Help! Five Beast Alphas Want To Breed Me!!(BL)-Chapter 268: Pull Him Back

Elián;

The air around me feels wrong.

Everything feels wrong as I stay kneeling on the floor of Queen Selthía’s room, with my body shaking uncontrollably.

This silence is unbearable.

For the first time since waking in his body... since borrowing his memories... since sharing his mind...

There is silence. A silence so horrible, so unnatural, so empty that I feel like I’m falling into some invisible void.

Queen Selthia’s hands hover over my face, then my chest, then my temples, as if she’s unsure which part of me is breaking most.

And honestly?

I don’t know either.

"Elián," she whispers, voice low and unsure.

"Stay still." She adds, and I raise a brow.

Her palms start glowing, and I watch mana start swirling like warm light gathering in her hands.

"I’m going to try something." She whispers. She looks sure, but I’m so desperate, I’ll take anything.

Zerana takes a step forward and places a hand on Queen Selthia’s shoulder.

"Selthia, what are you doing?" She asks in worry, but Queen Selthía doesn’t answer immediately. Instead, she shuts her eyes and releases a slow breath— and the entire room hums as her mana rises like a tide.

The air thickens.

The torches flicker.

The floor vibrates beneath my palms, and I stare at her in stunned silence.

She places one hand over my sternum— right in the middle of my chest— and places the other hand at the base of my skull, at the back of my head.

"He had two soul-signatures," she says quietly, with a voice trembling with something I can’t place.

"I sensed it when I guided his mana earlier. Two souls sharing one vessel— distinct, intertwined, but separate." She continues, this time looking at me like she’s letting me know, and my heart stutters.

She knew??

She sensed Elien this morning...?

"Something has ripped one away," she continues, and her voice tightens in fear.

"If I don’t act now... that tether may snap completely. I have to pull him back before it’s too late." She breathes, and my eyes widen in horror.

"No, please..." I mutter, but Zerana is staring at her with wide eyes.

"Selthía, you can’t be sure this is safe. Do you even know what to—" She begins, but Queen Selthia snaps.

"Look at him!" She demands with her voice cracking.

I look up at her through my tears, and for the first time since I met her... Queen Selthía looks scared.

Truly, deeply scared.

And not for herself, but for me.

"He’s breaking," Selthía whispers.

"I know what that feels like. When you lose... a piece of your soul." She adds, looking back at me.

"When a part of you is torn away. When something that should never leave... disappears. I know far too well how torturous that feels." She speaks as her hands begin to shake, and Zerana’s hand goes still.

The silence that follows is the heavy kind— the kind that fills a room with things nobody wants to remember, or say.

Selthía draws in a shaky breath, then steels her voice again.

"I won’t let him suffer like that," she says, softer but firmer. "I have to try. I won’t let anyone else suffer like that."

My chest tightens painfully— a different kind of ache this time.

An ache of gratitude... Of being seen... Of being protected.

"Zerana," Queen Selthía calls, never breaking her gaze from mine.

"Stay back. I don’t know what this will do." She orders, and I take a deep breath.

Zerana nods stiffly and retreats to the corner of the room, while Queen Selthía stares at me.

"I don’t know if this will be successful, and I don’t know what this can do. Do you wish me to proceed?" She questions, and I nod stiffly.

She gives a small smile that... tries to be reassuring but is just sad, and then she closes her eyes.

And then— she begins.

Her mana floods the air.

I stare down at her palm on my chest, and it pulses with bright silver-white light. The air thickens further and swirls around my body.

Her mana coils like serpents, wrapping around my arms, my back, my chest, my spine. I feel it reaching deeper— and deeper— as though searching for something. Searching for Elien.

Almost like ripping me apart to understand what’s beneath.

"Queen Selthía..." I whisper, terrified. "I’m— I’m scared—"

"I know," she whispers back.

"Just breathe. I won’t let any harm come to you." She assures me, but my chest is tightening, my breath is thinning, and panic is clawing at my ribs.

The room suddenly feels too small.

My head starts to feel too loud, and the emptiness where Elien should be—

It feels like a black hole.

It is unbearable...crushing...wrong.

"Goddess Thalyra..." I croak as my vision begins to sway.

"Please— please bring him back. Please—" I whisper, and more mana pulls around me.

My skin prickles.

And then... the markings appear.

White tiger-like stripes blaze to life across my arms, my neck, my leg— glowing faintly, flickering in and out like I’m too weak to hold that form.

Zerana gasps.

Selthía curses softly under her breath and increases her flow of mana.

This time, the markings burn.

Not with fire... but with something deeper. Something primal.

Almost... Instinctual.

I cry out, clutching the front of my shirt as the pain tears through me.

My voice breaks on a sob this time, and my mind scrambles.

"Please don’t take him from me— please— I need him— please—" I cry, and Queen Selthía’s mana burns brighter as she presses harder.

Snakes materialise around her and begin to curl around me.

Her voice is trembling with desperation and weak from strain as she speaks.

"Follow the tether, Elián. If you can feel even a flicker— even a whisper of him— hold onto it, and pull." She orders, but there is nothing to hold. Nothing to pull.

There’s no flicker. No whisper.

Only emptiness.

Tears stream down my cheeks. My hands tremble violently. I feel like I’m being crushed from the inside out. Why do I suddenly feel so weak? Not that I think about it, since Elien left, I’ve felt significantly weaker... and now...

The edges of my vision begin to blur, and I let out a shuddering breath.

"Selthía," Zerana calls out, and I hear tension in her voice.

"His aura is destabilising—"

"I know!" Queen Selthía snaps, but her voice is shaking.

"I know. Just— just a little more— I can reach it— I can help him—" She adds, and I look up at her through my tears and fear.

Her eyes are holding so much fear, desperation and sorrow... like she’s currently reliving some memory that’s breaking her.

The mana suddenly tightens around my chest. It feels like someone is yanking on my soul.

My vision blurs. My ears ring.

The room spins violently, but I can’t ask her to stop. Not yet. I haven’t felt Elien.

And just then—everything shifts.

Like someone poured icy water through my veins. Like I have been plunged into a frozen river.

It’s Cold... It’s suddenly so cold it steals my breath, and floods me from the inside out.

Queen Selthía shouts something, but her voice sounds far away.

Zerana cries out, the serpents hiss.

But I— I can’t feel my hands.

I can’t feel my legs...

I can’t feel anything.

Not even the emptiness Elien left behind.

Now, I just feel... numb.

My vision blacks out from the edges inward, and the cold crushes the last breath out of my lungs.

My body collapses to the floor, and everything goes dark as silence envelops me...

What jus happened?