Chapter 185: _Tired Of Hiding

Words : 1644 Updated : Oct 6th, 2025

Chapter 185: _Tired Of Hiding Odessa’s POV ***** Everything came crumbling down so fast, it was still so hard to believe it. As soon as Aunt Althea announced that I was pregnant—which was mind-boggling information, if I may add—something seemed to snap inside Celine. I could sense it, before I even awakened my magic and sometime before the South American Alpha king’s welcoming ball back then. There was something twisted inside her, which is saying a lot because the bitch was already a nut case to begin with. When she drew out a dagger and stabbed Kaelos in his chest, I felt something break inside me. The mate bond pulsed, sharing some of his pain with me. Sharing his emotions. His shock. His anger. The betrayal. All of it was raw as Gamma Zane barged into the throne room with several pack soldiers, revealing that it was all a planned coup. However, when Kaelos transformed into his wolf form, a beast that I had encountered only once back in the Blood Oak woods, I knew then that it was going to be a heated battle. Me and aunt Althea weaved spells side by side against the enemies while Marcellus, Elder Davina, and Layla used more mundane means. At the end of it all, we won. But alas, Kaelos ended up getting stabbed yet again, this time on the back by his uncle when he transformed back to his human form. "Please, help him..." I croaked to my aunt Althea and Elder Davina as I knelt on the ground beside him, cradling his body close to myself. The two older women glanced at themselves as pack medics rushed into the throne room while Marcellus headed out to search for Celine who escaped. Gamma Zane’s severed head lay only a few meters beside me but I didn’t care about that. The throne room around me was left in ruins and blood after Kaelos unleashed his beast on the traitors, but I didn’t care about any of that. All I could worry myself about was him. "Step aside, child." My aunt muttered as she squatted beside Kaelos, placing a reassuring hand on my shoulder. But I shook my head, refusing to let him go as tears welled up in my eyes. I didn’t want to step away from him for even one second. "I... I can feel the mate bond flickering." I mumbled, sniffling hard and staring at Elder Davina. "He’s dying. He’s... He’s slipping away and I—" "Wait..." Althea brought her hand to my face, forcing me to look at her. Her eyes glinted with surprise as she asked. "Mate bond? What are you... What are you talking about?" Shit. ’Calm down, Odessa.’ Sirena said in my head, sounding a little panicked. ’Kaelos isn’t going to die. You just—’ ’You don’t know that!’ I responded mentally, subconsciously holding Kaelos even tighter as a few pack doctors huddled around his body, barking distant words and bringing out equipment. ’I’ve grown tired of hiding.’ I continued mentally, drawing in a deep breath. ’I’m carrying his child. What’s the point of keeping the mate bond hidden from others? The continent already knows I’m a hybrid anyway.’ There was silence in my head. Sirena didn’t say anything or try arguing. She knew I was right. She could feel my pain. Elder Davina stared at me with pity in her eyes, her hand tightening on her staff. Layla stood behind her, her hands in front of her mouth as she stared at Kaelos’ unconscious form. As for Althea, she kept staring at me with curiosity as the medics were preparing to carry Kaelos and place him on a stretcher. "Kaelos is my mate." I blurted out before I could think much about it, using my right hand to wipe off the tears falling down my face. "Yes, aunt. You heard that right. I’m a hybrid with a wolf side and I’m mated to the Alpha King of the North American packs." My aunt blinked, her lips parting with shock. The pack soldiers who surrounded Kaelos also paused, staring at me with confusion as if I were crazy. "You’re..." Layla mumbled from behind Elder Davina just then. "You’re... You’re being for real. It all makes sense now. Your closeness. The tension. His hesitation in letting you go. The way he rants about you during his spare time." I didn’t know if I should find those words comforting. I brought my gaze back to Kaelos, staring at his face. A tear fell on his face from my eyes, as I sniffed back. "He’s fighting to stay alive..." I mumbled. "But at the same time, it feels like his consciousness has been... Pulled. Into something or somewhere beyond reach." "Take him to my residence." Elder Davina suddenly blurted, gesturing at the pack doctors and giving me a reassuring nod. "He was stabbed twice with wolfsbane-coated silver blades. The first strike probably went