The Lost Pack (Paige) novel Chapter 185

** Paige’s POV **

The moment the words leave my mouth, I think I know what lam, the world stops.

The air in the clinic feels like it freezes around me. Sound disappears, and even the lamplight seems to dim, as if the room itself is holding its breath.

Callen’s eyes widen, pupils blown so large that it’s difficult to tell they’re blue. He looks torn between awe and complete, unfiltered terror. Parker’s hand is still clamped on his shoulder, but he’s gone as still as a statue beside him.

Jake and Poppy stand near the door, both stunned into silence, both looking at me like I’ve grown a second head.

The wolves don’t move at all. All nine of them are bowed so low that their heads touch the floor, their bodies glowing with that faint silver-gold shimmer like they are flickering between two realities. They’re waiting. Every heartbeat of theirs syncs to mine. Every breath of theirs follows the rise and fall of my chest.

They feel tethered to me. They feel… mine. And something inside me, something that has always been there, curled deep in the shadows beneath my ribs, finally stretches awake.

The heat inside me spreads, pooling low in my stomachbefore rushing up my spine, a slow molten crawl that leaves sparks dancing along my nerve endings. It doesn’t hurt. It feels like remembering something I forgot I’d lost.

Callen takes a shaky breath. “Paige… freckles, what do you mean you know what you are?”

I swallow.

How do I explain something I don’t fully understand?

Something that isn’t a thought, not a memory, but a bone-deep truth?

“I don’t have all the answers yet,” I say softly, but something inside me recognises them. Not their faces or their wolves, something deeper.”

Poppy steps forward cautiously. “Deeper how?”

I look down at my hands.

The glow has softened, but it’s still there. Like gold dust shimmering beneath my skin.

“When they look at me,” I whisper, “it’s like… like they see something they were waiting for.”

The nearest wolf whines, and something tugs inside me again, that invisible thread pulling tighter.

“They’re mine; I’m responsible for them. I’m supposed to help them,” I continue, my voice barely audible. “I don’t know how I know, but I do.”

Jake’s voice shakes. “Paige… what exactly do you think you are?”

My mouth opens, but the answer doesn’t come as words.

It comes as a feeling. A rising pressure in my chest. A warm rush that surges outward from my heart. A connection snapping taut between me and the wolves like lightning finding its target.

I gasp, grabbing my chest.

Callen lunges forward instantly. “Paige!”

“No…wait…” I choke, stumbling but not falling.

The moment my fingers press to my stomach, I feel it.

A second heartbeat. Not literally, but energetically. A thrum. A pulse of power. Like another version of me, older and stronger. It echoes inside me.

Images flicker behind my eyes. Flashes of a lone figure standing beneath a split sky with sunlight and moonlight pouring down at once. Wolves kneeling in a circle around her. A burst of gold and silver fire blooms from her hands, burning away anything corrupt, erasing anything negative, purifying them, healing them not just of physical wounds, but emotional ones too, lighting the wolves from the inside, until they’re brand new.

As the light from her palms fades, I realise she isn’t standing alone, because there, watching from the side, are four tall figures. They’re too shadowed to make out theirfeatures, but one thing is unmistakable… they each have a faint glowing mark over their chests, the same mark! gave Parker.

A soft, feminine voice whispers across my mind as the figure raises her hands.

“Rise, my Twiceborn.”

The wolves surrounding her rise, throwing their heads back before howling in unison.

I gasp again, and the vision shatters.

I stumble and Parker catches me before I hit the floor, arms strong and warm around my waist.

“Paige, talk to us!”

Callen is immediately in front of me, gripping my face with both hands. “What did you see? What happened?”

I can’t speak for a moment. The room is still spinning, and the tether is pulling harder. The wolves are staring at me with glowing eyes, like they’ve seen this before, like they expected it.

Finally, I manage to whisper.

“Rise, my Twiceborn.”

Just like my vision, the wolves rise, and the whole cabin seems to shake as they let out a howl that sends a shiver down my spine. Goosebumps bloom on my skin, and my hands tremble.As soon as the wolf song fades, I feel as though a huge weight has been lifted from me, and | let out a breath before turning to face my mates.

“I don’t have a name, but I just know. I think… ‘m something that shouldn’t exist,” I admit.

Callen swears. “Fantastic. I love that for us.”

Jake clears his throat shakily. “Paige, the visions could be a trauma response or magical memory bleed-through.

You need to breathe.”

“I am breathing,” I whisper, even though the air feels too thick.

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