Page 97 of Mated By the Pack
“I have the fabric of creation inside me,” I mutter. “How the hell do I use it?”
I blink several times. I order it. Harshly, weakly, and I even try begging it, just to be sure, before I feel the fatigue from the sedative and my wound. I glance at the other room. Dr. Thomas is moving toward the door, still yelling at Jace. The peace officers aren’t looking my way, but Vance has noticed.
Our eyes meet, and the only thing we exchange is hopelessness.
“Something ancient,” I mutter. “That’s the connection we share.”
An idea hits me. What if my power is like their wolves? I close my eyes, relax, and simplycallfor what is inside me. The way my mates described calling for their wolf. A part of them that they don’t beg for help, because they are one and the same.
I spiral into my mind. Every visit to The Aether. Every word Silas has said. They explode like a vision in front of my face, and I sit up with a gasp.
There’s not just a piece of The Aether inside me.
IamThe Aether.
A green glow erupts across my skin, then it becomes a golden shimmer that pulses in rhythm with my heart. I shrug off the restraints like they’re not even there. This power is different. It’sme. But I can tell it won’t last long. I’m not strong enough to wield it.
Unfortunately, Dr. Thomas has noticed the commotion and he’s sending the peace officers after me.
I’m not a channel. This isn’t a bridge through a vine. I’m not meant to beg for help like a child. This power is mine.
But I have todosomething with the energy crackling across my skin. Fast. I sling my hand to the right and the translucent wall explodes. Tendrils, not of vine, but of light, spiral out of my fingers and I rip the doors off the cages holding my mates.
“Holy shit!” Jace yells, calling his wolf and attacking a peace officer.
“Never doubted you for a second,” Vance jokes as he scrambles out of his cage and calls his wolf. Mossy brown fur flashes as he tears into a peace officer.
Knox doesn’t say anything. He just growls and platinum streaks across the room. Caleb follows, but the look in his eyes reflects everything I’m supposed to be. Hope.
The door bursts open beside me. I send tendrils of light at the peace officers. I slice through several, open a hole, and push them down the hallway.
My mates start attacking the peace officers. Except Gideon. He’s in his cage now, back in human form, and motionless. And my power is fading. It’s flickering around me. I see black in the edge of my vision. I don’t have the power to sustain this.
It’s chaos. Dr. Thomas and his men are caught off guard, but there’s too many of them. I send a blast toward the door and take out several more peace officers, but it makes me gasp and the shimmer starts to fade.
“No!” I scream, and it flickers back, but it’s weaker. It’s fading.
Too many peace officers. They’re storming down the hallway while Clyde and Dr. Thomas try to push through them to escape. We need a way out, and we need to stop the ones that are coming for us. They’ll overwhelm my mates, just like they did outside.
I send more tendrils of vines down the hallway. But I’m not aiming for the peace officers. Not Clyde. Not Dr. Thomas. I sink the tendrils into the ceiling and yank, collapsing it. Now everyone is trapped, but there are more peace officers coming for us. All pale and lifeless like they’ve never known any emotion.
My power flickers again. I don’t have much left. I send tendrils toward the wall behind the cages, ripping and tearing at it. When it opens, I tear into the next one, finally seeing daylight. We have a way out, but we have to fight our way there. Unfortunately, the hole I opened allows more peace officers to join the fray.
My mates need help. They’re fighting bravely, dodging batons, avoiding projectiles that are being fired from rifles. I try to assist with another flurry of tendrils, but they flicker out. I’m getting weaker. Too weak. I’m about to collapse.
In a final moment of desperation, I reach forward. Not toward the peace officers, Clyde, or Dr. Thomas. I reach further than that, past the barrier between The Aether and our world, wrapping my fingers around a mass of midnight-black hair. The darkness tries to consume me. My power flickers until it’s barely a pulse.
I’m weak and can’t wield this power forever, but I’ve got enough. Enough to do what I need to do.
Enough to pullSilasacross the divide that separates our world from what is radiating inside me.
Because they’re not separated anymore.
I give into the darkness as soon as I see him shift.
CHAPTER 29
Silas
