Chapter 195: The Hollow One Lives

Bella couldn't breathe.

The thing standing before her—the thing she had destroyed, burned, erased—

It was back.

Somehow, it had never truly died.

It had just been waiting.

For the right moment.

For the right weakness.

And now?

It had found her again.

The Hollow One's white-hot eyes burned into her, its shadowy form shifting, twisting, unraveling and reforming like smoke caught in the wind.

It wasn't just here to haunt her.

It was here to finish what it started.

"You thought you could kill me?"

Its voice was like a whisper and a scream all at once, a sound that didn't belong in this world.

Bella's stomach twisted violently.

Because she remembered how it had felt—when it had crawled inside her, when it had tried to take her, to turn her into something unholy.

And now?

Now it wanted more.

"Bella?"

Dante's voice snapped her back to the present.

He was beside her, his stance sharp, his body coiled and ready to attack.

His wolf was on the surface, fighting for control, his blue eyes locked on the creature like he was preparing to tear it apart with his bare hands.

But he didn't understand.

He didn't know what this thing really was.

Didn't know that he couldn't kill it.

Not like that.

"It's not real," Sage whispered, stepping up beside them, her golden-brown eyes narrowed. *"It's just a shadow."

Bella exhaled slowly.

"No."

She took a slow step forward, her heart pounding, her breath unsteady.

"It's worse."

Because this time—

It wasn't just a shadow.

It was hungry.