Chapter 25 - Senna

Cold. My blood was cold. It was damn freezing, and I could see each fleck of snow in the air as I watched Terrance barreling toward me—Jet lying in the snow, too damn still.

The pounding in my temples started up again. Another vision? For what fucking purpose? I was about to die. My mate was about to die, and fucking Terrance was going to win—again.

A strangled sob tore from me as the ache wormed through me like a virus—invisible and everywhere. I hadn't asked for any of this. I was fine being alone, a lowly omega whose mate had rightly abandoned her. I'd gotten used to the concept.

But then everything changed.

Jet"s second was murdered, and the man that I thought I'd never see again was back in my life. My mate was back in my life, and it showed me just how much I was missing, how much I'd longed for through each cold and empty night.

Now, I had been given a chance at a happiness I never thought possible. It was a triumph, a miracle. And it was all coming to an end. I couldn't…I couldn't stand this. I was going to break apart, fracturing at each seam and taking out everything around me in the process.

I want—I demand my mate. You can't take him from me.

The fury swelled, the pounding in my brain flaring right along with it. The welling pressure in my mind just grew and grew. I expected my vision to white out, to go blurry, and it nearly did. Overlays of all my previous visions played over my eyes, blocking out the world around me.

Seeing it all again forced a scream from my lungs. The pack decimated, Jet dead, and me alone again; it was all there. Tears stung in my eyes, bleeding down my cheeks where they froze in the frigid cold.

"No!"

Eons of pain and doubt and cruel necessity scorched my veins. An ancient force swam through my blood, and they were there inside me—the V?lva. Wolfless shifters who"d come before were in my DNA. I was a part of them, and they were a part of me.

My eyes flared, and I held out my hands without even realizing it, something taking over me from deep within.

"Stop!"

My voice wasn't wholly my own, and something inside me snapped. The feeling deep in my mind, in my being, connected to that surge of power associated with a vision just…popped.

No, it exploded.

A tsunami of energy soared out from me as the pressure finally hit its breaking point. Like a shockwave, the flare that radiated out, with me as the center point, spread across the clearing in a massive circle. In every inch of space that it passed through, something changed.

I could see it. Lines of shimmering, pale gold energy that branched out from me in a spiraling latticework—an orb weaver spider's web.

For a moment, I thought nothing had truly happened, just this crescendo of energy. Everything looked the same—or did it?

The snowflakes that had been falling around hung suspended in the air, nearly imperceptibly moving. It was silent except for an odd, low hum, and Terrance wasn't any closer to me. I looked around, turning my body like I was swimming through thick, cold water.

It was like I was moving incredibly fast, or the world was moving incredibly slow. I could see each fraction of a second play out in bullet time. The ripples of momentum translucently shimmered in the air behind Terrance. I made some as I turned this way and that.

What's more, I could sense how the strange shift was tied to my energy. I could feel it draining me, exhaustion crawling through my veins and threatening to make me drop more and more with each frozen second. This was fucking hard, demanding practically all of my energy to maintain.

It became worse as I tried to move and get to Jet. Focusing on holding time in this stasis and walking while I was doing it was too much for my brain. But this was it. This was how I saved Jet. What was I supposed to do if I couldn't get to him?

My mind pinged, and I looked just behind me to the right. Kaiden was there, stuck in the grip I had over the timeframe, just like Jet and Terrance. But what if he wasn't? Could I?

I reached out, using all my might to touch Kaiden's extended fingers with my own. As soon as our skin connected, he stumbled forward. Kaiden looked around in shock, trying to reason out what had just happened.

"I—time—my powers…" Talking was horrendous, the drain on my strength nearly knocking me to my knees.

Kaiden seemed less affected. He wasn't holding the timeframe steady, after all.

"Senna? You're…what do we do? Can you hold this so I can get to Terrance?"

Nodding only an inch, I tested letting go of him. He remained connected to me, and I sucked in a breath through my nose—too much iron mixed with Jet's leather and pine in the air.

"Yes. I think…hurry…this is…"

Before I could even hope to finish, Kaiden was turning for Terrance. He pulled off his coat and shirt, shoving down his pants as quickly as he could, and then he was shifting.

Kaiden's wolf roared to life as he let it take over, and as he leaped forward, sprinting across the snow, I silently marveled at his gorgeous gray and red fur. He was huge, nearly as big as Jet, and as he charged Terrance, he opened his jaws wide in a terrible growl.

My entire body shook as I held onto whatever power was giving me this insane ability. It took so much strength to maintain concentration, and I fell to my knees, my arms outstretched as I watched Kaiden barrel toward my former alpha.

He jumped into the air on his last stride, soaring into Terrance's body. It was like watching a dog go after a toy. Terrance remained nearly frozen, his reactions moving slower than molasses. Kaiden sank his fangs into the asshole's neck, tearing free a large chunk of flesh and sending blood spraying out across the snow in a wide arch that slowly coasted down to the ground.

