Chapter Thirty-three

Ayden

He appeared out of nowhere. Literally came out of the shadows and grabbed her before any of us knew he was there.

How could I have let this happen? How did I not see this coming?

She talked about the shadows. She even mentioned that he was in her dreams, a man in the shadows who could pull her out of her body to where the very shadows that darkness was born. Why didn't I listen to her?

My body moved as I struggled with the reality we were faced with. My wolf had taken full control, his instincts to protect our mate driving him forward.

My own instincts only kicked back in when I felt as though we hit a wall. I stood frozen in place as I watched Sasha go limp in the man's arms. Even when I called out to her, begging her to fight, her head just flopped back as if she weren't even there. Even her eyes were void of any familiarity as she looked back at us all.

"Not so fast, Wolfman," he said as I tried to push against the invisible wall. "You can't win against me. Not in this lifetime or any other for that matter."

He grinned at me, the expression void of any genuine joy. I doubted the monster could feel such light and happy emotions. Even from here, I could see he was filled with nothing but the darkness that surrounded him.

I knew him. I cursed myself for ever hiding the story I had found from Sasha. It was his face that had been drawn in next to The Fates. Their brother whose joy came from the dark turn of events in people's lives. Morus, spirt of doom and the god of dark fate.

Had I only shown her the story, maybe she would have recognized him. Then again, it was that fear of her seeing this man as the one who haunted her that had kept me from doing so.

He brushed his fingers through Sasha's hair, his eyes locked with mine as he leaned down and whispered to her. I jerked my body forward again, fighting against the magic harder as I watched this man caress my mate as if she were his.

‘He is challenging us,'my wolf growled, the sound echoing through my lips as I snarled at the dark wielding monster before us.

"Sasha," Aurora sobbed to my left, her voice startling me as I turned to find her just as frozen as I was. Helpless and angry.

She drew out her claws at the end of her fingertips. Frozen in a mid-shift as if she had every intention of attacking the man who held her cousin.

Morus didn't pay her any attention. His eyes set on me and me alone. He reached out his hand towards me then, and the scent of dark magic overwhelmed me.

Pain erupted throughout my body. My knees gave out beneath me until finally I moved, though not in the direction I wanted. I groaned in pain at first, but the burning ache grew and sharpened.

A scream ripped from my lips as I felt my body twisting in on itself. A feeling that was so familiar and yet it felt foreign to me in this moment. I fell flat to the floor, my nails pushed from my nail beds by sharp claws. My teeth began to fall from my jaw with an agonizing pain like I had never felt before.

I was being forced into a shift.

Never in my life had I ever experienced this in any of my shifts. I had always been in complete control. My wolf and I both balanced in our strength and power. From my very first shift, I felt only joy when I released my wolf. But this was different.

My wolf wasn't simply being released from within me, he was being ripped out of me by the dark magic of the shadow man. The dark god whose face had been etched into the book I'd kept secret held powers that were long forgotten by witches and shifters alike.

Far darker than the curse of the werewolf that my ancestor had placed on the ancestors of my grandfather. This kind of magic is more closely related to my father's power over animals and other shifters.

I tried to fight the shift. We both did, but the more my wolf and I pushed against this magic, the more pain we both felt.

Blood began to pool on the floor beneath me. My claws ripped at my own skin as I screamed out in pain with every peel of skin that dropped to the floor.

I could feel myself losing consciousness as the pain continued. Memories of the stories my grandfather had told me of his shifts before meeting my grandmother. How the wolf would tear him apart, just as my wolf was doing now.

It wasn't a natural transition. That was what made it so painful. Even as my body was born for the shift, the dark magic forcing me now took away the benefits of my body's natural anatomy.

Morus intended to kill me through my own wolf.

I looked up at the god, his smile as dark as his eyes as he watched me squirm on the ground in agony. My vision was blurred, the world turning red as blood filled my eyes and pain began to blind me at that moment.

I could feel my eyes shifting. My human eyes were being replaced by the bright glowing eyes of my wolf. When I opened them again, I could see Morus and Sasha fading into the shadows where he had appeared.

I jerked forward again, another scream of agony ripping through my body as I yelled for Sasha to come back. To fight against the darkness that wrapped itself so tightly around her.

