Page 63 of Collar Me Crazy
"I'm not leaving you again!"
But even as she spoke, she realized the tendrils weren't trying to capture them both. They were separating them, driving Ryker back while creating a corridor that led directly toward the Void's manifestation. A trap designed specifically for her.
"Your mate cannot help you here," the entity said with satisfaction. "In the realm between worlds, flesh meansnothing. But consciousness, memory, the ability to see across possibilities, that has value beyond measure."
The shadows surged forward in a coordinated assault. Ryker's wolf fought with desperate fury, his claws tearing through supernatural flesh while his howls of rage echoed across the square. But the shadow creatures weren't trying to kill him, they were containing him, keeping him occupied while other tendrils reached for Sonya.
"Use our bond!" she called to him. "Channel through our connection!"
"Trying!" His mental voice was strained with effort as he battled creatures that reformed faster than he could destroy them.
A shadow tendril wrapped around Sonya's ankle, burning like ice against her skin. She tried to pull away, but more shadows joined the first, climbing her body like living ropes. Where they touched, her strength drained away, leaving her weak and disoriented.
"Stop fighting," the Void commanded, its voice echoing inside her skull. "Your resistance only delays the inevitable."
"The hell it does." Sonya reached for her seer abilities, trying to project a vision that might disrupt the entity's concentration. But the moment she opened her mind, the Void's consciousness slammed into hers like a battering ram.
Pain beyond description flooded her senses as the entity forced its way into her thoughts, tearing through her memories and abilities with casual brutality. She felt it cataloging her visions, studying her connections to the other couples, learning everything it needed to destroy them all.
"Such clarity," the Void murmured with pleasure. "Such perfect sight across possibility and time. You will show me the location of every supernatural sanctuary, every hiddencommunity, every place where light dares to shine in the darkness."
"Never." The word came out as a gasp as shadows lifted her from the ground, carrying her toward the massive tear in reality.
"You will," the entity said with certainty. "When I am finished breaking your mind, you will beg to serve my purposes."
Ryker's howl of fury split the air as he saw her being carried away. His wolf form blazed with power as he tried to fight through the shadow creatures, but they pressed him back with relentless efficiency.
"Ryker!" she called, but the shadows muffled her voice, stealing the sound before it could reach him.
The last thing she saw before the darkness claimed her was his green eyes, wild with desperation and love, as the Void dragged her consciousness into the space between worlds.
Where no one could follow, and no one could save her.
Where the entity would have all the time it needed to break her mind and use her gift to destroy everything she'd ever cared about.
But as the Void's realm closed around her, she held tight to one truth: Ryker would come for her. Somehow, someway, he would find a way to reach her.
He had to.
Because the alternative was the end of everything.
37
RYKER
The moment the Void dragged Sonya into its realm, something primal and absolute awakened inside Ryker. Not just his wolf, but something deeper—the bloodmoon heritage that had marked him since birth, the power that prophecy had warned about for generations.
His howl split the air like thunder, carrying frequencies that made reality itself shiver. Around the square, the shadow creatures holding the other couples in stasis recoiled, their forms wavering as his voice tore through their supernatural bonds.
"Enough," he snarled, his human words carrying his wolf's absolute authority. "You took my mate. Now you face what you've awakened."
The transformation that followed wasn't his usual shift. This was something more, deeper, touched by destiny and desperate love. His body expanded beyond normal limits, auburn fur blazing like fire as his frame grew to accommodate power that had been sleeping for thirty years.
When the change completed, he stood nearly nine feet tall, his wolf form magnificent and terrifying in equal measure. Hiseyes burned with silver fire, and when he moved, reality bent around him like he was the fixed point around which everything else revolved.
"The bloodmoon wolf," whispered voices from among the frozen couples—Varric's ancient recognition, even through the stasis field.
The shadow creatures pressed toward him in waves, but Ryker was no longer the defensive fighter they'd contained before. He was apex predator unleashed, cosmic force given flesh, the living embodiment of every fear that had driven his pack's killers to genocide.