But Kaiden didn't stop there.

His massive wolf shape took Terrance to the ground. The man coughed and sputtered as he came free of the time slow. Blood gurgled from his lips as he tried and failed to clutch at his throat. Kaiden's fangs tore into the man's hands, freeing fingers from his palm and ripping through the flesh covering his arms.

Kaiden's claws slashed through Terrance's chest, more crimson liquid gushing out of the once proud alpha and staining the snow. I couldn't hold the power steady any longer, though, and it snapped free from my control. The horrible screams and chaotic swirl of limbs being broken and fabric being shredded echoed around me.

Then stillness.

Terrance was more than dead, torn to pieces by Kaiden's powerful jaws, and I slumped to the ground, barely conscious.

Everything burned, ached, and as the fear from Terrance's attack faded, a new one took up its place. Exhaustion like I'd never felt gnawed through me. There was no way I was standing anytime soon, and consciousness was looking like it was ready to go as well.

What had I done to myself? To my baby?

Jet was still motionless in the snow, and I couldn't be certain if I'd saved him or not. Warm tears bled down my face, dripping past my nose as I lay on my side on the ground.

Crunching sounds crackled near my head, and I struggled to look up. Kaiden was human once more, covered in blood. He knelt down next to me, lifting my head up.

"Hey. Senna? Are you okay?"

His brows were down low over his eyes, and I could smell the tinge of char coloring his scent.

"I don't…" My tongue felt dry and useless.

"Okay, okay. Hang on." Kaiden looked up toward the house, and I was already starting to pass out. "Kenzie!"

Oh, that was a smart move. Kenzie, that perky little healer; if anyone could help me and, more importantly, help Jet, it would be her. Cold crept into my veins as I lay there waiting for her to show up. Either that or I would lose consciousness, and either one looked about as likely as the other.

The pungent smell of copper clung to Kaiden, and I struggled to frown as my eyes closed.

"You smell bad."

He laughed. "Well, I did just tear apart Terrance. I'm damn sure that fucker didn't take hygiene seriously. My mouth tastes terrible."

I wanted to laugh, but all that I could manage was a weak puff of breath through my nose that briefly colored the air white in front of my face.

Calls sounded out near the house, sounding millions of miles away, and I watched Kaiden look up again. His brows rose to his hairline, and he cried out.

"Kenzie!" Kaiden's body shook as he yelled for his sister. "Help!"

In just a few seconds, she scrambled up toward us, and I lost myself briefly to the smell of ocean and salt. Before I could respond, though, hands were at the tear in my leg, and I hissed. I'd forgotten it was there.

"Oof, okay, Senna. We'll get this cleaned up. It's not too bad." Her voice was steady, calming.

"It's not…Senna, she…she used whatever V?lva magic she has to slow time, Kenz." Kaiden's whisper echoed with awe, and I shivered against him. "I wouldn't have believed it if I weren't right here."

"What?"

I could hear the shock in Kenzie's voice, and I tried to speak again.

"It just…happened."

"Shh, shh, now. We'll deal with that later." Something wrapped around my leg—tightly—and I hissed again. "You okay? That doesn't smell like yours."

I assumed Kenzie was talking about Kaiden, and sure enough, her brother answered, still helping her to hold me steady.

"I'm fine. It's Terrance. He's dead."

There was a beat of silence, and I wanted to scream out to them that Jet was still there, that he still needed me, but when I went to talk this time, all I could do was grunt.

"Senna? Hey, Senna? Come on, hun. Don't fall asleep on me."

But it didn't matter how much she asked me or how much Kaiden squeezed me, jostling me around. I was fading—fast.

"Shit, Kenz." Kaiden sounded like his voice was playing underwater. "And Jet. He's—we need more help."

"Fuck." I imagined Kenzie turning and seeing Jet lying in the snow. "No, no, no."

"Kenzie!" Kaiden's voice was low but urgent. "We can't lose them."

"We won't. Grayson! Get your ass over here and help me!" The world shifted, and suddenly, there was so much cold at my back that my eyes flared open. "Kaiden, get that bleeding stopped. I'm going to Jet. Keep her warm and still. And for fuck's sake, find your clothes."

A playful growl rumbled out of Kaiden, and then everything moved too fast for me to track properly. Kaiden was gone, saying he was going to grab his shirt and pants. Then he was there, his jacket around me, and he pulled me into his lap, wrapping his arms around me. The warmth was nice.

My eyelids drooped again, and I fought to watch Kenzie tending to Jet.

"You need to shift back if you can. The bone will be easier to set in human form. It's…it's going to hurt."

A terrible howl echoed into the clearing, and my blood turned to ice. It morphed into a scream, a low bellowing of pain from a voice that I recognized.

Jet.

"Senna!"

I tried to call for him. I tried to reach out to him. But the world darkened into nothingness, and I passed out.