CHAPTER 14

Aura

The days that followed the attack on the cabin blended together like smudged ink on ancient parchment. My body ached in ways I couldn’t explain, and the sensation beneath my skin seemed like something new had been woken. Something ancient. Something that wasn’t totally mine.

Kai had doubled security around the perimeter. The quiet woods around the home no longer felt like a sanctuary but a frail illusion of protection. Every crack of a twig or rush of wind pushed my heart into overdrive. And yet, in all that terror, something inside me simmered—a low but powerful hum I could no longer ignore.

The nights became stranger. The first dream happened three days after the attack.

I was in a forest—but not any forest I knew. The trees were silver, glimmering faintly under a scarlet sky. The moon above was huge and swollen, almost oppressive in its power. I stood barefoot in a stream of bright water, watching as mist coiled about me like fingers. And then she appeared.

A massive white wolf, ethereal and ancient, with eyes that burned like starlight. She didn’t speak, not a  word, but her voice rang clearly in my mind.

"You carry more than life within you, child. You bear fate."

I jolted awake gasping for breath, drenched in perspiration, my hands quivering. 

The dreams continued every night. Visions of fire and ash. Ryder shouting in rage. Kai bleeding under a silver blade.  As always, the white wolf was watching. 

I didn’t tell Kai at first.  He was already burdened enough, and I didn’t want to scare him with my plunge into what might lead to madness. But when he found me sitting outside the cabin, barefoot in the snow, eyes glazed and shivering despite the heat inside, I realized I couldn’t hide anymore. 

 "Another dream?" he asked, kneeling beside me. 

I nodded, folding my arms about my knees.   "She keeps coming back. The white wolf. She claims I bear fate.   That... I need to be careful of false bonds." 

Kai tilted his head, and I saw the flare of something in his expression. Curiosity. Worry? I couldn't say.

“White wolves are rare in our history," he mumbled.   "They are related to old bloodlines.  The Royal ones.   And spirits like that? They don’t just visit omegas." 

I looked at him fiercely.   "What are you trying to say?" 

He didn’t answer right away.   Instead, he caressed my shoulder gently and said, "I think it’s time you stopped calling yourself  just an omega.”

The words sank in my chest, heavy and strange. 

Just an omega. 

That name had followed me my entire life like a shadow. Omegas were designed to be quiet, submissive, disposable.  And yet, I'd faced down rogues, rejected an Alpha's mark, and now carried a child whose presence seemed to shake the air around us.

Maybe I wasn’t just an omega.

Kai started looking at me differently. Not with pity or protectiveness—but with wonder. Like he was studying a puzzle he didn’t  understand.

At Molly’s diner, I noticed the change in other people too. My scent had shifted slightly, sharper and more defined. One of the hybrid wolves who worked the night shift had sniffed the air and narrowed her eyes.

"You smell... different," she muttered. "Stronger."

I gave a tight smile, saying nothing.

When Kai escorted me home through the snowy pathways later that evening, at last I asked him what had been worrying me.

"Do you think there’s something wrong with me?"

He paused and looked sideways. "Wrong? No. But if you mean different. Absolutely."

I turned to face him. "You seems to know more than I do. About me. About the dreams."

He hesitated, then sighed. "I don’t know much, Aura. But I’ve seen something like this before. A long time ago. Before Ryder and I ever fell out. There was a wolf in our lineage who had visions like yours. She was considered cursed at first... until they realized she could predict danger, even alter outcomes. She was marked by the Moon Goddess."

The words chilled me.

"Do you think I’m marked?"

He studied me in the moonlight. "I think your baby is more than just a child. I think he's the key to something much bigger."

A flutter passed through my belly at the same moment he said it. Not a kick. Something deeper. A pulse.

That night, the dream was different.

The white wolf stood closer, and behind her stood dozens of others, their glowing forms lining the forest like ancient sentinels.

"The Alpha comes for what he thinks is his. But what is broken cannot be claimed. Protect the child. Beware the marked path."

The words weighed heavily on my tongue when I awoke and said them in a whisper.

~~~~~

Kai looked paler than I had ever seen him when he returned from the edge of town the following morning.

"There’s something in the air," he said quietly. "Blood and magic. It’s faint... but it’s not from here."

I placed my hand on my stomach, feeling that strange hum again.

"What do we do?"

"We stay alert. And we stay together."

The days that followed were tense. My cravings had become erratic. One moment I was devouring strawberries dipped in mustard, the next I couldn’t stomach even the smell of meat. And through it all, the baby was growing faster than normal. I could feel him stretch against my womb, stronger each day. His presence was like fire and moonlight and thunder all wrapped in one.

One evening, I felt something tug at my chest.

It wasn’t pain, exactly. More like a hook, pulling me somewhere.

I stumbled from the living room to the back of the cabin, breathing heavily, hand pressed to my heart. Kai was right behind me.

"Aura? What’s wrong?"

I turned to him, eager to speak. But before I could say anything, a violent spasm seized my gut, doubling me over. 

 "No, no, not now," I whispered, dread racing.

Kai caught me before I could touch the ground, his arms sturdy and steady. 

 "You’re in labor?   Already?" 

I shook my head, sweat streaming down my brow.   "It’s too soon. It’s not yet time." 

But the pain said differently. It tore through me like waves, deep and cruel. 

Kai glanced into my eyes, and in that moment, I saw the terror mirrored in his. 

"Hold on, Aura. I won’t allow anything happen to you. I promise." 

As the pain pulsed through me and the trees around the cabin seemed to seal in with shadows and wind, I held on to that vow. 

 But deep inside, I realized something had shifted.

 The visions. The strength. The child. 

 This was no average birth. 

 And this was just the beginning.