Page 46 of Wolf's Whisper

I caught his dark eyes and as they bore deep into mine, I remembered seeing the same darkness the night before when he had attacked Chesca for the first time. And as that moment replayed in my mind, a thought crept up on me that I couldn't seem to shake.

What if it wasn't just to protect me...?

"She had it coming," Regan muttered, his words almost lost in the eery wind blowing through the group of people.

The blood still fresh on the cold ground, the smell of his kill wafting through the night. I felt goosebumps on every inch of my skin as I stared in front of me. The wolf had disappeared and a man was standing in his stead. A man I hardly recognised.

Aspen's hands were balled into hard fists, veins popping from his arms. His breathing hard and shallow, like he had just run a marathon. Sweat was dripping from his forehead to his cheeks, where it mixed with the splatters of blood. His hair was wild, his body tense, his eyes deranged.

This was not the man I knew.

I felt myself crawl back, mostly out of fear. Two soft arms wrapped themselves around my torso and a chin rested on my shoulder. A soothing voice murmured in my ear. "I'm here... Don't freak out."

Ashleigh.

She almost must've shifted back. I hadn't even heard it. Cece's last scream blocked it all out.

I stared appalled at the lifeless body in front of me, the last of her blood gushing out of her mangled throat. Another wave of nausea hit me as I saw her dead eyes glazed over and without meaning too, I puked again.

I had never seen a dead person like this.

No, that wasn't right. I had seen dead people before. At funerals, in suits and coffins. I had never seen a person killed before.

I stared back at Aspen. His teeth were grit and the hard lines on his face had completely wiped away his young and carefree look. He was every bit as terrifying as you'd expect an outraged Alpha to be.

Danny carefully broke the invisible circle we had all made and briefly touched his shoulder. Like she was zapped by electricity, she yanked her hand back and took a couple of steps back.

She turned towards all of us, a saddened look on her face as she gently shook her head.

I looked at the rest of the group, only now truly registering there were more people here than Cece, me and Aspen.

Danny's reaction was clear. Compassion. But I wasn't sure for whom. Regan's face was emotionless. I couldn't tell if he was disgusted, or appalled, or even happy or proud. Darren's face was equally as hard to read, but he couldn't hide what was in his eyes. They looked empty, but behind the glaze, I saw a shimmer. He was relieved. I turned to JP and was almost glad when I saw how shocked he was. At least one of them felt the same as I did.

Ashleigh's embrace had turned into a gentle caress, but as comforting as she felt, I didn't dare look back, afraid of what I would find in her eyes. I had already lost one twin tonight, I didn't want to lose another.

I looked back at the man standing in a pool of blood. He was almost frozen to the spot, blood trickling down his arms as it fell in drops from his fingers. The wind blowing through his hair was the only thing convincing me he hadn't turned to stone.

A voice caught my attention. Danny.

"Help him. Please."

She must've seen the confusion in my eyes as she nudged towards Aspen. "He'll lose himself. Please, help him."

"H..." My voice wasn't working. How do you talk?

I cleared my throat, drawing in a breath of cold air. "H-How?" I managed to stutter.

"Pull him out of his trance. You’re his mate, you should be able to do it."

"I..."

She impatiently cut me off. "There is no time to explain, please. The wolf will take him. You need to get up and snap him out of it."

Not caring what I would find in Ashleigh's eyes, I finally dared to turn around and meet her gaze. To my relief, her piercing blues were unchanged and with a reassuring nod, she gently helped me up.

"You can do it," she gloomily whispered in my ear, nudging me towards her brother.

I felt the whole group's eyes on me as an unknown kind of desperation hung in the air. What if I couldn't help Aspen?

What would happen to him?

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