Chapter 475
Her eyes flew open, and Rick and Shelly screamed. My mom and Toya grabbed Rick; Wendy wrapped her arms around Shelly’s waist to support her. Rick bellowed, “Abby!” His eyes were a mix of rage and desperation—desperate to save his pup. I felt the phantom kick from my own pup and knew I would have done the same. “Amy, you were supposed to save her,” his voice broke. “How could you do this? She trusted you.” Tears poured from his eyes. He forced himself closer. “We trusted you.” He bellowed again, eyes flashing. “Abby!” His pain was a bitter taste in my mouth.
I met his eyes. “You said you trusted me.”
That made him pause. “I did… I do. But you just killed—” His voice cracked as he looked at the growing pool of blood beneath her. “You killed my baby.” He dropped to his knees, and the sob that escaped his lips shattered my heart. “You killed my baby.”
Shelly hung limply in Wendy’s arms. I expected hatred, fury, but saw only a broken woman. Watching me plunge the knife shattered something deep within her, something so profound I doubted it could ever be repaired.
“Shelly?” I called, but she was gone. I needed her to snap out of it, to feel. I grabbed the cup that had held the water and went to her, taking her face in my hands. “Shelly, I need you to look at me.” There was no response.
“Girl, you know you need to do it. You’re running out of time.” My grandmother’s words were soft, yet strengthening.
I nodded, then pulled back and slapped Shelly across the face. Ternen and Alannah cried, staring at me as if I were a monster. And, in that moment, I felt like one. I looked at Wendy; she grimaced but nodded. I pulled the two girls to the side of the table, next to a crying Carly.
“Look at your daughter, Shelly.” I grabbed her face, forcing her to look at Abby. She still didn’t react.
Rick fought, tears streaming, but his need to protect his wife overpowered him. My mom and Toya positioned themselves in front of him. “Trust her.”
“She killed my pup and is torturing my mate, and you’re telling me to trust her?!” Rick screamed, a gut-wrenching sound that made Shelly twitch.
“You have to make her feel it,” my grandmother’s voice was soft. “She’s retreated into herself, but she needs to see it, to feel it.”
I turned to Nix, who nodded. “Get on.” I jumped onto her back, and she ran through the forest. After a few minutes, the sunlit trees shifted into darkness.
“Can you see anything?” I dug my fingers deeper into her fur.
“No. But that’s fine; I don’t need to see. I can scent the trees and follow the crying,” Nix sounded confident.
“What crying?” I couldn’t hear anything.
“Shelly’s.” Nix sounded sad but determined. We ran in the darkness for a few more minutes, but I couldn’t shake the dread spreading through me. If we couldn’t get her to snap out of this, we were doomed. And I had just murdered a child in front of her parents.
There, in the distance, was a clearing. Moonlight illuminated a huddled form, and I could hear the faint sobs of a shattered heart. The knife in my own heart twisted; I was the cause of this, but I couldn’t stop. We walked into the clearing.
“Shelly,” I called, and a blonde wolf, clearly angry, popped up.
“You have no right to be here. Murderer,” she snapped. But we ran towards the pair.
“I have no right to be here? But you, human, are too weak to face your own daughter’s death?” I scoffed. Bitterness coated my tongue.
Shelly’s wolf snarled. “Did you come to gloat?”
“Yes.” I smiled, hopping off Nix. “Look at how pathetic she is.” Shelly looked up, and I nearly recoiled from the hatred in her eyes. “What? You don’t like that?” I raised my hands. “You can hate me all you want. But you’re the one who ran away from her daughter’s death. You retreated instead of fighting for her. And you call yourself a mother?” I scoffed. “I might be evil, but at least I cared enough to stay present when my pup died. You came here, you ran, leaving her to grow cold, alone.”
Shelly screamed, but I think my words finally hit her. And she was gone.
I hopped back on Nix, and we fled back to my body.