Shattered Bonds A Second Chance Mate (by Yui) novel Chapter 153

Chapter 153

The water hit me like a wall of knives.

Icy. Crushing. Absolute.

The breath tore from my lungs in a strangled gasp that bubbled upward, lost in the blackness swallowing me whole. Panic flared sharp and hot in my chest, but I forced it down, thrashing forward, deeper, deeper–because if I turned back now, what had been calling would claim Francesco instead.

This was mine to face.

The lake’s darkness pressed around me, thick as tar. My eyes stung, but I forced them open. It wasn’t just water. It moved like something alive, curling around my arms, my legs, slithering into my hair, tugging me lower with greedy fingers.

Come closer.

The whisper wasn’t sound, not exactly. It slithered against my bones, a pulse that wasn’t mine.

Faces began to form in the murk. Pale, hollow–eyed, mouths frozen in silent screams. Women. Dozens of them. Their hair floated around them live strands of weed, their hands stretched out–not to me, but through me, as though they didn’t even see me at all.

My chest tightened so painfully I thought it might split.

And children. Spirits of them, small, fragile, flickering like candle flames about to snuff out. Their laughter echoed, warped and broken, chilling me gh than the water ever could.

I wanted to scream. I couldn’t. My lungs burned.

Something brushed my ankle.

I jerked, spinning, my hands slashing through the water. Not a fish. Not a branch. A hand. Cold as stone, gripping, trying to pull me further.

“No-” The word tore uselessly in my throat, escaping as nothing more than a bubble.

The hand tightened. Another caught my wrist. Another wound through my hair. They weren’t just shadows anymore–they were bodies. The missing. The lost. Women and children who should have been safe within this pack’s borders.

They were trapped here.

The water wasn’t just a lake–it was a grave. A cage.

A force surged behind me, pressing like a current, and in the twisting reflection of the ripples, I saw it–something vast, formless, darker than the dark. Watching. Waiting. Feeding.

The realization slammed into me like thunder; this wasn’t nature. This was power. Old. Malevolent. And it had been taking them one by one.

My lungs convulsed, desperate for air. Stars burst behind my eyes. My wolf stirred, restless, clawing at my insides, but the grip of the lake was stronger. than flesh and bone–it dragged, whispered, demanded.

Stay.

Join us.

I kicked, clawed, fought. My nails scraped against skin–cold, rubbery, unyielding. The faces stared, their mouths open in soundless pleas, and for a heartbeat, I couldn’t tell if they wanted my help or if they wanted me to stay, to drown with them in their eternal silence.

Above, muffled and warped, I heard it. My name.

1113 Thu “BAUURA B

Charter 153

Filaine!”

Francesco.

My heart lurched, pain cutting sharper than Tear. He couldn’t follow me if he did, it suld take him, ton

The hands pulled harder. My chest burned, splitting, ready to cave. This is it, I thought this is how die

And then-

Everything stilled.

The hands. The faces. Even the current.

Gone.

Like none of it had ever existed.

The water was just water again. Cold, suffocating, endless—but normal.

Confusion seared through me. My wolf howled inside, sharp and warning, but then I felt it–arms, strong and unyielding, wrapping and me me upward.

The surface shattered above my head.

Air slammed into my lungs with a ragged cry as Francesco hauled me out of the lake like I weighed nothing I coughed, choked, water spilling down chin, my chest heaving like I’d been starved for years.

The world blurred–trees swaying, sky bleeding gray, Audrey’s pale face stark against the shadows.

Francesco’s gaze snapped down at me, burning, wild with something that wasn’t just anger.

“What are you doing?!” His voice thundered, shaking the night. “Jumping into the water like that–do you have a death wish?

I blinked, dazed, my body trembling against him. My lips parted, but no sound came. My head twisted–back to the lake.

It was calm. Perfectly calm. Not a ripple. Not a shadow. Just a lake, dark and quiet in the middle of the forest.

No hands. No faces. No children’s laughter.

Nothing.

My stomach dropped.

Quickly, my gaze flew to Audrey. She had stopped at the bank, her eyes wide, fixed on me like she didn’t know whether to scream or run. Her lips moved soundlessly, her whole body shaking. She had felt it too–I saw it in her stare.

But when Francesco followed my look, she froze. Stiff, Like prey caught in the open. Her jaw snapped shut, her lips sealing over whatever truth she had been about to speak.

And everyone else Luc, the warriors—they only stared at me like I was mad. Like I had just thrown myself into an ordinary lake, not into the jaws of something that shouldn’t exist.

“What…” My voice rasped, raw, as Francesco set me down on the bank. My legs buckled, and he steadied me, though his grip was still iron, “What’s going

on?”

No one answered.

Only Luc. His eyes, sharp and unblinking, held mine. And in them, I saw it–recognition. He knew. He knew that I knew. But he said nothing.

11:14

nu, zʊ Aug

Chapter 153

My pulse hammered, confusion crashing through me like waves.

The whispers came back to me. No one remembers.

Is this what they meant? That the moment the lake released you, it erased itself from your memory? That the terror, the faces, the truth–it all sipped away like water through fingers?

But not for me.

Iremembered everything.

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