Chapter 74: Always a Substitute

(CORRINE)

I slam forward against the door as the claws dig into my chest, right over my heart.

“You should have let him kill me,” Ravenna’s voice whispers in my ear gleefully. “I’m going to kill you first and then that bastard child of yours. And I’m going to make him suffer the most.”

She moves her fingers around, and I let out a gasping scream, my body stiff with agony.

“Did you think that if you showed me mercy, it would change anything?” she hisses, her breath hot against my ear. “You are and always will be a slave, Corrine. It doesn’t matter whose fated mate you are. You are a slave, and you are my substitute. You were never good enough to have my face, and tonight I’m going to cut it right off of you.”

She retracts her claws and forces me to turn around. I try to fight back, but my injury is too grievous. I can barely move. She plunges her hand into my stomach, and I make a choking sound, blood pouring from my mouth.

“I did everything to seduce that filthy barbarian. He should’ve considered himself lucky that I was even giving him a fraction of my time.

How dare he treat me so callously? Bella was a smart one. She knew your worth. She found me. My father had arranged everything. The Silver Ring Organization was going to protect me.”

Silver Ring Organization? I think dimly. What is she saying?

“But I had to come back. Of course I had to!” She sneers. “Let you be queen of the North? You’re not worthy of being a queen. Did you think you could raise your status? Did you think you could be better than me? In a higher position than me? You, who would lick my shoes if I told you to?”

She laughs angrily before grabbing my head and slamming it against the door. “You ungrateful, greedy, little bitch. How dare you pretend to be me? You were supposed to die in my palace, not become that barbarian’s mate.”

I try to summon my wolf, but I can’t feel it. It’s like our link has severed. I feel so weak!

“Once I’m done with you, I’m going to destroy all the research you’ve been doing, and then I’m going to kill that spawn of yours!”

Her words barely register with me. The only thing I comprehend is that she wants to hurt my child. It’s difficult even to draw a breath, but I don’t care. I’m not going to let her hurt Finn.

My body feels sluggish, as if she’s drugged me with something.

But most of the impact is on my wolf. I can’t feel it anymore. I force the panic aside and lift my knee to hit her in the crotch. I’m unable to use much force, but the surprise of the attack has her stumbling backward, forcing the withdrawal of her hand from my stomach.

Blood gushes out. I wrap my arms around my waist and begin running down the corridor. More like stumbling. My legs are barely able to hold my weight. Without my wolf, I can’t feel the mating bond, and it is sending me spiraling. My wounds are fatal, and I know it.

“You bitch!” Ravenna catches up to me and grabs me by my hair, pulling me back and throwing me to the ground.

I may not be able to shift, but I can still use my claws. I slash her on the arm, and she jumps away, crying out in pain.

Where is everybody in this palace?! Where are the guards?!

With no other way out, I hobble back to the lab and quickly press my hand on the fingerprint scanner. Ravenna is already rushing toward me. I know the door won’t close in time. I stumble in as soon as it opens and grab the closest thing to me, smashing it against her head as she enters. She goes down like a ton of bricks, and I search for the lights.

My hand hits the switch, and when light floods the lab, I look around in a dazed manner.

It’s a wreck.

It looks like a tornado tore through this place, destroying every single thing inside. All the screens and equipment that Maya purchased are broken. All the vials and the cooler where they were stored have been shattered.

What is happening? How did Ravenna escape? Who trashed this place?

I need to call for help. I can feel the life seeping out of me. Without my wolf, I can’t seem to heal at my usual pace. I’m not going to make it, I realize.

Tears burn my eyes. I wanted to see Finn grow up. I wanted him to be loved. Locke and I were finally happy. We were going to be a family. I wanted my home to be overrun by children.

As I grab the edge of the marble counter and try to look for something to raise the alarm with, I see a still figure on the ground. A few more steps, and I recognize Jerry lying there, face-down in a pool of his own blood.

“No,” I moan, falling by his side. I try to shake him, but I’m too weak.

His body is growing cold. “Jerry,” I whisper hoarsely.

I can’t get words out properly. My own body is starting to shut down. The door is open. The smell of blood should alert somebody.

