Caleb’s P.O.V
I stood there, watching as the reality of the situation sank into everyone’s expressions, each face frozen with a mix of horror and disbelief. The idea of a three-day-old corpse just showing up here, at our school of all places, seemed so utterly insane that I almost felt like I was trapped in some twisted nightmare.
And right in front of Aurora, no less. How the hell did this happen? Alpha Camden was the first to speak, breaking the stunned silence with a low, serious tone that carried the weight of authority and relief.
"It’s good no humans were around," he said, crossing his arms with a grim frown. "If anyone outside our circle had seen that... well, it would’ve been a much more difficult situation to contain."
Damien, still processing, looked between Alpha Camden and me, his expression bordering on outrage and confusion. "Are you sure this isn’t some kind of sick prank?" he asked, his eyes narrowing.
"Maybe someone’s messing with Aurora, bullying her, trying to scare her? It’s just... who would do this?"
I shook my head slowly, the heaviness of the whole situation pressing down on me. "Aurora quit school a while ago." I replied. "She’s been safe here ever since. Besides, for someone to go to these lengths—to find the corpse, or at least preserve it, bring it here, and dump it right in front of her—no, Damien. This isn’t just a prank. Whoever’s behind this, they’re way beyond any normal sense of 'messing around.' They’d have to be mentally insane."
Just then, the healer, who had been standing a little behind us, quietly cleared her throat, drawing our attention. Her face was pale, her brows knitted in something like confusion—or was it fear? She looked down at her hands, as if recalling the sight she’d just witnessed, and then back at us.
"I don’t know if I should mention this," she started, hesitating, "but... there was something else on the corpse. Something I saw that I can’t quite make sense of. It... it shouldn’t have been there."
Damien raised an eyebrow, crossing his arms impatiently. "What did you see, then?" he prompted. "Spit it out."
The healer’s gaze flicked to me, her lips pressing into a tight line as if trying to decide how much to say.
"There was a mark. Right at the centre of his chest. A symbol… I couldn’t recognize it, but it seems to be from old scrolls, something ancient. But that’s just…bizarre. The symbol seemed to be carved after the death of the corpse."
Alpha Camden’s expression darkened, and I felt my pulse quicken, a shiver creeping down my spine.
Someone didn’t only decide to play some sick prank, or whatever the hell this was…but they went as far as to mutilate a corpse? How sick can a person be to go this far?
"Lead me to the corpse," my father ordered the healer, his tone firm but laced with something else—apprehension, maybe. I glanced over at Damien, who caught my eye, his expression just as determined as mine. Father’s gaze shifted to us, brow furrowing slightly.
"You two can stay behind," he said, and I could tell he was trying to shield us, spare us from whatever lay ahead.
But Damien shook his head almost instantly, his voice steady. "We’re coming with you, Alpha," he insisted, his tone brooking no argument. I nodded in agreement, feeling a tight resolve settle in my gut.
"Yeah, we’re not staying behind. I need to know what happened to Aurora’s father so I can tell her, warn her beforehand."
Father held our stares for a moment, something unreadable flickering across his face, but he gave a resigned nod. Without another word, we followed him, the healer leading the way down the dim hallway.
The morgue was cold—almost unnaturally so. The smell of antiseptic hung thick in the air, doing little to mask the faint odor of death beneath it. I tried not to look directly at the body at first, focusing instead on the pristine, sterile surfaces around us. But when the healer lifted the sheet, there was no avoiding it. Aurora’s father lay there, his skin turned a sickly, ashen gray, almost like he’d been drained of life long before his death. He looked... dried out. Like a husk of who he once was.
And not once did I feel an ounce of pity for the disgusting man.
My father took a step closer, his gaze hard as he studied the corpse. "Lift the cloth," he instructed the healer, who pulled back the fabric to reveal the chest.
I sucked in a breath, my eyes narrowing as I saw the symbol carved deep into the man’s flesh. It wasn’t just a marking; it looked ritualistic, deliberate. Almost like a satanic symbol, but twisted somehow. Different. I’d never seen anything like it before, and judging by the look on Damien’s face, neither had he.
It was in the form of a circle, with thin lines joining the sides of a rectangle inside the circle. Vines crawled the sides and intertwined with the rectangle in a way a serpent twisted around its prey. The details were impeccable, and whoever did this to a corpse…was a sick motherfucker I hoped would rot in hell.
"What the hell is that?" Damien murmured, breaking the silence, his voice low but tense. Father didn’t answer right away, his eyes still fixed on the strange symbol. After a long pause, he finally spoke, his voice thoughtful but edged with tension.
"I’ll send it to a witch," he said, as if making a mental note to himself. "Get her to inspect it. We need to know what this means. This looks like some kind of spell, something beyond our knowledge."
The healer nodded, her expression solemn as she covered the body again. Alpha Camden turned to us, his face gravely. "Until then, we preserve the corpse." His gaze softened, just a fraction, as he continued.
"Aurora... she’ll have to see him eventually. But we’ll let her wake up first, let her decide how she wants to handle this."
Damien and I exchanged a look, an unspoken understanding passing between us. Whatever this was, it wasn’t over. Not by a long shot.
As we stepped out of the morgue, I couldn’t help but notice the silence between us. Alpha Camden, my father, walked beside me with a furrowed brow, the weight of everything settling heavily on him. I could feel his eyes flicker toward me, sensing the question before he even asked it. He finally stopped, turning to me.
"Caleb," he began, his tone low, almost hesitant. "Did you... did you feel anything when Aurora was being hurt?"
I shook my head, meeting his gaze. "No, Dad, I didn’t feel a thing." I paused, my own words almost strange to me.
"I mean, I know I should have, right? We’re supposed to be bound, but... there was nothing. Not a single spark. Not a pang, not even a flicker."
He frowned, studying me closely. "Not even when her heart stopped?" There was an intensity in his eyes, the need to understand, maybe even disbelief. "Did you feel like... the bond was gone?"
I nodded slowly, letting out a breath. "It was like everything just... vanished. For a few moments, I swear, it felt like the bond had been completely severed. I thought maybe she was dead, but then, just as quickly, it came back. It was like she’d been erased for a second, like she never existed, and then... everything was back to normal, as if nothing had happened."
I pressed a hand to my chest, feeling the bond pulsating between us now, flickering with life. Even the thought of the time when I had suddenly stopped feeling it made my heart thunder inside my chest.
He didn’t say anything right away, and I could feel him processing it, trying to make sense of something that couldn’t be explained.
"A bond like that doesn’t just disappear, Caleb," he muttered, almost to himself. "Not unless..."
"Unless what?" I pressed, feeling a sudden frustration clawing at me. "Unless there’s something wrong with me? Or with the bond itself? Because I don’t understand how that could happen. I mean, isn’t the bond supposed to... connect us, no matter what?" I couldn’t shake the guilt gnawing at me. I should’ve felt something. Anything.
"Maybe the bond has been weakened somehow," he said, his tone softer now. "Or maybe... maybe there’s more going on here than we realize. But for now, Caleb, I need you to focus. If she pulls through, we need to figure out what’s really happening here. I know it’s hard, but try not to dwell on it."
I sighed, running a hand through my hair. "Yeah, I get it," I said, but deep down, I wasn’t so sure.
Something had happened today, something that all of us were still grappling to figure out. And I had a feeling that this was merely the beginning of something unbelievable.