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“Mercy, listen to me,” Adriana said gently, her voice soft but urgent. “Hunter had no other choice. You were dying—your heart had stopped. The only way to save you was for him to… to turn you.”
“Of course, he had a choice. You had a choice. You could have stopped him. Someone else—one of the other, more powerful shifters could have turned me…”
“Even the most powerful shifter can’t bring you back from the dead,” said Greg. “Adriana’s right. If you were to live…”
Mercy’s breath hitched, her stomach churning with nausea. She felt like she might throw up, but nothing came. Instead, acrushing sense of betrayal welled up inside her, twisting her gut like a knife.
She opened her mouth to scream, to shout at Adriana and Greg, but no words came out. A sob tore through her chest instead, and she clamped her hand over her mouth, shaking her head in disbelief.
The doctor cleared his throat awkwardly and stepped back. “I’ll get Hunter,” he said quietly, slipping out of the room before Adriana could respond.
Mercy barely registered his departure. Her entire world had shrunk down to the unbearable truth of what had been done to her. She wasn’t herself anymore. She wasn’taliveanymore.
Adriana stood helplessly at her side; her hands clenched together as she watched Mercy struggle with the truth. “I know this is a lot to take in,” she murmured. “But you’re still here. You’re still Mercy.”
“No, I’m not,” Mercy snapped, her voice breaking as fresh tears spilled down her cheeks. “I’m not. I’m notme.”
Before Adriana could respond, the door to the medical unit flew open with a crash, and Hunter burst into the room, his eyes wild with urgency. He crossed the room in an instant, his gaze locking onto Mercy’s tear-streaked face as he reached her side.
“I felt your distress,” Hunter said, his voice hoarse, laced with a mixture of concern and regret. “I felt it through the bond.”
Mercy’s eyes burned with unshed tears as she turned to him, her body trembling with rage. “The bond?” she spat, her voice cracking. “You mean the bond that shouldn’t exist because I should bedead? Is that what you mean, Hunter?”
Hunter flinched, pain flashing in his eyes, but he didn’t back down. “Mercy, please. I wouldn’t have done it without your consent. You have to understand, there was no time. You were dying—dead, and I couldn’t let you go.”
“You—you couldn’t let me go? So, this is about you? You couldn’t lose me, so instead you chose to bring me back when so many others—brave warriors and innocents—died. You did this for you, not for me. I would rather be dead!” Mercy cried; her voice raw with anguish. “I would rather you had let me die than become this—this creature!”
The silence that followed her outburst was suffocating. Hunter’s face fell, his shoulders sagging as the weight of her words hit him. He took a step back, his hands curling into fists at his sides.
“I didn’t have a choice,” Hunter said quietly, his voice barely above a whisper. “I couldn’t lose you.”
Mercy’s chest heaved as she stared at him, something inside her pounding with a mixture of fury and grief. She wanted to lash out, to hit him, to scream at him for taking away her life—her humanity. But deep down, beneath the anger, there was something else—a flicker of pain, of understanding. She knew why he had done it. She knew he had believed it was the only way.
But that didn’t make it any easier to accept.
Her voice was quiet now, hollow. “You should have let me go.”
Hunter’s face twisted in anguish, but he didn’t say anything. He just stood there, his eyes filled with guilt and sorrow, but no regret.
Mercy turned away, her body curling in on itself as the weight of everything crashed down on her. The gnawing hunger still pulsed inside her, a constant reminder of what she had become. She wanted to scream, to cry, to break something—anything—to release the overwhelming grief and anger that threatened to consume her.
But instead, she felt numb. Cold.
She had always feared and despised vampires. Now she was one.
Hunter took a tentative step forward, his voice low and broken. “Mercy, I?—”
“Get out,” Mercy whispered, her voice shaking. “Just… get out.”
Hunter hesitated. “I love you. I’ve never said that to anyone before.” His pain was evident in his eyes. But after a long, agonizing moment, he turned and left the room, the door closing softly behind him.
Mercy lay back in the bed, staring up at the ceiling, the weight of her new reality crushing down on her. She had been saved, but at what cost?
CHAPTER 16
HUNTER
The words‘I'd rather be dead’echoed in Hunter's mind like a death knell, each syllable cutting deeper than any blade. He staggered back, retreating from the anguish in Mercy's voice as though her pain had physically struck him. The sound of her sobs followed him out of the room, a gut-wrenching noise that twisted his insides. His mind was a whirlwind of remorse and confusion, but there was one thing he couldn’t shake—he had saved her life.
