Chapter 156

Damon

I will tell you the truth. Lying here in my own blood, I thought this was it. I thought this was the end.

When that blade drove into my side, when I smelled the silver in my own veins, when I felt the ground rise up to meet me because my body could no longer hold itself upright, I thought my story stopped here, in this dirt, under this moon, with Darren’s grin carved into my memory like the last cruel joke before death.

But dying is not as quiet as they tell you it is. No one ever talks about the noise.

The pounding of your own pulse in your ears. The sound of your breath dragging in and out of lungs that no longer want to cooperate.

The rushing in your head that makes you feel like you are underwater, sinking fast, while the world above you keeps moving.

And then there was his voice.

My wolf.

(Damon.)

He did not yell. He does not need to. His voice cut through everything, the ringing in my ears, the pounding of my h