Maddox lunges at me, but I drop, his body sails over the top of mine, and I take off again. My paws dig into the earth as I tear up the road when I realize something. The darkness doesn’t know how to use my aura; it is all primal instinct, seeking power. It can fight, but it can’t command because if it could, why didn’t it use it on Maddox and Andrei?
As I look ahead, I see Marge. She is clutching the kids and running for the front door as I skid across the ground, turning into the driveway. Jonah is not far behind her with Sage. Mateo shifts and runs at me, but I dodge him, my brother jumps from his car and lunges forward into his wolf again.
Yet, I don’t stop running straight for Marge, when suddenly Sage shifts and pivots, attacking me. Her teeth sink into my flank, and I scream, watching myself snap my jaws at her, only for Andrei to bite into my neck. He rolls on his back and flings me over the top of him and into the side of his car.
Metal groans, and I am screaming at myself to stop. Screaming at them to kill me, knowing what the darkness wants. Now, nothing scares me more than myself and what the darkness is capable of. It wants to feed on power, and my kids glow like a million candles with the power running through their veins.
I am surrounded when my father’s car pulls into the driveway, screeching to a stop. His door flies open while I am looking for an escape. Maddox tackles me, his teeth sink into my mark but only grazing it as he tries to take me down.
Yet, the moment his teeth graze my skin, I feel it ripple up my spine like a lightning bolt. The sparks from the bond, the bond, our mate bond, I can still feel that. My limbs, no, but the bond I feel completely. Sage rushes toward the house, and so does my father. I see him tell Andrei to get in the house, but my attention is diverted. I can vaguely hear the roller shutters locking into place. But my sight is trained on my mates, the ones responsible for keeping our kids safe from their own mother.
“Kat, come on. You need to fight it,” Mateo says, the link sounds hollow as I try to pull on the bond, feeling for their wolves to pull strength from. When suddenly I spin, Mateo tries to gain the advantage, realizing it is a distraction as Maddox goes for my neck again. The darkness recognizes the moves and attacks, colliding with him.
Maddox just slips out of range of my gnashing teeth as I stalk him. The darkness becomes enraged when I feel myself tugging on the restraints of my mind, pulling on the bond and Maddox and Mateo’s essence, using it to ground me and push me forward, letting their feelings come through.
I snarl, the darkness not wanting to give up control, and I lunge at Maddox’s throat. Ares lets out a strangled whimper, and I scream as my canines wrap around the back of his neck. My eyes squeeze shut, unable to watch me kill him. My scream resonates, and I shove myself forward, plunging into the bond and focusing on its energy, humming with love, acceptance, loyalty, and every good thing that comes with a mate bond.
Only nothing happens. I expect the agony of the mate bond to sever painfully. However, when I open my eyes, I realize I am actually opening my eyes. Maddox is lying beneath me. My jaw is wrapped around his neck, only my teeth hover off his skin. Relief makes me drop on him while shifting back, his fur warm against my skin.
Maddox licks my face, and I break down. I was so close to losing everything and myself, and it would have been my fault.
Now, I understand why they didn’t leave me alone with the kids and didn’t leave me alone at all.
Now, I know why with the frightened look in Marge’s eyes that day and how she was willing to go against her Queen. Ares comes over, sniffing and nudging my face. Maddox shifts underneath me, and Ezra pulls me into his lap.
“I didn’t know, I didn’t realize,” I sob. And I really didn’t. Never would I have believed this if I hadn’t seen it for myself.
All those times, I didn’t see this version of myself. Hadn’t seen what they dealt with, nor did I see I was the rift between us all. I knew it was bad; I knew that, but I didn’t think it was this bad. I didn’t think I am a danger to my kids. Or believe I am capable of hurting them.
Guilt smashes me for what I have put my mates through, knowing they deal with it constantly and live with this fear, yet they do it because they love me. I thought everything wrong was because of them hiding things, but now I see it’s me.
“Shh, it’s okay, you’re back now,” Ezra says, and Ares sniffs both of our faces. Ezra strokes his face and pulls his head closer to rest on ours.
“I will take the meds. I will do what you ask,” I tell them, surrendering control of everything.
I am not safe, and I am too stubborn, not wanting to see a fault in my actions when they are trying to protect me from myself. Ezra rocks back and forth, his purr soothing, his nose pressed into my hair while I press mine into his neck. Ares shifts back. Mateo’s hands caress my hips and lower back before pressing his lips to my shoulder.
“We knew you could do it. You just needed to hang on. We will always be here, just pull on the bond. Take it from us, take everything if you need to, just don’t stop fighting it. Don’t let it have you. Don’t let it take you from us.” Mateo whispers, nuzzling my neck. I turn my face to see him and run my fingers through his hair.