34. Zeke

I’m spread-eagled down on the ground waiting for the blackness of death to claim me. You don’t survive being impaled by a silver machete. You just don’t. Rush is of no use to me either after the rejection. I’m vaguely aware of him wailing and bawling in the darkest recesses of my mind as the rejection takes effect.

Somehow, Finn is pulling me to my feet, his face white, grey eyes shocked. Entirely naked and covered in gaping claw marks he has taken a beating but his face is fixed on my ribcage where I should be gushing pints of blood.

Lifting me up like a toddler, unsteady on my feet he shouted with the full force of his giant chest. “What the hell is this? What the fuck is happening right now!”

“I don’t know…what the, where is Thalia?”

Rush was absent in my mind, only a keening, miserable void echoing through to my bones. The pain of rejecting a mate, it’s as brutal as the rumours suggested. I’m dizzy, sick and like the worst flu, every joint wants to implode.

I hope Thalia is i