Selene
This was a mistake.
I know it the moment I hit the water. I was a fool to attempt such a ridiculous plan. I plunge beneath the turquoise surface like a ton of bricks, sinking to the bottom of the pool and trying not to panic.
The pool is only about twenty feet deep, but even that shallow pressure seems crushing to me. I feel like I’m being flattened, like the entire world has come crashing down on top of me and I’ll never be able to get out from under it.
I’m running out of air quickly, but all I can think is how strange it is down here. Time is moving so slowly, and everything is fuzzy and blue. It might be beautiful if it wasn’t so terrifying. I spread my arms out to my sides, trying to imagine a well of power trapped inside me, picturing myself reaching into it and pulling out my own salvation.
I can’t hold in the air I’ve been storing in my cheeks any longer, breathing it out through my nose and watching the bubbles ascend to the glittering surface so far above. I feel some relief just letting that bit of weight go, but in my heart I know my window of opportunity is closing.
Clamping my eyes shut, I try to force my hidden strength into being. If I don’t do something, I’m going to die. I think firmly, If I don’t find a way out of this, I’ll drown.
A tiny spark flickers to life in my chest, an odd sort of electricity that feels alien and familiar all at once. It’s working. I’ve got too little air and I’m too deep for Odette to reach me in time. I tell myself grimly, pulling at that spark with all my strength.
The effort of resisting my instincts to breathe in is beginning to strain my lungs, I know I’ll only take in water if I try to take a breath, but I can’t hold out much longer. Bastien will have to relive your death. You’ll be torturing your mate.
The spark grows, expanding like a miniature ball of light in my heart. That’s it! Luna encourages, keep doing that!
The electricity is growing, flooding through my limbs little by little. The power is building, but in a wave of fresh panic I realize I don’t know what to do with it. I can feel it, but I don’t know how to use it. What good is this light, this electricity? It can’t give me oxygen.
At that moment my lungs finally give out, and I suck in a great gulp of water. The pain is instantaneous, salty fluid flooding my lungs, burning in my chest like a thousand needles. No! I think as the light dims. I grapple for the edges of the power, trying desperately to hold on to the nascent force as I sputter and cough, drowning for the second time in my short life.
Darkness closes in, encroaching around my vision in a dense black cloud. Pain, both physical and emotional, pierces my heart as I realize I’ve failed.
And just like that, the spark goes out.
_________________
Bastien
I knew something was wrong the moment I got back to the pack house. I can’t explain why or how, only that my hackles raised and Axel went on high alert the second I stepped through the door. I immediately went up to our top floor apartment to check on Selene and Lila, but when I arrived, I found only half of my family.
Lila and Donavon’s niece, Maeve, were happily playing in the living room, watched over by my Beta’s sister. The poor woman looked so startled when I entered she jumped half a foot in the air. Before I could apologize to her, Lila was toddling to her feet and rushing forward to greet me. “Daddy!”
“Hello little one!” I knelt down to her level, sweeping her into a quick hug. “Where’s Mommy?”
“With Gamma,” Lila peeps, trying to climb into my arms even though I’m attempting to look her in the eye.
“With Grandma, where?” I press, glancing between my pup and her babysitter.
“Daddy, want up!” Lila pouts, squirming her way into the crook of my arm.
Caving, I lift her as I stand and approach Donavon’s sister, Anna. “Do you know where they went?”
“Is something wrong?” She asks anxiously, “They’re just next door at Nova Hall.”
“I’m not sure.” I explain honestly, “Something feels off. Do you know what they’re doing there?”
“I’m sorry, I don’t.” She shakes her head, reaching for Lila, “Here, you go. I’ll watch her.”
Lila immediately begins to whine when I hand her over, “Daddy, I want you stay.”
“I’ll be right back, angel.” I promise. “I just want to check on Mommy.”
“Take me wid you?” She begs, looking up at me with wide, puppy-dog eyes.
