“Can she come back?””When a soul has completely left, no.”I raise the gun, my finger on the trigger. I couldn’t see anything but her. The voices around me were echoes.Images of how we met replay in my head. How I saw her from the gates. How I followed her into the forest and watched her talk to herself, though that turned out to be her Wolf. The first time I kissed her. How her skin was so soft under my fingers. The way she would snore yet insist she didn’t. She had opened herself to me and now, I could feel her slipping.My lungs grow tight until I can barely breathe. She is supposed to be my mate for life, but she had lost herself in her grief. She had been forced out. She had given up on us.I drop the gun and back out of the room. She was dead. She was gone. It wasn’t her.Neah shouts something about not letting Raven out of their sight. She appears in the hallway seconds later. “You shot her.””It’s not her.” I look up into my Alpha’s blue eyes. Somehow, through it all, she had kept a level of calmness. She had seen something that we hadn’t. “What do you think we should do?””Abraxas said she was gone. Do you feel it?”I nod. I had never had a need to curl up in a ball and hide from the word. I always faced it head on. But losing a mate was like nothing I had ever felt. It is painful. It is full of sorrow. And everything no longer feels straight forward. “She gave up.” I slam my fist against the wall. “She fucking gave up after everything!”Neah doesn’t say anything. She lets me hit the wall over and over without so much as a flinch.When I stop, my busted up knuckles are already healing which just irritates me more. I turn to face Neah. “Why haven’t you said anything?””I’m not feeling what you are feeling.””Why would he do this to his own sister?” I ask, trying to understand even a little of what has happened.”You won’t like my answer and you already know what I’m going to say.””Jenson is a self centred bastard?””Among many other things. It’s like Dane said, he couldn’t ever cope with not getting what he wanted. He always had some kind of hissy fit. I thought that he might change, but that was a long time ago. And if anything, he is worse.” “How are you so calm?””Give me your hand.”She takes my hand and presses it on her chest. Dane would have a fucking field day if he saw what was happening.”The exterior doesn’t always match the interior.” It was a phrase I had used. A way to tell her that not everything is exactly what you see. And now she was using the same phrase on me for Raven.I feel her heart beating below my hand, but it’s doing more than just beating, Neah’s heart is practically humming, yet to look at her, you would think there was nothing going on beneath the surface.”I feel Dane’s pain even though he will never admit it.” She sighs, “I feel the loss of a friend. I feel stuck between a rock and a hard place, when the decision that needs to be made will affect everyone. You are not capable of making this decision about Raven or… Jenson.” She frowns “Neither is Dane. It should be me.”She turns from me and faces the closed door where Raven’s voice could be heard, demanding to be let out of the room. “I am Dane’s Luna. I am the Lycan Alpha. It has to be me that puts an end to the suffering.””Do you think this was always his plan?””How could it be? He didn’t know until he heard Abraxas talking about souls. If he had been anyone else, he would be long dead. Raven kept him hanging on long enough so that he could force his way in. And we all fell for it except Dorothy.” sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ FindNøvᴇl.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.