A hand wraps around my ankle, and I’m being dragged toward Ravenna. My head lifts weakly, and I see her crawling toward me, a deranged look on her face.

“You think you can get away from me?” She spits at me. “I have to kill you. You have become a thorn in the organization’s path. And you have become far too arrogant for me to let you live. You forgot your place, Corrine! It was always beneath me! You are not—you can never be better than me!”

She’s clutching a shard of broken glass, and she sinks it into my calf, dragging it down. I let out a shriek of pain, and she laughs.

“Scream all you want! Nobody is coming to save you. Your mate is gone. That barbaric beast is long dead. Just like his parents. The Eastern Kingdom has finally managed to wipe out the entire Northern royal family. Those arrogant beasts!”

I kick her in the face, and she falls to the side, blood spurting from her nose.

“You’re lying!” I shout at her, blood spilling from my mouth. “Locke is not dead!”

“He is!” Ravenna laughs before her next attack. She leaps at me as I grab a scalpel from the floor next to me. I stab it in the air, getting her straight in her right eye.

Her scream of agony is satisfying. I scramble away with what little strength I have left.

I have to get to Finn! Surely, Locke is okay! He has to be! He’s the strongest shifter I know! He’s not going to die easily. He’s alive.

I have to believe that.

“I’m going to kill you!” Ravenna’s enraged scream makes me look back at her, and she’s holding the same knife I just stabbed her with. She lifts it over her head, her eye bleeding, the scalpel aimed at my heart.

I slump to the ground. That’s it. I don’t have any energy left.

She’s really going to kill me, I think dazedly, my vision blurring.

As she brings down the scalpel, a foot comes out of nowhere and kicks her in the chest, sending her flying into the air. She crashes against the cabinets at the other end of the room.

I try to look up, and I feel myself being gathered in somebody’s arms.

The scent is familiar, but my eyes are too hazy to see.

Has help arrived?

“S–Save Locke. Help him.”

With that, my body goes limp. Darkness consumes me, the last bit of my strength finally fading.

Someone’s calling my name, but it’s too late. My eyes close.

I draw my last breath, dimly hearing the death rattle in my lungs.

***

There is a strange warmth by my side. Almost like something warm and furry is curled up on my hand.

I want to pet it, but I have no energy. Then I feel an odd, wet sensation, as if a small tongue is licking my hand. My fingers twitch.

I hear a cry in the distance, and then the heat is gone. I fade away once again, missing the warmth.

***

Someone is stroking my hair.

Soft words are being spoken to me. I want to open my eyes, but my body feels too heavy.

I can feel the love in the voice, a woman’s voice. I stir once again.

The voice vanishes, and my heart quivers at the loss.

***

I’m floating in the dark, empty, and alone.

It feels like an eternity. I have no sense of self. I just exist in this place, my thoughts and hopes and dreams empty.

There’s a pulse, one of warmth. I must have imagined it.

But there it is again, a desperate call, a yearning.

In the darkness, I see a thread. It’s dull, but it looks like it’s trying to glow.

Like a switch.

On and off.

It exudes warmth.

It’s glowing, the light surrounding it growing stronger. I want to touch it.

***

Hesitantly, I wrap my hand around it. A wolf is howling in misery.

Love, pain, yearning. I pull my hand away.

They’re not my emotions. I have no emotions. I barely exist.

Unable to help myself, I touch the thread again, wanting to feel those emotions that are not mine. This time, I find it difficult to let it go. The thread doesn’t burn my hand; it permeates my palm with a golden warmth that begins to spread all over my body. It feels like my entire existence is being filled with light.

It’s too much.

I have to let the thread go.

But something isn’t letting me.

***

I want this to stop. It’s too much.

“Corrine.”

I know that name. It’s my name. The sound of a child crying.

“Mom.”

The crying makes me feel uneasy. I don’t like it.

I’ve become distracted by the sounds. When I lower my gaze to the thread, it has begun to wrap around me.

“Corrine.”

The name keeps echoing in my ear, as if somebody were calling me. It’s getting harder to resist.

“Corrine, wake up. It’s time.”

The pulse that passes through me this time is incredibly strong, and I feel myself jerk forward, dragged toward something, out of the darkness.

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