“Not this time, Lila bean.” I answer apologetically, “be good for Anna.”
My pup begins to cry as I stalk out of the room, the sounds and smell of her tears tugging at my heartstrings so powerfully I might have turned back if it wasn’t for the terrible sense of dread eating away at my insides.
My unease is so great I almost shift, not trusting my human legs to carry me to the hall quickly enough. Instead I storm through the halls at top speed, Aiden and Donavon never leaving my side. “What is it Bastien?” Aiden presses.
“Something’s wrong.” I grit out, “I don’t know what, but something’s wrong.”
“Do you think Selene’s in danger?” Donavon questions.
“I don’t know, it might just be bad memories.” It doesn’t escape my notice that the last time Selene went off with Mom, Arabella set fire to our family cabin and destroyed my happiness for three and a half long years.
Donavon shakes his head, already on the same wavelength. “You were feeling this before you knew she left with Odette.”
Fuck. I think, breaking into a run, He’s right.
By the time we reach the hall, a small contingent of guards trailing behind us, I can hear a commotion by the pool: splashing and Mom calling Selene’s name, her voice strained with fear.
Goddess, surely she’s not in the pool! I think desperately. Did she fall in? What the hell were they doing?
Pain rips through my chest so suddenly it stops me in my tracks, bending me double and making me gasp for air. Axel is howling desperately, calling for his mate and begging for her to reply. Aiden and the other men are gathered around me, anxious to help but unsure what to do.
But there’s nothing to be done.
This pain can only mean one thing.
Selene is dying.
_________________
Selene
My last thought before the world goes black, is of Lila. I’ll never see my pup again, and she’ll be forced to grow up without me. I won’t be there to protect her, I won’t be there to teach her or guide her through life.
This ridiculous effort to figure out my powers so I can help her deal with her own one day, won’t just be in vain, it will have made things a million times worse. She won’t just be without a Volana teacher, she’ll be without a mother.
I won’t be there to kiss her hurts and wipe away her tears, I won’t be there to watch her blossom into a woman. I know what it’s like to lose your mother too soon, and though I know she’ll never suffer as I did at Garrick’s hands, that doesn’t change the fact that I will have abandoned her to face the world without me.
I can’t explain how so many thoughts went through my head in such a short burst of time, but that’s the way of final moments. The world seems to slow to a standstill, making space for all the sorrow, fear and rage a heart can conjure at one’s end.
I can hear him. Luna moans suddenly, Bastien’s wolf is calling for me.
Bastien, I think desperately, I only just got him back. Lila only just got two parents.
It wasn’t intentional. I don’t know how it happened, but one moment I was manically thinking Bastien, Lila, Bastien, Lila, and the next the spark had returned, more powerful and furious than before.
It consumes me completely.
My pain and fury at myself combine with an outpouring of love for my daughter and mate, exploding out of me in a brilliant ray of light. The electricity is building to a blinding crescendo that blocks out the rest of the world entirely.
I’m rising then, the same sort of power I managed to channel in the bathroom propelling me upward, carrying me out of the water and throwing me onto the cold tiles at the side of the pool. Immediately water spews from my lungs, as I cough and retch, bringing up everything in my stomach and moaning pitifully.
“Selene!” Odette exclaims, ‘Thank the Goddess, I’d almost reached you and then–”
“Selene!” Bastien’s roar blocks out his mother’s next words, and before I know it he’s there, bundling me into his lap, crying and kissing every inch of skin he can reach. “You scared the shit out of me.” He growls.
Bastien is holding me so tightly I can’t breathe, but I don’t mind. I’m so relieved to be alive and in his arms that I’d let him strangle me unconscious. Tears pour from my eyes as he rocks me in his arms, his lips moving frantically against my ear. “What the hell happened, how did you end up in the pool?”
He pulls back to look me over, “Are you alright, are you hurt…” My mate’s silver eyes widen as he finally realizes I’m in a swimsuit, “what are you wearing?”
Woops.
