Mated To My Mate's Worst Enemy (ARIA) novel Chapter 253

Chapter 253

Chapter 253

IVORY

The creatures poured into the chamber like a wave of nightmare made flesh. Dozens of them. Maybe more than that-I stopped counting at thirty because the specific number didn’t matter when “overwhelming force” covered the basic.

“We passed the test!” Aria shouted, her voice breaking with pain and desperation. Blood was still seeping from her wounds despite my hasty treatment to stop her from bleeding out, her body trembling from shock and exhaustion.

“The guardian accepted my victory! The trial is complete!”

The speaking creature emerged from the mass, looking amused which was supposed to be impossible, but maybe being sentient made it possible.

“Trial is complete,” it agreed, its ruined voice echoing off the chamber walls. “You proved worthy. You earned passage.”

“Then why-” Aria started.

“But trial does not forbid hunting,” the creature interrupted, its mouth spreading into something that was definitely not a smile despite resembling one from the way it widened the ends of the mouth.

“Does not protect after passage earned. You are in our territory. Fair prey now. No rules protect you.”

The logic was infuriating and completely consistent with how the Ghost Council designed their trials. Complete the objective, earn your passage, but survival after that point was your own problem. They’d tested us and we’d passed, but that didn’t mean they’d help us escape the consequences of being in their territory.

I did a lot of quick thinking while the creatures continued running towards us, surrounding us, cutting off routes to both the entrance we’d used and the glowing exit tunnel that marked our way forward.

Options: We couldn’t fight this many. Even healthy and fully armed, taking on thirty-plus enhanced creatures in close quarters was suicide.

Running was equally impossible-they were faster than us, knew the terrain better, and we

1/5

were both too injured to maintain the speed we’d need to escape.

Which left exactly one option. The one I’d been hoping to avoid. The one that came with consequences I couldn’t fully predict but knew would be severe,

I reached into my medical pack with my good hand, finding the vial I’d been carrying since the hunt began. This was something that I had worked on, what I had given the guards to save Aria and Kael when they were being attacked by Sera people, but this was a raw version of it, unfiltered and unprocessed. I had given them the ned product, this was essentially the raw materials before being refined.

This was something that I had never given anyone, because of the side effects were too unpredictable.

But basically, what the pill did was grant us complete healing compound. Experimental formula that worked by flooding the body with accelerated regeneration, forcing every injury to repair quickly. It would fix broken bones, seal wounds, restore blood volume, eliminate infections-everything, all at once, in a matter of seconds.

But it came at tremendous cost. Using it meant you’d be vulnerable for weeks afterward, maybe months. Your ability to heal would be compromised.

In summary this was a last resort medication. Something that saved your life now but might kill

you

later through the strain it put on your system.

I pulled out the vial, my hands steady despite the certainty that this was going to hurt worse than any of my current injuries. The compound was stored in pill form-two doses per vial. I’d made it that way deliberately, thinking that if I ever needed one dose I’d probably need two.

“Trust me,” I said to Aria, forcing one pill into her mouth before she could protest or ask questions we didn’t have time to answer. Then I took the second one myself, feeling it dissolve instantly on my tongue, the taste metallic and wrong in ways that made my body want to reject it.

“What did you—” Aria started.

“Healing compound,” I said quickly, grabbing her arm to keep her upright as the creatures closed within twenty feet of us. “Experimental. It’s going to hurt worse than your injuries do right now but it will fix everything. Just hold on and try not to scream too loudly because that will attract more attention than we need.”

The creatures were at fifteen feet when the compound activated.

Pain exploded through my body with intensity that drove me to my knees. This pain was literally setting everything on fire, like I had been bathed by acid, everywhere, all at once. My

2/5

red arm felt like it was being torn apart from the inside as bone and muscle and tendon nerated at accelerated speed.

The various cuts and bruises accumulated over the trials blazed with heat that suggested they were being cauterized by fire, stopping the blood seeping from it and then healing it.

was screaming. Actually screaming, her voice raw and desperate as her body.

me violent regeneration. I wanted to tell her it would be over soon, wanted to t I couldn’t speak through my own agony.

s shift and realign, bones that had developed pains and minor dislocations from

tress snapping back into perfect position.

Felt the wolf bite on my arm seal from the inside out, tissue regenerating layer by layer until there was nothing but smooth skin where gaping wounds had been.

Thirty seconds. The compound took thirty seconds to complete its work. Thirty seconds of the worst pain I’d ever experienced, worse than any injury but healed any did not leave anything out.

Just as it started, it was over.

I stood, testing my body, finding everything functional. More than functional-I felt better than I had in days. The exhaustion was gone, replaced by energy that felt almost euphoric.

My arm moved without pain. My breathing was clear and easy. Even my thoughts seemed sharper, faster, like the compound had done something to my brain as well.

Aria stood beside me, her eyes wide with shock as she touched her abdomen where the stab wound had been.

The skin was smooth, unmarked, showing no evidence of the injury that had nearly killed her twice. Her chest wounds were gone. Her broken ribs repaired.

We were healed. Completely, perfectly healed.

And the creatures had reached us.

The first one lunged and my hand shot out instinctively to block, expecting to grapple or redirect, preparing for the impact of claws against flesh-

Golden light erupted from my palm.

Not metaphorically. Not as enhancement to my natural abilities. Actual golden light, brilliant and solid, manifesting as a shield between me and the creature. The thing hit the barrier and

315

was thrown backward with force that sent it tumbling into three others behind it.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify