Chapter 201: Getting Worse
Third Person POV
Back in Kane’s destroyed packhouse, Logan walked briskly down the dim hallway, his boots thudding against the cracked stone floor. He stopped right in front of Kane, his expression hard and focused.
"We tracked your Beta," Logan said, keeping his voice low. "One of our informants spotted him lying low in a small hotel within the Snow Pack territory. I’ve already alerted the Snow Pack Alpha. He’s closing off all exits and securing the hotel as we speak. Once we get official word that he’s in chains, we leave immediately."
Kane gave a short, tense nod, his hands clenched into fists. "Good. The moment I get my hands on him, he’ll answer for every—"
Before Kane could finish his sentence, a loud, terrifying shout exploded from the guest room down the hall.
BOOM!
"WHERE IS SHE?!" a voice roared, sounding less like a man and more like a wounded beast. "WHERE IS REBECCA?!"
Logan and Kane exchanged a look of pure panic. "He’s awake!" Logan cursed.
They spun around and sprinted up the broken stone stairs, taking them three at a time. They burst into the ruined room just in time to witness a nightmare.
Kaden stood in the center of the chamber, his fingers locked around the neck of the head seer, lifting her completely off her feet. But it wasn’t just his wolf taking over—his eyes were neither their natural deep green nor the Alpha gold.
They were pitch black.
Kaden was utterly possessed by blind rage, his sanity swallowed whole by the agonizing tear in his soul.
"Kaden! Drop her!" Logan shouted, his blood running cold. "Kane, we have to hold him down now!"
Logan and Kane rushed forward, jumping at Kaden together. But Kaden fought with terrifying, unnatural strength. With a violent sweep of his arm, he shoved Kane into the wall and threw Logan across the floor as if they weighed nothing.
"Help them! Hold him!" a guard screamed from the hallway.
Nearly ten elite warriors scrambled into the room, throwing their entire weight onto Kaden. Two guards tackled his legs, while others grabbed his arms and chest, straining with every ounce of their strength just to pin him. The heavy stone floor cracked beneath the pressure, but Kaden still fought back, his muscles bulging as he prepared to shift into his massive black wolf and rip everyone in the room to shreds.
"Do it now!" Logan yelled loudly, barely holding down Kaden’s left arm.
The seers quickly gathered in a tight circle, raised their hands, and began chanting rapid, heavy incantations. Their voices rose together, filling the room with a strange, dark power.
Kaden let out a deafening growl, his black eyes flashing as the magic hit him like a physical blow. His terrifying strength began to drain. Slowly, his thrashing weakened, his body went limp, and his eyes rolled back as he collapsed onto the mattress, falling back into forced unconsciousness.
The guards fell back, gasping for air, their bodies covered in cold sweat.
Two warriors gently laid Kaden flat on the bed, pulling a heavy blanket over his chest.
The head seer leaned against the wall, clutching her bruised neck and coughing violently. "He is getting worse," she rasped out, her voice trembling. "The darkness in his soul is taking over."
"Then we tie him down!" Logan barked, wiping blood from his own lip. "We chain him to the bed with silver ropes until we bring the girl back!"
The old seer looked at Logan with deep pity and fear. "And you think that will hold him, Lord Logan? You are fooling yourself. The next time King Kaden wakes up, our sleeping spells will not work on him. He is building an immunity to our magic. Right now, his broken mind sees all of us as enemies. If he breaks free, he will slaughter every single person in this building."
She shook her head, looking down at the silent King. "This is not just anger. His wolf has gone completely insane. He loves this girl so deeply that her absence is literally destroying his mind. I have never seen such a bond... a bond like this does not even exist between true mates. It is unnatural. It is terrifying."
The room fell into a heavy, suffocating silence.
Kane stepped closer to the bed, looking down at his twin brother’s pale, motionless face. "Then what do we do?" Kane asked softly, his voice full of desperation. "We can’t let him die like this."
The seers and the witches gathered in the corner of the room, standing silently with their eyes closed as if communicating through a silent mental link. Seconds stretched into agonizing minutes.
Finally, the head seer opened her eyes. She looked up at Logan and Kane, her face pale.
"There is only one way to save his life and keep him from destroying himself and everyone," the seer whispered solemnly. "We have to erase every memory of her from his mind."
"Hell no!" Logan roared, his voice shaking the stone walls. "No! Absolutely not!"
He stepped between the seers and the bed, his arms thrown out to block them from getting anywhere near Kaden. His chest heaved with fury as he glared down at the old woman.
"Have you lost your minds?!" Logan shouted. "That is the Alpha King lying on that bed! You are talking about going inside his mind and wiping out a whole part of his life! You can’t just erase a person like she never existed!"
The head seer did not flinch. She met Logan’s wild gaze with calm, tragic eyes, adjusting the heavy shawl over her shoulders.
"Lord Logan, this is our only solution," the seer said softly, her voice calm despite the tension in the room. "We wipe every memory of her from his head. It will be as if he never met her in his life. The spell is safe and secure. Nothing will go wrong, except that every memory of Rebecca will be gone."