive. For a brief window, the ley lines will be chaotic and out of control. But, if the connection between the worlds still exists, that build-up of energy and power will come pouring out of it like lava from a volcano.
“We don’t know what that will do to this world, but assuming that it happens while the Dark Queen is still here, she will be able to collect it all into herself, and then there will be no stopping her.”
Selene gasped as she woke in the car. Beside her, Alexander was looking through a set of binoculars. She looked around to find they had pulled over on a side road surrounded by overgrowth and tall trees.
“Did you have a good nap?” Alexander asked, still keeping his focus on whatever it was he saw through the binoculars.
“Informative, to say the least,” Selene yawned. She stretched her back, pressing her shoulder blades together and rolling her neck. “What are you looking at?”
“Not sure,” Alexander replied, pulling the binoculars away from his eyes and handing them to her. “Up, above the fallen tree.”
Selene looked where he directed.
She saw a wolf with an appearance like nothing she had ever seen. Its fur was colored in grey mud, perhaps even coated in it. There were leaves seemingly growing in small bunches all over its body, green, brown, red, and yellow.
The creature turned, its eyes were sunken holes, and empty blackness was all she saw within. It lifted its head, howling to the sky in a sound that made her lower the binoculars and clutch at her ears. It was low and, at the same time, high. A fluctuating pitch that grated on her ears and sent chills through her bones.
“I think it might be like the one that attacked Myka,” Alexander continued. “Description seems to fit.”
Selene lifted the binoculars back up; she noticed something stranger than she had already seen. Roots came from its back, tendrils that moved seemingly on their own with tiny barbs at their ends. This must have been the delivery system for the infection Myka was fighting.
“It has to be,” she said. “Is there more than one?”
“That’s the only one I’ve seen,” Alexander replied. “I pulled over when I heard that disturbing howl. Haven’t heard any reply or seen any others.”
Alexander looked in different directions, then pointed away from the creature.
“He came from that way. Seems to be traveling in one direction so far. Fortunately, it is away from where we are headed,” he said. “If we give him a few minutes to cross this section and then hike straight up, I think we can avoid him altogether.”
Selene swallowed. She looked again through the binoculars.
The creature was still moving forward without looking around or sniffing the air. Instead, it just moved as though it were following a predetermined path.
Lily’s words suddenly came to her.
‘These creatures are crudely stitched together with scraps of the power from the ley lines. They do not hold a spark of life on their own. The wolf was killed, his soul trapped inside and used to fuel the body… Eventually, these stitched-together bodies will die. But only after they have consumed the entire soul, a life that will never be reborn.’
Selene swallowed and lowered the binoculars.
“We can’t,” she replied, shaking her head. “We can’t avoid it.”
Alexander furrowed his brow. He looked back up at the creature and the options ahead of them.
“I’m pretty sure that we can, Selene. He seems focused on the path he is following. If we are careful, we can just sneak past him.”
“No,” Selene shook her head. “We can’t avoid it; we need to kill it.”
Alexander clenched his jaw and swallowed.
“Selene,” he whispered. “We know that these creatures were the Autumn wolves. They’ve just been changed. From what Axel told me earlier, Myka’s been cured… there is a chance, with a bit of time, we can find a way to heal them too. So, let’s not jump to”””
Selene shook her head and looked at her feet.
“No, they can’t,” she said. “They’re already dead.”
“What?”
“These creatures, their mutation has already been completed. The wolf is dead. What’s left is this monster that is using the soul of that wolf as a battery,” Selene spoke quietly. “Once it’s used up, the creature will fall apart and die, and that soul will disappear from existence, never being reborn again.”
Alexander drew in a sharp breath.
“We can’t let it go,” she continued with a sniffle. “We must kill it so that whatever little bit of that wolf is left can live again.”
Alexander took in a deep breath, pushing it back out slowly.
“How do you know all this?” he asked.
“Lily came to me in my dream,” Selene replied. “She told me about them… about how she can hear the soul trapped inside. Screaming.”
“Oh, Goddess…” Alexander sighed, tightening his grip on the steering wheel.
“We talked about her too….” Selene sighed. “Our timeline for taking care of the mounds has become a lot tighter. And we need to talk about that, but first, we need to kill this thing and set that soul free.”
Selene moved to release her seatbelt.
“Wait,” Alexander said.
“Alexander, we don’t have a lot of time. We don’t know how long that thing has left. We can’t take the chance that it will consume the entire soul!”
“Please, Selene. Just listen.”
Selene pursed her lips and let out a frustrated sigh.
“Okay,” she said, pulling her hand away from the seatbelt.
Alexander nodded and licked his lips.
“I understand what you’re saying, and I agree, it needs to be killed. But you can’t be the one to do it. You can’t face that thing at all.”
“What?! Why not?”
“Look, I spoke to Axel an hour ago. Myka is cured. Apparently, Alice did some kind of experimental procedure or something, and they were able to use her to create the cure.”
“Okay…”
“But the thing is, this infection and this creature was all built on your brother’s DNA. So the cure they were able to create seeks and destroys what it recognizes, the markers from his DNA.”
Selene furrowed her brows.
“What does that mean?”
“Peter and a team in Summer are working on adjusting and finding a way to change how it works. But, for right now, it means that you and your brother… you can’t have the cure. It will kill you.”
Selene felt that sinking weight in her stomach. Her throat felt dry.
She didn’t even know about a confirmed cure before she decided they needed to kill the creature, but she knew Winter was working on it. There was hope. But now, they found it, and it would kill her.
She swallowed.
“So, I will take care of this,” Alexander said, hitting the small pin on his chest, his armor spreading out over his body. “You stay here.”
Alexander moved to open his door, but Selene grabbed his arm.
“You can’t do this alone,” she said. “It’s too dangerous.”
“Selene, come on, I’ve fought against overwhelming numbers and a giant tree,” he smiled. “I can handle it.”
“No, Alexander. This infection thrives on fae blood. You have the purest source of fae blood of anyone in this world. Myka is a descendant several times removed, and the infection almost took him within hours. What will it do to you?”
Alexander licked his lips and looked away.
“If I get hit, there’s a cure, so it’ll be fine.”
Selene clenched her jaw and then reached up and hit the pin at her chest, her armor spread over her body.
“What are you doing?” Alexander asked with a hint of panic. “You can’t. I already told you, the cure–“
“That cure is in Winter. There is no way either of us would make it in time,” Selene said. “So, there is just as much risk of you facing that thing as there is for me.”
Alexander took a deep frustrated breath and then closed his eyes.
“I was never getting out of this car alone, was I?” he asked, opening his eyes and looking at her.
“Not a chance,” she smirked.
Alexander reached over and pulled her to him, kissing her with all the affection and frustration in his heart. Then, as they pulled away, they smiled and looked into each other’s eyes.
“Then we do this together?” he asked.
New Book: Veiled Desires of the Alpha King Novel
Dayson was the alpha of the largest pack in North America. Powerful figures from other packs sought to offer gorgeous girls as potential mates for Dayson. He steadfastly rejected these advances, he was not a pawn to be manipulated. But eventually there came a mysterious girl he could hardly say No. Who was she?