Underwater: The Silent Luna novel Chapter 142

Chapter 142

Camila had Ethan lie on the bed while Meadow stayed to watch. Ethan let himself focus on the practical details of it. If Meadow observed, she could tell him everything afterwards. If something happened, he would not be blind to it. That mattered. Camila asked him to do the same things she had asked Meadow to do earlier. Follow. Focus. Let go.

He fell under more quickly than he expected.

It felt deep. Heavier than sleep, stranger than rest. Then, somewhere inside that state, Camila’s voice reached him.

“I need you to connect me to Alpha Echo.”

Silence answered her.

She asked again.

Still nothing.

Again.

Then Ethan opened his eyes, but they were not Ethan’s anymore. They were completely black.

Echo was there.

For one brief instant, the wolf surfaced enough to look. Enough to exist in the room. Enough to turn his gaze toward Meadow where she sat. Enough to make Camila tense.

Then it broke.

Echo lost his grip and receded before Camila could do more than speak.

“Alpha…”

That was all she got out before the moment was gone.

Camila snapped Ethan out of the hypnosis and he woke with the sick hollow feeling of someone who knew something had happened but had no clear hold on it. He looked at her at once. She was no longer sitting as she had been before. That alone told him enough.

“So?”

Camila sighed.

“Your wolf is in there, Alpha, but there is a mental and physical disconnect between you and him. It has much to do with your body’s condition. Your mind is uniting fast with your wolf, but your body can’t take the shift yet. I will advise you to build your strength and try. Our wolves know when our bodies can take a shift and when they can’t. Alpha Echo tried to take over now but had

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Chapter 142

to recede because your body could not take it. For some reason, something is repelling your wolf.”

The explanation hit Ethan wrong. Not because it made no sense, but because it sounded too close to the frustration he already lived with. So near and yet not enough. Echo was there. Reaching. Trying. But still blocked.

“What does this mean?”

The impatience in his voice came through despite his effort.

He had hoped, foolishly perhaps, that his session might go like Meadow’s. That something dramatic would snap loose. That he would wake with a clear answer, a clear victory, some unmistakable sign that he was getting closer. Instead he had more

complication. More uncertainty.

Camila hesitated, then spoke carefully.

“I have dealt with two patients like you before. They both suffered silver poisoning that caused their wolves not to surface.”

She paused as if deciding whether to continue.

“These patients had silver in their system, so their bodies did not recover. Their wolves could not come out because of the presence of silver in the bloodstream. We had to hospitalise them to wait for their system to cleanse independently so they could shift.”

Ethan frowned harder.

“What does that have to do with me? The silver lodged in my spine was taken out completely.”

Camila breathed in. Ethan could see she was afraid of getting this wrong. Afraid enough that it made his stomach sink before she

even said the next words.

“If I may speak freely, Alpha.”

He nodded.

“I may be wrong, Alpha, but it is worth trying.”

His patience thinned.

“Say it.”

She swallowed and did.

“I would like to run some tests on your blood and also take you to check your spine at the hospital in town to be sure all the silver

was taken out.”

The room seemed to change temperature.

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Chapter 142

Ethan understood before she finished the fuller explanation, but still he made her say it.

“I’mean, your system should have cleared the silver poisoning on its own if they took it all out. If they did, silver has been

repeatedly introduced into your system somehow to keep it in its current state and keep your wolf dormant. It is just a guess; I may

be wrong.”

Shock hit him clean and hard.

For a moment Ethan only stared at her.

Repeatedly introduced.

Someone keeping him like this.

Someone making sure Echo stayed trapped.

His mind moved too fast after that, chasing implication after implication, each uglier than the last. He did not want to jump to conclusions. He did not want to accuse blindly. He did not want to let suspicion become fact before fact existed. But dread had already opened in his chest because if Camila was right, then this was no lingering aftermath of injury alone. It was active. Ongoing. Personal.

And if that was true, then he had far bigger issues to deal with than he had imagined.

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Underwater: The Silent Luna