Chapter 114

Simon's POV The blast still rang in my head. Smoke. Screams. The smell of blood. That was the last thing I remembered before everything tilted sideways. When the dust cleared, she was gone. Aisha. The one person I could never lose had vanished from the hospital bed where she had been lying just moments earlier, unconscious in my arms. And the only thing left behind was the echo of her scent, wild, moonlight, and gone. I didn't remember how long I stayed there, standing among the shattered windows and the smell of burning medicine, my hands bleeding where glass had cut deep into the skin. All I knew was that I couldn't feel her presence anymore. Not her heartbeat. Not her warmth. Not that unspoken tether that always hummed quietly between us. It had been severed. I thought losing my parents had taught me pain. I thought years of leading a pack through bloody wars had hardened me. But the hollowness in my chest when I realized Aisha wasn't there, that was something else and primal. Emma