close to his heart." As she said all this, the pack doctors lifted Kaelos off the ground and onto the stretcher, and I let them, reluctant to withdraw my hands from his body. I clenched my fists as I got on my feet, staring at him for a little while before I brought my gaze to Althea. She was still kneeling on the ground, her eyes blinking speechlessly. She was probably still trying to process the revelation about the mate bond. But I had one more thing to tell her. "I want to step into Kaelos’ mind," I muttered, watching as Althea raised her head to stare at me. "I’ll use the mate bond connection and also my magic. But... But I’ll need your help." She hesitated, glancing back at Elder Davina and Layla at first before she scanned her gaze around with a distant look in her eyes. I bit my bottom lip, waiting patiently for her. I needed this to reach out to Kaelos and pull his consciousness out from wherever it was. After what felt like an eternity, my Aunt Althea finally fixed her gaze on me and nodded slowly. "Very well. I’ll help." . . The moment Elder Davina gave the order, the pack doctors moved quickly and efficiently, lifting Kaelos’ unconscious body onto a reinforced stretcher. His blood still clung to his bare chest, glistening dark red against the silvery sheen of the moonlight flooding into the ruined throne room. I walked beside them in silence, refusing to let Kaelos out of my sight. The weight of the mate bond pressed heavily on my chest. I could feel him, fading... slipping... not in pain exactly, but somewhere distant. Elder Davina led the way, her long cloak dragging across the blood-smeared marble floor. When we got to her residence, Davina gestured for the medics to place Kaelos’ body on a low, cushioned slab in the center of a dim chamber that smelled of herbs and smoke. "Lay him down here," She instructed softly. "No one enters unless I call for you." The doctors obeyed without question and retreated, leaving me, Elder Davina, Layla, and Aunt Althea alone with Kaelos. He looked so pale. His chest barely moved. If it weren’t for the flickering pulse I could sense through the mate bond, I would have believed he was already gone. I stood frozen at his side until Althea took my hand and gently pulled me back. "You cannot help him like this," She whispered. "We need to go deeper." I nodded without saying anything. Althea stepped toward a large cabinet and pulled out a dark velvet pouch. She walked to the foot of the slab and poured a silver-white dust in a perfect circle around the platform where Kaelos lay. As the powder fell, it shimmered, almost alive with latent energy. "Sit," She instructed me. I took my place beside Kaelos, placing my right hand over his heart. Althea knelt in front of me, her fingers already weaving a complex series of signs in the air. "The connection you share through the mate bond is your anchor. Your blood calls to his. But if his consciousness has been pulled too far... you’ll need a thread to guide you home. That’s what I’m creating." The sigils glowed as they floated above us in the air, pulsing gently like stars in a foggy sky. "Focus on him," She whispered, closing her eyes. "Focus on what you feel. Who he is to you." I inhaled slowly, closing my eyes. The bond responded immediately... like a thread tugging at my soul. I followed it, breathing deep until the room and the sounds around me faded. Althea’s voice drifted into the darkness behind my eyelids. "Now... dive." I didn’t fall. I was pulled. Yanked inward so fast I couldn’t scream. The air around me turned cold and silent. My feet landed on... nothing. I stood suspended in an endless void, black and silent. No sound. No shape. Just darkness. "Kaelos?" I whispered. My voice didn’t echo. For a moment, I feared I had gone too far... that I would be trapped here with nothing but my heartbeat pounding in my ears. But then, the mate bond pulsed inside me, stronger this time. I gripped it with my mind, like a rope in the dark. Then a wind stirred. The void cracked open and reformed around me, reshaping into something breathtaking. The sky unfurled into a star-speckled night, vast and clear. A silver moon, larger than real life, hung above, casting its glow over a calm, endless ocean. Waves lapped gently at the shore. The air smelled of salt and something sweeter. It was... peaceful. I stood barefoot on the beach, the sand soft between my toes. My hair blew gently in the wind. Somewhere in the distance, I thought I saw movement... a figure standing at the edge of the water. "Kaelos."

Chapter 185: _Tired Of Hiding

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