‘She can't hear us,'my wolf howled through gritted teeth. His voice sounded in just as much pain as mine, with the agony of this forced shift. He was fighting against it just as hard as I was. He was refusing to allow anyone to take control of our body.

I realized then that with us both fighting, we would certainly die. Morus would win and there would be no way that we could save Sasha from that darkness.

"Give in," I coughed out in pain.

‘What?'my wolf responded, shock rattling his voice in my head.

"We'll die if we don't. We have to give into the shift."

"Ayden! What's happening?" Aurora cried out, the magic that held her in place now gone as Morus and Sasha disappeared.

A dark growl ripped through my chest as she touched me. Everything hurt. Her touch felt like a million knives slicing thru my skin. That pain left nothing but a fight in my wolf. A fight that was now viewing anyone and anything as a threat.

"Rory, get back!" Baer growled out, his arms wrapping around his mate's waist as he pulled her back from me. "He's not in control. That guy did something to him. And that magic isn't wearing off just because he's gone."

A howl escaped my mouth as my head suddenly jerked backwards. The pain is still as excruciating as ever. My wolf was still fighting it. He was still refusing to be forced to take control of our body without my consent.

‘Listen to me,'I begged him, no longer strong enough to speak out loud. ‘You have to let the shift happen.'

‘No,'he growled. ‘I can't do that. I can't let him control us.'

I shook my head, blood dripping from my aching jaw as it began to extend into the shape of a snout.

‘If you don't let this happen, we are going to die. We will die and no one will be able to find Sasha and save her. You have to trust me on this.'I pleaded as my arm popped out-of-place then back in before popping out once more.

I couldn't even scream with the pain shooting through my jaw as it was shifting. I could only fall to my side and let out pathetic whimpers like a beaten pup.

‘Please,'I said again to my wolf.

‘What if we can't shift back? What if you fade into our mind and I lose control?'

I could feel my wolf's genuine fear then. It wasn't the fear of being controlled at all. It was the fear of losing control and forgetting who we are.

‘You would never do that,'I assured him. ‘I know you wouldn't. We're a team. We've always been a team. I've known you since the moment I was born, and you are as much a part of me as I am of you. I trust you. I trust you as much as I trust myself, because you are me.'

My words must have been what he needed to hear. That reminder that even if we gave into this small control, we were still in charge of ourselves. That we were a team and had been since the very first shift. Since before I could ever hear him in my mind, I knew him and could feel him inside me.

I understood his fear. It was my own fear as well, but that fear couldn't outweigh the fear of losing Sasha forever. Even if I had to fade into nothingness and lose all of who I am, it would all be worth it as long as I could save my mate and make sure that she returned to her family safe and unharmed.

My body's pain slowly eased as my wolf and I both stopped fighting the shift. It still didn't feel right. There was still some aching that shouldn't have been there, but as I panted and laid on my side, the shift continued on with full acceptance of my wolf and me.

I opened my eyes to look up at Baer and Aurora. Both stared at me with horror and pain in their eyes.

I doubted that either of them had any idea what was happening. It was unheard of anymore to come across cursed werewolves who didn't have any control over their shifts anymore. Not since my grandfather's time.

Even the bitten wolves didn't have this hard of a time shifting. I couldn't imagine what was running through their minds as they watched me roll and twist in a pool of my own blood and skin.

I tried to tell them that I was fine, that I would be okay, but only a low whine came out.

"Shh," Aurora said, tears streaming down her face as she looked at me. "You're going to be okay. We are all going to be okay. Just hang in there, Ayden."

I tried to reach out for her tether, for anything that I could use to tell her that I was fine, but the reach for my magic gave way to nothing. Not even the connection to the elements that I had learned from my uncle was there. I had no way of communicating with either of them. No way to devise a plan or to inform them of what we were up against.

Suddenly, the full understanding of what Morus had done to me slammed into my skull like a bullet. I was completely cut off from anything but my wolf. I was little more than the natural animals found in human zoos around the world.

‘Ayden,'my wolf whined in my mind as the shift finally ended.

‘I'm still here,'I said, equally relieved as my wolf by that fact. ‘I can't do much more than speak to you though it seems. Can you get us up?'

I felt our body move as my wolf tried our legs. They shook beneath the weight of our body as we stood up, but it was all we needed. As long as we could move, we could get to Sasha. As long as we could stand, we could do something to destroy Morus and set our mate free of his clutches.