Novel Full Chapter 110: Doing it wrong
Chapter 110: Doing it wrong
Kaden’s POV
When I finally turned off the water and stepped out of the bathroom, wrapping a towel around my waist, the bedroom was entirely quiet.
I walked over to the side of the bed, expecting to see her sitting up, still stubborn, still furious, or still drowning in that ridiculous jealousy. Instead, my green eyes landed on her completely still form. Her eyes were closed, her breathing shallow and even.
She was fast asleep.
I frowned slightly, standing over her as the damp air evaporated from my skin. It was odd. She had fallen asleep so quickly—almost too quickly, even for someone who had just escaped drowning in a flooded mine. It was as if her consciousness hadn’t just drifted off, but had been forcefully pulled somewhere else.
I sat down on the edge of the mattress, staring at Stephanie’s pale face for a quiet moment. My chest tightened. I reached out, my fingers hovering just an inch above her cheek, wanting to touch her but stopping myself. I couldn’t risk waking her, not when her mind and body desperately needed to recover from the trauma of tonight.
But seeing her soul trapped inside this foreign flesh—seeing her look at me with so much confusion and heartbreak—was starting to tear me apart from the inside out.
Driven by a sudden, restless urge, I quietly stood up from the bed. I threw on a pair of dark sweatpants and slipped out of my bedroom, moving through the silent, dimly lit corridors of the pack mansion. My bare feet made no sound against the cold stone floors as I walked down to the secure medical wing.
The guards stationed outside the heavy doors instantly straightened, bowing their heads in respect. I ignored them, pushing the door open and stepping into the sterile, quiet room.
The heart monitor beeped in a slow, steady rhythm.
I walked up to the side of the medical bed and looked down. There she lay. My Rebecca. Her true body was perfectly still, her long eyelashes casting shadows over her pale cheeks, her beautiful features frozen in an artificial coma. She looked entirely peaceful, completely unaware of the storm raging around us, or the fact that she had almost died tonight inside another girl’s skin.
I reached out, wrapping my hand around her limp, cold fingers.
"You have to come back," I whispered into the dark, empty room, my voice rough and thick with an emotion I rarely ever allowed myself to feel. I squeezed her hand tightly, leaning down closer to her face. "Do you hear me, Rebecca? You have to come back to your own body. I will do everything—absolutely everything—for you to come back to me."
I stayed there for a few more minutes, letting the quiet hum of the machines anchor me, before I finally let go of her hand.
I left the medical wing and walked back up the stairs, quietly slipping back into my private bedroom.
On the bed, Stephanie—or rather, my Rebecca—was still fast asleep, completely unmoved from the position I had left her in. Her brow was slightly furrowed now, as if she were running through a restless, intense dream.
I didn’t want to crawl into the bed and risk crowding her, not while she was still so fragile. Instead, I grabbed a spare pillow, walked over to the massive leather couch across from the bed, and sat down.
Leaning my head back against the leather, I kept my eyes fixed on her sleeping form on the bed, my mind racing with thoughts.
I wondered if what I was doing was even right anymore. Was I actually forcing her to come back, or was I just making things ten times worse? Should I just tell her the truth? If I came clean, would she agree to come back?
Suddenly, a faint, ragged sound broke through the silence of the room.
I froze, straining my ears.
Stephanie’s lips parted, moving in a restless rhythm as she tossed her head against the pillows. She was talking in her sleep, her voice nothing more than a breathless, agonizing whisper.
"I don’t... I don’t want to return..." she murmured, a tear slipping from the corner of her closed eye. "He doesn’t want me to return..."
My eyes widened in pure horror. The breath was knocked right out of my lungs.
No.
I bolted up from the couch and was across the room in a split second, dropping to my knees right beside the mattress. "No, I want you to return," I whispered frantically, my voice cracking with desperation as I stared at her panicked, sleeping face. "Everything I am doing is for you to be restless and return to me, Rebecca. Please."
She went completely still again, her whispers dying out as she fell back into a deep, silent slumber.
But I couldn’t move. I just sat there on the floor, the brutal reality of my mistakes crashing down on me. My plan wasn’t going anywhere near what I had imagined. It was backfiring completely. Now, Rebecca didn’t even want to return to her real body because she genuinely believed I wanted Stephanie. My lies were literally killing her will to live.
I stood up, running a frustrated hand through my damp hair as I paced around the massive bedroom. What the hell should I do? How do I fix this?
I stopped at the edge of the bed, looking down at the girl who held my entire heart captive. My jaw set into a firm, hard line, my mind finally made up.
"Enough of this game," I muttered into the quiet room, my frown deepening. "Once you wake up... I am letting you know the truth."
I didn’t know what would happen once the words left my mouth. But I sure as hell wasn’t going to lose her.
All through the night, I sat on the couch. The hours bled into one another, heavy and suffocating, as I watched the dark sky outside the grand windows slowly fade into a pale, misty gray. My muscles were tense, my mind replaying every conversation, every sharp look she had given me since the swap.
Finally, the first rays of morning light cracked through the heavy drapes, casting long golden lines across the wooden floor.
On the bed, she shifted.
A soft groan escaped her lips, and my entire body went completely rigid on the couch. I held my breath, watching as her long eyelashes fluttered. Slowly, painfully, she opened her eyes.
I leaned forward, preparing myself for the confession I was ready to say. But as her gaze locked onto mine, the words died instantly in my throat.
She just sat up, rubbing her temples, and stared at me with a strange, blank look.
The air in the room instantly turned to cold. My inner wolf violently reared back, baring his fangs in absolute alarm. Every single protective instinct I had been nursing all night froze over.
The fierce, defiant spark was gone. The burning jealousy that had consumed her yesterday was completely wiped away. The way she tilted her head, the way her eyes scanned the bedroom, the empty expression on her face... it felt like it wasn’t Rebecca staring at me anymore.
Something seemed completely odd.
"Alpha Kaden?" she asked, her voice timid, her posture instantly shrinking back in fear—the exact way a servant would behave in front of a king.
A sick, terrifying weight dropped into the pit of my stomach as the brutal realization slammed into me. The fiery soul I had spent the night agonizing over wasn’t behind those eyes.
The five days weren’t up. But this wasn’t Rebecca.