The Lost Pack (Paige) novel Chapter 168

Chapter 168

The world comes back in pieces. First, it’s the sound… a slow, steady beeping somewhere close to my head, steady as a heartbeat. Then warmth, heavy and suffocating, wrapped around me like a blanket I can’t quite move beneath. My throat burns when I swallow, and the back of my neck aches like I’ve been hit over the head with something heavy.

I try to open my eyes, but the light stabs straight through me. It takes me a moment to realise it’s not sunlight at all. It’s dim, golden, and flickering, the kind of glow that comes from a fire.

Voices drift nearby, muffled and low. Someone shifts beside me, a hand tightening gently around mine.

“Rye,” I whisper before I can stop myself. My voice is rough and pathetically weak.

Instantly, the hand squeezes back. His scent hits me next, that familiar grounding warmth that has always meant safety.

“Yeah, angel. I’m here,” he murmurs, voice cracking on the words.

I blink hard, forcing the blur to clear until his face comes into focus. Ryder looks exhausted, but alive, really alive.

The relief hits so fast it makes me dizzy. “You’re alive,” I breathe.

“So are you,” he says, and the sound of disbelief in his tone undoes me completely.

I try to sit up, but my body refuses to cooperate. It’s like every muscle has turned to water. My limbs are

heavy, my chest tight. I can feel something taped to my arm, a drip line.

“Easy,” Jake says gently from somewhere behind Ryder. “You’ve been out for hours. Your system’s still recalibrating. Just breathe.”

“Where…” My throat catches on the word. “Where are we?”

“Midnight Pack,” Ryder says. “They’re letting us use one of their safe houses.”

I blink again, confusion slicing through the fog. “We left the territory?”

He hesitates just long enough to tell me the answer.

“We had to,” he admits quietly. “The hunters… they hit hard this time. We couldn’t hold the border.”

The memories slam into me then… the alarms, the gunfire, Remy lying motionless in the grass. My stomach twists. “Remy,” I choke out, panic flaring and making the heart monitor speed up its beeping. “

Where is he? Is he…”

“Alive,” Parker cuts in.

“I’m fine. We all are. Thanks to you,” Remy says, his voice is rough, but steady. I turn my head toward him,

and my heart lurches at the sight. He’s alive, upright, whole.

“I… I don’t understand,” I whisper, my head pounding. “The last thing I remember was…”

I trail off as flashes of memory surge up in broken images.

Ryder knelt over Remy.

Blood everywhere.

A gunshot.

The voice in my head… “It’s time, child of two lights.”

And the light. Goddess, the light.

I press a hand to my chest, trembling. “What did I do?”

No one answers right away. The silence says more than words ever could.

Jake clears his throat softly. “You saved them,” he says finally. “Both of them. Ryder and Remy were hit bad. You… healed them.”

“Healed them?… How?”

He hesitates. “We’re still figuring that part out.”

I search his face, then Ryder’s, and I can tell there’s more they’re not saying. They’re doing that thing again, the quiet, protective silence that means they’ve made a decision without me.

“Tell me the truth,” I whisper.

Callen’s voice comes from somewhere near the door. “You unleashed something none of us have ever

seen before, Paige. You wiped out the hunters in one shot. Whatever that power was, it came from you.”

I stare at him, my pulse stuttering. “I… what?”

He steps closer, his expression unreadable. “The whole clearing lit up in an explosion of gold and silver.

When it cleared, the hunters were down, and you were…” He stops, glancing at Ryder.

“Unconscious,” Ryder finishes quietly. “We thought we’d lost you.”

I swallow hard, the words barely sinking in. “But the hunters… are they dead?”

“No,” Remy says from the corner. “You didn’t kill them,” he continues. “You stunned them. Long enough for

us to get out.”

Relief fills me. I can’t bear the thought of taking lives, but at the same time, something in my chest twists

painfully. “Then they’ll come again.”

Ryder nods. “Yeah. They will. But not tonight.”

I close my eyes, trying to process it all. The images keep flashing behind my eyelids. The light, the voice, the sound of the gunshot. Every memory feels too sharp, too raw. My body still hums faintly, like static

under my skin, but there’s nothing painful about it now. It feels… connected, balanced. And as I remember the rage I felt, the sound of fear in the woods, the bitter truth settles over me. I would have killed them all for the people I love, for our pack and everything they’ve built.

The thought should scare me; it doesn’t.

“Is everyone safe?” I ask finally. “The pack?”

There’s a pause before Callen answers. “Most of them. We lost nine. The rest made it to Midnight.”

Nine. I swallow the grief that swells in my throat. Every death weighs on us, but tonight… tonight they were mine to protect.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper.

“Don’t you dare,” Ryder snaps, his eyes flashing with his wolf. “You saved hundreds, Paige. Don’t blame yourself for the few that didn’t make it. They died in the most honourable way, protecting their pack, and when we get home, we will honour them the way they deserve.”

The firmness in his tone doesn’t quite hide the ache underneath. I nod slowly, because I know there’s no arguing when he’s like this. I glance around the room then, really seeing it for the first time. The walls are bare brick; the furniture is old but clean. A small fire burns in the open fireplace, filling the space with a warm, orange glow. It smells of herbs and smoke. Safe for now.

Jaxon is curled up on the couch beside Poppy, fast asleep with his hands tucked under his chin. My chest tightens again… my beautiful boy, blissfully unaware of how close we came to losing everything.

“How long was I out?” I ask.

“A couple of hours,” Jake says. “You burned through every ounce of energy you had. Honestly, I’m amazed you’re conscious this soon.”

I nod and instantly regret it as my head pounds again. It feels like a lifetime.

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