Insight

Static washed through Eve as Bastian held her against him. Her wolf was fighting for freedom, but even the animal was weak. She was growling internally, urging Eve to move away.

Bastian grabbed the collar of her turtle neck, ripping the wet, heavy fabric. Eve shrank away from him, curling her neck to cover Flint's mark on her trapezius muscle.

"Don't fucking touch her!" Flint roared angrily.

The StarLight wolves moved closer anxiously.

"She's mine, anyway. She's always been mine." Bastian replied calmly.

"No! I'm not! I'm not yours!" Eve struggled in his arms. "Just let me go, Bas. You don't have to do this!"

"I'm not getting out of this alive." He whispered.

Bastian looked down at his bloody torso and then around at the surrounding wolves.

"Please don't take it from me." Eve whimpered. Her stomach felt tight, like she was cramping.

"I can't let him have you, Evie." Bastian pushed her wet hair off her forehead. "Without your connection, he'll self-destruct. You're his weakness. I have to do this."

"No!" She yelped as he pushed her head to the side, revealing the scar of Flint's teeth.

"I love you, Evie." He kissed the scar.

Vibrating pain shot through Eve like a lightening bolt. It felt like fire in her veins.

"Wait." She gasped.

"We're out of time, Evie." Bastian sighed raggedly.

"Kiss me." Eve stated.

The rogue Alpha smiled. He moved toward her, leaning in to place a kiss on her lips.

"Raahhh!" Flint roared as the white wolf burst out of him.

Eve waited until Bastian dropped his chin. She reached up and opened her mouth, biting into the side of his throat with her human teeth. Blood gushed into her mouth as Bastian gasped and tensed.

Eve's own neck hurt as if she were the one being bitten. She screamed as she forced herself to keep clamping down, into his flesh. Static took the place of the blood she felt like she was leaking. It was spurting from her throat, just as Bastian's blood was draining from him.

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Memories that were unfamiliar and all too real flashed before Eve's eyes. She saw Bastian in the back yard of the manor with Gracie. He looked to be coming up on the age of puberty. He suddenly screamed and began writhing, holding his neck and stomach. Gracie ran to him and held him, trying to comfort him.

Eve felt what the child was experiencing. His parent's deaths washed over him, hurting him. Tearing him apart. The memory swirled into the moment he met Jim and Rose Lawler. He was angry that he'd been exiled. This made him act like he hated them. He needed someone to blame.

The memory moved again to one of Onyx as a young girl. She was sitting at the table, in a small kitchen, with a mathematics book in front of her. Her tiny hands looked comically little next to the tome. Her black hair was in pigtails, tied together with colorful beaded bows. Bastian looked to be in his late teens. His sandy blonde hair hung over his forehead, obscuring his vision.

"I can help you, but you have to do the next one yourself." He commented.

"This is algebra. It's hard. I'm only seven, you know." Onyx replied.

"I know, sis. But you are smarter than any seven year old I know." Bastian grinned and took the pencil from her.

He ruffled her bangs and she giggled at him. The memory swirled away just as Eve felt the comfort and love Bastian held for his sibling. Next she saw the shadow pack kneeling to him, this must have been when he established his rule. Eve could tell that he felt confident, strong, and accomplished.

The sound of howls filled Eve's mind as Bastian's adult figure came into sight. She watched as rogue after rogue at his feet, trying to restrain him. The gray wolf burst out of him just as they slammed the door, locking Bastian in what appeared to be the closet of a warehouse. He was yearning for his mate, needing her. This was when Bastian thought he'd found Eve. A situation the Luna still refused to acknowledge or try to explain.

Then she saw him watching her and Flint through the trees. They were dressed in the black robes Flint had brought to the Call. This was when they'd met. Bastian followed them from tree to tree, watching them from afar as they walked into GraySky territory. He was frustrated and angry. More than angry, he was devastated and enraged. Eve could feel it.

She saw the moment Bastian hit her. He'd kicked her apparently. Once she fell, he flinched. Before squatting to check on her and he brushed the hair from her face. Eve saw the moment he kidnapped her. She was pregnant and unconscious in the front seat of the truck. Bastian was smiling at her, even while his wolf snarled in his head.

Bastian kissing her forehead as she slept in the cabin. Him dosing her food and then Onyx talking to him about it. This was followed by a piercing, ringing noise. It grew so shrill that Eve couldn't concentrate. Only the feeling of the pain in her throat reminded her of her current situation.

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Eve was still screaming. It seemed as if everything she'd just witnessed started and ended in mere seconds. However, at the time it felt like days passing. Years even. She now knew Bastian as well as she knew herself, maybe even better. She bit down as hard as she could and ripped the flesh away from him.

Bastian lifted his hand, holding the wound. He opened his mouth as if to speak, but he coughed up blood instead. Eve was squirming from the pain radiating down her neck and the static hemorrhaging from her non-existent injury.

We'll be with you, Sunshine. Always. Bastian reached into her mind.

We had to! We had to! We had to! Eve's wolf was confused, emotional, and in pain. Witnessing his life had taken a toll on Eve. One she wasn't able to comprehend at the time.

Bastian coughed again and smirked as blood coated his chin and chest. He fell back against the wall of the cabin. His breath rattled to a halt and his grip on Eve fell away. He was dead. And Eve had been the one to kill him.