Chapter 33

"Aiden, you have to wake up!"

Her voice filtered through the fog like a dim light, guiding him through the darkness that was surrounding him.

"Aiden, please. Wake the fuck up!"

He could hear the desperation in her voice but his world was thick and murky, barely letting her light through. The more he tried to make his way to the distant light, the further he could feel himself drifting into the abyss of darkness that threatened to engulf him forever.

"Aiden, please, come to me. Open your eyes. I need you."

I'm trying, he said, or at least, he thought he did. His body refused to cooperate with what he wanted it to do. He wanted to run to her but he had no control over his feet, or anything else, for that matter.

"Aiden…"

She was crying and it filled him with need. He had to find a way to her. He had to…

"What have they done to you?"

What did they do to me? He couldn't remember anything after the woods. The Alpha had ordered him to be taken to the cabin and then someone had dressed his leg and…

"You bastards! He's bleeding out! What have you done to him?"

He heard a vague bang and a creaking sound, then thudding but he couldn't place the sounds. Something at the back of his mind told him they were important but the haze, it was too much.

"Look at you, all concerned over your little pet. He will be fine once we take that bandage off. Wolfsbane, you see. Works like poison while it's in contact with a wound and stops the regeneration until it's removed. Can't be having him trying to shift, can we?"

"Take it off! He'll bleed to death!"

He felt something tug at his leg and a searing pain shot through him, momentarily flinging his eyes open. That moment was all he needed. He saw Charlie tied to a chair in the opposite corner of the room. Her face was tear-stained and swollen as she looked at him. A lanky man was leaning over his leg, tightening a bandage while watching Charlie. Aiden's eyes closed again as the fog tried to pull him back under its spell but he couldn't give in.

"See, all fixed. That pressure will help. Don't you worry. You got your own shit to worry about instead. I hear someone is coming for you soon and by the sound of it, he's very eager to see you."

Aiden heard laughter at the same time as the thudding. Forcing his eyes open, he saw a door closing and realised the thudding had been the lanky man's footsteps as he entered and left the room.

"Aiden?"

He opened his mouth to speak but no words passed his lips. Wetting his lips, he tried again, "Sorry… tried…"

"I know. I'm sorry too. listen to me. You need to shift. You have to. They're going to kill you."

Aiden nodded. He knew what they were planning but it didn't matter. Nothing mattered if Charlie was handed over to Rafael.

"Aiden, it's the only way you'll get that bandage off your leg…"

"Can't… Pain…"

"I know, baby, but if you don't shift, we're both fucked. You need to get that bandage off and that wolfsbane or whatever it is, out of that would, somehow. Shifting is the only way I can think of."

Aiden shook his head. He couldn't even sense his wolf, let alone shift to him, besides, his shifts before had been through anger. He wasn't even sure he could shift for the sake of it like he did with human forms.

"Faery…"

"Sarah? Don't tell me she's here, too? She's not, is she? She's safe? Please Aiden, is she safe?"

Aiden nodded to Charlie as he pictured the form of the rotund gentleman in the club. He remembered every detail of the face he had seen in the bathroom mirror, before killing his mark. He pictured his sausage sized fingers fumbling at his zipper, the extra rolls of stomach that got in his way when pretending to urinate. He saw the size of the calves that shuffled his feet as he walked the streets that took him to his car.

Intense pain shot through him, threatening to empty his stomach as the bandage tightened around his leg. He heard Charlie gasp in shock and he forced his eyes to see what was wrong. Her face was drained of colour as she looked at him wide-eyed.

"What the hell are you?"

"Later…" He could barely breathe through the burning in his leg, let alone speak.

He looked down and saw his porky leg, bulging against the bandage that looked thinner than it had before. He tried to reach forward, stretching his sausage-shaped fingers as he gritted his teeth against the pain. Suddenly, the pain began to ease a little and he knew he had lost his shift.

"It worked! It's looser. You did it."

Nausea rising in his throat and not throwing up, was all that he could think about as he laid on the floor trying to catch his breath. He felt exhausted, both mentally and physically, and it was a struggle to keep his eyes from closing.

"Stay with me, baby. You need to wiggle it off. You have to sit."

He shook his head. He couldn't. It wasn't possible. The shift had taken every bit of energy that he had left.

"Baby, you have to. Please."

He forced his eyes open at the pain and desperation in her voice. Pulling in a deep inhale, he groaned as he forced himself to his side.

"That's it. One big push and you're up. Don't you shake that head at me. What happened to the hitman for the mafia? I guess you really are a tooth faery after all."

"Uck off." He screwed his face as he pushed himself up on his arm, then panted out his breath.

"There he is. I kind of like the tooth faery, though."

Aiden forced a smile as he looked at his leg. He kind of liked the faery side, too, but he wouldn't admit it. Tenderly, he reached his fingers down to the bandage and tried to wiggle it down. There was a piece of cloth being held into the wound and as he pulled it out, he groaned in agony.

Almost instantly, the fog inside his head began to lift but the pain and nausea were too much for him to bear and he hit the floor with a thud.