Hunted Shadows (Book 1) In Heavy Editing

Part 10

Trent's POV

I watched as her parents kneeled beside Marcella, taking on her pain from the shift. Tate was explaining she was shifting twice in one go and that this was what weeded out the weak shifters. The final shift is a test of will and strength, if you passed you lived. I worried about Marcella, my wolf pacing in my head growling relentlessly about what the shadow hunter had told us. It was my fault she could die, I didn't push away Missy when she had first come up to me. Not to sound cliché, but I had to get her back, I had to explain.

"Can I give her strength from the bond?" I asked Tate, who seemed to know a lot about what the shift was.

"I would suppose you could, try it." I focused on our link and sent my strength through it, just a little to test the waters. I saw her dad relax a bit in relief, he thought that was her strength he was feeling. I sent more through our bond to help keep her alive. She was halfway between a shadow and a person, this process taking a good thirty minutes.

"You can stop giving her strength now boy, she is in the last stretch of the shift. She has to do this on her own," her mother calmly looked over at me with a reassuring look. I backed off the strength slowly and then all together. My wolf had calmed down his pacing after giving her his strength, he was exhausted from it all. I didn't understand why she had to go though this faze on her own if she needed help through the last one. I prayed to every God and Goddess that was out there for her safe return. Her parents had taken a step back, her mother looking tired and worried. The door was quickly shoved open as her adoptive parents ran in looking around wildly for their daughter.

"Who are you?!" Aby yelled looking at Marcella's birth parents.

"We are Marcella's birth parents Cathy and Steven, we are here to assist with her shift," Cathy replied, not caring who she was. Cathy saw this woman as a threat to her weakening daughter. My wolf was on edge because he felt her weakening, I was on edge because there were two protective moms in the room.

"What are talking about? She is a human, she can't shift." Aby sneered at the woman.

" She is shifting into a shadow and a horse. So therefor she is not human," Cathy bluntly said. I couldn't believe how much of the pain she had taken in and was still able to stand. Although a shadow can feel little pain she had taken almost all of the pain away. Marcella went still, not moving a muscle. She was a shadow now, the first shift was over. I breathed out a sigh and then realized she wasn't moving, or breathing. I couldn't find our link either, it was just an empty space.

"She's gone." It was a whisper spoken in heartbreak. My mind was devoid of any thought other than pressing darkness that threatened to consume me. Cathy looked over to see what I was talking about. The stone around Marcella's neck was a depressing grey ashen color. Steven cried out softly and dropped to his knees, Aby followed but much louder than him. Cathy stared at me with a conviction I couldn't understand. Mark was praying to the moon goddess to save their daughter. All the shadows had faded into the same shade of ashen grey as Marcella's necklace like chameleons honoring a fallen member. It was my fault, the thought crushed whatever strength I may have kept through all this. I crumpled to the ground, my wolf howling in my head. My soul felt like it was being torn to shreds.

The revelation that she wouldn't be coming back hit home when her mother covered her with the black veil her people used as a sign of respect for their fallen ones. The other shadows systematically went through all the rooms and covered every mirror or shiny object in the house. This was to keep her spirit from being trapped in the house.

She's gone, our mate is truly gone. You killed our mate. My wolf kept repeating this sentence non-stop. Everyone had left the room, but I stayed just to be close to her even if she wasn't really here. All that was left was a shadow form of herself. My instincts told me she wasn't gone, but my eyes forced me to see the false hope. Forced me to face that I had killed my own mate, for what? I claimed I had wanted to protect her, but was it really just me being selfish? Could I have saved her? I kept staring at where she was lain out hoping, praying this was only a part of her shift. I knew she would never breathe again, knew I had ripped away any hope for a life she had. My throat constricted painfully, my heart clenching in dread, my lungs denied access to the air they needed. I felt nothing but a crippling fear, pain, and anger at myself and those that had made me who I was.